The Third
Day Church:
Transitioning
from "Revival Culture" to
"Resurrection Power Culture"
by Matt
Sorger
Saturday, March 6, 2010, during a time of worship the
Lord spoke to my heart. I was caught up in His presence when the voice of God
spoke these three things to me:
meetings will be caught up in His manifest presence.
extraordinary things for the Kingdom of God. Those who have been in a place of
hiding and preparation are about to come forth in power.
voice of God will also be heard from the pews. A fresh anointing for the corporate prophetic utterance
is about to be revived. God's voice will be heard through His people.
As I pondered these three revelations, the Lord also
began to speak to my heart about a shift that is coming into our mindsets
concerning revival.
God is transitioning the church from a "revival
culture" to a "resurrection power culture". There is a difference between the
two. A culture is a set of beliefs, values, practices, mindsets, actions, and
behaviors practiced and esteemed by a group of people. Culture marks and
characterizes your way of life.
Prophetically God is bringing His people into the
time of the "third day." If there is a third day, then there must be a first
and a second day. I want to explain to you what this means and how it will
impact your life in this next season.
Hosea the prophet talks about the process of
transitioning from the first to the second to the third day and what each day
signifies. Hosea's prophecy can apply on multiple levels, as prophecy often
does. It can apply to your personal journey in God as well as the corporate
journey and process of God's people.
Hos 6:1-2 "Come and let us
return to the Lord, for He has torn so that He may heal us; He has stricken so
that He may bind us up. After two days He will revive us (quicken us, give us
life); on the third day He will raise us up that we may live before Him. [Isa.
26:19; Ezek. 37:1-10.]
Day
One
"Come and let us return to the Lord."
The first day is marked by a turning to the Lord. It
is all about rending our hearts and fully repenting of everything that grieves
God's heart in our lives.
Acts 3:19
declares "So repent (change your mind and purpose); turn around and
return [to God], that your sins may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean), that
times of refreshing (of recovering from the effects of heat, of reviving with
fresh air) may come from the presence of the Lord." (AMP)
To repent means to "change your mind and purpose." It
means to change your way of thinking and what motivates you. Repentance causes
you to turn around and walk in the exact opposite direction of your sin, back
towards God. This complete turning towards God causes all of our sins to be
cleansed and removed and releases a fresh wind of God's presence in our lives.
His refreshing then brings restoration from the effects of sin. True repentance
brings not only a change of mind and motive, but also changes our behavior.
Repentance brings true inner change producing an outward transformation.
Day
Two
"After two days He will revive us (quicken us, give
us life)"
Day two is marked by revival. Revival means "to quicken and give life."
Revival means to bring something that is dead or dying back to life again.
Revival is for the church. Revival brings an awakening to the hearts of God's
people. Revival causes us to be filled with the fresh life of God. It stirs us
from spiritual complacency and apathy and ignites a zeal in our hearts for the
things of God. It creates a passion in us for intimacy with God and for the
things that move His heart, such as the lost.
In revival the church is refreshed, restored and set
on fire again. Spiritual passion is ignited. This is when God encounters us in
a profound and deep way awakening our hearts for Him. We often experience deep
inner healing, freedom and personal victory during this stage. God's manifest presence
becomes so real to us as we spend time fellowshipping with Him and just "laying
on the floor" under His glory.
While day two is glorious, we can't stay there! So
many love day two so much that they never want to get off the floor. They love
the goose bumps and encounters. They could just stay there forever. Entire
"revival cultures" have been formed around day two. But God has more for us!
Day
Three
"On the third day He will raise us up that we may
live before Him." God is bringing us
into "Third Day Living".
On day one we repent and turn to God. On day two we
are revived, awakened and refreshed. On day three we are raised up to live
before Him with power.
God is transitioning the church from a "revival
culture" to a "resurrection power culture".
Day three is all about being raised up in
resurrection power. This is so clearly
seen in God's prophecy to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 37.
Eze 37:1-10
(AMP) declares "The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He
brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the
valley; and it was full of bones. And He caused me to pass round about among
them, and behold, there were very many [human bones] in the open valley or
plain, and behold, they were very dry. And He said to me, Son of man, can these
bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, You know! [I Cor. 15:35.] Again He said to
me, Prophesy to these bones and say to them, O you dry bones, hear the word of
the Lord. [John 5:28.] Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause
breath and spirit to enter you, and you shall live; And I will lay sinews upon
you and bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin, and I will put breath
and spirit in you, and you [dry bones] shall live; and you shall know,
understand, and realize that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls
forth loyalty and obedient service]. So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as
I prophesied, there was a [thundering] noise and behold, a shaking and
trembling and a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I
looked and behold, there were sinews upon [the bones] and flesh came upon them
and skin covered them over, but there was no breath or spirit in them. Then
said He to me, Prophesy to the breath and spirit, son of man, and say to the
breath and spirit, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath
and spirit, and breathe upon these slain that they may live. So I prophesied as
He commanded me, and the breath and spirit came into [the bones], and they
lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceedingly great host. [Rev.
11:11.]
First there is a divine alignment of the bones. This
alignment signifies things being put in their right place. The bones are shaken
and brought together. When we turn in repentance to God we get rightly aligned and
joined to the rest of the body.
Once proper alignment happens then God revives the
body by breathing into it. This is when God revives and awakens His people.
It's a glorious second day.
But then God continues to move and eventually not
only is the body filled with new life, but then it is raised up where it stands
on its feet, an exceedingly great army!
This is the third day!
God is causing us to move beyond personal and
corporate revival to the place of moving forward as His great army in the
earth. This is where we are so filled to overflowing in the second day that now
God's power, glory and grace overflow from us to everyone around us. Now we
begin to live before God in resurrection power. This is where we move in His
dominion Kingdom authority to see His power go forth in the world around us.
This is when we get off the floor from "soaking in His presence" to being
mobilized, equipped and empowered to do great and mighty exploits!
This is the THIRD DAY.
Heavy
Latter Rain-It's Time for Full Maturity and Harvest
Then Hosea prophecies "Yes, let
us know (recognize, be acquainted with, and understand) Him; let us be zealous
to know the Lord [to appreciate, give heed to, and cherish Him]. His going
forth is prepared and certain as the dawn, and He will come to us as the
[heavy] rain, as the latter rain that waters the earth." Hos 6:3
(AMP)
As we move into the third day we see the release of a
heavy latter rain. In Joel 2:23, as the
people rend their hearts and turn in full repentance to God we see God
restoring not only His people spiritually, but even the seasonal rains. When
Israel rebelled they lost their harvest and the seasonal rains were thrown out
of sync. As God restores the former and latter rain we see something glorious
happen.
In Joel 2:24-26 God causes the threshing floors to be
full of grain and the vats to overflow with new wine and oil.
There were two annual rains in Israel. The former
rain and the latter rain. Both had a significant purpose and came at a specific
time and season. The former rain would come down around Sept/Oct. Its purpose
was to soften the ground so the seeds could be planted. The latter rain would
come down around April. This rain came for the express purpose of bringing the
harvest to maturity.
Hosea specifically prophecies about the latter rain.
This is the harvest rain. God is bringing His people to a place of harvest.
Harvest speaks of full maturity. As the church begins to live in true
resurrection power, not only will God's people come to full maturity, but the
full harvest of souls will come in. We are in the season of the latter rain
where God is bringing His people to maturity so we will be fully empowered to
reap the last days harvest in the earth.
It's time to shift and move with the Holy Spirit into
the next season. As God revives us, we must also move with Him off of our
comfortable church floors into the world where His resurrection power will be
seen. Get ready to be a part of the THIRD DAY CHURCH that God is raising up in
these last days.
Repent, be revived and awakened, then be raised up in
power to go forth during the time of the latter rain to bring in the last days
harvest. You were created to be a part of God's great army to go forth and
release His power and glory into the world around you.
Matt Sorger