Colleges and universities have always been epicenters for revival activity. At this present moment, there is an intensifying hunger on our college and university campuses for revival. Just as the Jesus Movement in the 1970s swept through our colleges and universities bringing hundreds of thousands of youth into the Kingdom of God, there is a holy desperation among students for a new Jesus Movement to erupt on our campuses again. Even now, God is raising up an army of students that refuse the status quo and believe with God for historical revival to touch our nation.

As the Luke18 team traveled throughout universities in California on the Purple Pig Tour!, they witnessed thousands of college students who are crying out to God for a new great awakening to visit their generation. These students are forsaking the so-called “American Dream” of comfortable lives to abandon themselves wholly to the purposes of God in their generation and to see historic revival sweep across our nation.

To that end, we are summoning thousands of college students to Glory Church in Los Angeles, CA on Nov 13 for TheStudentCall, a national solemn assembly for students. We are believing that God will stir thousands of college students to gather together at TheStudentCall and cry out for a new Jesus Movement to shake our colleges and universities.

TheStudentCall will be preceeded by the FIGHT! Conference on November 11-13. You can find more information on the FIGHT! Conference at http://luke18project.com/fightconference/ and more information on TheStudentCall at http://thestudentcall.com/.

“You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” – Revelation 4:11 (NKJV)

One translation translates this verse saying, “God created what He pleased” and there is also a very personal application found in this verse in understanding that God created what He desired and what pleased Him. This means that, as Creator, He has deep desire for His creation because it was created out of desire. It was not an accident, nor something from which God is emotionally removed, but rather God has intimate desire for each thing He created. Though so much of creation is necessarily under judgment because of sin, creation still exists because God desired it and because He created things that gave Him pleasure. Properly understanding this gives us both confidence and a high vision for the way we live.

Understanding that we were created for His pleasure gives us boldness and confidence before the throne of God. So long as we were bound in sin, we were enemies of God but, because He desired what He created, He was not content with man’s sin and made a way of salvation. Therefore, if we are right standing with God, having repented of sin, believed in Jesus, and received salvation, understanding that we exist and were created because God desired us enables us to stand before God with great confidence (see Hebrews 4:16).

Knowing that we exist because of His desire gives us strength to overcome the lies of the enemy because the evil one will constantly try to drive a wedge of separation between us and God and one of His most common attacks is in this area of confidence in our position before God. When we are lost in sin, we are right to have no confidence before the throne because of our rebellion, but when we have come into repentance and salvation, we can stand in confidence knowing that our very existence is not something that was accidental or something that has no relation to the desire of God’s heart, but rather our very existence is for the pleasure of God.

Not only does this gives us confidence, but it should also give us a high calling and vision for our lives. If we were created for His pleasure, then we must ask the question, are we living in such a way to give Him pleasure? In other words, do we connect to the reality of this verse to the way we live in a tangible and material way. Do we sit before God and consider the things that give Him pleasure? Do we live our life before Him with the constant desire that our lives give pleasure to Him or are we so self absorbed that we see God only as a vehicle that we can use for the pursuit of our own pleasure? Sadly, many fall into this trip and use God for feelings of peace, an escape from hell, or to obtain prosperity in some way. In reality, this is a very low vision for life because it is essentially a self absorbed life, and it is also dangerous because the self absorbed life always leads our hearts into the bondage of sin. Saints, we have a much higher calling and that is to a life that gives God pleasure.

This is not merely an abstract idea, but a reality and we can live in such a way that God receives pleasure from our lives. Not only can we give Him real pleasure, but our own hearts will feel the reality of His pleasure. Tragically, the deception of this age has obscured the reality of what true pleasure actually is. So many are in deception believing that real pleasure is found in pleasing self and therefore most individuals are completely self absorbed. In reality, the highest pleasure is found in living for God’s pleasure and then experiencing His pleasure upon us. Living for the pleasure of God is a high calling, while living for our own pleasure is a low and base calling. Living for God’s pleasure will lead us to beauty, purity, holiness, and joy. Living for our own pleasure will lead to selfishness, sin, and bondage.

Not only is living for God’s own pleasure a high calling, it is actually the way to experience the heights of human pleasure. The reality is that man was made for God and there is no way we can escape this reality. No matter how far we run or rebel, we were made for God. Because of this, our highest fulfillment and pleasure is found only in living for God in communion with Him. It is not enough for us to live in the same universe with God and seek our own pleasure, we were made to live under Him in constant communion with Him that we might reflect Him. When we live in this intimacy we experience the highest and deepest pleasures (Psalm 16:11). When we reject this, we become subject to all sorts of deception and come under the bondage of sin and self.

It is a rarity these days for men to come into a vital contact with the totality of this Pauline brand of abandonment to Jesus Christ. We are apt to talk up the qualities of our conferences, ministries, and events, but it is far too infrequent that we are touched by the kind of consuming vigor for Christ that was the hallmark of the apostle’s life and service. We are too easily distracted, too quickly satisfied, too prone to wandering, and we lack the mentality and grit that he expresses here in Philippians 3.

Even so, a holy passion after the Lord is not confined to Paul, Moses, Spurgeon, Wesley, or any other man. This concentrated heart-focus upon Him is the life-bread of the Church, for He is our great prize not only in the age to come, but in the here and now. We need desperately to identify and level that which pulls our gaze away from Him, and to contend vehemently for the great pursuit after a more profound love for God. Even ministry itself may be the hindering point.

Beware of any work for God which enables you to evade concentration on Him. A great many Christian workers worship their work. The one concern of a worker should be concentration on God, and this will mean that all the other margins of life, mental, moral and spiritual, are free with the freedom of a child, a worshipping child, not a wayward child.

…. There is no responsibility on you for the work; the only responsibility you have is to keep in living constant touch with God, and to see that you allow nothing to hinder your cooperation with Him. The freedom after sanctification is the freedom of a child, the things that used to keep the life pinned down are gone. But be careful to remember that you are freed for one thing only- to be absolutely devoted to your co-Worker.

…. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work.

(O. Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest; April 23rd selection)

The surpassing value is not in a platform for ministry, witnessing miraculous works, persuading men regarding the Gospel, or even in finding joy and sanctification. There is great delight in the works that result from true abandonment, but the surpassing value is in knowing the Man Christ Jesus Himself. All else flows from that remarkable place; the place where we are enlarged in Him, drawing from His character, hearing His shepherding Voice, beholding His glorious face. Am I pursuing the treasures of this world? a name in ministry? a reputation before men? my own peace, prosperity and happiness? Or am I totally abandoned in my innermost parts to Jesus Christ?

Josiah has long been one of my favorites in the Bible. His reforms and revival in the scripture were powerful, lasting the entirety of His reign. His zeal for the righteousness of God was unmatched. Scripture says that there was only one other king like Him in Judah, David. After re-reading the biblical story I felt the Lord impressing me to preach a message on Josiah’s reform.

Here is the summary of my notes from the message. I believe that we are going to see a reform in the body of Christ like what happened in the days of Josiah. There are seven facets of Josiah’s reform that are pertinent to what is coming to the church nationwide.

Josiah became king in 641 BC at eight years old He reigned 31 years. We find Josiah’s story in 2 Kings 22-23 and 2 Chron 34-35.

He was preceded by Manasseh and his son, Amon. Manasseh reigned 55 years and was the most wicked king in Judah’s history. Manasseh desecrated the temple an made altars to other God’s throughout Judah. He built a Asherah pole and altars to Baal and placed them in the temple of the Lord. He led Israel to worship the false gods of the nations that God had removed before the nation of Israel.

As a result, Josiah’s reign began with the nation incredibly backslidden and worshiping false gods. In Josiah’s 8th year he began to seek the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In his 12th year he began a reformation to purge Jerusalem of idolatry. In His 18th year he accelerated his reform and began a project to repair the damages to the temple.

To give you a picture of where the nation was spiritually, the king did not even know about the book of the law. It had been lost and retrieved during the temple renovation by Hilkiah the High Priest.

When they read the book of the Law that explained the ordinances of worship to the Lord, Josiah was pierced in his heart and tore his clothes in weeping and repentance. Josiah then sent messengers to Huldah, a prophetess, to get the word of the Lord, because he realized the nation has departed from God and deserved God’s judgment and wrath.

Huldah Prophesied 2 important points:

1) God is going to bring destruction on Jerusalem according to all that is written in the book of the Law, because the people have forsaken God and worshiped other gods.

2) Josiah will receive mercy from the Lord because his heart was tender and he tore his clothes and wept before God. The Lord has heard his prayer and will not bring the calamity in his day.

Josiah immediately gathered the elders of Judah and they gathered the people to the house of the Lord. Josiah then made a covenant with the Lord to serve the Lord all the days of His life and then accelerated his reform.

In multiple waves Josiah made a thorough cleansing of the nation. Each of the facets of his reform are pertinent to our day and I believe speak of the way in which the Lord is going to release reformation in the church in this hour. In order, this is what he did:

1) He cleansed the house of the Lord from all worship of Baal and Asherah and burned articles made for Baal worship outside of Jerusalem – God is going to cleansed the church from every hint of idol worship. Baal & Asherah worship equals abortion & sexual immorality, i.e. Spirit of Jezebel. Is there toleration of Jezebel among us? God is calling us out of our agreement with these sins.

2) He removed all the idolatrous priests from Jerusalem who led the people to worship Baal. – God is going to remove every leader who has given himself to idolatry. Leaders must be free from the toleration of Jezebel. It doesn’t mean He won’t restore them, It means He will have a pure priesthood. (Zech 3, Mal 3:3)

3) He got rid of the temple prostitutes who had rooms in the house of the Lord and who engaged in all kinds of sexual immorality, including homosexuality – God is going to release massive deliverance in the area of sexual immorality. The world will know the place to get free from sexual bondage is the church.

4) He went throughout all the land of Israel and got rid of all the altars, high places and articles of worship to all the false Gods. He completely destroyed the altars and Asherah poles and desecrated all those places of worship. – The move of the Spirit of God is going to sweep throughout the nation far beyond the four walls of the church.

5) He got rid of all the idolatrous priests who were worshiping at the high places in the northern Kingdom. – God is going to do a sweeping work throughout the land to bring reformation throughout society.

6) He called the people to worship God according to the scriptures. They celebrated the Passover that year in a way it had never been since the days of the judges. – There is a coming a return to the worship of God in spirit and truth. We are going to move away from program centered, event centered ministry to Christ centered worship in Spirit and Truth. Authenticity is coming to the church in a fresh way.

7) He got rid of all those who consulted mediums and spiritists and had secret idols. – God is going to get rid of the mixture among His people. The gray areas are going away. God is going to purge his people of private sins.

I believe there is a revival coming upon us as in the days of Josiah. I believe we will see a great reformation in the church and the world. God is changing the understanding and expression of Christianity in one generation. It’s important to note that God is not putting His finger on our sin in order to bring us into shame. He is calling us to run out of the prison of sin and into liberty and love. The goodness of God leads us to repentance.

I want to encourage you to rid yourself of any toleration of sexual immorality in your life. Have no agreement with the “anti-spirit of Josiah.” The church without mixture will receive an outpouring of the Spirit without measure. Oh God, search me and try me and see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23-24).

The great danger of theology, preaching, missions, revival, miracles, fellowship, or any other “work” of the Kingdom, is that it would become the end in and of itself, when its real “purpose is to make itself superfluous,” or nonessential, and to exalt the Man Christ Jesus.

The Message paraphrases John the Baptist’s statement thusly:

“This is the assigned moment for him to move into the center, while I slip off to the sidelines.”

Any true work of God will be aimed at the reality of Christ being moved “into the center” of all things, rather than the ministry itself, or the personalities of men becoming the chief thing. We may give verbal and mental assent to Christ being the center, but unless we are “slipping off to the sidelines,” and exalting Him actively in the inner-man, we are missing the mark of glory. John the Baptist was, in Jesus’ own words, “a lamp that burned brightly,” and while men may marvel, a lamp is only the bearer of light.

The apostle John stated that Jesus Himself is the Light, and we are called to live lives that are broken and decreasing ever and always, so that the Light of Jesus’ own character and nature might increase and penetrate the hearts of men through our own words and deeds. You cannot do this by religious strife, asceticism, cleverness or cultivated skill. He will only increase, and show forth Himself through you, when you are willing to take the road of obscurity and hiddenness, and to actively glorify the Son of Man from your innermost-being.

If you are willing to be “hidden with Christ in God,” you will be a forerunner in the truest sense, “a lamp that burns brightly,” lighting the path for other souls; the path that leads to the Man Christ Jesus, and Him alone.

“Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” – Matthew 9:38 (NKJV)

We have been fasting for revival on college campuses and for an awakening in the nation using Matthew 9:38 as the primary verse for the fast. The more I look at this verse, the more radical I realize Jesus is, and the more my heart is provoked to the place of intercessions understanding that the place of prayer is the place where the great missions enterprise is lost or won. Jesus’ instructions to His disciples were radical. They were ready for His call to lay down their lives and labor in the harvest fields, but I suspect they were surprised to hear Jesus’ admonition to pray that God might send men instead of a call to labor. As a measure of how significant Jesus’ words were, Acts 6 reveals that the apostles learned this lesson well as they gave themselves to prayer and the Word, that sent ones might go forth. They shook the powers in their generation because their labor in prayer secured sent ones.

How different Jesus’ value system is from ours! We rush to activity, and the fact that we rush so quickly to activity betrays the fact that we have so little confidence in prayer. The reason we have little confidence in prayer is that we have little confidence in God Himself. We are more confident in our ability to labor than we are in God’s ability to send, though it is the heaven-sent ones who are truly apostolic and change history.

Does laboring on our knees preclude laboring in works? Certainly not. We must put our hands to the tasks in front of us in obedience to Jesus. He certainly calls us to labor, but He calls us first and foremost to the labor of prayer. He calls us first to gaze upward and cry out for sent ones to again walk among us and advance the gospel with power as the apostles of old did. We will labor until our bodies are exhausted and spent, but we must labor as sent ones from heaven, and it is the place of prayer that will secure this sending.

I remember hearing a minister named Joe Morris tell stories of historic revivals as well as modern day miracles. My heart was branded with a deep desire to go as far and deep in God as God would take me. I was marked with a longing to see a genuine move of the Spirit of God sweep through our nation and the nations of the earth. From that time til now a deep passion for God and for revival has never left me. It has ebbed and flowed with greater or lesser intensity at different seasons in my life, but in general this deep craving to experience God in reality, supernaturally, has continued to burn in me. And today, with this recent move of the Spirit of God at IHOP-Atlanta, the hunger for God in my soul has once again crested.

Bottom line: I want Jesus; without man-made limitations or humanly imposed restrictions. I want all of Him in whatever way He wants to reveal Himself. Whether He wants to come via a still small voice or in a mighty rushing wind, I want Him. Whether He wants to release marvels and wonders or simple revelations to my heart, I’m aching for Him. The greatest gift God can release to humankind is a greater revelation of Himself. To this I say consume me and reduce me, Living Flame of Love, that more of You may be manifest and reside in my soul.

Jesus spent much of His earthly ministry, rewriting the script of religious mentalities that men had formed about God. He rebuked the religious leaders while ministering in power to the simple. He rejoiced in the fact that God had hidden the truths and treasures of the Kingdom from the “wise and prudent” and revealed them to “babes.”(Mat 11:25).

I can see in my own life where religious ideas about God have inhibited my faith and therefore my ability to go after the depths of God. Through this renewal I am experiencing a paradigm shift that’s bringing me to faith like a child. If Jesus related to himself as a child of the Father, how much more should you and I embrace a simple, child-like, non-cynical faith?

I believe childlike faith is a great aid to spiritual hunger. For when you believe like a child the true idealism of faith is restored in you. When you believe like a child all things are truly possible. And when you believe that all things are possible your heart expects to experience the “all things” of God. When you have faith like a child you will have ravenous hunger for God. Ahhh…my heart’s aching even now

There are moments in history when a door for massive change opens. Great revolutions for good or for evil occur in the vacuum created by these openings. It is in these times that key men and women, and even entire generations, risk everything to become the hinge of history—the pivotal point that determines which way the door will swing. We believe that America is in such a moment of history.

Four years ago, a profound movement of 40 day fasting and prayer chains spontaneously erupted on university campuses across America. God was breathing prayer for university awakenings. At the same time, Lou Engle joined with the Justice House of Prayer in Boston for 40 days of prayer and fasting from March 1st to April 9th. Hundreds of young people gathered to pray and fast, day and night, for breakthrough at Harvard and for the Ivy League schools.

During that 40 day season a trusted godly man had the following dream: “I saw masses of young people with welts on the temples of their head. I then asked, ‘What are those welts on the temples of their head?’ I heard a voice answer; ‘It’s poison ivy on the mind of a generation. The Ivy League universities were intended to be the leaves of healing and to bring the light and the glory of God to the nations of the earth. Instead, they have poisoned the mind of a generation.’” This dream is profound as it speaks to the ideological strongholds we face, but also to the intended purpose of these schools and what could be if we pray.

Now four years later it seems the wind of God is blowing again. Bethany Temple, the leader of JHOP Boston, felt an urgency once again to call all of New England universities to 40 days of fasting, but she needed confirmation. A young man gave her the following dream: Lou Engle was on a stage praying with a drummer behind him. The prayer that was being prayed was “Beseech the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into the harvest field.” Suddenly, the drummer interrupted Lou with what sounded like the voice of the Lord, declaring, “Now has come the salvation of God! And it will begin on April 9th, 2010.”

Obviously, such a dream with a date must be carefully weighed before the Lord, but April 9th is the same day that the 40day fast ended four years ago and it is also the anniversary of the Azusa Street outpouring. Could it be that Lou Engle praying represents the 40 day fast that God wants to interrupt and answer with a new move of evangelism and a new breed of spiritual awakeners stirring the universities of New England and the nation? Even now, reports of outpourings of the spirit are being heard on scattered universities.

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For example, part of setting your heart to pray daily is to actually set aside that time on a schedule. If you set your heart to pray daily, but do not intentionally schedule that time, you will often find yourself at the end of the day without having had two hours before the Lord and over time your heart can succumb to feelings of failure and the accusation of the enemy. On the other hand, if that time is set on your schedule, you will naturally get into the rhythm of praying daily. For many the requirements of the Sacred Charge can appear daunting, but the secret to living the Sacred Charge is in the consistent, daily use of time so that a piece of each day counts towards the overall goal.

I would challenge you this year to sit down and work out a schedule. As you begin to examine your schedule and your time, it will force you to become more intentional with life. This is a critical part of the fasted lifestyle and you will have to make some difficult decisions. The key is not to cut out everything or everyone, but to set your schedule, and your heart, for a consistent life in God.

You do not want to compromise, but you also want to set your heart to develop a sustainable lifestyle. As you focus on what you do in life, you will find your heart begin to develop clarity and you will also find a place of simplicity in the joy of living a focused life. A focused life does not mean that every moment is packed because proper scheduling includes some time off, but it does mean that your overall usage of time is intentional so that, over time, you accomplish the things you want to accomplish.

There are two excellent resources on sacredcharge.com that will really help in this area. The first resource is “The Power of a Focused Life” which you can download at http://sacredcharge.com/resources/3. In this resource, Mike goes over the practical elements of scheduling time, including free time, as well as tips on how to best study the Bible in your devotional time. Another excellent resource on intentionally using our time is “Fearing God” by Wes Martin. Wes looks at how the Bible tells us our lives will be evaluated and how Jesus offers wise counsel for us so that we will be prepared for that evaluation. This full message may be viewed by clicking here http://sacredcharge.com/resources/12?full=true.