Keeping the Fire by Rolland Baker

Author:Rolland Baker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Revival;Evangelism;REL012120;REL079000
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2016-08-26T00:00:00+00:00

Revival in Prison

Let’s return for a moment to Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25, the passage in which He mentions the least of these:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’”

Matthew 25:31–36

Notice the phrase “I was in prison, and you visited me.” The book of Hebrews also says, “Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies” (Hebrews 13:3).

Going to the poor, to the least of these, has also meant taking the love of God to people in prison. There are many stories I could tell of our outreaches to prisons, but one dating from 2011 shows the difference revival makes:

We stopped at the government’s local prison, where the Holy Spirit has been breaking out under the ministry of one of our trusted staff members, a longtime Iris missionary and close friend, and Ezekiel, an ex-prisoner.

The prison interior was grim, dark and claustrophobic, as expected. A few prisoners were still locked in their dirty, miserable confines, but most gathered in a long, narrow hallway with high, out-of-reach windows for security.

On entry, though, we were greeted with shouts of praise, and then with one voice the whole prison reverberated with fervent worship.

We joined them, standing transfixed as all these “dangerous offenders” sang their hearts out with joy, energy and enthusiasm to the King of kings. Jesus was obviously now their real reason for living, the hope of their lives, the joy of their salvation.

Rarely have we ever seen such powerful evidence of a change of spirit. The prisoners shook our hands, hugged us, laughed and cheered as if they were having an absolutely great day, which they were! And they seemingly could not stop worshiping.

He is the road to transformation, the cutting edge of revival—the One who died and rose again on our behalf! He is the perfect personification of the love and power we all need, and only our faith in Him will overcome this world.

The atmosphere in that dark, horribly depressing place was extraordinary under the circumstances. In the same way, His presence in our most difficult times is all and everything we need. Our hope in Him is secure, our future safely protected and reserved for us.

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