Brian Simmons:
"I Will Release Again the 10 Principles of Revival Taught by Charles Finney"
In the awakening released by Charles Finney, entire cities were shaken by the power of God and the anointing of revival that once poured out of a man. With Finney's prayer partner, Father Nash, he would enter a city only after adequate prayer had saturated the ground and opened the heavens over a region. Many attribute those days of "Heaven on earth" to the prayers of Father Nash and his praying team. Not many days ago I had an amazing encounter with the Lord that has since left me trembling and awakened! The voice of the Lord came to me in power telling me that the Lord Himself was about to release AGAIN the revival that swept America during the days of Charles Finney – but in a much greater dimension.The word of the Lord spoke and said to me:
"I will release again the 10 principles of revival taught by Charles Finney! I am releasing two of those principles to you now! The remaining eight principles you must ask for and seek to receive!"
I've found my spirit trembling many times since He spoke those words to me. After hours of prayer and research, allow me to share in brief what I've discovered about 10 Principles of Revival. These are the truths that Finney taught throughout his ministry after seeing miracle conversions in the northeastern part of the United States.
During the peak of the revival outpouring, Charles Finney took these principles and taught them (more than once) to the awakened churches that received him. These powerful revivals resulted in the largest number of conversions EVER, in the history of Christianity in America. Throughout the last one hundred and sixty years, revivals have occurred from the Holy Spirit's anointing with the practice of these very principles. I want to share with you these truths that I know GOD HIMSELF will restore to the holy awakeners who seek His face and are willing to run to the nations with a fire never before seen on the earth!
10 Principles of Finney's Revival
Here are these 10 principles of Finney's revival that we, like Joel's Army of Awakeners, will release in this coming awaking. Note: I believe the first two principles that the Lord said He was releasing in this very hour are: The Principles of Repentance and the Principles of Prayer. Expect to hear many of the prophets and preachers speak on these two themes – adeeper repentance and a higher level of intercession that is coming! Here's only a summary:
1. Principles of REPENTANCE!
This is what the Bible refers to as "breaking up the fallow ground," or laying our hearts exposed and naked before the eyes of glory to search and cleanse. Repentance always, alwaysprecedes revival outpouring. Is your repentance releasing the glory of God's presence into your life and ministry? If nothing else breaks open a city, try breaking open your heart for your city! (See Hosea 10:12.)
2. Principles of PRAYER!
Every revival can be traced back to prayer! Even in the upper room in Acts 2, they were in a 10-day prayer meeting! This is not general prayer or simply soaking in prayer – this involves a direct confrontation with spiritual forces that are hindering and holding back the deluge of power that will awaken a city in a day. Prayer to the next level will bring glory to the next level! Maybe the way we've been praying lacks potency to unlock doors to revival."These prayer principles WILL be restored again," says the Lord! (See 1 Thessalonians 5:17.)
3. Principles of HOLINESS!
Not only is God holy, He has made His holiness "absorbable." We can absorb this holiness that surrounds Him by lingering in His living glory – much like Moses who stood before a burning bush until he became one! God ignited Moses' soul because he was highly flammable!Moses absorbed a measure of the glory of God's holiness in such a way that he released deliverance to a nation. I believe that "absorbable" holiness will fill a generation of deliverers soon to be dispatched to the nations. Will you remain in the holy presence until you "catch" it and become a burning one? (See Isaiah 6:6-7.)
4. Principles of POWER!
How we all seek for the power of God, often not knowing what we're asking for! Imagine taking hold of 10 billion volts of power: would it change you as it lit up the sky? When we are willing to be changed by His power, not just ask for more power in our meetings, we will begin to see the nations electrified by God's dunamis power. Get insulated in purity before seeking naively the power of God. The power of this coming awakening will radiate out for many miles when it falls upon a city! Many will be converted when the Church is changed by the power of resurrection life! (See Philippians 3:21.)
5. Principles of FAITH!
Our preaching and ministries must now move into a greater dimension of faith in order to penetrate the darkness of our land. Faith – bold, raw, unrelenting, never-turning-back-faith is the key to revival glory! The authentic principles of faith will be released in a fresh and new way by those who carry the anointing of awakening! If revival depended on YOUR FAITH, how close are we to seeing cities bow before Christ and crown Him King? (See Hebrews 11:1.)
6. Principles of JOY in the Holy Spirit!
You have to understand how radical this message of joy would sound to a world being crushed and tested in the hands of God. Joy has a breaker quality, breaking open hearts and breaking open a city! Joy parties and alluring feasts of extravagant joy – even in the midst of difficulties – will unlock a city! Expect to see the Holy Spirit release new JOY PRINCIPLES and restore us like in the days of Gideon's victory! (See Isaiah 9:3-4.)
7. Principles of RIGHTEOUSNESS!
This is our breastplate that covers our hearts! The Christ-life is all our righteousness; we have none apart from Him! Without a living union every moment with this pure and holy Partner, we will become defiled by selfishness and sin. What glorious protection is this righteousness that guards us in all our relationships and in our daily walk! Expect to hear about and see new levels of righteousness taught by our shepherds and lived out in our lives! (See 1 Corinthians 1:30.)
8. Principles of DISCIPLESHIP!
Rapidly releasing new converts will be crucial as nation after nation opens up their arms to receive more of this heavenly gift: Jesus Christ! We cannot plod along any longer insisting new converts remain "under our covering" when they are ready to roll with revival! In the days of the Jesus Movement in the '70s, we would see converts won in a day, and by a month they were leading and charging forward with evangelism and Bible studies. God does not wait until we sprout wings and a halo before He uses us! Why keep in our "sheep pens" those whom God will equip to shake nations? Jesus sent out 70 before He gave them the Holy Spirit!
True discipleship means carrying the cross and going out in grace to reach a world! Discipleship must include releasing converts into the ripened harvest! Who let the sheep out? (See Matthew 10:1-8.)
9. Principles of PEACE
In days of great shaking and turmoil we will need to find the "eye of the storm" with Jesus in our boat! We need greater revelations of peace to grip us instead of fear of calamity and doom.Peace is a weapon for warfare.
Watch the GOD OF PEACE crush satan soon and swiftly under your feet! (See Romans 16:20.)
10. Principles of LOVE
The greatest truth of all eternity is this: Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so! You will never outgrow your need to receive and release the love of God. Everyone everywhere has a love deficit – so watch the Love of CHRIST change the world, starting with me and with you! More love means more power! More love means more of Jesus Christ given away to the world. You can have great faith for the harvest, but is it working through love in your life? Expect to see more broken-hearted lovers filling our churches in these days of Heaven on earth – the GLORY REVIVAL is upon us. Be ready, my friend! For all we need is faith working through love (Galatians 5:6)!
Lord Jesus, release to the hungry and passionate ones these principles of revival! Empower your awakened Bride to run to the harvest with great faith and overflowing love! Amen!
Please note that the Lord did not give me verbatim these 10 principles, only that He will release these and that we should seek and ask for God to give us these spiritual keys to unlock revival glory for our nation. It may be that after more research the Lord will enlighten us further, but these are those principles taught by Finney and that have been burning in my spirit since the encounter. May this be pleasing to the Lord and to His hungry people.
(For more resources and study on the life and teaching of Charles Finney, see below.)
Brian and Candice Simmons have been described as pioneers, prophets, and pastors. As a spiritual father and mother, their teaching and prophetic gifts have opened doors in many nations to take the message of authentic awakening and revival to many. For the last 35 years they have labored to present Christ in His fullness wherever God sends them. As an apostolic couple they have pioneered church plants for many years with a tribal people group, planted churches in New England, and helped to translate the New Testament into the Kuna language. Brian is the founder and director of Apostolic Resource Center (ARC) based in New England, and they have established Stairway Ministries under which they travel full-time. Brian is the author of numerous books which reveal depths of insight that the Holy Spirit has released for the last days.
More About Charles Finney:
I compiled these 10 principles from Charles Finney from many sources. There isn't one message that he taught giving these 10 principles, but rather they became a summary of his revival ministry. His years of "burning" were about 10-12 years (1824-1836), then he became a professor and later president of Oberlin College in Ohio in 1851. There are hundreds of Finney's sermons online, most of which are listed in his books (or books about him).
Here are some great links for more study on the life of Charles Finney:
http://www.charlesfinney.com/
http://www.gospeltruth.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Charles+finney (This page would be a good starting point for a summary from a Christian perspective.)
If you google 10 principles of Finney's revivals, from this page you can go into dozens of others pages.
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