In Matthew 13 Jesus tells the parable of the weeds and the wheat. In this parable Jesus describes the wheat and weeds growing side by side. The workers want to pull the weeds but the master forbids them to do so. He tells his workers to let the weeds and the wheat grow side by side, for if the workers pull the weeds they will also inadvertently pull some of the wheat as well. Jesus says the wheat which represents his work and the weeds which represent the devil's work will be separated by his angels at the end of time.
I believe this parable has real application to revival and Holy Spirit manifestations which have happened throughout church history and are happening today. In western Christianity there is a strong preoccupation with neatness and order and a real disdain for the messiness of revival. We have a rationalistic tendency to categorize anything we can’t understand as being of the flesh or the devil and try to tame it or put a stop to it. Even in churches that are ‘open to the Holy Spirit’, (I have learned to dislike that phrase) we only allow so much. In doing this we quench the Spirit and damage the wheat in our zeal for a weed-less church.
About six years ago the Holy Spirit broke out in a new, exciting and messy way in the church I was pastoring. Some people loved it, some people disliked it and left and many endured it without much enthusiasm. But I learned some things. First, Holy Spirit likes to have reign in the church and He is not obligated to us to explain what He is doing. It is not our church and He is not our pet to do our bidding. The church belongs to Jesus and His Spirit brings Him to us and us to Him as He sees fit. Our job is to go with Him, not to tame Him our control Him. Second, we often use the word discernment as a mask word for control and control always has its root in fear. We are afraid of looking strange, we are afraid of God being totally in control of our lives and bodies, we are often bound by the opinions of others and what they might think. Third, when God touches people powerfully He intends it to bring fruit but that fruit is often conditioned by people’s responses.
I think I learned two important things during that time to maximize fruitfulness. First, ignore the weeds. This is hard for western Christians to do, we want our revivals pure, but Jesus cautions us that in our zeal for weed pulling we destroy what He is trying to do; we quench the Spirit and actually pour water on revival fire. Second to get the full fruitfulness from people’s encounters with God we need to marry powerful encounters with discipleship.
Two examples taught me this. One of the examples is from church history and the other one from my own history.
During the early 1800’s the Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists came together on the American frontier and held a series of communion meetings in Kentucky. The most famous of these was at Cane Ridge in 1802. The Holy Spirit fell powerfully at these meetings, conversions, healings, deliverances and strange manifestations abounded. The description of these meetings makes the wildest of today’s revival gatherings look mild. After these meetings the Presbyterians were the most critical of the manifestations and tried to calm things down, the Baptist were a little more accepting and the Methodist embraced just about everything that was going on. During the following decade it was the Methodists who spread most rapidly and powerfully along the borders of the American frontier; the Baptists grew, but not as much; and the Presbyterians brought up the rear. All three groups were powerfully touched but the ones who did the least weed pulling got the most wheat.
The other thing the Methodists did was they rigorously followed up on their converts, put them in small groups and discipled them. The early Methodists got their name because they had a method of bringing people beyond conversion into discipleship and they applied it. Better than anyone else the early Methodist married powerful God encounters with discipleship and it bore maximum fruit.
In my own history, when God moved powerfully on our church He especially moved upon some of our youth. We had young people falling out in the Spirit, crying, laughing, shaking, spinning, prophesying and experiencing dramatic touches and calls from God. Looking back at the fruit of all this I noticed that the boys did better than the girls over the years of living out these experiences in positive and fruit bearing ways. The girls were equally, and in some cases more powerfully touched and don’t get me wrong many of them are still going strong, but some fell away and to this day are not living out the calling that was placed upon them when they were encountered. But to a greater degree the boys have done better to this time. There was one big difference. Many of the boys who were encountered were a part of a discipleship group we called Baalam’s Donkeys. This group met weekly to eat, study, hold each other accountable and pray. In other words they were discipled. It wasn’t until much later that we tried to start such a group for the girls. To this day I can’t think of one of those boys who aren’t excelling in their Christian walk. They are helping plant churches, preparing to go on the mission field, leaders in their schools and churches, going to seminary, working as youth pastors, they are doing great. Again the marriage of powerful Holy Spirit encounter and discipleship grew good wheat.
We spend way too much energy weeding in church. I want the wheat. I want revival, I don’t care if it is messy and there are fleshly indulgences, I would rather have messy revival then a clean cemetery for my church experience. But I have learned that God encounters don’t replace discipleship, they are the point of discipleship. We study, pray and hold each other up not as religious duties but to get the maximum harvest from the encounters we have with God. There is no dichotomy between revival encounters and discipleship, but when married together there is great fruitfulness.
