Joel Revalee, ministry blog

Question 1 : How much can I ADD to Truth before it is not true? Question 2 : How much can I TAKE AWAY from Truth before it is no longer Truth? These are basic questions any first-year Philosophy major encounters in college, yet these very issues have inflamed debate between Christians since The Book of Acts. As a devout Pentecostal & partaker in the ministry, I have grappled with these questions. In different seasons of life I question how much can be added or removed from Biblical doctrine before I no longer base my beliefs on the Word of God. Bluntly, it is possible for a well-meaning Christian to change their core beliefs so much that they disappear into the muddled milieu of culturally-neutered Christianity. But what about changing them by just adding in some seemingly harmless doctrine? To answer that question, I begin with the time of Jesus. "Teaching for doctrines ..." In His earthly ministry, Jesus cut through many social norms and widely-held cus

Where to start? I suppose that question itself is difficult in church splits.  Do I begin with the actual split?  Do I tell of the competing camps that divided the body into fragments?  Do I start earlier, and describe the years-long saga of missed solutions & unexplored opportunities that permitted this divide to form in the first place? No, dear reader. I begin with the aftermath. Intro: The Death-Spiral There comes a moment where it no longer matters which side you were on. Whatever at-the-time-important issue was at hand, and whichever side you chose, the day comes when you wake up and your first church is GONE and you CAN'T get it back. The pieces don't fit back together anymore like they used to. The original is past. It feels bad & it hurts, but you learn to live with it. You settle into the new normal, and you desire to have revival where you're at. Problem: you can't. Pre-split, your church had X-hundred people. You were a powerhouse in your o

Many years ago, in an Apostolic church ... The Holy Ghost was pouring out. Souls were being saved. You could feel the wind of The Spirit flowing in every service. REVIVAL had arrived in our church. The Pastor was excited, the people were worshiping and participating, and everyone around knew that God was at work. An out-of-town evangelist was preaching to us. Services began that week and proceeded up through Sunday. With everything The Lord was doing in these meetings, the Pastor called for the revival meetings to continue. I speak for everyone there at the time when I say that was the right decision : we all felt it, and we loved what God was bringing to us. The outpouring continued. More souls being added to the church. More testimonies and answered prayers were reported. Everything was going well. But in the back of the church, a soul was quietly praying for an answer from God. That soul was me . I had a question that I desperately needed answered by The Lord. I earnestly

Hello dear reader. Today I have some disturbing news. In the ranks of the Pentecostal Church, we have an epidemic of mentally askew individuals. I know that as I type these words, you are already thinking of a long list of people you’ve met in church whom you believe are not “all there” (believe me, I have encountered many like that as well), but I’m not talking about those people. I’m not talking about the strange, the different, or the troubled. I’m talking about seemingly normal men and women. Brothers and Sisters who take part in the worship service just like everyone else. Men and women of God who are LEADERS in the church. Musicians, teachers, committee members, etc. Everyone from the greeters at the door to the song leaders on the platform. Some of them are even preachers in the pulpit. The disorder many of them carry is quite dangerous, and could harm anyone who is in contact with them for a long enough period. What is it exactly they have? Bluntly, many of these peopl

Every morning and evening, I do my best to begin the day with prayer and also end it with the same. This has been my routine before I ever accepted the call to ministry. In prayer, I have not as yet heard an audible voice, but can point to many instances where I knew beyond any doubt that The Lord had spoken to me.  But as a believer and a preacher, the regular occurrence of these Divine impartations is important. How often do I "hear from God"? Every day? Every week? Once a year? I am writing this post to ask you, the reader, a simple question ... When was the last time you heard from God ? When was the last time that you received a YES or a NO in prayer from The Lord of all Creation? When did you last seek His face or take time to earnestly find direction from Him about your life (and not prejudge what the answer must be)? When last did you ask Him the hard question(s) - the one(s) you're afraid to pose to your friends and peers in the church? Would