Joel Revalee, ministry blog

Every so often I have bad dreams. Dangers all around me. Dinosaurs in the back yard. Robbers bursting through the front door. Loved ones gone and I'm unable to locate them. When I awake, I realize these images and events were not real. They are unrestricted fears manifesting in my sleeping hours. Scary illusions from my own mind. In this blog post, I explore a situation like these nightmares. Something jarring, but ultimately not to be feared. Your Nightmarish Condition God is a Spirit, and so are we. However, our spirit is encased in a body of flesh. We interact with the world around us through the 5 senses. We feel with our bodies and think with our minds. But there are those of us who have a disconnect between the 2 - the mind and the body. We call these individuals mental patients. Psychological case studies. The insane. I have a personal question about the mentally troubled - do they know they are not right? That they are in need of psychiatric or psy...

I am a Pentecostal, and proud of it. I believe the best statement of the Bible plan of salvation is found in The Book of Acts: "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. " Acts 2:38 This salvation plan boils down into 3 steps: (1) repentance, (2) water baptism in Jesus name (by full immersion - which means 'your whole body goes into the water'), and (3) receiving the gift of The Holy Ghost (which is evidenced again and again in the Book of Acts by the act of speaking in tongues ). However, I have noticed a marked change in modern revival services. At the end of a several-day or multi-week revival, the local church will report how many "received the Holy Ghost" (with the evidence of speaking in tongues) as well as how many "were Baptized in Jesus name". But absent from that number is the very first step of sal...

You want to be taller. You want to lose some weight. You want a million dollars. You want the girl of your dreams to start looking your way. Are these the normal prayer requests you hear in a Pentecostal church? No, but they are the common desires of almost every fairy tale protagonist I've ever read. A child's wildest dream coming true with the wave of a magic wand. ... A man's entire life course being transformed via mystical means. ... A young woman's desire to marry the prince made possible through supernatural intervention. They are not the types of miracles contained in scripture, but they are the subject of this blog post today. Acceptable prayer requests The LORD answers individual prayers.  Yet it is possible to believe that God answers prayers, while all the time calling on Him in a manner that limits His ability to fulfill them. " Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have no...

We have a situation in Pentecostal ministry. Seemingly, the number of Biblically-grounded traveling preachers has dwindled. Replacing them is a growing list of theologically-unsound pulpit performers. The key word here is performer , because  performance is the decider nowadays. ... "What were his revival totals?" ... "I hear he baptized 20 in a church 3 hours away." ... "Bro. ______ is a poet with sermons, an excellent speaker". Numbers & showmanship. Is this the measuring line of modern ministries? It shouldn't be this way, nor do I imagine The Apostles ever intended such an outcome for The Church. Let's explore why this has happened, and describe how it can be reversed. One-and-Done "You have one shot - just ONE - to impress a Pastor." This is very common advice told to full-time evangelists as they begin their ministries. When a traveling preacher is scheduled for a Sunday service, he knows that if he does not ...