What Are your Qualifications for Judging Revival?

The following is a response to a letter in which a brother asked what Bro. Jimmy Robbins’ qualifications were to judge and discern concerning the current revival.

Dear ______,

Greetings in the wonderful name of Jesus our blessed Lord and Savior. He alone is worthy of praise.

My Qualifications:

Every child of God has the spirit of Christ within them. If their heart is completely open and wanting to please God...then God will show them if something is of God, man, or the devil. Jesus said...”If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” (John 7:17).

Paul the Apostle said...”For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” (Heb. 5:13-14)

I have been in the Lord’s work for over thirty years and I have seen just about everything one could imagine. I believe we as God’s people should do our very best to receive people where they are and not to demand something of them that they can’t do. You can’t make a child drive a car, go off to work, and perform like an adult. The child has to grow, learn, and be seasoned with experience. However, when you have so called “Spiritual Leaders” who supposedly have traveled to foreign countries and received some “mystical power” which has changed their ministry...and claim that God has commissioned them to bring it back to the USA and impart it to God’s people...then I have not only a concern but a responsibility before God to try the spirits. “Beloved, believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” (I John 4:1). Dear brother, I have tried the spirits of this so called revival and it is my discernment that it is not of God but of man, flesh and certainly the devil has great access in many of these.

The spirit of many of these so called “revivals” has a misplaced emphasis on the “Holy Ghost.” Almost every time they open their mouth they are talking to the “Holy Ghost,” praying to the “Holy Ghost” and once I heard one song leader say...”I praise you, “Sweet Holy Ghost.”

Brother, we are to pray to our Lord Jesus Christ and to His Heavenly Father. I thank God for the “Holy Spirit” but I don’t pray to the Holy Spirit nor do I praise the Holy Spirit.

I am an ordained Elder and have been a student of the Bible for over forty years. I know nothing as I ought to know it...but I humbly ask my Lord everyday keep me in His perfect will. I would do nothing to hurt or harm anyone knowingly...however I am very sensitive when I see one of God’s little ones going toward a deadly poisonous serpent out of curiosity (False Revivals). I will do all that I can to protect one of God’s little lambs.

What are my qualifications? Even though I have had over thirty years of experience in the Lord’s work, traveled the US and have visited numerous churches, and graduated from the University of Florida with honors...I don’t count this as credentials. The bottom line is this:

I cry out to God with all my heart seeking Him and Him alone (not a sign, not a feeling, not an experience, not to be slain in the spirit) but I ask Him for discernment in the light of His word...He has never let me down. Brother, we must try the spirits whether they be of God.

In His Service,
Jimmy R. Robbins

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