‘Bible Moments’ calls for revival with life-changing discipleship

The United States is overdue for a revival, according to Tom Anderson, pastor of Mount Gilead Church in Dothan.
   
Anderson made his observation during the last of three “Bible Moments” at the Alabama Baptist State Convention. But Anderson said revival will not be effective unless new believers are discipled by Christians who are convicted by the Holy Spirit.
   
“God wants to move across this situation in our United States, in our world, and give us a revival,” he said. “I believe God wants to do something that is so outstanding that it will absolutely astound all of us.”
Anderson said discipleship by Christians who have the Spirit of God in them is the key.
   
He shared how he was saved in 1954 at the age of 13. “I met Jesus that night, and I knew something had happened in my life,” he said.
   
While he believes the church where he was saved was in love with the Lord, Anderson said no one there followed up on him, but there was an elementary school principal that he said had “a radiant spirit for the Lord.”
   
“He never took me aside and told me what I needed to do, but I could daily see it in that man,” he said. “He was filled with the Spirit.”
   
Anderson said he wanted to make sure convention messengers understood there is a “spiritual side of discipleship.”
   
Baptist churches, Anderson said, have built “the best buildings and  buy the best materials.”
   
“None of that means anything unless the Spirit of God breathes on what you and I are doing,” Anderson said. “I believe God is waiting for a church, an individual or a denomination that is willing to walk out of the flesh and walk into the Spirit.
   
“There is a place in a man’s heart that only God can go to,” he said. “But when God visits that person, that person will never be the same — he is fixed for life.”
   
He told his audience one of the greatest dangers exists in people who serve God in their own strength.
Christians who can’t look at their lives and say, “God, I’m surprised at what you’re doing,” are in trouble, Anderson said.
   
Sharing an example of someone who took time to really know God, Anderson told of a Pentecostal preacher in Georgia who was once known as the meanest man in the community.
   
“When I talked to him, there was a radiance about this man,” Anderson said. “This man knew God. God had done something special in his life; that man loved God.
   
“When we love God, we will come to know God,” he said. “When you’ve been with God, there’s something different about your life.”
   
Anderson said Christians need to take the time to disciple others while organizing all the necessities for a church to function daily. But most importantly, “we’ve got to make sure that Jesus is in the house. Otherwise, all the other work is wasted effort.
   
“Oh, that God would breathe on Alabama Baptists and the winds of revival would sweep through,” Anderson said.