This week . . . 10 years after the Call in Nashville: a personal reflection and a prophetic word.
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7/7/07

This past Friday marked the 10 year anniversary of a major event that took place on July 7, 2007, when over 70,000 people gathered at Titan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee to cry out to the Lord for revival to sweep America.

I (Nick Padovani) personally attended this event with three other friends after a period of 40 days of fasting and prayer. It was a very intense time and God did some wonderful things throughout that period. Unfortunately, however, this time marked the beginning point where I began getting drawn into a lifestyle of religious discipline and zeal that soon sucked the joy and freedom out of my life — all in the name of God’s Kingdom.

It was three years later, in 2010, when the Lord began to really manifest Himself in my life and began to open up my heart to a revelation of Christ’s finished work. This absolutely humbled me and brought about a greater measure of fruitfulness and joy than I had ever experienced…

Zeal without knowledge

In Romans 10, Paul warns about those who have zeal without knowledge. Speaking of his some of his Jewish brethren, Paul was referring to those who are extremely zealous for God but lack the knowledge of the finished work of Jesus. This same concept applies today when you have people who are incredibly zealous for God, and pursue hard after revival, prayer, fasting, and the like, but lack the heart revelation of Jesus’s finished work on behalf of all humanity.

I certainly fell into that category where I was pursuing revival with all my heart but lacked a true understanding of my identity in Christ and the reality that Jesus’s blood was already sufficient for the sins of the land. The 2 Chronicles mantra of praying and humbling ourselves in order to bring in God’s mercy and “heal the land” is too often taken from an Old Covenant mindset (and remember, that verse was written during the Old Covenant time period), which denies the finished work of Jesus and the reality that God is no longer counting men’s sins against them. His mercy is already a settled fact and the heavens are already opened by the blood of the Messiah. The way to see revival is not by beating ourselves up like the prophets of Baal doing a 24/7 worship service to appease their god, cutting themselves and shouting to the heavens to open up…

The way to see revival is to awaken to your sonship and begin to walk in incarnational love. 

Note: Of course, many of the ministries that were behind The Call would acknowledge and agree with this, but would then add the importance of intercession. I totally get that, but here’s my concern: I believe God DID answer the prayers of The Call by bringing about a “grace movement” – a widespread revelation of the finished work of Jesus that has been growing and sweeping the nations ever since. But like so many times throughout history, the people of God end up attacking (and crucifying) the very thing they have been waiting for. You see, God certainly has a way of surprising us — and even upsetting our expectations!

Zeal WITH knowledge

Now let’s be clear about something. Paul did not say that “zeal” is a bad thing. It just needs to be filled with the knowledge of Christ and Him crucified. I believe when you combine the zeal of the prayer movement with the revelation of the grace movement, there will be an explosion of glory like never before.

Many in the “grace movement”  demonize those in the prayer movement, and vice versa. One shouts “legalist!” The other shouts “hyper-grace!” And both are convinced that God is on their side.

But there is a merging coming, a vortex of glory that will sweep both groups into one. For there is indeed a great need of “zeal” in the grace movement, because Abba is zealous about bringing orphans back into His house. Yes, the work is finished, but people still need to hear and receive it! Paul didn’t just sit around and write letters and theology all day (like some people who sit on Facebook and rant against “religion” and demonize anything they perceive as legalistic). Paul was out in the highways and byways, praying for churches, preaching the Good News, living in community with other believers, and giving everything over to Jesus. This was the true zeal of heaven, which was birthed from a revelation of God’s grace.

I believe the next ten years will see a merging between these two movements. And as that merging happens, it will change the face of the earth. And finally, the revival we’ve been praying for (which the prophets keep putting off into more and more future dates) will finally emerge–because it won’t be by our strength, but by the revelation of the Son of God and His work on Calvary.

Selah.

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