Circa January 19, 2020: The Chiefs have just won the American Football Conference of the National Football League. They are going to the Super Bowl! Suddenly, people are posting everywhere a prophecy from Bob Jones, a deceased prophet out of Kansas City. Apparently, quite some time before, he had prophesied that when the Kansas City Chiefs would win the Super Bowl, revival would come to America. Within hours of their victory over Tennessee to get to the “Big Show,” this prophecy was spreading like wildfire. But what happened?
I’m going to be honest with you. If I had a dollar for every time someone prophesied a coming revival, I would be a very rich man. While I believe very strongly in prophetic utterances, I have grown skeptical over the years because of the massive abuses we’ve witnessed in this area.
However, on the other hand, I am deeply hungry for revival—a sustained visitation from the Holy Spirit. I was part of the Brownsville Revival in Pensacola, Florida, teaching in the Bible school. If you have ever been a part of a prolonged move of God, you know what I’m talking about. You just want it to continue forever!
So, despite my skepticism, when the Kansas City Chiefs actually won the Super Bowl, I had hope in my heart that maybe this was a genuine word from heaven, and we would see another sustained move of God in the United States. However, it has already been a year and last night the Kansas City Chiefs were once again in the Super Bowl. I joked that maybe we had the timing off, that they were going to win again this year and, then, we would see the promised revival. Of course, not only did they not win, but they were trounced by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
George Floyd and a Missed Moment
While I did not have a high level of faith that the Kansas City Chiefs’ victory last year was going to result in revival, I did have an experience later that year. We were in the thick of this horrible pandemic when George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
I felt like the Lord began to speak to me about a major opportunity for white evangelical believers to reach out to black Americans. The Lord was allowing me to feel, in part, the pain of Black Americans. And as I have reached out to black pastors over the past year, I have felt it even more. I posted a few different things on Facebook and was met with fierce resistance. One day, while I was in prayer talking to the Lord about this, I felt like He spoke to me. He told me to stop giving my opinion and to prophesy. In 25 years of ministry, I cannot recall ever speaking for God in the first person: “This is what the Lord says.” But that is exactly what He told me to do.
If you want to read the entire prophecy, go here. 1 Corinthians 13:9 says: “We know in part and we prophesy in part.” Even when someone accurately states, “Thus saith the Lord,” that word is rarely an exact transcript of the heart of God. God used the unique personalities and style of each Scripture writer (as is evidenced in their writings), how much more when one merely gives a prophecy (in comparison to Scripture)?
In the middle of the prophecy, I mentioned the Kansas City Chief’s/Revival prophecy.
Why did I use the symbol of the Kansas City Chiefs to prophesy a coming revival? Because chiefs are native Americans; an oppressed community. Broken and in need.(Some asked, “How long do [Native Americans] hold a grudge? How many years have passed since slavery was legal?” The answer is simple—until there is healing.)If you want revival, then you will have to leave your neighborhoods and gated communities. You will need to share your riches and experience with a people not your own. Are you willing? What is your life to you? You were bought with a price. (1 Corinthians 6:20)What was the cry of the Hebrew prophets? Look at their hearts. When they entered into the political arena it was to release my Word and speak against injustice. They cried out on behalf of the broken, the orphaned, the fatherless and the widow.“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6)No, this is not the revival ‘package’ you were looking for, but it is the one I am sending. I need you to be ME to them; not to make excuses why they deserve what they are getting.
A few ministries reached out to black Americans in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd. It seems, though, that most believers focused almost exclusively on complaining about the rioters, which, to be clear, were criminal and disgusting, but they missed what God wanted to do. Imagine if, in the midst of all the protests and riots, white pastors mobilized their congregations to reach out in love to the hurting African Americans? I believe we would have seen the revival that God had promised. And it would have been interracial and multi-cultural.
Not all prophecy is conditional. Some that are, though, are not presented as such when given. Jonah didn’t tell Nineveh that the prophesied judgment against them wouldn’t come if they repented, but their repentance moved the heart of God. (Jonah 4:6-10) God was going to destroy Israel, but Moses’ intercession moved him. (Exodus 32:9-14)
In this case, maybe revival was prophesied correctly. We just didn’t humble ourselves when the opportunity came. Sadly, most viewed the George Floyd event through a political lens, not a spiritual one. They missed God’s heart and, as a result, the chasm is now even greater.
You be the judge
My job is not to make you believe me. I am submitting to you what I believe I heard from God. Your role is to judge it. If you don’t believe it, that is between you and God. I will not be offended. But I felt that I had to write this today, as I was meditating this morning on the Super Bowl prophecy of revival that did not yet come to pass. But I will say this—the fact that the Chiefs got back to the Super Bowl only to get trounced, against all odds, by the Buccaneers, (if we are going to read prophecy into sporting events) seems like a strong rebuke from heaven.
God bless you and may He visit us soon.
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