#240: Dr. Pete Bellini: What is Revival?
Dr. Bellini is back to help us wade through a theological and practical understanding of revival.
We also talk about his brand new training - the X seminar!
https://www.spiritandtruth.life/
EP. 240
Tony: [00:00:00] Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Reclamation Podcast. Where're our goals to help you reclaim good practices for following Jesus. If we haven't met yet, my name is Tony and I'm your host with over a decade in the local church. I care deeply and passionately about helping you move closer to Jesus.
Today's conversation is all about revival, outpouring, all the things that you've been talking about on and maybe have seen on the news or on your social media feed. We're gonna get into it a little bit, not so much as Barry and what God is doing there, but revival from a much bigger perspective, and there was no one that I wanted to have this conversation with.
Aside from Dr. Bellini, if you've listened to this podcast for any length of time, you know, he's one of. The members on my Godly council, he's a voice I trust and I love his theological background and education on this kind of stuff. So we [00:01:00] kinda get into historical relevance around revival and what does it mean and what does it look like.
I think you're really gonna enjoy this conversation. If you do, do me a favor, share this episode with a friend. Maybe somebody who you've talked to about revival, maybe somebody who's got questions. It would mean the absolute world. Now without any further ado, here's my conversation with Dr. Peter Bellini.
Hey everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited to have back for the record number of times. I think it's six now. Dr. Peter Bellini. Dr. B, thank you so much for coming back on the podcast.
Dr. B: Hey, glad that you would have me back six times, man, I just got it wrong the first five times. Maybe we can . I'll do it right this time.
Tony: Well, I always tell people you're the pastor of the podcast and I, I appreciate that so much. And I wanted to bring you on because in all of my social media free feeds I'm hearing about revival, right? [00:02:00] The, the outpouring at Rev, at Asbury, and I, I don't, we can get into a little bit of the details specifically about Asbury, but, but I thought maybe it would be good for a lot of people who are like me, who need kind of a historical lesson.
on, where does, where does this term revival or outpouring or these kind of things, where does it come from and, and is it, is it something that we see in the historic faith or is it something that people are just making up?
Dr. B: Right, right. Well, we, we are hearing a lot about revival, aren't we? We're seeing it in, in the social media and even in the news the Asbury Revival.
I've been on a few major news network. and it's got people's interest and many have gone down to Asbury in Wilmore, Kentucky. And there's other places that it's spread to and people have been going there as well. And others are just, you know, maybe watching [00:03:00] livestream or videos of it and getting.
You know, getting a taste of it and you know Asbury's a, a non-denominational university with its roots in the Wesleyan Holiness tradition. So the connecting with John Wesley and the subsequent Holiness movement. So that tradition is no stranger. To revivals or whatever term you want to call 'em, and there's a lot of people that use these terms interchangeably.
And then there's those who are in the, in the, the, the field itself that study it. That may make some distinctions as to what a revival is and what an awakening is. But, you know, this has been with the Wesleyan Holiness tradition for the last few hundred years, but it's also been a part of our Christian tradition as a.
For the last couple thousand years periodically as God sees fit and as the people seem to hunger and thirst and pray[00:04:00] God just pours out his blessing in his spirit, maybe more than what seems to be usual. And people call it, you know, it's an outpouring, it's a renewal, it's a revival, it's an awakening, but it, it's usually , those who already believe usually.
Thus, the re part of revive bring us back to life again. It's usually persons that have been in, you know, the church that are wanting. More. Maybe they feel that their faith isn't as fervent as it needs to be. Maybe they're looking to get closer to God or have a greater impact on society. So they pray for more of God, more of God's grace, more of God's holy Spirit, and to more of his blood blessing.
And God, when I believe it's both, you know, it comes from God's grace and God's providence, but also it comes to those who are hungry and thirsty and willing and seeking. But [00:05:00] periodically, there have been waves of this in the church for the last couple thousand years, and you could even look at the.
Christianity is a renewal movement itself. It's a renewal movement within Judaism. You could see it in, in those terms as, as, as well, but usually the result is, is that people's faith is increased. There's usually a greater focus on the person of Jesus Christ, the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
Greater commitment and faith. Often, you know, recommitment, sometimes new conversions. Different traditions, you know, focus maybe on different experiences, you know, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Spirit, gifts of the spirit, healing, you know, speaking in tongues. All these kind of other things that seem to more or less accompany a lot of renewal movements.
But the, the bottom line, it's about God. It's about people returning to God with greater desired greater love, greater fervor, greater service as manifested in the [00:06:00] revival, but also afterwards in the fruit in their lives. As they, they walk that out, they walk that experience out in their daily, daily Christian life.
So we've, we've had those from the beginning. There's always. These movements like I say, you could look at the Jesus movement in the, the first century is a renewal movement, and then modernism in the second century, and then later monasticism, and then even look at the reformation in light of that.
And then, you know, great awakening in the United States with George. Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards and the colonies. And then back in England at the same time with Wesley in the, in the, in England with the, the Methodists. And then later the Holiness Movement, the Healing Revival in the mid 18 hundreds, the Asuza Street Revival in the early 19 hundreds.
Then the Healing Revival post World War II in the late forties and fifties. And then also, Billy Graham, the evangelical revival around that same time period and the charismatic renewal in the sixties, seventies and [00:07:00] eighties. You know, then you have all these other, you know, mo renewal movements among neo charismatics.
So it, it, it's something that does happen. And with Asbury, they've had a tradition of it as well. It seems to happen kind of like every 20 years or so. They have one in 19 50, 19 71 in 2003 I think it was. And then this one here. .
Tony: That's super interesting. So not new, but but not often do we see it. And interesting that this is probably the first revival that I can think of or have heard about since social media.
Has been around, and that that just adds a whole different layer to it. So, so let me a, let me ask you this. For the normal church member, right, the guy and the gal who are going to church two to three times a month, they're sitting in the pews, they're trying to read their Bible most days, but let's be honest, some days are more of a struggle than others, right?
They're, they're just Christians who are trying to do their best to follow Jesus. But they're not in Wilmore, [00:08:00] Kentucky. Does revival matter to the rest of the body?
Dr. B: Well the, we should always celebrate revival, whether it's happening in our midst or for our brothers and sisters. I mean, we wanna obey God's command to love God and love our neighbors.
So if something's happening in Asbury or on the other side of the world that maybe I don't have access to I should celebrate that. I should rejoice with those who are rejoicing as scripture says. And anytime there's a sign of life, a new life in the church and in the world, we should be rejoicing.
That's the work of God. We all serve the same God the same. We're all members of the same church. One Lord, one faith, one baptism one Holy Spirit, unity of the Spirit. So we rejoice in that even if we don't have access to it beyond social media. But that doesn't mean that we can't also pray. Lord, you know what you're doing in Wilmore, [00:09:00] Kentucky.
Can you, you do it in me. Will you do it in my pastor? Will you do it in my church? What do you have for us? and we could be praying. And next thing, that's what's happened in many places. That's why they're seeing revival. It's not just at at Asbury. It's spread. My understanding is to many Christian universities, secular universities, local churches not just here in the States, but throughout the world.
I, I've been hearing stories in Latin America and the Philippines. And then the middle East, all kind of revival happening or all over.
Tony: That is one of the interesting things about this season is that all of these outbreaks that you've been talking about, they seem to be stewarded by the next generation.
I'm wondering if that's a historical. Trend or if that's something that just is, this is new or why do you think that the next gen are the ones [00:10:00] who are, are pushing this train forward so much on this idea of revival?
Dr. B: Right. Well, I'm glad they are. We need it. I'm excited for them. They live in a, we live in the same world, but they live in it more deeply and more in front than we do at least my generation.
They're the, they're the leaders today and tomorrow. I, I'm not a future leader tomorrow. I'm a future leader. I'm a leader today. They face things in this world that I never had to face growing up. And you're a lot younger than me, but you probably didn't either. It, it's a tough world, tough challenges were clearly post Christendom Christianity faces challenge.
In terms of where it stands in light of the culture and the culture's perspective and opinion on Christianity, which isn't real popular in the West. It's no longer Christianity's, no longer front and center. It's more [00:11:00] on the margins. So it's not popular to be a, a Christian or a so-called Evangelical Christian one that experiences rev.
So this is exciting that it's hitting their generation. I think we all need it, but I'm really glad that they're getting hit with it because they're the future leaders. They are facing a lot of challenges. They need, they need more of God. And because we live in a day of skepticism about Christianity. Skepticism about, you know, the truth and the, and these sorts of things.
I think the revival at Asbury is kind of a gentle, peaceful, quiet, safe anointing relative to a lot of other revivals where there's, you know, maybe more expressive manifestations and you. More graphic manifestations, people speaking in tongues of people falling [00:12:00] out and on the spirit and demons being cast out.
I was, I was at the revival. There's not a lot of that. It's not a, a very, it wasn't a very powerful, strong knock 'em down kind of anointing. I mean, I experienced stronger anointing in my own prayer chapel than what I experienced down there. Hmm. But that's not the point. It was a, it's a very soft, gentle.
Safe. Safe, comforting, loving, healing, peaceful anointing that I think was welcoming to that generation, to to, to regain their trust, if you will. And that, that God would then work deep and heal a lot of mistrust. A. Painful experiences from the past, past hurts. I think it's specific. It's for everybody, this revival, but it's specifically tailored in my opinion.
To the young people and their perspective and where they stand related to the church and society, and it's the exact move of God [00:13:00] that they need to bring them to a place of faith, trusting God, inner healing, getting confidence in the things of God, and, and willing to be a witness. A strong witness with confidence and faith in the gospel message, and without doubt because of the doubt that the society puts upon the church to kind of second guess their message and their witness and that sort of thing.
So, It is not unprecedented that this revival is with young people. I think the spirit of God loves to work with maybe those who've been neglected, you know the marginalized groups, the poor racial and ethnically marginalized using women in leader. And then in using the, the young people in leadership, the Welsh revival was very powerful revival in 19 0 4, 19 0 5, that affected that whole country.
And that's another country that gets periodic revivals and Began amongst the youth. [00:14:00] Evan Roberts was a, was a, was a young man in school and a lot of people that were with him and re and, and that he reached were were the youth, the young people, what I call the young people, you know, the teenagers in 20 somethings of that day and age.
And so it's not uncommon for God to use young people to lead a rev. He's done it often in the past, and it's exciting. They, I don't mean this in a negative way I mean it in a positive way. They need it. We all need it. We all need it. But they have a, a, I think, a bigger task in the future than like the older generation, like myself.
And so I'm glad to see this happening amongst them and I'm taking, making it their own and, and going out and doing what God's told 'em to do. .
Tony: Yeah. Well, one of the things that I'm seeing is that there's a lot of people who are my age and your age who are both looking at this like, We don't know what to do here right now.
Most of my audience [00:15:00] is not Gen Z or, you know some are of course, and thank you for listening to those younger people, but most of my people are in our age range. I'm 42. You're a little bit older than that. . And what, what message do you have for us as we watch with baited breath, about what's happening there and, and in pockets all over the world?
What should we be doing?
Dr. B: Right. You know, I'm. a baby boomer. I'm like the, the at the young end of the baby boomer spectrum. And there's always that tension with baby boomers and z and y and that sort of thing, living in the intergenerational tension. And often, you know, cuz I have, my kids are adult children and, you know, they're in their, you know, late twenties.
My son should be 30 this year, and my daughter's 26, she'll be 27. And I have to confess that I often have a kind of a, a suspicion or a, a [00:16:00] distrust of younger people. It's like, well, you know, can they take on, can we pass the baton onto them? Can they handle what we handled? And the generation before me handled.
And the generation before them, you know, they're great generations. And before, and I would say now, I don't know. I don't see it. I don't know, man. I don't think they can handle it. And I, you know, so I've had, you know, I'll admit I have a bias towards that until I see otherwise. And there's always exceptional young people, don't get me wrong.
But so we're always skeptical. But for, you know, with this, with the things of God. I don't have that skepticism, you know, because I know the Holy Spirit is the one doing the work, and he's not a respecter of person. So it doesn't matter what your age is, what your sex is. , which your race and ethnicity God can use you equally and maybe even use you more like you know, don't, do not forbid the children to come unto me for such as these belongs the kingdom [00:17:00] of God.
You know, my little four-year-old granddaughter, I prayed for her last week, she came into my prayer chapel. She received a baptism and a Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues and started prophesying at four years old. And all I did is said, Castanza, come here. I said, receive. And I didn't tell her what any of that stuff was.
She's only four. She started speaking in tongues and she started prophesying because she's more open. She doesn't have all that baggage. She's four years old. So maybe the younger people do it better than we do it. All that to say my generation or and your generation needs to be praying for them, needs to be supporting them, needs to move out of the way.
I'm glad that Asbury kind of you know, did a, created a schedule so the, the young people could be in this sanctuary, you know, alone. So it's not something that's overtaken by the baby boomers or the older generation, which we would tend to do and say, okay, kids, you know, let us take over and organize.
This is unorganized or whatever. So I'm [00:18:00] glad that they put up kind of a little bit of boundaries to keep the older people actually out. , which I think is good in this case. So I think we need to pray for him. We need to support him. We need, we don't be judging harshly or we'll wait and see if there's fruit, like, you know, like, you know, we got all the fruit in the world, in our lives to qualify to judge these young people.
Just move out of the way and let the Holy Spirit do what he does. This always said that, this generation reminds me a lot of, when I was a kid in the sixties and early seventies. Of that generation was led by young people. It was, it was, it was led by young people. A lot of the movements it was a movement amongst the young people and a lot of the social tension we have today is similar to then as well.
Mm-hmm. So I expect the young people to take leadership like they did back, like they did back then to take leadership. And the saying back then was, don't trust anyone over 30. That was what they used to say. [00:19:00] In that time period. So they may want to bring that one back. I just think we need to support 'em.
We need to pray for 'em, support 'em, equip 'em, you know, give them the things that we can give them that they, you know, like they may not have like sometimes authority opportunities, wisdom, experience, but then trusted God is in them, just like God's in you and me and that they're the heat. God can do it through them.
We don't have to have this kind of a prejudice or suspic. They need to, they need to, they need to take that baton of leadership up and, and a, and a revival like this could be to anchor and ground them for the rest of their
Tony: ministry. Hey guys, just pausing this conversation with Dr. B to ask you to do me a huge favor.
Will you leave a rating and review on iTunes right now? Just take a minute or so and just write out some thoughts on the show. If it's worth five star, leave us five. I read every single one of 'em, and it really does help the show become more findable by people who [00:20:00] may not yet know about the reclamation community.
So again, do me a favor, leave a review on iTunes. It would mean the absolute world. Now let's finish up this conversation with Dr. B. I think that's wonderful. You and I have both been around long enough to know. Anything that God does for good man will also try to do the opposite. There's probably a lot of leaders right now who are trying to figure out ways to produce a revival in their own church.
A revival somewhere else, so they're gonna start charging people for revival. And you've been around long enough to know all of these things happen. I, I'm wondering if you could talk to the, the listener who's, who wants to go and experience these things. How do they discern if, if it's really from God or if it's just a production from man?
Dr. B: Yeah. Well, I think you need to pray before you go chasing a revival. You know, God, are you calling me to go to this location to receive whatever? And you [00:21:00] gotta check your motive. You know, why are you going, why are you going? And. What makes you think you can't have that here, right where you're at, you know, gotta check your motive.
People are always praying for revival and it doesn't happen all the time. That's why it's revival. It comes on, you know, every so many years. As I said, it's like a comet that comes by, you know, the fire and the light comes by every so many years. You don't see a come all the time. So I, I think we need to check what our motives are and we need to regularly be praying.
God to move, whether it's in a spectacular way or in a very subtle way, which is kind of more the norm that God works and gives us our daily bread. But I think the, the, the fruit in our heart is how you can, you can judge if it's real, at least on our, from our end, you know I think prayer and repentance are key to revive.
And it begins with me. I can't tell you to repent. You know, I can't tell you, Hey, you got this in your life and you need to, I need to deal with [00:22:00] the what's in my life first, and revival starts with me or renewal. Whatever God wants to do starts in me. So it's authentic. It's not just me telling you and I'm not doing it.
So I need to pray for repentance. God, holy Spirit reveal to me, show me in my life those things that are displeasing to you, that are sinful or that prevent more of you. Manifesting in my life. What are those things that I can deal with and, and get rid of and, and, you know, offer to you so that you could do more in me and then I can be more effective when I'm with my, my brothers and sisters.
So I think it starts with you, me praying and having a right heart in, in that way. Now, in terms of what you see, you know, there's, there's, there's what I call spontaneous revival. That's what Asbury. . They didn't call a revivalist in, they didn't schedule a revival, didn't plan it, didn't organize. It didn't orchestrate it.
There was no person at the center. It was just God doing what God [00:23:00] wanted to do. You know, that's hard for a lot of people to wrap their minds running around and think, oh, it's fake. It's this Uhuh getting people getting 20 somethings in the. To pray and sing the Lord all day is its own miracle. There was no other incentive.
They weren't getting paid. They weren't looking for fame, you know? Everyone's always got this hermeneutic of suspicion. There's gotta be some reason behind it. It's just those evangelicals, it's just all emotionalism and all of that. Man, even if it were emotionalism, it, it wouldn't, it, it's not gonna last that.
You know, long, even when, when I was a young person went off to a concert or something, you know, and you were gone for a couple of days afterwards, you were beat, you came home and that was it. You wasn't even gonna go to no concerts for two weeks and party, and you couldn't even do that for two weeks, let alone doing the Jesus thing.
So, It, it, it was a spontaneous revival as opposed to what I call a canned revival. Yeah. Which we have. And those came into existence after the existence of the [00:24:00] spontaneous revival. In other words, can we capture that lightning in the bottle again that God did? Can we? Somehow manufacture it or create that.
So you've got, you know, scheduled revivals in the spring, some are fall, you've got revivalists. I do that for on the side that go in and, you know, it's a canned revival, so everything's in the can. You open it up and there's revival. And sometimes revival does happen and sometimes it doesn't. You know, sometimes people just get stirred up.
It's, it's, it's mon emotional. Sometimes it can be manipulative. You know, and usually one of the ways you can tell is the strong leadership and the things that are coming forward are often very manipulative and you're singing. 50 bars of just as I am until someone comes up and gets safe for the 500th time.
And you know, those are things you're trying, you're trying to produce results. You're trying to get people, you know, clap. Let's make some noise and stir 'em up. So there's a lot of, little bit of cheerleading, I understand, but it can get excessive or God move in a [00:25:00] particular way. People fall in the spirit and then we wanna recreate that or produce it or manufacture it instead of it being just at a spirit of God.
So, you know, God's got the arc and we wanna. We wanna adjust the ark a little and fix it here and fix it there. And that's not a good thing to do is the one brother in the Old Testament got, he got whacked for that. . It, it is gotta be of God's anointing and we gotta keep our hands off the glory, off God's anointing.
And when you see too many people manipulating and handling God's anointing, then it's not, it's, it often isn't a good thing. But the, you know, the fruit is the, the, the immediate fruit in the, in the young people and the long term fruit. And a lot of that's gonna take time to bear witness. And if it's of God, it will.
And I think it is of God. It, it, it will. But when I went down there, love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentlemen, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance. I, I thought all those fruit were in, were, were present there at that revival. Hmm. That's so
Tony: good. [00:26:00] I would be remiss if I didn't take the opportunity to talk about kind of the other side of, of revival, which would be kind of, you know, deliverance and deliverance ministry isn't a term that a lot of Christians use on a regular basis, so, so how would you describe what deliverance ministry is?
Dr. B: Mm-hmm. . Well, you know, when unbelievers. Trying to get closer to God. Maybe they're coming to a church service. Maybe they're at a revival. Maybe they're just your friends at work that you've been praying for, and they're trying to get closer to the Lord. So it could be an believer or it could be a believer that's trying to get closer to God and the Holy Spirit begins to put his finger on things in their life, usually sinful things.
and usually there's sins that have been committed over a long period of time. That have somehow [00:27:00] opened up the door to the influence of the enemy demonic influence Satan, who's come to steal, kill, and destroy the enemy of our soul. People in coming to Christ often need to have someone be with them to pray and help them walk through that repentance and that place where they're liberated from their sin.
That's what Deliverance Ministry is. It's an intercessory ministry where we walk alongside people on that road of repentance and coming to Christ. Whether they're an believer or a believer, you know, both unbelievers and believers need a repent of sin. And sometimes there's, it's, there's a little more than just, you know, a little small peccadillo sin that you've committed here or there, but it may be things that are pretty hardcore that involve the occult that involve addiction.
Did involve some major sin to have attachments to with them that you didn't intend. But they're there anyways. The devil doesn't care and you need freedom, you [00:28:00] need liberation, and you can't give free, tried everything. Maybe that unbelievers tried other religions, maybe they've self-medicated, tried alcohol, drugs, sexual encounters.
They may have went to counseling or therapy and they still can't get. . They may need deliverance. They may need someone like myself or you to come alongside them, walk 'em and lead 'em through repentance of those sins, and then pray for them and pray that the, the power of sin and the power of Satan be broken in the name of Jesus.
So they could be said free. Same thing with a believer. I mean, Dick believer could be someone who's gone to church for 20, 30 years, you know, and most of their life is in order, but they have one area. Said they can't get free in. It may involve the same thing as the believer. It may be an addiction, it may be some outward, you know, sin, major sin may be some dabbling in the occult or whatever.
And they can't get free. They're not, they can't stop. You know, [00:29:00] freedom is, you know, you're able to do otherwise. And if they can't, they're bound and they need help. They need someone to walk 'em through repentance. and pray with them that they can be set free from the power of sin and any demonic attachments.
That's what deliverance is. And that often happens in revival because the spirit of God is inviting people to come just as they are. And so in the Methodist revival, in the early in the 17 hundreds and then the, the revivals that happened throughout the 18 hundreds in the United States and, and then later Azusa and other Rev.
Often had deliverance occur as people were getting set. Free deliverance often occurred. And we, I'm a a, a United Methodist Elder Study, John Wesley, and we see it a lot in Wesley's ministry and work. In fact, I've just finished a book that's at the publisher called Thunderstruck the Deliverance Ministry of John Wesley Today.
That Wesley prayed [00:30:00] Wesley and early Methodist prayed for people to be set free from sin and demonic power. So it often goes hand in hand with revivals renewal, salvation, that kind of thing.
Tony: Yeah, I, it, it's interesting, you, you are basically launching a new ministry of a new resource ministry of United Theological Seminary.
And you're calling it the X Seminar and it's a, a training course in deliver. And exorcism. It's, it's not just for seminary students, it's for anyone. Kind of tell us any, anyone? Yeah. Yeah. Tell us how you got there and who's the right person who would be, because this is, this is a little different.
This is not the ordinary Methodist training. I've never had this training before outside of my time with you. You right. You know, certainly not academically. It's not, I mean, you know, you're, you're about the only guy I know that teaches this stuff. , talk to me about that.
Dr. B: Right. Well, I, you know, I've been doing [00:31:00] this for a long time, almost closing it on 40 years of ministering and in including deliverance ministry.
And what I noticed is that, especially in my circles, Methodist circles, as you mentioned, a lot of people do not know about it. It's foreign to them. They've never heard of it. They were never taught it. They see it in the Bible, but that was way back then when demons existed. We know better today. And so we don't see a lot of that sort of thing now in o in other parts of the world.
And even in the Western charismatic Pentecostal churches that's a little more familiar, they're a little more familiar with it though. They still relegate it to, you know, specialists. So I wrote a book last year called the X Manual. X the letter X and mostly standing for the Greek word exia, which means God's divine authority to overthrow the devil.
So the X manual was a book, a handbook that I felt needed to be written to teach people and train people how to [00:32:00] do this, how to pray for people for deliverance and exc. Using the name of Jesus. Hmm. Because I didn't see, I wasn't seeing a lot of it, and my personal schedule was overloaded. I was getting pulled here and there to do a lot of different things in that area.
I give a lot of clients and a lot of a lot of calls to come and, you know, either teach on it or minister it. And I thought, well, the body of Christ needs to be equipped. So at the time I wrote the book, I knew I would also do a seminar. I knew I was gonna do a book and then a seminar. So after I finished the book, we started to put together the seminar, which will be coming out May 5th, hopefully every year, first Friday in May.
And everyone's invited, clergy, le, whoever, and it's gonna be a basic training course and how. How to do it, and we'll use the X manual as a textbook. So it'll be very practical. It'll be theological, your foundation and all that, but also very practical on how to do it. And [00:33:00] it's relevance. It's not something that's, you know, out there.
Rarely will you encounter someone who has demonic issues. It's a lot more than you think. I think oftentimes we're in denial or. , we call it something else, but it's needed in the church, especially today with the so much of OC cult activity, so much addiction, abuse, a lot of things are on the rise. E evils on the rise.
Satan doesn't. . Yeah. I, and I think one of the things, clip, we're very behind the times, especially my movement to Methodist Church. They are so behind on this. Yeah.
Tony: I think one of the things that we often mess up is that we think that it's we, we just take it to like the Exorcist the movie. And that it's so much more than that.
That, that it's, you know, deliverance ministry and this kind of work is so [00:34:00] much bigger. Then and, and even more subtle, you know, it's not, I, I've, I have been trained by you and have done some of this work, and the deliverance looks so different than what. We're what? The, what course, right? Yeah. What the movie, what the, the movies portray.
A as this as this seminar gets, you know, kind of get ready to launch and people start signing up, what, what's the prayer that my podcast community can be praying alongside you as, as more and more people get equipped?
Dr. B: Well, the, the prayer is, is that people hear the call and maybe God's calling. Hmm. To help set the captives free. And I may feel powerless. When I look out at the world and I see all the problems. I feel like there's nothing I could do, but maybe I maybe there is something that God can do through me.
So [00:35:00] I'm praying that people find a need, they respond to a call, and they see that the power that is in the name of Jesus is greater than the powers, the issues, the sins that are in the. And the church needs to be able to show and demonstrate that as Christ and the disciples did, so we could set captives free.
There's a lot of people that are in bondage and sometimes, and I'm not, I'm, I work with the mental health professions, the medical professions. These need to work together in tandem. They're not in either or, they're both and, but a lot of times some of those resources aren't able to fully deal with. and these situations.
And so we need the power and authority that comes from above the power from God, the authority from heaven Jesus' authority, to be able to minister freedom. I've seen so many people that were bound in, you know, you name it, addictions. They were hurt by abuse or in the occult, and nothing else seemed to help.
Nothing else. [00:36:00] They, they were on meds, they had therapy. Even going to church, they needed deliverance, and then they get set free and they're totally different. God is able, yeah. Yeah,
Tony: that's good. And for those of you that want to register, the best place to go is to united.edu and you'll find all the links there, United edu.
It's it's coming up, it's not too far away. It's May 5th, the first Friday in May. It's on all day event at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. So come hang out with us. It'll be so good. Dr. B I want to give you the final word today. Is there anything more that we should be thinking about, whether it's spiritual warfare and the X seminar or revival at Asbury?
Give us give us kind of that last thing to be praying about as we end our time together.
Dr. B: Right. I'll just reiterate what I've been saying for the last couple years. I believe God put on my heart [00:37:00] in 2020 right before the Covid 19 crisis, the epidemic occurred. And that is, I felt in my heart, and it's still valid today, that God is, is, has released in this day, great grace.
Great grace for true repentance and great deliverance in our. and I believe that offers valid. And I believe that we need to be focusing on our time with the Lord in prayer and allowing the Lord to search our hearts and give us that great grace so that we can experience and walk through true repentance and experience deliverance from whatever sins or issues that are holding us back.
That's where revival. And so that's my prayer and my declaration for the listening audience is that God loves you and there's a great grace that's been released. Take advantage of it. Get in your prayer closet and expect the [00:38:00] spirit of God. To show you things wherever you're at, God, here I am. Show me, be willing for the Holy Spirit to turn that light on in your, in the Attica your soul, the basement of your soul, and show you things and put his finger gently on things and ask for you to give that to the Lord and turn from it and expect great deliverance and God to move mightily in your.
and ex begin to experience the, the, the beginnings, the, the, the sparks of revival in your own life through repentance.
Tony: That's so good. I I love it. I love it. Dr. Bellini, thank you so much for taking the time to hop on here today. I know you're incredibly busy and I asked you super last minute, but I, I really wanted to give people kind of a historical and theological framework to think about this from.
That I knew that you could provide. So thank you so much for this and I, I can't wait to see what God does with the X seminar. Man, I'm just so thankful for Dr. Bellini's historical perspective, his theological training and [00:39:00] the work that he's doing in deliverance ministry. I think this is really important stuff.
So check out the X seminar in the show notes. Also be sure to follow Dr. Bellini on social media. The best way to make sure you don't miss the next time he is on the podcast is to hit that subscribe button wherever list of podcasts. Thank you guys so much for your willingness to be a part of this community and remember, If you wanna follow Jesus, you must be willing to move.
