Revival - strange and sovereign work of God in which He visits His own people - restoring, reassuring, and releasing them into the fullness of His blessing.
On Tuesday I shared with you what I believe we need to see in the Southern Baptist Convention. Although I understand the thought process behind the "Great Commission Resurgence" - I'm afraid that we are getting the cart before the horse.
Psalm 127:1 says, "Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain."
Zechariah 1:3 the Lord tells Israel that if they will return to Him then He will return to them. Later on in 4:6 He says that it's "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit..."
My point in all of this is that true and genuine change doesn't come because we do something different. True and genuine change comes when we submit every aspect of our lives to God. We can focus on the Great Commission and still miss a Great Awakening!
Unfortunately, revival is a foreign thing to the people of God. We have heard about it, thought about it, prayed about it, and maybe even sought it. However, many of us have never EXPERIENCED it! We can list many reasons for this but I'm just going to share a few of them with you.
Reasons Why We Don't Experience Revival:
1) We Don't Think We Need It
- Someone has said that if the Holy Spirit was taken out of the average church that 95% of the programs would keep right on going.
2) We Really Don't Want It
- What will happen to our churches if God shows up? I'm afraid that we are much like the Pharisees and would simply be disturbed by the presence of God.
3) We Don't Believe It Can Happen Today
- It's very evident that most of our churches budget, plan, and operate as if God isn't going to do anything supernatural.
4) We Aren't Willing To Pay The Price To Get It
- Revival is not instantaneous, costless, or painless.
- Most churches want gain without pain, the joy of new life without the travail of labor pains, healing without surgery, joy without mourning, and the power of the resurrection without the agony of the cross. We want our schedules and programs to stay intact. We want minimum disruption of our plans or interferences with our traditions.
I'm sure that some people will think that I'm too hard on the church. Please understand my motive. I love the church. God's calling on my life is to shepherd the people of God. I still believe that at her worst the church is the Bride of Christ. However, we cannot expect great things from God unless we are willing to walk in the greater works of Christ.
I don't share these things with you because I believe they won't happen. The truth is that I am sharing them with you because I sense that the sleeping giant (the church) is starting to wake up! It's my prayer that the words that I type will simply serve to shake us out of our sleep and awaken us to the reality of what is going on.
May we see the strange and sovereign work of God in our generation. May He visit His people once again - restoring, reassuring, and releasing us into the fullness of His blessing.
2 comments:
To see God's face takes sacrifice. In the days of the temple, it was blood, repentance and more repentance. Today, the blood of Jesus has covered us but we have the wrong attitude. We think, "All I have to do is..... I prayed the prayer.... I attend... I give." The right attitude is, "I lay it all down. You have all of me. I will do whatever you want. How much more can I do Lord? Just tell me." When we can do this in our prayer closet and live it quietly, so as not to become proud of our commitment, but remain humble. We will begin the process of revival.
May the Lord be merciful and not give up on us.
Scripture tells us to rend our hearts and not our garments!
Revival has to start somewhere. Lord, let it start in me!"
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