If your definition of “revival” looks like God doing all the work while you sit around and watch him, what you’re looking for isn’t biblical. Revival isn’t reactionary; it’s responsive.
I hear the Lord speaking to my heart this morning: “Take up your courage, you Gideon believers. Your cries for me to move looks like a fleece thrown out in unbelief when the promise has already been given.” (Judges 6-8)
Genuine revival is contingent upon how we handle our responsibility. (Matthew 28) If we’re praying for revival and not renewing our minds with a desire to surrender and obey, revival isn’t what we’re after. (Romans 12) I dare say all we really want, in that case, is merely all the feels of falling in love again. Falling in love is wonderful, but returning to your first love won’t look or feel the same way you felt the first time. You can’t manipulate your way into manufacturing an experience that’s already happened. (Revelation 2)
Typically, your glory-to-glory won’t feel the same as before. If what God is working in you today is humility, and you’re striving for boldness, you will miss it. Sometimes, you’ll see Him in the fire, sometimes in the wind, but sometimes, you find Him on the bathroom floor.
Genuine revival, if we break it down scripturally, looks different from what I think most of us have been praying for. Revival should always be in us if the Spirit of God is alive in us. Christ in me, the hope of glory, is revival (Colossians 1). That’s radical. It should always be. Even on the most boring day of your life, the Holy Spirit in you… that’s miraculous.
True revival is for the lost.
It’s the dead who get revived in the Bible. They’re the ones who are asleep. Revival isn’t for Christians; it’s for the lost. Do we know Jesus, the life-giver, if we think we need revival to live? Revival is void of selfishness. It looks like faithfulness, preaching the gospel, praying for the sick, and asking God for the big things. Revival looks like YOU moving, fully alive, and stepping out in faith. It looks like broken believers crying out for the salvation of their enemies.
Revival isn’t about your church, denomination, or fellowship, your concept of what society should be, or what good culture should look like. It isn’t about what things look like on the outside.
In fact, we need to shut up already about the outside. The inside has been so neglected it no longer cares about the outside. It’s crying out for attention, feverish with infection. There shouldn’t ever be an inside and outside to the church, anyway. The church shouldn’t be closed off, yet we have restricted its access to the 4 walls of a locked church building. We’ve locked the gospel up, accessible only to able-bodied believers, just one or two days a week.
Matthew 13:44-46, 2 Corinthians 4:6-7, Matthew 19:21, Mark 10:21, Luke 12:16-21, 1 Timothy 6:17-19, Revelation 3:17,
The Bible says we’ve been given access to boldly approach God’s throne of grace. We can draw as near as we want to (James 4:8). We have been empowered to surrender. We need to uncover the gospel that’s been tucked away inside the four walls of the church.
Perhaps it’s because it’s shut up because of the walls we’ve erected in our hearts. Jesus opened a door so anyone could come, but we tend to naturally show favoritism to those who look, act, and think like us. We’ve given them the best seats in our hearts, churches, and communities. We’ve oppressed the poor in our self-righteousness. And we’re dumbfounded as to why they riot. Have we forgotten what the face of justice looks like? (James 1)
What would happen if we purposefully sought the low, narrow road, laid down our pride, and wholly surrendered a whole-hearted yes to God?
What would happen if the “Church” really got saved?
I see a Church with its manmade 4 walls leveled. I see the locks on the doors being thrown into the sea by faith. I see the curtain of pride torn in two, just like the veil was torn in the temple. I see repentant people rising up out of the ashes with hearts that burn for the lost. I see the 4 walls of the New Jerusalem built brick by brick with every ounce of the revelation of who God is imparted in the same place where strongholds of unbelief once stood. (Revelations 21, Psalm 24, Matthew 7, John 10, Luke 11)
I see a Church of many colors rising up as a refuge of safety to replace the politically focused, culturally crusading, Bible-thumping, legalistic, and self-righteous, suffocating chokehold the church has come to be.
When we run from the world instead of to it, we spread fake news as living, false advertisements for true holiness. Of course, it sounds scary to step out in faith, but it’s not about you.
An abundant life isn’t about having two cars in the driveway, the perfect job, home, or amount of money in your bank account. That’s rubbish. Having all of that might even prevent you from getting near the lost, poor, and broken. Think about it… you can’t see the lost saved if you’re not close to them.
Revival looks like a church running to the broken, who aren’t afraid of getting dirty.
You know I actually watched a “mature believer” once completely ignore a visitor at church because they didn’t want to get lice. Consider the cost of a bottle of lice shampoo to the price Jesus gave for their soul.
Revival is only advertised on church signs, it’s written on people’s hearts.
Sometimes it’s scary to get real with God, but ask Him if you’ve been sheltering or smothering the people around you with the message your life preaches. It’s scary because we can’t control how or when the Spirit moves. We can’t micromanage God the way we try to micromanage everything else in our lives.
Quit being afraid of dying in obedience and live dead, Christian!
Rise up, Gideon. You’re not designed to hide in a cave with limited provisions trying to just do your job and make wine. You have everything you need, so it’s time to stop throwing out fleeces and just move out!
Or you can stay where you are, Gideon. You’ll end up burying the one talent God gave you, believing God is just a hard and selfish master.
When the Master returns, will He find you’ve been faithful with what you’ve been given? (Matthew 24) Will He find you’ve been multiplying your talents? They won’t invest themselves. Revival won’t make you do something you’re not willing to do, it empowers you to be more than you can do on your own, for the sake of the Gospel.
Eventually, something will mess up your perfect little world. Someone will see you attempting to keep Jesus inside and will tear a hole in your roof to bring people in. (Mark 2) Let’s stop trying to entertain people who block people out from seeing into the perfect law of God written on our hearts.
When the Master returns, will He find faith on the earth?
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