Maybe you’re like me — have you heard a lot about revival and the need for a revival but never really looked into it? It can be so easy to be in a community and Christian culture that promotes and proclaims revival and just go with the flow. You can end up following the crowd and not know whether you are following Jesus. So, is all this hype about revival just a bunch of tripe or is it something we really should know something about?
Revivals have been part of God’s plan through the centuries. The need for it isn’t because God overexerts Himself and needs a break now and then. God is tireless and all-powerful — we are the ones who have to wait on the Lord and have our strength renewed (Is. 40:28-31). Revival is bringing to life again that which has diminished in life. Knowing how we can let the flame of our passion for God lessen, God seeks to revive us (Rev. 3:15,19). He has not shrunk within us (how can you shrink the infinite God?) but, rather, we have shrunk in allowing His life to flow through us.
The Church sprang onto the scene in revival. The Church was birthed immediately following Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus breathed on His disciples and said “receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn. 20:22) beginning the Church. Revival is not necessary for people to become saved. People are still accepting Jesus as their Lord and Saviour daily, all over the world, without revivals present. Revival is God’s empowerment of the Church for radical expression of His presence and expansion of His Kingdom. This is why Jesus said they needed to wait in Jerusalem for the promised Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49). Faced with persecution, it was not long before the early church was crying for revival and received it (Acts 4:23-31).
Dr. Andrew Bonar is reported to have stated in the 1800's: "Viewed on the human side, the philosophy of revivals, as they term it, is just a department of the philosophy of history. In religion has progress been uniformly steady and gradual, but as it has been now and then by great strides, by fits and starts, and such events as the Germans call epoch-making. In all the affairs of men there have been tides with full floods. ... We are all familiar with revivals in trade, science, literature, arts and politics. Times of refreshing are not much more frequent in sacred as in secular history; and they indicate the most interestinfruitful periods in both."
Revival is part of God's plan. I'm so glad we're getting with this part of God's plan in fasting and prayer this year.
Blessings,
Merril
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