Do You Want Revival
Forward
I’m pursuing revival because I believe it’s possible. God will do what he has promised, and if we ask, we will receive; if we seek, we will find; if we knock, the door will be opened. God is building his church, and it’s his will that we come to “…unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” This is our aim, it’s our destination, we’re on a journey to reach the fullness of Christ. We’re traveling through the valley of the shadow of death, and in this valley we tend to forget where we’re going. To be in the body is to be absent from God, and in this absence we aim for lesser goals, like retirement and vacations, and new cars, and bigger houses. Here, in the shadow of death we get choked out by the cares, worries, and pleasures of life. Even though we’ve been given a new, and living way, to enter into the presence of God, we forget. Even though we’re told to boldly come to the throne of grace to find help in our time of need, we forget. We forget to seek God, to our own peril, and it is often, when times are darkest, that we look up from the misery of our chaotic lives and cry out for God to save us.
Revival is found when we call on the Lord, when we turn from chasing our own desires, fix our eyes on Jesus, and follow him. Where are we going, what’s our destination, what’s the end of our faith that we pursue? We are called to be a living sacrifice, dying to our own desires as we pursue the heart of God. Jesus prayed that we could be one with him as he is one with the father. This is a call for unity. There has to be unity in the house of God because we claim that we’re all baptized into, and led by one Spirit. Seeking revival is seeking unity in the Spirit, because we are seeking his Spirit. Our aim is to love one another, as he has loved us, and this isn’t a work of the flesh, it’s the work of God. Unless God builds the house we labor in vain. We are called to be temples of his Spirit, and we must have him. So, if we want revival, we pray for God to give us his spirit. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. If we want freedom, we must seek the Lord.
We must experience revival or face Judgement. If we don’t have his spirit leading us, filling us, and bringing us into the light, then we’re just playing a religious game, but we can’t fake genuine Christianity. The love of God shines through us or we’re unaware that the light in us is darkness. The Pharisees were a very religious people, yet Jesus said they were of their father the devil. He warned them of their hypocrisy. He said, “You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” They didn't enter in. They had all the information, to bring them into the presents of God, but their motives weren’t right. Can we spend our lives attending church, but never enter in. There’s no greater love than that we give our lives for our friends. If we are walking in the love of God we will know who we are dying for, we will know who we’re living for. Do we only sacrifice for ourselves, to build our own kingdom, or are we looking to be part of the church that he is building? If we want revival we have to look for what God is doing, because Christianity isn’t about what we do for God, but rather, what he does in us. If we want revival we have to seek God himself.
We are called to be temples of the Holy Spirit. Can we call ourselves his church if we aren’t led by this Spirit? We love…because he first loved us. This is the essence of the church; a group of people, called by God, striving together to enter into his presence, because we have tasted and seen, and now we go to sell all that we own that we may obtain that which we seek. We strive to walk in the Spirit, through faith in Jesus Christ. I’m asking; do you want revival, because that’s what I am seeking. I’m on a journey, and my destination is the presence of God. I’m pressing in, by a new and living way, through knowledge of Jesus to partake in God’s divine nature. When he returns, I pray he finds us waiting, watching, and working—striving to enter into his kingdom. When we enter his presence we won’t be shocked or caught off guard, we’ll be jubilant because we will have finally reached our long sought after goal. I want to enter into his presence with a great host of brothers and sisters at my side, and hear him say, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”
If we are to walk in unity, we must walk in his Spirit. We must seek him. We must have him. We must seek revival. This is our destination, and I believe God is calling others on this journey; a group of people seeking the presence of God, striving to enter in, until we reach unity and the fullness of Christ through his Spirit. The church is the vehicle by which we will arrive at this destination. We need the body of Christ, fully equipped, each part doing its part, as we navigate through the valley of the shadow of death. We need his Spirit leading us to make it through.
Does the Spirit still speak? Then let the redeemed of the Lord say so. We are striving together toward the fullness of Christ, seeking this testimony, that we love him more than our own lives. We are pushing into the reality of His resurrection, because his kingdom is at hand, and the fields are white to the harvest. Are we experiencing power in Christ as we seek oneness with God through this new and living way? Does this message resonate in your heart? Do you want more? Do you want revival?
The big picture
When we read a book we get an omnipresent view, we can see the big picture. When Peter, at the trail of Jesus, denies he’s a disciple our hearts are grieved with God’s, because we see the whole story unfolding. We know Peter loves Jesus, but he doesn’t fully understand, and he finds himself in an isolated moment, surrounded by circumstances that push his faith away. We understand the fear that caused Peter to deny Christ, we’ve all been there, we all have our own moments when we lose sight of the big picture, and the pressures of this world bear down on us. Our circumstances become larger than our faith and we make a choice we immediately regret. We look back and wonder how we could have come to such a place, but at that moment we didn't see the big picture. To see the big picture we have to walk by faith and not by sight, but we forget. When we should be praying that we don’t enter into temptation we fall asleep, because we don't see that we are in the middle of a spiritual war for the souls of men.
We must trust that his word is true, and continually renew our minds to it, or we will fall short of the glory of God, and the fullness of Christ will seem impossible to obtain. Everyone who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him, but we can treat our faith as though it’s up to us. We try to mussel through, by sheer will power, until we learn for ourselves that our fight isn't with flesh and blood. We all will have to weep our own bitter tears. We all will have our own testimony of losing sight of the big picture, succumbing to the pressures of this world, and denying Christ. Like Israel in the wilderness, we’ll get lost in the monotony of the daily routine and try to save ourselves. We would try to collect more mana then we needed for the day, just like they did. We would have lied about Shara being our sister, just like Abraham did. We will all have our own stories of trying to save our own lives, instead of fully trusting God. We’ll get carried away by the cares, worries, and pleases of life. We’ll take our eyes off of Jesus. Instead of being a church, moving in the power, and leading, of the Holy Spirit, we become lukewarm and complacent. Instead of seeking God, we attend church, without entering in, and before we know it the symptoms of our spiritual poverty begin to affect our physical lives.
The nation that forgets God is turned into hell. As we look at the conditions around us in our world today most Christians would say the need for revival is greater than ever. The political divide in our nation is just a microcosm of the divide in the church. Clearly we’ve traded a living relationship with God for dead tradition. We’re tumbling blindly through the darkness in the complacency of a lukewarm faith, like Israel, wandering through the desert until that faithless generation died off. Our testimony is that we’re not going anywhere. We’re just walking in circles, doing what we’ve always done, while the world continues to grow darker. Do we long for more? Do we long for a faith that produces a victory in the darkness? We must either seek God Himself, or we risk drifting away. No one stands idle, faith calls us onward, and upward, towards our reward. We cannot fake genuine Christianity, we must experience revival or face certain Judgement.
It’s hard to see the big picture. It’s easy to get lost in the minutiae of life, and forget God. This is my story. It’s the story of finding the great treasure known to man, and going to sell all that I own. It’s a story of losing my way, and finding it again. It’s a story of staying focused. It’s a story of finding friends in the darkness to give my life for.
In the present moment we can get lost. We can get stuck. We can forget that we are on a journey of faith, passing through the valley of the shadow of death. We can forget that we have a destination. We can forget that we are in the middle of a spiritual war. We can be like those who hear the good news, but fall away. Many have lost their way on this journey. The road that leads to destruction is broad, and countless churches have lost their way. Their light has faded into darkness, and our nation hangs in the balance. If we want to save our country we must have revival. Revelation 12:11 Says, “They triumphed over (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” This is our story. This is our testimony. We can’t fake it. We cannot pretend to love one another. We either have the spring of living water, welling up within us, or we are trying to enter by some other way. If we will follow Him we must love Him more then we love ourselves. We must understand that “those who are forgiven much love much.” We’ve seen the light shining in the darkness. We’ve experienced his power, we know the joy of his salvation, and we give testimony to it.
The demons don't want to be driven out. They don’t want to let go of their strongholds. When Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow Him we don’t see the fight we are in for. We don’t realize that in order to be successful, we have to find our place in the Church He’s building. We have to pray and fast that we don’t fall into temptation. We don’t realize that the flesh is weak, and we forget, we fall asleep. We forget that we are in a spiritual war for the souls of men. We lose sight of the big picture, stagnation sets in, and before long our vision is only that everything is the way it has always been. The goal of the church is to reach maturity in Christ, but we can’t get there through our own wisdom. We need the Spirit of God to teach us and lead us into all truth.
If we don’t have a vision it’s because we aren't looking for what God is doing. When we have it figured out, we slip into autopilot mode. We’ve gotten used to doing our own thing, doing what we have always done. We forget that we’re going somewhere that we’ve never been, and to do that requires a vision from God. We must be able to see the next step he is asking us to take. We must have enough faith, to trust God, to take that step. Have we traded vision for tradition? Did God lead us into a peaceful meadow for us to retire and take our ease from toil? Is now the time to rest? Is this the place for us to lay down, and end our journey? Have we arrived at our destination? Is there nowhere else to go, and nothing else to do? Do we lack a vision for the future? Is it time to step out in faith? Do you want revival?
Does my life require faith?
We can attend church without seeking God, because it’s what we’ve always done. It can become our habit and we can forget that God has called us on a journey of faith. We can lose sight of the fact that God has prepared a work in advance for us. We can carry God’s name in vain. I know this because I’ve done it, and It’s why movies like, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and "Scrooge,” are so popular. We all have this propensity to forget. When we should fast and pray that we don’t fall into temptation we have a tendency to fall asleep, because the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. I have a motorhome with large mirrors that stick out on the sides just above eye level, and when walking around it I’ll hit my head at full stride. I’ve done it so often that I’ll place something on the ground, under the mirror, so I see it, and have to walk around the thing on the ground, because I know that I’ll forget what I don’t see. Out of sight is out of mind. It’s the same way with our spiritual lives, and to be in the body is to be absent from the Lord. This absence is seen from time to time when our carelessness leads to a blow to the head. As a nation we’ve experienced several of these blows over the last few years.
It’s easy for us to get wrapped up in what we’re doing, and we run along in the darkness until we smack into something, and it reminds us that we’ve taken our eyes off of Jesus. On 9/11/2001 the World Trade Center came crashing to the ground, and our country was devastated. In the aftermath of that attack, church attendance spiked by 25%. No doubt, people were reminded of how fragile and temporary life is. No doubt people were looking for answers, and comfort, but after just two months church attendance returned to the pre 9/11 levels. Why? Did we forget? Perhaps it's because the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, and these people just fell back asleep, or It could be that they came to our churches looking for the transcendent, but didn't find anything supernatural there. Perhaps the modern church has become like those Pharisees that Jesus warned because they didn’t enter in.
Somewhere in the mid 20th century America became a post Christian culture. As a nation we’ve been drifting away from biblical values, substituting a Judeao-Christian worldview for a secular one. We can look at the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and see the changes that took place. For many of us it’s part of our lived experience. We have seen, first hand, the assault on the word of God as it was removed from the public spear. The last few years have been the most eye opening. We’ve witnessed the covid debacle, the weaponization of government agencies engaging in lawfare, the rise of identity politics, and critical theory which further divides our nation. We’ve seen election interference, and outright corruption. We’ve seen the government using censorship to silence those who diverge from the approved narrative . For many Americans, conservative Christians, it was a wake up call. Why has God removed his hand of protection? The answer to that question is clearly laid out in the history of Israel found in the Old Testament. We’ve seen through the darkened glass and know how it will end. We were running along, living our lives, and we hit our heads pretty hard. All of a sudden it’s Gorge Orwell's 1984. The Ministry of Truth is a real place, and freedom– as it has been known in the west– seems to be on the verge of collapse.
Jesus said, “Can you discern the weather by looking at the sky, but you can’t perceive the times?” How did we get here? Hebrews 2:1 says,”We must pay the most careful attention to what we have heard so that we don’t drift away. Clearly the west has been drifting away for at least 70 years. The church in America is no different from those churches found in the book of Revelation. One of them had forgotten its first love, and God warned them that if they didn't go back and do the things they did at first, he would come and remove their light. What happens to a nation when the light goes out in the church? Is this what has been happening in America? We can look at the church in Germany during the 19930s, and we can look at the church here in America over the last 70 years. The Church has been content to let our secular society push us out of the public sphere. We stopped standing on the truth. We became fearful to speak, to say Merry Christmas. We traded speaking the truth in love for a coerced toleration. If we want to hold on to freedom, if we want to be a shining city on a hill, we have to stand on the truth. The Word of God says, where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. Is the Spirit of the Lord diserting America?
Scientists say that we can’t see the opportunities that present themselves, unless we are aiming at a specific goal. In other words, we don’t find what we’re not looking for, or as Wayne Gretsky said, you’ll miss every shot you don't take. Could it be that our nation has gotten to this place, because the church isn’t seeking God? Sure, we preach the Gospel, but is that the same thing as seeking God? Is the Spirit of God empowering the church? Is there a testimony of victory? I believe revival is possible because Jesus says in Matthew 7:7-8, “Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” 1 John 5:14-15 says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” Clearly, the burden of revival belongs to the church, because we are the ones who have the truth. We are the ones who claim to have seen the light. We’re the people who should have a vision from God, because God is leading us through the darkness. We’re going somewhere we have never been, and if we want to arrive at our destination we have to follow the Holy Spirit. We have to have a testimony of what God is doing, because we can’t get there on our own. Following tradition can’t get us there, traditions can’t sustain us. We must do more than the Pharisees. They attended church every week, studied the scriptures, and kept all the rules, but they didn’t enter in.
Are we seeking a relationship with God, through faith in Jesus Christ? Do we even know what that even looks like? I believe we must (Experience Power In Christ.) This is the EPIC journey of “The Church.” It’s the purpose of any church for all to know Jesus, experience his power, and be his image in this world. Our testimony isn’t that we attend church, it’s that we follow the Spirit of God. He is our teacher. Our testimony isn’t what we do for God, it’s what God is doing in us. This is why Timothy 4:16 says “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them because if you do you will save yourself and those who hear you.” Our lives are telling a story, but is that story about what God is doing? What is the testimony of the Church in America? What is the testimony of The Church in Grand Island? We live in a nation that is highly divided, politically. Do we find great unity in The Church, or is it equally divided? It seems obvious that revival must bring about unity, because we’re all baptized into the same Spirit, but is the Church, at Grand Island, united?
To seek revival is the same as seeking unity. Genuine love for one another. We don’t have to agree with one another's doctrinal positions, but we do have to love and care for one another. The church seems content to remain separated from one another, as though each ministry is doing its own thing, instead of being a work of God. Surely God looks down on his church, and sees it as a family of believers, but it seems that we are far from being what we know we should be, but we aren't even trying, and when someone does try, it is met with opposition. Faith comes by hearing the word of God, but just hearing isn’t enough, our hearing must be mixed with faith. I had known who God was, I went to church as a kid. I had believed His word, and I walked away. I came to a place where God was in none of my thoughts, and I forgot God. I have found that I need reminders to keep my focus on what is important, or I can drift away. We all can drift away, and so can the church. If churches drift away, so will the nation, and the nation that forgets God is turned into hell. In my lifetime I’ve never seen such a great need for revival. Will the church come together at this point in history, and stand with one voice to cry out to God for help in our time of need? Is the world more divided than ever because we have rejected the Spirit that brings unity?
Do you want revival
“Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story— those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.” -Psalms 107:2-3 NIV
I’m a recovering sinner, and my story is one of victory and failure, of ruinous doubt, and triumphant faith. It’s a story about finding the greatest treasure, and selling all that I own to obtain that treasure.. our story isn’t that we attend church, but that we are following God. Like Moses we have a destination, we have somewhere to go, we’ve got something to do, and God has promised to provide everything we need for this work. We are looking for God himself. The end of our faith is to stand face to face before Jesus Christ, and be as he is. Our greatest desire should be to enter into the presence of the Lord, as we strive to become one with Jesus as he is one with God. We find the presence of God when we confess Jesus Christ. How do we confess Christ? Just hold onto the truth.
I’m asking “The Church,” Do you want revival, because it’s the question I ask myself every day. I’ve made it my focus. Do I want revival? What does a person who really wants revival look like? What do they do, where do they go? What do they think? What relationships do they seek out? As I continue to pray and meditate on this question I see that there needs to be prayer, praise, and testimony in the church. Revelations 1:2 says, they overcame Satan by the power of the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, that they did not love their own lives so much as to shrink back from death. It’s time for the Church to rise up, to walk in the Spirit, and speak the truth in love. The church is the mechanism by which we grow in our faith to reach our full potential. Ephesians 4:11-16 NIV says “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
Each person has their work to do. We aren’t looking for a church to attend, we are looking for the church that God is building. He says “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interest but each of you to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:3) We are looking for what we can do for each other. God’s work requires God’s church. As I prayed and meditated I began to see a vision for a gathering of people who come together to pray for one another, and our city. A group of people that praise God for what he has done. A group of people, humbly sharing their testimony about what God is doing, and where he is leading. I called it EPIC, because Christianity isn’t about what we do for God, but what God is doing in us. It’s about — Experiencing Power In Christ. Are you part of a group that’s on a journey to enter into the presence of God?
If we are looking for opportunities to be used by the Holy Spirit, and are praying for him to open doors and give us wisdom, our life experience will be different. In one case we are Spirit led, and in the other we’re just doing our own thing. One is sowing to the spirit, the other is sowing to the desires of the flesh. Are we looking for the Spirit’s leading, or do we know how to get where we are going? Do we have a testimony of the power of God at work? If we are to look for the church that God is building we must be what God is building. We should look for what he is doing wherever we go, in whatever we do. If I want revival I have to look for the Spirit of God in the people around us. The church has no boundaries or limits, it is everywhere we go, it is everything that I do.
Do you want to be healed?
Jesus met a man one day sitting by a pool known to have healing powers. It was said that an Angel would stir the water, and the first person to enter the water would be healed, so a large group of people waited around this pool all day, every day, for the water to be disturbed. This man, let’s call him Rick, came to this pool every day. Jesus, seeing Rick there, and knowing he’d been coming to this place for a long time, asked him, “Do you want to be made well?” Can you imagine, if you were Rick, who’d been coming here for a long time, being asked that question? If he were sarcastic, maybe he would have replied, You see where I’m at, right. It’s sorta like asking people who attend church every Sunday, “Do you want revival?” Perhaps you’d say, "Well I’m here aren't I.” The fact that people go to church each Sunday, and Rick to the pool, seem to imply the desire for what’s offered there. Why would anyone go to church every week if they weren’t interested in growing deeper in their faith?
While I wish it was harder to find examples, there was a group called the Pharisees who went to synagogue (Old Testament church) every week, and in Matthew 23:13 Jesus said, ““Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” They were like people who stop in a doorway to have a conversation, they’re just in the way. These religious leaders thought they were worshiping God, but they weren’t. They were going through the motions. Like Rick, they came to the edge of what had the power to save them, but they didn’t go in.
Asking if Rick wanted to be made well, or a room full of people who come to Church every Sunday, if they want revival, is like asking people if they want to be successful? Who doesn’t want to succeed? Who would say no to that question? Unfortunately, what we say we want, and what we actually want, aren’t the same thing. If asked, people would say they want to be successful, and sincerely mean it, but how many of those people will make the necessary sacrifices needed to achieve their goal? Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father..” God isn’t interested in what we say, He’s in what we do. Jesus said a tree is known by its fruit, and He holds people to this same standard. Like those two children whose father asked them to come help in the field; one said I will go, but didn’t; the other said he wouldn’t go, but did, and Jesus asks, “which one did the will of his father?”
Saying we want something, and doing what’s necessary to achieve that goal are two different things. This is why the Bible warns against drawing near to God with our words, without examining what’s in our heart. We are called to watch our life and doctrine closely, because our actions, not our words, reveal our heart. Like Peter, we may think that we’re going to follow Jesus to the death,” but when faced with that decision we find that we choose to save ourselves. Life will reveal what our heart treasures most. Our spiritual reality will manifest itself in our physical life.
While I don’t believe a person can lose their salvation, because it can’t be earned, we do find these words of Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:2. “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.” In the parable of the sower and the seed, only one in four produced fruit, but all four heard the truth. We’re not saved because we uttered a prayer in the past, or joined a church, or gave some money to a good cause. The only assurance of salvation is activity believing in Jesus Christ, and if we think we can believe in Jesus without following Him we should reread the words of James, “Faith without works is dead.” We are admonished in Philippians 2:12 to work out our salvation in fear and trembling. Our salvation isn’t something that we should take for granted. Our work is to focus on Jesus, examining our lives to ensure that what we say we believe, and how we respond to life are the same thing.
As we walk through the trials of this life we will face circumstances in which we choose to deny Jesus. How do we deny Him? Sin is a transgression against the nature of God. We can dismiss sin as trivial; everyone is doing it, as unimportant, what difference does it make, or we can justify, minimize, and rationalize it. We can promise ourselves; this will be the last time, or whatever other nonsense we tell ourselves. So we go on denying Christ’s claim as Lord of our lives by doing our own thing, moving farther away from God. Romans 1:21 says, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”'
If we deny the light we the darkness grows larger.
The alternative to walking away from God is to feel remorse for denying Jesus, who suffered and died so that we could have light to follow. Do we love Jesus enough to turn away from the things He died to set us free from? We have to weep our own bitter tears of genuine repentance. We must choose to move toward Christ, taking up our cross and following him. The only alternative is to go back into the darkness that leads to death. If we stop short of following Christ we’re standing in the door. We can’t stand still. We either follow Christ onward, or fall into darkness. We might keep attending church for fifty years, but if we don’t do what Jesus told us to do fifty years ago, we haven’t gone anywhere.
If we don’t believe that we can fall into a lukewarm faith, we have missed the warning to make our calling and election sure. Jesus warns that there will be many that say, look at everything we did for you Jesus, and he will say, get outta here, I never knew you. Receiving the crown of life requires us to be faithful unto death. This isn’t church attendance, or good works, it’s faithfully following the living God as He leads us through the wilderness of personal sanctification. We can attend church every Sunday without being faithful to God, without wanting more of God, without knowing God and walking with Him. We can gather to sing Him praise without our words coming from a heart that actually worships Him.
The first time I went camping was with the Boy Scouts when I was twelve. We hiked a few miles to our campsite in a wooded area and set up our tents. I woke up the next morning freezing cold, and wet. I could hear the sound of large drops of rain striking my tent. I watched the shadow of the raindrop running down the rain cover. My tent wasn’t leaking. The rain had stopped, except for the large drops that gathered and fell intermittently from the trees overhead. My tent was in a slight depression and water had pooled up under me, soaking my sleeping bag. I unzipped it a little and when I felt the cold fall air on my wet body, I quickly zipped the soggy bag back up. I was cold, but I wasn’t that cold. I layed there for a long time, longer than I should have, knowing that I had dry clothes in my backpack, but also knowing how cold, and difficult, it would be to take off my wet clothes. Life was going to get worse before it got better. Temporarily, I was stuck, I knew what I needed to do. I knew I couldn’t stay where I was, but moving forward seemed worse than staying where I was.
Sometimes, we lay in our own dysfunction because it seems easier than changing. Fear can keep us from taking the step of faith that God requires of us. He calls us to walk by faith, not by sight. Is God convicting you of something that needs to change; a relationship, a habit, or some form of dependency, or addiction; but you can’t let go of it to do it God’s way, because it seems easier staying where you’re at, then it does to change. Maybe we can only see what we will lose, and what it will cost, but if we are going to hold onto Christ we have let go of all that holds us back from following Him.
We are on a journey of faith and there’s no standing still. There are no spectators in the church that God is building. God is leading us to a promised land, He is preparing us for Himself. We can’t get to the place God wants to take us if we’re standing in the door, afraid to take the next step. The social scientists say that, “people change when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing.” But I like how Samuel Chand says it. “The Father invites us to come into the light. But we’re reluctant. We resist the exposure because we’re afraid the guilt will be too much for us. This is the truth: we won’t ever fully come into the light until we are convinced that the pain of staying in the dark is worse than the fear of being exposed by the light.”
So how painful does it have to get? How long do we have to lay in our wet sleeping bag before we say, I’ve had enough? I don’t want to keep going this way because it’s never going to get better until I take that step of faith. We can lay there so long that we forget that we’re miserable, forget that we’re on a journey, and our complacency becomes normal. We keep going to church every Sunday, but spiritually we’re not going anywhere. We’re not growing, we’re not moving, we’re not a light in the darkness. The purpose of life isn’t to be comfortable, we are in a war, we are going through a crucible. 1 Peter 1:6-7 says “…for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” We are on a journey to another place, we are striving toward a goal of standing face to face with Jesus Christ. We are moving in anticipation of His coming, but If we aren’t careful, we can forget why we’re attending church, we can get comfortable in our discomfort, and when Jesus comes He won’t find the Church anticipating His return. It will be as it was in the days of Noah.
Taking the step of faith that God is calling you to take can appear to be more painful than staying where we are. Healing would have radically transformed Rick’s life; if he were healed he’d have to give up his routine, he’d have to get a job and provide for himself. He wouldn’t be able to hang out at the pool all day with all his friends. Is it more comfortable living the life we’re used to, then it is to give up our security and comfort, and step into the unknown? We like predictability. By repetition we learn to be self-reliant. Doing the same thing we’ve always done doesn’t require faith, it’s muscle memory. Doing what has always been done is just tradition. God doesn’t call us to follow traditions, he calls us to follow Him, the Living God. This requires faith. It requires us to trust God for the outcome. It requires us to believe that He is, and that He rewards us when we diligently seek Him. Was it easier for Rick to give up the hope of being made well, because a healed life seemed harder than what he had going on? He didn’t give up coming to the pool everyday, and he didn’t bring anyone to put him in the water. He was going through the motions of a hopeless endeavor, without any intention of changing, and seemed perfectly content to go on this way. He had settled into his routine. He had no expectations of being healed, but he kept going, because that was his life.
Change may mean leaving behind friends that you can’t imagine living without. If though those friends are holding you back from the journey God is calling you to, you can’t afford to stay. Peter tried to convince Jesus that He should never die, and Jesus said "get behind me Satan.” You will have loved ones, who out of genuine concern will try to convince you not to do whatever it is that God has told you to do. “A man's enemies will be those of his own household.” we’ve heard all the excuses people give; our situation is different, if we get married it will mess up our social security income. Yes, we can choose money over God, and keep on trying to save our own lives, but if we want to follow Jesus, we will have to do it His way. It’s not worth hearing Jesus say, I never knew you. If you want to know Jesus, you have to take up your cross and follow Him. The longer we stay in a place that God has called us out of, the longer we justify it, and rationalize it, the harder it will be to move on. We will become lukewarm, spiritually stagnant, dead churches. Stepping out in faith to follow Jesus comes at a cost, and we have to decide, “Is it worth it?” Is it worth everything, because that is what it costs. We must sell all that we own. We must be willing to die. Like Rick, we can keep showing up, without having any expectation of what God will do. We can go to church every Sunday, expecting what we experienced all the Sundays before, because we follow the traditions of men, instead of the Spirit of God. If we aren’t living by faith, we’ve chosen complacency. When all we expect is our past experience, we’ve stopped living in expectation of the power of God. We’ve become like those Pharisees, standing in the door.
Jesus asks Rick, “Do you want to be made well?” He responded by saying, “I have no one to put me in the water, so someone else always enters in ahead of me.” When we’re asked if we want revival, what’s our response? What’s the first thing that comes to mind? Was it an excuse, or do we just say yes? Jesus tells us to “let our yes be yes and our no be no. Anything more comes from the evil one.” It’s interesting that Rick didn’t just say “Yes.” But what did we say? Are there prerequisites that lay beyond our control? Sure revival would be nice, but… Did we just say yes, without hesitation? Rick had an excuse. He had a reason, a justification, for why he couldn’t experience the supernatural work of God. Maybe, we think we aren’t good enough to deserve revival; I don’t pray enough, I don’t read my Bible enough, I don’t meditate enough. While these things are great, I can’t help but hearing the words of Paul to the Galatians; “who has bewitched you, that after beginning by faith you are now trying to earn it by works of the flesh?” Do our lives require faith? Do we justify the absence of God’s presence, power, and leading as the normal Christian experience? Rick sat within feet of what had the power to heal him, yet he believed—with his whole heart—that he would never be healed. He wasn’t even trying. Healing was for others, but not for him. He sat on the back row, believing God still performs miracles—for others. He said he lacked the human resources that he needed for healing. I’m sure we do this too; we look for flesh and blood to save us, but our battle isn’t with flesh and blood, we need the Spirit of the living God.
How it began
In 2017 I made a commitment to pray—every day—for revival, with my whole heart. This came about as I saw the state of the world around me, and I began to wonder how bad it could get. I also realized how unimportant the things I asked for were. I prayed for a good night's sleep, energy to face the next day, enough money to pay my bills. I prayed for God’s blessings on my life, which stemed from a general desire for ease, but is it God's will that we have an easy (Blessed) life? With all these thoughts swirling in my mind I began to ask God to give me a desire for revival, a real hunger and thirst for His kingdom, a burden for lost souls. What you are reading is an accounting of what is happening as I commit to seek God with my whole heart, and to ask God for the most important thing.
I believe God will give us anything we ask for that is in line with his will,(1 John 5:14-15) so I wondered why I neglect to ask for really big, and really important things? Why did it take so long for me to start praying for Him to pour out His Spirit, and to bring dead bones back to life? Why didn't I ask for important things? We can look at history and see that as a nation we are on a steady decline, moving farther and farther away from God. We know that living apart from God produces incredible pain, death, and destruction. Collectively, we stand together as the Church, at the gates of hell, to offer hope to those who need a doctor, but if we take our eyes off of Jesus we offer no more hope than those Pharisees that Jesus warned about standing in the door. They didn’t enter in, nor did they allow others to enter who were trying to. If we, the church, take our eyes off of Jesus, then we are the same as those Pharisees, and those that need hope and healing won’t find the light of life in the church.
I wondered why it took me so long, but it's easy to forget we have an enemy who's always looking for a foothold in our lives. It's easy to forget that we are in the middle of an epic battle between good and evil, living under a curse, in a fallen world on the brink of destruction. In the last days, due to the increase of wickedness, the love of many will grow cold. That’s the destination we are heading towards. This world is always moving towards that end. It’s always cooling, and moving toward greater entropy, and from where we stand we can see how much time has passed. Perhaps we can look back and see the high point of our own civilization, as it embraced Christianity and walked in the light of the gospel, and mark the spot at which our decline began? Can we see how, at different periods in history, revivals have come and gone, and for a brief time the gospel preserved this rotting world?
The church is called to preserve the world, the way salt keeps meat from spoiling. We are to keep the world, around us, from rotting away. When salt loses its ability to preserve, it no longer holds back the rotting putrefaction, when the salt doesn’t do its job, it’s good for nothing, and this proof is found in the world around us. We are called to spur one another on, to love and good deeds, and all the more as we see the day approaching. This is my attempt to spur on the Church and remind her of our high calling. The only way the world will know God sent Jesus is by our love for one another. It’s up to us to display the power of God at work in us as we surrender to His call and the leading of the Holy Spirit. The older we get, the more we should see this day approaching, but sadly it will come upon many unaware. There is a hardness of heart, and a complacency that holds many captive in the darkness. As the world grows darker, and colder, we must understand that the light the world desperately needs must shines through the church; though you and me. If the world grows cold, is it because the church has taken its eyes off the prize.
What’s most important?
I came to Christ in my mid 20s. I had grown up in church, and had believed in Jesus, but through my teen years I walked away. I re-surrendered to God at 24, after trying to find my own happiness. I had lived a life seeking what I thought would make me happy, but it only left me empty. After turning back to God I began praying diligently for a wife. It’s what I wanted above all else. It was my highest priority, it was the most important thing to me. I thought, if I had someone, I would be happy. I was still looking for happiness in, and through, other people. I was still looking for people to make me happy, and satisfy my needs, but I thought I was trying to do it according to God’s will. So, I prayed every day, pouring out all the desires of my heart to God. I pleaded with God, and daily reminded him that it’s not good for a man to be alone. I wrote daily in my journal as I prayed for my wife to be. Then, after almost two years of constant pleading—God spoke to me.
Romans 8:26 says, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”
The Spirit speaks to us through wordless groanings. It appears to me now that if I want to hear what God has to say… I must listen very carefully. I must be still. God is trying to communicate with us, but we’re hard headed, stiff necked, and dull of hearing. We want what we think is best and we believe God should do whatever we ask. One night, as I was praying for a wife, the Holy Spirit brought conviction to my heart through that wordless groaning. As I was praying, I heard, or sensed or something, that I should, "Start praying you will be a good husband.” After praying for almost two years God spoke to me, and his words cut like a knife through the wall of hypocrisy I had erected. Though I had completely surrendered my life to follow Jesus, I was still the same old me. I was a better version of myself, but still motivated by those old prideful desires. I was born again, but there was plenty of the old man left in me. The root of pride runs deep, and its uprooting is an arduous journey. Like Peter telling Jesus that he would never die, I couldn’t see how my desires, though good, were tempered by the pride of Satan. Though I was following God and seeking his will, I was still looking for what I could receive, instead of what I could give. I knew that, “it’s more blessed to give than it is to receive” but I didn’t see that in my desires. I wanted a wife, because I thought that would make me happy. As of that moment, I started praying about what I could offer a wife, and I learned a valuable lesson about prayer. We should pray until we get an answer, until we hear clearly the groanings of the Spirit.
God wants to give us the desires of our hearts, but we must not ask for things to consume for our own pleasure. (James 4:3) Jesus wouldn’t turn stone to bread to satisfy his own hunger and neither should we. Using God's power to satisfy our own desire is following Satan, not Christ. But, If we continue to pray, even if it’s to satisfy our own desires, God will reveal this to us. So we should pray, without ceasing, for whatever our heart desires, and if our motivation is wrong God will show us. This is evidence that we walk with God. He doesn’t tell us what we want to hear, he tells us what we need to hear.
As of 2023 I’ve been married for 17 years, and I’m turning 50 this year. Getting older has led me to think about how I spend my time, and if I’m focusing on what’s most important. I remembered how diligently I had prayed for a wife (a good thing in and of itself) and how God had answered that prayer (as selfish as it was). Surely there was something bigger, better, and more important, that I should be diligently seeking through committed prayer. John 14:13-14 says “ …I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” How can we take such a great promise for granted? How could I, some day, arrive in His heavenly kingdom with having only asked for a good night's sleep? Do we ask for things of eternal value? Do our prayers refect that we truly understand our present situation, as God says it is?
Of course I pray for my kids, my church, the sick and lost, but is there something better to pray for? What is the best, and highest, thing that I could ask for? Solomon had been told to ask for anything and he was praised by God because he asked for wisdom. Surely we need wisdom to know what we should ask for. Is there anything higher or greater than wisdom? I wonder if I had prayed for wisdom, instead of praying for a wife, would I have arrived at the same end, but sooner? However, in my selfish desire, God still gave me wisdom. 1 Corinthians 13:8 says, “Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.” Had I been operating from love, my desire for a wife would lead me first to pray for what I could give, rather than what I would receive.
After much thought, prayer, and meditation I landed on revival. The world is a mess and it only seems to be getting worse. The only thing that can save this world is the reviving, life giving, Spirit of God. Do we have not, because we ask not? (James 2:2) I’m shocked at the level of blindness of heart within me. Though I prayed for a wife for years, I had hardly ever prayed for anything of real importance...and I didn't realy desire the way I had desired a wife. By that I mean, praying for something that benefits others, the same way I pray for my greatest desire. Maybe I prayed sporadically at best, but not with that same commitment, and fever, I had when it was something I wanted. I wonder if we are so used to living in moral failure that we don’t believe spiritual renewal is possible, or having never seen it we aren't aware of what can exist. It’s easy to think this world will never change, that people will never change, because thats our experience, but we fail to see that we are judged by our own beliefs. (Matt 7:2) Are we so defeated that we fail to see the keys to the kingdom are in our hands, that whatever we bind here is bound in heaven, and what ever we lose here is losed in heaven? Do we forget that the key which can open any door hangs around our neck?
Love does not think about what others can do for it, love only thinks about what it can give. All God has ever done is give! He is a spring of living water that wants to well up within us, and overflow us, that we may be a blessing to others. Only people who have the Spirit of God can give, because they have what never runs out. The more we give of ourselves to the world around us, the more we experience God pouring into us and working through us. Does our attitude align with Love's sovereign rule? I didn’t see it until God opened my eyes, and still I didn’t realize the full scope of it. We see through a glass darkly. Our own pride dims our sight, and colors our perceptions. We must see if the light that is in us is darkness, how great is that darkness? It is The Holy Spirit that illuminates the thoughts and intent of the heart, so we must turn to him. We must see how we are being illuminated by His Spirit.
After many months of praying for revival, God intervened in my view of the world. I thought the world needed revival, because it was so dark, but where would the world find the light that brings revival if it doesn’t shine through the church? I realized, slower than I should have, that I needed to pray for my own revival, and the revival of the Church. The world has no light except that which shines out of the church. If the church loses its light, it is not because the world took it away. No one can take it from us, but we can quench the Spirit, we can forfeit our inheritance, we can choose to walk in darkness.
If there is to be revival it must come from those who have the Spirit of God living in them. Again, I was looking for God to give me something that would make my life better, instead of thinking about what I could give to him, to make the world better. God so loved the world that he gave his only son. If we will have Jesus, we must take up our cross and follow him. There is no greater love than this, that we give our lives for our friends. Who, and or what, are we dying for? Is it our own happiness and pleasures, or do we lay down our lives for the joy set before us, to see many sons and daughters brought into the kingdom of heaven?
Judgment must begin in the Church—the Lord’s house—because the carnal mind cannot comprehend the things of God. We want those who can’t see nor hear God to come to Him, but the only way that will happen is if they see Him in us. Those who hear his voice must make the choice, and the effort to enter in. Jesus is the door that is open before us. He says, today, if we hear his voice, and don’t harden our hearts, we can enter. If we stand complacently in the door, not entering in, then we hinder others from coming in, and we’re just in the way. Revival is not for the world, it’s for the Church. As I continued to pray I came to realize that there’s nothing I can do to change the world, or the church, I can only change me. As I looked at my first love, I heard him saying, go back and do the things that you did at first.