In our place, this moment that we live in, there is hopelessness and despair. There is danger and risk. There is anger and fear. We are daily inundated with the news of the latest number of COVID cases and losses. The unrest over racism simply fills the airwaves. The costs and the destruction. Politics overwhelms us. Hatred fills our streets and our video screens. And a good majority of us are addicted to social media and the evening news. Both of which fuel the fires. Had anyone said we would be in such a place a mere year ago, we would have never believed it. Yet, here we are.
Some see this as the last days coming rapidly into place. Such days have been happening since the time of Christ, but now we see how it could happen right here, right now. This has become a topic for Christians that is very hard to argue with.
The pain, the suffering, the injustice, the separation – these are all a part of us now. So in the midst of such a thing, how can we even consider revival? Yet we must. As hungry Christians, this should be a very strong thought for us. In fact, as people of God, revival should always be a topic we must invest in. To give our prayers to it to see it come again.
Revival has been on my mind for many, many years. I have experienced moments in the last 54 years that have forever shaped my thoughts on how God moves. We tend to look for something greater than our previous experiences. We are, in a way, supposed to. I look back at the things God has done that were full-on miracles. Some that happened instantly and some that took time. Literally things that happened that could not have been reproduced by mankind or orchestrated by him. These, most often, happened within some format of revival.
My wife and I began to search our area for people that were in revival. Like-minded individuals who were either leading a movement or, like us, hungry for one. We needed an outlet with more of God. More of His Presence. More fellowship with His people. A difficult thing to do in the middle of a shutdown. But this began well before anyone ever heard of COVID-19.
Our hunt was, for the most part, proving fruitless. It wasn’t because no one else in our city is hungry, it was because we were searching for something that wasn’t going to be discovered in someone else.
The word revival means to come back to life. I have personally associated it with a couple of different things over my life. When I was a kid, a revival meant that some big-time preacher was going to come to church and preach for several days consecutively. They often had music and other things like tapes and “merch”. For most of my young life, that was what I understood revival to mean.
As an adult, I saw that revival (through the Brownsville Church Outpouring) was a great, life, and community changing event. One that was not just a few nights of good preaching and great music, but something that God would use to change the world. I was never there, but I watched the videos, I listened to the sermons, and I was transformed by the worship music. In fact, this experience changed everything I thought I understood about God.
The latter is what I have been seeking. As I said, when we experience something wonderful that stands out to us, we will want more. I wanted something more. I still want something more.
But the truth that I wrestled with was that in the midst of all that is transpiring in my community and around the world, how is it possible to have such a thing happen now?
We sought God in several ways. We took our Bible Study, that God was using in a tremendous way, online back in December of 2019. We had no idea where God would take it, but He has used it to connect with a wide variety of beautiful people that we now call our family.
Through His revelation in this Bible Study and the connections we have made, I could see something. God began to show me what revival meant.
I know it has been said a thousand times, “God, send revival and start with me.” Bumper stickers, t-shirts, a million different memes. It’s been said in every way (and likely language) that can be imagined. It’s not enough, though.
The Lord asked me in my heart what revival meant. I saw that it means coming together, like-minded people that worship and hear God’s Word. He pointed out to me that having a desire to grow was, essentially, revival. The moment a person desires to go after God that means they are in revival. Being “revived”.
I was stunned. But only for a moment. I must admit I had some help in understanding this fact. I mean besides the download from God. It is vitally important to the Christians of today to have positive people feed into you! Even if it’s a podcast!
God initiated an awareness in me and my wife that we WERE in revival. We didn’t need to wait for someone who is leading something at a church or organization. His presence inside of us was doing all the work.
Having this new adumbration within us led us to a greater vision of God’s plans for us and our community. It led me to a sudden recognition that we had been so busy searching for revival that we didn’t see our job wasn’t to hunt for it, but, indeed, to spread it. Not to beat ourselves in the process of a quest on the matter, but to inaugurate the dispensing of it. The world is hungry for the revival inside of us, we must capitulate the mandate and broadcast this wonderful news.
In short, it’s time we live in revival (publicly) instead of just talking about it. Quit waiting for someone to point it out to you!
Featured Image by Mick Haupt on Unsplash
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