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Seeking For True Revival
Thursday, June 11th, 2015 9:41am
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Are you looking for true revival, a renewing of your spirit through the power of God, and yet it's not coming?  That's probably for a reason.  Why?  Well, first off, revival isn't an event.  It's a transformation.  That's why your church can hold revival services, or you can have an old fashioned tent revival, and yet not have true revival.  Nor does real revival come on a schedule as you can't plan ahead for it.  Real revival comes when people's hearts are truly broken in repentance before God.  Then and only then can true revival come, as it is not an event, nor a "thing".

It is the willful transition of one's heart from prideful rebellion to abject humility, willfully casting off all things that are sinful, that encumber, and that hold you back from a full and proper relationship with God.  Even if the item is benign, and is not of itself sinful, if it puts a wedge between you and God, it then becomes just as evil and sinful to you as if you were partaking in the very sins of Sodom itself.

So if you're tired of "church as usual", or your spiritual life is sputtering, or even operating without any true power, and you want real revival, don't wait for the church or your community or anyone else to start things up.  Get down on your knees before God and start with yourself.  Approach the throne of God in true, whole, absolute humility and repentance for ALL your sins, both those of omission and commission, of association and disassociation (ie, you're not part of something God commands you to be part of, or it's something that puts a wedge between you and God, like your job for example), of pride, of religiosity, of self righteousness, and many more.

Remember, even our greatest works and deeds are as filthy rags before God.  Nothing we do, no matter how great or how good, is even remotely close to being acceptable before God.  That's because He doesn't want your works, or your house, or your car, or your money, or any of that.  He wants YOU.  It's a loving relationship He wants to have with you.  And if you don't have it your spiritual life becomes dead.  That is what revival aims to correct.  But you can't have revival until you give God your WHOLE heart.

That is where revival begins.  Remember, just because you're saved doesn't mean God has your whole heart.  It merely means you let Him in the front door of your heart.  He doesn't automatically take over when that happens.  He only takes control of what YOU give Him charge over.  So if you only give Him a chair by the front door and not the entire house, don't go and wonder why your life isn't much better as a Christian than in the world, or why the fire of your once wonderful walk with Him has seemingly died down to ashes.

You can't expect Him to stoke the fire in your fireplace if He's not allowed to get near the fireplace.  It's like the picture of the little girl and the teddy bear.  She was obsessed with the nasty, dirty, torn and tattered teddy bear in her hand, something most parents would probably have doused with gas upon first sight and set on fire for fear of it spreading the plague or some other more vile disease.  Yet she loved it to death and wouldn't let go or trust Jesus who said, "Give it to me, I have something better for you."  But the little girl insisted on keeping it, saying, "But I love it, Jesus.", not realizing that Jesus had a brand spanking new, never used, and considerably larger teddy bear behind his back that He wanted to give her.  But she first had to give up her old one to get the new one.

That's how our lives are.  We'd rather have that disease infested old teddy, just like that little girl, rather than the great big surprise teddy that Jesus will give us if we'll only give up the old one and trust Him.  We have to do that in our lives too.  We have to trust Jesus with the ENTIRE house of our hearts, and not just the front door.  We have to give Him EVERYTHING.  That includes every single corner of our hearts.  If we prefer instead to lock Him out of any rooms in our heart, hiding our sin in the blackness within, He is unable to bring true revival to our hearts, to bring us back to Him.

It's like a marriage relationship.  You can't have any intimacy or "fire" in your relationship if you live 20 miles apart and only see each other every third Wednesday.  That's not a marriage.  That's a contractual relationship.  Jesus doesn't want a contractual relationship with you.  He wants intimacy of the highest order; a relationship that supersedes all other relationships.  Not physical intimacy.  This is heart intimacy.  And that, even though it's not the singular thing that brings about revival is, along with humbleness and humility, just a few of the keys that will bring about the relationship all of us should have with our creator God.

Because, consider this.  ALL of us need revival.  Not just a few.  ALL.  Every single one of us every single day of our lives because, until we reach Heaven, our relationship with God will never be 100% of what it should be.  But nothing says we can't strive for that.  Sure, things of the world may draw us away.  However, that does not stop us from taking a little time each day, an hour or two if you can spare it, and spending time with God.  No matter how busy we are, we should always spend time with God.  And if we can't, then we're simply too busy.

We need to become unbusy, to become detached from the things of this world and attached to the things of God.  That is the first step in achieving true intimacy with God.  However, if you want revival, you will have to go beyond this, towards a radical seeking of God, of putting off the things of this world and seeking out God.  But even then it's not what we do that brings the fire of revival.  We merely prepare the hearth.  It's God who brings the fire.  But He can't bring the fire if we don't first provide that which is necessary to make the fire possible.

And it's in that moment, when the hearth is fully stacked with the "wood" of repentance and seeking of God, that the fire of revival will fall and set your life on fire in ways you can't even begin to imagine.  But you have to be willing to let God do that, or it'll be nothing but life as usual without a single drop of revival.

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