Revival

In all my years of being a Christian, the word “Revival” is always been around but it seems to be a buzz word again these days. It’s easy as you serve the Lord for any length of time to become cynical as to whether you will experience a true revival or not, but I truly look forward to that day when I will be used and instrumental in revival.

In my early years of serving Jesus, there has been the Brownsville Revival, The Toronto Blessing and the incredible growth of David (Paul) Yonggi Cho’s church in Korea. Today Cho’s church has over 850,000 members and 500+ staff pastors. So what do these churches have that churches today don’t have? Why does it seem like only a handful of churches are moved upon in such a way? Why are there only a few “big” churches in the US and there seems to be so many struggling little churches?

I don’t believe there is a clear cut answer to the dilemma. I know over time people have tried to come up with patterns and structure for bringing a revival to their church which usually proved to be unsuccessful. It’s like we are saying to God, I’ve done everything on the list that the others did so now bring the revival. But it doesn’t happen that way. We cannot manipulate the Holy Spirit and bargain with him to be poured out on our lives and churches.

What I do know is that we need to be IMMERSED in the Holy Spirit. We need to be SATURATED in the presence of God. When we get to that point, then we will begin to see the moving of God on our lives like never before. What are we willing to sacrifice because it does cost? Men and women who have been used by God throughout the ages, whether you agree with who they are or not, God has bestowed his anointing on them because of their sacrifice for things of this world and to spend time in the presence of God. If you research the lives of men and women who have been used by God you will find they don’t watch television, they don’t spend hours on the internet and they have very little time for things other than God. They will spend eight hours seeking God in their “prayer” closets and spend time in the word allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and direct them. You’re probably saying there is no way I can spend a lot of time in the word each day because I have to work, etc. But when you add up all the time we spend in surfing the internet, watching television or talking on the telephone, you can probably add two or three hours per night. Satan has been so successful to distract us and get us to believe the lie, “I’m just so busy.” Well, if you expect to see revival to begin in your life and church, you have to pay the price. We cannot fake out God. He knows how much time we spend with him. Maybe people in our churches think we’re spiritual or if you’re a pastor, that you spend a lot of time in the Word and in the presence of God, but in fact, I know many people in the ministry that spend very little time with God because they are too busy and they can’t figure out why God isn’t moving. If you’re a leader of any type, you have a responsibility to spend time with God so you can provide direction to those under your leadership. People look to their leadership for direction and how to live and if we aren’t living out how to do it, they will never learn and we will never see revival in our people.

I want to encourage you to study the life of Peter. He was a great preacher and the reason for that is because he was a man of prayer which we can read in Acts 3:1 and Acts 10:9. Also in Acts 3:6 you read about Peter being aware of his anointing and he new the power of Jesus’ name (Acts 3:12, 16; 4:10). Because Peter spent time in the presence of God, he was used greatly and through his life and ministry thousands were added to the church daily.

Never give up on seeking for Revival in your life and church. Chose today to turn the television off, shut down the internet and spend more time in the word and in the presence of God and you will begin to see the power of God in your life.