Make Revival Happen (Part One)

“When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’ Jesus replied, ‘Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor’ (Matthew 11:2-5)”

Isn’t this what should happen daily in our lives? In our case it would include spiritual and emotional illness as well. Is revival an outpouring of God’s Spirit for the sake of our excitement during church services, or for the healing of our world?

For a season my spiritual life has sunk very low. I’ve shared about the idols in my life in an earlier posting. During this time of sin I’ve pleaded the Lord to miraculously remove these temptations from me. He didn’t, but instead guided me towards a decision to do something about them. I had to come to a point where I stop pleasing the carnal nature and seek God righteousness. Once I consciously removed all that is not of God from my life and started to do His will again, revival started to kick in.

The Bible is loaded with instructions what to do. I believe true revival will come when the church starts getting rid of sin and idols in her life and start doing that which exalt Jesus. If we do God’s will during the week, seeing Him in action, and every Sunday we testify about the greatness of God who worked with and through us, would we not enter worship with a totally different attitude?

Would we not have reason to praise God, and would our minds not be filled constantly with those good works we saw the Lord doing? Would others, who may be young Christians or who have grown cold and passive, not be motivated to follow suit? If a prophecy or interpretation of tongues was brought, would we not listen to it with the intention to act on it, expecting the Lord to give us guidance as to what to do next?

Is this not the way to start a revival instead of waiting endlessly for the Lord to do something? A child waits on his dad to do something about the problem, but a mature person applies what his dad taught him and does something about it himself.

What does revival mean? If you want to revive a neglected business, you want to restore it back to its former glory. Waiting for the manager to do something wouldn’t accomplish your goal. His task would be guiding the revival process, but the revival would take hard work from each employee. For the church to revive to its former Book-of-Acts glory will take faith and consistent applying of God’s will from every disciple under the Holy Spirit’s direction.

Jesus lived in constant revival, didn’t He? Did He only lead worship and preached, waiting for the Holy Spirit to fall on them? No He glorified God the Father by hearing from Him what to do and then applied it. Miracles happened and God got glorified.

“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven (Matthew 5:16).” This is the essence of living in the Lord’s glory, towards which we strive to be revived to.