I Have No Idea

Believers the world over have experienced revival and contemplated how they came to such a place.  Others wonder how they can find the place of revival in their life.  Most sermons analyze thoughts from selected passages how to have or conjure-up revival.  Admit-tingly few of those who articulated such rhetoric  experience revival for themselves.  Today I was pondering on the revival I believe our church is experiencing.  It seems the Spirit is directing me into discerning our present situation.  These promptings are surely not just for this blog, but also for me to have a level head when approaching the subject.

Have you been told to abandon all stress and come to God before you can experience revival?  Well, our office situation is not conducive for effective communication; our staff schedule is pounding on the Pastor; the present phase of our campus expansion is behind schedule (humanly speaking); the next two phases in our plan need more prayer than we are giving to it; we need serious overhaul in some areas of our children’s ministry; we are not reaching people at the rate we should be (in my opinion).  This is the minimal and mostly logistical objects on my plate at present.  The care of the saints burden me most all day and now nights.  To say I am qualified to write the blog “Chill Out And Serve” is a laughable joke.  One thing that seems to be on the uptick is those who are being reached, are for the most part, included into Bible studies for follow-up and a surprising number have surrendered to ongoing discipleship.  As the list demonstrates above, I am convinced that nearly all of the information about revival is completely being destroyed by what I see happening before me.  Most of our present situation is not conducive to revival.  Why then are we experiencing it?  Some would say we are finally in it, others like myself would say we have been in it for some time now.  What is the key then?  I have no idea.  I see clues, which are subjective because they are my observations.  Allow me to yield them to you.

One is a willing heart.  You have to really be on your last leg and wanting it badly.  You must be broken.  You must crave Him more than anything else.  No man-made principle or manufactured list will ever compensate for a contrite heart.  I personally want Him bad!  I want to walk off from my sin and I want to be closer.  To say I am in over my head is a gross understatement.  No amount of planning, meetings, discussions, thought pondering books, advice or stern counsel will compensate for simply falling apart and seeking God on a deeper and more personal level.  If asked, I think you need to run to Him quickly with empty hands and a heavy heart.  Maybe the controlled chaos has driven me there.  Maybe God has been preparing the situations just right for me to be broken and desiring of Him more than my ideas.  My ideas do not work anymore anyway.  I feel driven to meekness.  I feel driven to brokenness.  I feel driven to my face before the Lord.

Another is a clear roadway.  Too much clutter.  We have a church system today in most churches where we are heavy on tradition for tradition sake.  Too many things occupy our time.  I do not mean just within the confines of church schedules with meetings and worship times.  I also take into account the individual’s schedule.  Society (the Devil) has told us our kids will be damaged if they aren’t allowed to be involved in 14 activities a week.  In so doing we have created an environment of busyness.  Busy until we sleep then we get up and do it all over again.  I come from a long line of hard workers.  If there is a chance to go to work and work hard then I usually drop what else I am doing and jump in.  Work-a-holic is a more accurate term I suppose.  So I know what it means to feel the tension within to be busy and if not then you should at least look busy out of personal guilt.  These activities clutter our schedule but also our spirit and mind.  It is dangerous to have such clutter in our schedules to the point our mind and spirit is effected.  In fact Psalm 46.10 says- “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”  What space does the Holy Spirit have when we have made up our minds and our schedules before He has a chance to say anything?  Maybe this isn’t you the reader, but it is me the sinner saying, “If the Lord isn’t pleased He knows how to stop me.”  Do you not see the danger in that?  Also the spiritually unhealthy life it develops?  We are to be LED by the Spirit (Romans 8.14- For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”).  How can one be led when they have everything all planned out?  How then can a church experience a Holy Ghost induced revival without being led by Him in the first place?  I feel with ever fiber in my body this is the way to go.  As 21st century believers we can and must clear our roadways.  Take away all the extra and make this as easy as possible to hear and be led by the Holy Spirit who brings the revival in the first place.

Last, make a straight highway.  Even though it is a clear roadway, it needs to be developed into a highway and a straight one at that.  The prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 40.3 said- “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”  He is speaking of John the Baptist as a forerunner who made a straight path for the Messiah.  We too need to do this in our churches.  The observation is simply:  when we decluttered we grew; when we made things more simple and defined we grew.  So, this seems to be an avenue toward revival.  To prepare the way of the Lord requires, well, preparation.  We need to prepare for what we expect Him to do.  He wants us to have revival and we want it to, don’t we?  The question is, How much revival do you want?  Do you want a life-altering never going back experience?  Then you need to prepare for that.  Widen the road to a highway to allow for that level of God-sized revival to show up.

Last and I believe foremost: We must keep trash off the highway.  We traveled into the city yesterday and on the way I flagged down a truck driver who had blown a tire out on his trailer.  He had no idea it had happened.  After I got his attention he immediately put on his hazard lights and slowed down.  Why?  He knew the cost of the windshield or paint job, worse yet, a life if he had not pulled over.  Once the highway is in place you need to deal with the obvious hold back to Holy Spirit led revival: unconfessed sin.  Proverbs 16.17 says- “The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul.”  To ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit’s conviction is to commit sin in the first degree.  We quench Him (1 Thessalonians 5.19) thereby grieving Him (Ephesians 4.30).  This is a relationship that needs reviving, so don’t cut off and offend the source of your revival.

I could go on but my observations are limited because of human limitations.  I have no idea how to get revival.   Maybe it would be best to ask the Lord who is infinitely unlimited and desires revival in our loves more than we can possibly imagine.  Is the Lord working on you today?  He could be sending trials your way.  He doesn’t send them to watch how you deal with it, He sends them to show you how He will deal with it.  Allow Him that space.  This is, in my opinion, a good starting point to revival.