Originally posted 2/5/20
Revival. When you hear that word, what comes to mind? Once upon a time I thought of events like The Great Awakening that happened in the mid 1700s. This is a time when many people gave their lives to Jesus because of the work of evangelists. When friends would tell me they long for revival to come to our country, I would think about how great it would be to have so many people come to faith in Jesus. While that will be amazing, I think that perhaps revival needs to start with those of us who already have put faith in Jesus.
My youngest daughter’s favorite song at the moment is Revival Anthem by Rend Collective. We first discovered this song on YouTube. In their video they travel all around Ireland and Northern Ireland proclaiming that revival is coming to their land. As I was listening to this song, it occured to me that it is entirely plausible that our next revival will begin with the church. In fact it is my deep desire that revival comes to the church.
I feel like the Christian walk often looks something like this: We have an encounter with Jesus and surrender our life to him. For awhile we are excited about our new life and how much God has changed us. We are hungry for more. We spend time reading the Bible, even if we can’t understand all that we are reading. We don’t care, we just want to learn more about this God we now serve. We may even tell our friends and family about our new found Savior. Sadly, after time passes the newness of our relationship wanes. We may stop reading the Bible everyday, which may lead to only reading it on Sunday with the pastor. We stop investing in our relationship with Jesus because “we get busy.” The reality is we just don’t make time for him any longer.
I know that I have lived my life that way in the past. Learning new things about the character of God became routine. I still did things that Christians are supposed to do. I went to church on Sundays, I read my Bible (sometimes), and tried to pray when I could. I had my ticket to Heaven and that was enough. I allowed other relationships to take the time I used to spend getting to know more about God. Then something happened.
About two years ago my husband started going to Saturday morning prayer at our church. He invited me, but to be honest sleep was more important to me then. As the months went by, I started noticing changes in my husband. He started to get a hunger for more prayer. Then about 5 months in he came home with an amazing story. Long story short, he had a vision about something that he held onto because of fear. The Lord used that vision to teach him to surrender that fear to him. After that day, Brett had a sense of relief that I have never seen before. It wasn’t much longer after that when I began to go too. This was the beginning of a revival in our lives and our family. We have started not just praying, but also consuming information via books and sermons about our identity in Christ. It has changed our life! We now have a clearer view of ourselves and our purpose of living in this time and place. I have watched my husband become more confident in his ability to pray for people and talk to unbelievers about the amazing God he serves. I have discovered that God will partner with me in my writing, and I can use the written word to encourage others. It is the desire of my husband and myself that we will continue to grow into more of who we are in the eyes of Jesus each day.
I am sure that I could spend every second for the rest of my life, and all eternity after I die, to learn all there is to learn about who God is and who I am because he lives in me. This is something I intend on doing. The more I learn about God and the gifts he desires to give me, the more I want to spend time with him and accept these gifts. I have learned about ways that God has always talked to me, but I just didn’t recognize it. For example, I have always had very vivid dreams. Some dreams I can recall for years and years later. I have a few from my childhood that I still remember. One night I had a dream like that. As I was telling my dream to Brett, his eyes got big and he said, “This dream is from God. It means something.” He actually had been given the meaning of my dream before I had the dream. It was then that I realized that God sometimes talks to me in my dreams. Since then, every time I have a vivid dream like that I write it down. I will then ask God to tell me what it means. Sometimes he tells me the meaning and sometimes he doesn’t. One thing I have learned is that sometimes I need time and experience to happen before I can understand what my dreams mean. I believe if you will seek God, he will give you gifts like that too! They may be different than mine. You may have dreams, but they may come to you in a different way.
You see, the world doesn’t need another rule to follow. They don’t need another reason to feel guilty. They need to see a real reason to surrender to a God that they can’t use their senses to understand. When we live in the power that comes from the Holy Spirit, we look different to the world. They begin to wonder and ask questions about the God we serve. I have seen this exact thing happen with my husband. He comes home all the time with stories about how coworkers come to him and ask questions like “what is the Trinity?” or “what does born again mean?” He is able to answer these types of questions because he has spent time getting to know who the Holy Spirit is, and spends time each morning praying that the Holy Spirit will empower him to answer these difficult questions, and for the opportunity to have these questions asked.
If we want to lead others to salvation, we need to first nurture our relationship with The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Remember God wants a relationship with you more than he wants you to follow a bunch of rules. Think about what your marriage would look like if you talked to your husband as often as you talked to God. I know there was a time when my marriage would look pretty miserable if I did that. So I encourage you to begin today. Talk to your creator more than you did yesterday. You can start with just thanking him for all he has given you. I like to talk to him throughout my day, just like I would do with a friend. The more I talk to him, the more I can hear him talking back to me. It’s pretty amazing! I never want to go back to not hearing his voice everyday. So go talk to him, and then listen for him to respond back! If you need help with that, contact someone you trust who has a thriving relationship with Jesus and hears his voice. Ask them your questions, but most of all seek to hear him. He will make his voice known to you because you are his child and he loves you so very much! This will be the beginning of your own personal revival.
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