Revival and Awakening!

I started blogging an answer for a question from a reader, well, because that's what I do on Fridays, right!?!   This is what came to my heart instead.  It is a little longer than my usual post, but the Holy Spirit just poured something into me.  I put it in print.  God is good!  "I will praise You, Oh God, among the nations!  I will sing of you among the people!  For great is your Love reaching to the Heavens.  Your faithfulness reaches to the sky.  Be exalted, Oh God, above the Heavens!  LET YOUR GLORY BE OVER ALL THE EARTH!"  (Ps.57)

 

Revival and Awakening are two of the most popular Christian clichés used in the church right now.  They are just about as common as the words born again or Sunday school.  Clichés church people use to try to look important to other churches.  Revivals are scheduled in man’s time, Sunday through Wednesday at 7, and hope God will show up on His time.  Pastors and youth pastors are announcing from pulpits and podiums that this generation is the beginning of a great Awakening, or that we just came out of the age of The Great Awakening. So which is it?  What’s funny is that most of us have a little idea of what these two words mean but don’t fully understand how or when Revival or Awakening happens. We pray for it. We talk about it happening. Shouldn’t we know what to expect when it gets here!

The Webster Dictionary defines the two words this way.

Revival: the act of reviving, the state of being revived, a new presentation of something old, restoration of force, validity or effect.

Awakening: to cease sleeping, to become active again.

So let’s imagine we’re praying this. Dear God, please do the act of reviving, send a New presentation of something old, give us a restoration of force, validity, and effect as the Church of the Living God.  Let this be a time to cease sleeping and become active again.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.  Now that’s a power packed prayer in about 2 sentences! And it ends with a powerful stamp or seal, The Name of Jesus. 

How many times do you think God has heard this prayer? Countless, endless amounts. (I can imagine God feeling like a mother with small kids following her around saying, “Momma, Momma, Momma can you do this, Momma can you do that? AHHH... LOL)  It seems though when he sends it and it doesn’t look like what we think it should or happen how WE would plan it, we ask Him again hoping He’ll send something else.  These words are not just clichés, it is what the Holy Spirit would have in every body of believers on this earth.  REAL REVIVAL AND GREAT AWAKENINGS COST THE BELIEVER HIS LIFE. It is a requirement to become active (not passive, not just barely struggling though), that means living a right life before God (not deciding when you want to be a Christian and constantly sitting on the fence), waking up to what’s going on around us(and calling sin “sin” and holding each other accountable), allowing God to make a new presentation of Himself and the cross of Christ(giving us fresh revelation of Jesus), and being ready to take our place in the Army of God to be effective in winning the world and making the enemy flee.

Let’s don’t mistake this, because I think a lot of people have this mixed up:  Revival is for the church, seeing souls saved is just a benefit of it. You don’t see paramedics and first responders trying to revive someone who has already been pronounced deceased and God cannot “revive” that which never had life. He will however “birth” life in new believers as fruit of revival in His body. 

Selwyn Hughes (Welsh minister from Crusade for World Revival)wrote: ‘Evangelism is the expression of the Church; revival is an experience of the Church. Evangelism is the work we do for God; revival is the work God does for us.’

OT Examples of Revival and Awakening:

-King Asa became king of Judah and did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He banished the male and female prostitutes and removed all the idols that his father had set up. King Asa also commanded his people to seek the Lord God of their fathers and to observe the Law and the commandments (1 Kings 15:9-15 and 2 Chronicles 14:1-15).
-The prophet Elijah had a spiritual battle on Mount Carmel. Once the true altar was prepared, a complete offering was given, Elijah called upon his God and the fire fell. The people fell on their faces crying out, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord He is God!” (1 Kings 18:20-40).

-Jehoiada, King Joash((2 Kings 11:17-18, 2 Chronicles 23:16-21 and 2 Chronicles 24:2).

-King Hezekiah of Judah and King Josiah also saw revival.

NT Examples of Revival and Awakening:

-The first revival after the resurrection was on the Day of Pentecost; the Holy Spirit was poured out; Peter began to preach and about three thousand people were cut to the heart under conviction of sin and the Church was birthed (Acts chapter 2).
-In Ephesus, after hearing and seeing the power of God working through the apostle Paul, fear fell on the Jews and many who had believed on Jesus Christ publicly confessed their sins and those who had practiced magic and witchcraft publicly burned their expensive occult and magic books (Acts 19:11-20).

This is what Revival sounds like. It is God’s voice saying, “ offer your bodies as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1) and live holy (I Peter 1:16 and Psalm 24:3-6), put away sin, and seek God (Hosea 10:12), take up your cross daily and abide in the Vine (John 15) and to humble yourselves and look to God.”

And when the church has ears to hear what the Spirit says, the Awakening will look like this: the Church quickly turns from our wicked ways, God has heard from heaven, He has forgiven our sin and healed our land’ (2 Chronicles 7:14). God begins to pour out His Spirit on ALL flesh; our sons and daughters begin to prophesy, the old men dream dreams, the young men see visions.(Acts2:17) 

God pours water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; He pours out His Spirit on our descendants and blessing on our offspring” (Isaiah 44:3).

Revival is painful and messy at first. God gets all up in your business, bringing correction and direction. Calling for repentance and calling us to take a stand: Be for him or against Him.  You know he hates lukewarmness.(Rev.3:16) 

When you hear that alarm screeching at 4:30 in the morning, you don’t want to get up, you want to push snooze.  You know you will lose your job if you don’t get up and get moving, but, "Oh this bed is so comfy"………That’s the Church.  The state of: don’t get in any one's business, everybody live how you want to, come on Sunday and be a self help, therapeutic, tell me how to make my life better and easier and “Have My Best Life Now”(Joel Osteen) and sprinkle a little Jesus in there to call it church instead of Social gatherings is a warm cozy bed the church has made.  (It's alright to Amen at home!)  The Alarm is going off Church!  The time has come! 

 

How long will God’s mercy shield us from His wrath?

Give us ears to hear!  WE HAVE TO GET UP CHURCH……so revival can start in the Church of the Living God and the Time of Great Awakening can finally be here.