It is our prayer that our hearts would long to see who we are and Who's we are. As that happens, we'll want the same for everyone. We'll want everyone to join at His table.
We pray for revival in our churches. We long for it to come. But what does it really mean?
We think of revivals where miracles and healings happen. We think of tent revivals from years ago where people would meet day and night to pray and preach. These things are fruit of revival, but not always revival in and of itself. So often are those revivals, though deep and legitimate in the moment, they are just moments or experiences that would pass, sadly
Real revival is a work of the Holy Spirit, when God pours himself out over on a community, on individuals, and congregations and he reveals himself in a way that drastically changes lives and reshapes the destinies of those He encounters.
When you look at history of revival, you'll hear about bars closings, jails being empty, men and women committing their lives to prayer. Those are the things we want to see by revival, not just momentary changes, but life changes.
We post banners and signs in our churches saying "Revival this weekend!". We cannot schedule revival. We don't get to tell God when He will bring revival, but we get to be carriers of revival who invite God's presence wherever we go in such a way that it affects others. As anointed believers in Jesus, we carry God's Spirit within us every single place that we go. We carry the miracle working power of God with us in every interaction. We are meant to be catalyst of change; carriers of His Kingdom.
We are meant to be thermostats, not thermometers.
A thermometer tells the temperature of the atmosphere. When you walk into a room, see what the people are doing and then reflect the same thing, you are being a thermometer. You're reflecting the culture of the room.
A thermostat has the power to change the temperature of the atmosphere. If you step into a room and feel that people are cold and distant from the Lord and think, "God has so much more planned for this" and begin to pray with boldness, speak Truth, and bring change, that is being a thermostat.
God designed us to be catalysts of change. Matthew 10:7 says, "As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give."
When we get the chance to say that the Kingdom of God is at hand, we get to proclaim that Jesus came and he is King, and he dwells in us, so when we enter a situation, we are bringing the Kingdom of God with us. We also have all of Heaven backing us. The Spirit of God is in us. We are marked as his children. We are new creations. We also have the Spirit upon us. he has anointed us to preach and tell others around us - the lost, the dying, our campuses, work places, community, etc - of who He is.
Four Traits of a Revivalist:
1. Revivalists are men and women who know God intimately.
We can't prayer for revival "over there". It has to happen in us first. We can't give away what we don't have. We can't pass on what we haven't experienced. We need to seriously pursue intimacy with God. God wants the same sort of intimacy with us that he designed in the Garden of Eden. We are designed to live forever in his presence. There were four rivers that flowed out of Eden. The Pison, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates. The Pison means increase (favor, blessing abundance). Gihon means bursting forth breakthrough. Tigris means rapid. Euphrates means fruitfulness and blessedness. Out of the intimate place of Eden flows increase, bursting forth breakthrough and rapid fruitfulness. These things flow out of intimacy with God.
2. Revivalists are branded with a passion for prayer.
Lora shared the story from 2 Kings 13 where the kings Jehoash was full of apathy. Elisha told him to shoot arrows out of his window into the ground and the number of times that the arrows struck the ground would represent their victories in war. Jehoash only shot his arrow 3 times, instead of 5 or 6. Elisha was angry that he was so half-hearted.
In Luke, Jesus confronts the church of Laodicea on their luke-warmness, but isn't that how we are now? We spend more time on facebook than in prayer. We spend more time watching Netflix rather than praying, meeting face to face with God.
In 1 Kings 18, Elijah is praying for rain to come to end the drought. He goes up to the mountain and cries out to God in prayer. He's passionately praying with everything in him. After a while he sends his servant over the hill to look for clouds. The servant comes back saying there's not a cloud in the sky. This happens 7 times. The last time, the servant returns saying that there is a cloud the size of a man's fist. Elijah responds with excitement telling the servant to go tell the king quickly that rain is coming, and if he doesn't hurry, the rain will overtake him.
Elijah persisted in prayer, boldly and faithfully. He prayed until he saw something happen.
3. Revivalists love and honor deeply.
Lora shared a story about herself with one of her ministry teams. As they were on a quick trip to Walmart for supplies, she noticed the rest of her team doing ministry with people throughout the store and parking lot. She was so proud and excited for her team being so eager to do ministry. She suddenly found herself back in her van in the parking lot waiting for her team as they did ministry. She felt the Lord tell her to get out of the van and join them. As she approached a group, she noticed the man they were ministering to was drunk and homeless. She noticed his outward appearance, but a member of her team was telling this man who God designed him to be. Her team was showing deep love and honor to this man. We should see people through Jesus' eyes.
The harvest is ripe, although we don't think it is. The Bible says the harvest is ripe, but the laborers are few. God is asking for laborers. God sees and knows our potential - our original design.
4. Revivalists are willing to walk in radical and risky obedience.
How often does God ask us to do something that seems so crazy?
Like asking Peter to step out of the boat and onto the water. Like asking Abraham to leave all he knew and go to a new land. Like asking Noah to build a boat, when he was inland and there probably had never been rain before. He built a boat for quite some time without any rain. Imagine that faith to continue in what God had asked him. God brings Ezekiel to a field of dry bones and tells him to speak to these bones.
We want to be people who obey the Word of God even if we've never seen fruit.
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