Starting Out with Some Vocabulary
So here I go. I decided after a few years of going through the day, hearing something profound from the Holy Spirit, and then not following up on it with further thought and/or sharing, that I'd start a blog to record my thoughts and some of the things that God speaks to me, and also to hopefully generate some discussion. For those of you who know me well, you can probably anticipate that the majority of my posts will be related to ministry and living as a disciple of Christ, and you're probably guessing that you'll read the word "revival" a few times. Much of the reason I try to talk about revival so much is because it's a word that is so widely misunderstood, overused in some contexts, and woefully under-sought-after. It's a challenging word, one that gets at the heart of what our lives are meant for and what God's intentions for the world are.
It's unfortunate that in many situations the predominant Christian discussion is on the topic of righteousness and how to defend oneself against the world's attacks on morality and religion. This is unfortunate not because these are bad things, but because these things are so context-specific that, if we're not careful, we have to spend all of our time addressing everyone's questions and the constantly-changing world around us, that we never get to the big-picture ideas of Christianity. This is what I really want to talk about-revival, because it's what the Bible is really all about.
In I Am Your Sign, a recent book on revival, Sean Smith explains that revival comes from a Hebrew word that means essentially to renew, to restore to normal. By its original definition, revival is God restoring His people to His original intention for them, for how they act and serve Him and relate to Him. We often think of revival as a dramatic season of change and enthusiasm, sometimes marked by signs and wonders and a very powerful sense of God's presence and influence, but these things are just that, signs. They're not requisite for revival, nor are they necessarily indicative of a revival happening. Sometimes miracles "just happen", and aren't related to a reviving move of God (ex. Lazarus). Signs and wonders often accompany revival because often God needs to do something incredible, something radically different and powerful, to work the junk out of His people and restore them to a healthy and dynamic relationship with Him. Sadly, we often take revival as a seasonal thing, and are content when a season of revival ends, but this is missing the whole point! Revival is a restoration to what is supposed to be the normal state of existence for God's people. Normal! It's not a seasonal thing, it's supposed to be constant, because without revival how can the Kingdom come to earth? The Kingdom of God, as Jesus teaches it, is the standard of conduct and relationship with God that we as disciples of Christ are supposed to represent on earth, and it's supposed to be such a radical state of "normal" that the whole world notices. Basically, what I'm saying is that if we're not in "revival mode", if we're not constantly being restored to a true representation of the Kingdom, then we're basically backsliding as a culture that is supposed to be constantly revolutionary in the way that we love, serve, and share. Hopefully this is all making sense. I have a tendency to get going and leave details out, so I'll make sure to read over this at least once more, haha.
Now, to my second point: why revival? You might be thinking that I already answered that, and I kind of did, but there's a more fundamental reason, and it's really the only motivation that's going to work, because what I just talked about is almost entirely about us as Christians and how we're supposed to do life. Why revival? Revival exists because Jesus hasn't come into His Kingdom and received His bride yet, because the world doesn't exist in perfect fellowship with Him anymore. This is His desire, to receive "the reward of His suffering", "a bride without spot or blemish", and He shares this vision with us intimately in John 17:24 - "Father, I desire those You have given Me to be with Me where I am. Then they will see My glory, which You have given Me because You loved Me before the world's foundation." This is Jesus' desire, for everyone who will follow after Him to be with Him in perfect fellowship, perfect existence, in the new Heaven and Earth, and He tells us that we're supposed to go throughout the earth, spreading the Kingdom, growing His bride and surrendering ourselves more and more to His desires. Revival is what gets us there! The sole reason for God to come in and radically, dramatically change His people is so that they can be restored to a "normal" relationship with Him and can partner with Him to restore others in the same way. So many people miss this because they look at their lives through too small of a lens. It's as if everyone is a piece of a puzzle, and we're all digging frantically through this box, trying to figure out which piece is ours and what to do with it once we've got it. If we were to step back and look at what God sees, the finished puzzle, He'd point out which piece we are, exactly what we look like (instead of what we anticipate/desire), and how we fit into the big picture. Jesus receiving the nations as His inheritance (see Psalm 2:8) is the goal, it's the finished puzzle, and each of us have a role to play, and revival, God transforming us supernaturally into who we are meant to be and restoring us to a relationship with Him that is as it was intended to be, is what gets us to the point that we can fit in the puzzle. It trims our edges, paints our colors, and takes us from soggy to sturdy so that we can play our part in the adventure of eternity.
You see? We look at revival and our lives through the same near-sighted lens. We assume that revival isn't supposed to last for a long time (tell that to Bethel Church in Redding, or IHOP in Kansas City, haha), and we assume that our lives are just going to be a difficult struggle against a world that is increasingly hostile and full of temptation, and that maybe God has something out of the ordinary planned for us. The reality is that revival should be our way of life, us constantly seeking (in response to Jesus pursuing us) to be renewed in our nearness to Christ and our alignment with His heart, constantly marked by encounters with God that bring us into ever-deepening intimacy and romance with Him. And our lives are going to be a struggle against a hostile world, but we're not called to be victims, we're destined to be conquerors, to set captives free and transform culture! This is what our lives are all about, pursuing God and His true intentions for His creation, and helping Him make that happen. He doesn't need us, but He's made it clear that He operates through us - what an honor and a thrill!
So don't look at your life as just a fight against righteousness (more on that another day), look at your life as part of the making of a perfect universe. God will make that happen someday, and He's got a job just for you. He can picture it in His mind, and He's just asking you to say yes and jump. It takes commitment and a passion to pursue Him, but if you're desperate to do what God wants, to be a part of what He's doing in the world, to live the life God dreams about for you, then He'll revive you, He'll reveal things about Himself to you that are wondrous and captivating, He'll show you who you really are and change your whole perspective on how to live your life and why. This is revival on an individual scale, and it's meant to spread...rapidly. Because when God captures the hearts of two or three, there's synergy and momentum, and this three-stranded cord is not easily broken. It's a three-stranded cord connected to a wrecking ball, called the Holy Spirit, who goes before us and works through us to break down walls, bind the devil, and capture people's attention. This is what the church in Acts understood, it's why they were so dynamic and God was able to use them to grow their numbers daily, it's why the masses were scared of them, because they lived as God intended, and that kind of "normal" is not ordinary, and it's striking. And the way the early church lived was just supposed to be the beginning (more on that later, too)...
This is what your life is supposed to be-constantly revived, marked by intimacy with God and full of His power, for the purpose of partnering with God to give Jesus the nations of the earth as His inheritance, and all the time growing into a relationship with Him that's deeper than you ever knew was possible. Revival is supposed to be "normal", because its where your life fully begins.
It's unfortunate that in many situations the predominant Christian discussion is on the topic of righteousness and how to defend oneself against the world's attacks on morality and religion. This is unfortunate not because these are bad things, but because these things are so context-specific that, if we're not careful, we have to spend all of our time addressing everyone's questions and the constantly-changing world around us, that we never get to the big-picture ideas of Christianity. This is what I really want to talk about-revival, because it's what the Bible is really all about.
In I Am Your Sign, a recent book on revival, Sean Smith explains that revival comes from a Hebrew word that means essentially to renew, to restore to normal. By its original definition, revival is God restoring His people to His original intention for them, for how they act and serve Him and relate to Him. We often think of revival as a dramatic season of change and enthusiasm, sometimes marked by signs and wonders and a very powerful sense of God's presence and influence, but these things are just that, signs. They're not requisite for revival, nor are they necessarily indicative of a revival happening. Sometimes miracles "just happen", and aren't related to a reviving move of God (ex. Lazarus). Signs and wonders often accompany revival because often God needs to do something incredible, something radically different and powerful, to work the junk out of His people and restore them to a healthy and dynamic relationship with Him. Sadly, we often take revival as a seasonal thing, and are content when a season of revival ends, but this is missing the whole point! Revival is a restoration to what is supposed to be the normal state of existence for God's people. Normal! It's not a seasonal thing, it's supposed to be constant, because without revival how can the Kingdom come to earth? The Kingdom of God, as Jesus teaches it, is the standard of conduct and relationship with God that we as disciples of Christ are supposed to represent on earth, and it's supposed to be such a radical state of "normal" that the whole world notices. Basically, what I'm saying is that if we're not in "revival mode", if we're not constantly being restored to a true representation of the Kingdom, then we're basically backsliding as a culture that is supposed to be constantly revolutionary in the way that we love, serve, and share. Hopefully this is all making sense. I have a tendency to get going and leave details out, so I'll make sure to read over this at least once more, haha.
Now, to my second point: why revival? You might be thinking that I already answered that, and I kind of did, but there's a more fundamental reason, and it's really the only motivation that's going to work, because what I just talked about is almost entirely about us as Christians and how we're supposed to do life. Why revival? Revival exists because Jesus hasn't come into His Kingdom and received His bride yet, because the world doesn't exist in perfect fellowship with Him anymore. This is His desire, to receive "the reward of His suffering", "a bride without spot or blemish", and He shares this vision with us intimately in John 17:24 - "Father, I desire those You have given Me to be with Me where I am. Then they will see My glory, which You have given Me because You loved Me before the world's foundation." This is Jesus' desire, for everyone who will follow after Him to be with Him in perfect fellowship, perfect existence, in the new Heaven and Earth, and He tells us that we're supposed to go throughout the earth, spreading the Kingdom, growing His bride and surrendering ourselves more and more to His desires. Revival is what gets us there! The sole reason for God to come in and radically, dramatically change His people is so that they can be restored to a "normal" relationship with Him and can partner with Him to restore others in the same way. So many people miss this because they look at their lives through too small of a lens. It's as if everyone is a piece of a puzzle, and we're all digging frantically through this box, trying to figure out which piece is ours and what to do with it once we've got it. If we were to step back and look at what God sees, the finished puzzle, He'd point out which piece we are, exactly what we look like (instead of what we anticipate/desire), and how we fit into the big picture. Jesus receiving the nations as His inheritance (see Psalm 2:8) is the goal, it's the finished puzzle, and each of us have a role to play, and revival, God transforming us supernaturally into who we are meant to be and restoring us to a relationship with Him that is as it was intended to be, is what gets us to the point that we can fit in the puzzle. It trims our edges, paints our colors, and takes us from soggy to sturdy so that we can play our part in the adventure of eternity.
You see? We look at revival and our lives through the same near-sighted lens. We assume that revival isn't supposed to last for a long time (tell that to Bethel Church in Redding, or IHOP in Kansas City, haha), and we assume that our lives are just going to be a difficult struggle against a world that is increasingly hostile and full of temptation, and that maybe God has something out of the ordinary planned for us. The reality is that revival should be our way of life, us constantly seeking (in response to Jesus pursuing us) to be renewed in our nearness to Christ and our alignment with His heart, constantly marked by encounters with God that bring us into ever-deepening intimacy and romance with Him. And our lives are going to be a struggle against a hostile world, but we're not called to be victims, we're destined to be conquerors, to set captives free and transform culture! This is what our lives are all about, pursuing God and His true intentions for His creation, and helping Him make that happen. He doesn't need us, but He's made it clear that He operates through us - what an honor and a thrill!
So don't look at your life as just a fight against righteousness (more on that another day), look at your life as part of the making of a perfect universe. God will make that happen someday, and He's got a job just for you. He can picture it in His mind, and He's just asking you to say yes and jump. It takes commitment and a passion to pursue Him, but if you're desperate to do what God wants, to be a part of what He's doing in the world, to live the life God dreams about for you, then He'll revive you, He'll reveal things about Himself to you that are wondrous and captivating, He'll show you who you really are and change your whole perspective on how to live your life and why. This is revival on an individual scale, and it's meant to spread...rapidly. Because when God captures the hearts of two or three, there's synergy and momentum, and this three-stranded cord is not easily broken. It's a three-stranded cord connected to a wrecking ball, called the Holy Spirit, who goes before us and works through us to break down walls, bind the devil, and capture people's attention. This is what the church in Acts understood, it's why they were so dynamic and God was able to use them to grow their numbers daily, it's why the masses were scared of them, because they lived as God intended, and that kind of "normal" is not ordinary, and it's striking. And the way the early church lived was just supposed to be the beginning (more on that later, too)...
This is what your life is supposed to be-constantly revived, marked by intimacy with God and full of His power, for the purpose of partnering with God to give Jesus the nations of the earth as His inheritance, and all the time growing into a relationship with Him that's deeper than you ever knew was possible. Revival is supposed to be "normal", because its where your life fully begins.
2 Corinthians 3:18 - "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."
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