Reawakening awaits

Now restore us again, O God of our salvation. Put aside your anger against us once more. Will you be angry with us always? Will you prolong your wrath to all generations? Won’t you revive us again, so your people can rejoice in you? Show us your unfailing love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. (Psalm 85:4-7)

Is revival more than an awakening? It begins with an awakening of our spirit and then it continues with a new sense of purpose and an 'inner fervor' that we have somehow lost along the way. Most of us need a bit of 'revival' at times, all because we allow that 'inner fervor' we once had to become 'dulled' by the details of life as they creep in. We soon lose sight of our purpose, finding ourselves a bit too inactive in our faith - what some may call being a little 'too stagnant' in our faith. In truth, what has happened is that we have lost our 'clear direction', leading us to a slower and slower 'faith progress', until one day, we find we aren't moving at all.

Truth be told, God isn't calling someone else - he is calling you, right now, requiring immediate action to 'return' and be made 'whole'. Faith is a growing thing, but if it is neglected too long, it will wither and be extremely 'non-productive'. There is a level of commitment required for revival - for the reawakening to occur, we have to desire it. That desire may come at the end of a rope, at the bottom of a bottle, or with the last pill popped. Regardless of the thing that took us into our slumber, when we begin to reawaken, we will want to shake that thing off and be free of its 'dulling' influence.

Remember what Jesus taught when he told us about baptism - it is the outward evidence of an inward change. That inward change begins when we begin to respond to his movement within our lives. What will that movement look like? It varies by the individual who experiences it, but you will recognize it as a desire for something different or more than what you have been experiencing. At first, it may just be an 'uneasiness' with where you are at right now in either your actions or your 'feelings'. Little by little, he will make it clear that we need to choose a different course of action. 

Notice - it is a course of 'action' - not one of inaction. Revival always begins with ACTION. There is no room for inaction when we want to experience the resurrection power of Jesus in our lives. Just sayin!

We need revival

T. S. Eliot asks, "Where is all the knowledge we lost with information?" God reminds us, "Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline." (Proverbs 1:7) Knowing 'more' doesn't always make us any wiser in our choices, does it? In fact, a good many of our choices are simply made because others are making that choice. We are influenced by what we see, hear, and come to accept as truth. When knowledge turns us away from God's truth, we will make unwise choices. When knowledge is the result of embracing truth, we find our steps are more certain and our choices are actually narrowed quite a bit.

Information abounds, but knowledge that comes from a deep, intimate relationship with Jesus seems to be lacking in many cases. Our nation struggles because of the 'information overload' we receive each day, but there is little truth contained within that 'load'. Most of us hunger for truth - simply because we have come to hear so many untruths over the last few decades, with each passing year bringing more confusion and less 'foundational truth'. Maybe I am on a soapbox this morning, but I see information coming at us from all sides and yet we often choose to ignore what scripture plainly says regarding the issue at hand. 

What is the answer? This world needs a 'revival' of truth. Acts of aggression are all around us, some in full support of them, while others feel it is wrong. Bullying is a 'real thing' that doctors are taught to actually screen for in their exam of kids these days. Whole fields of study have emerged simply because society 'labels' individuals, aims threats at them, and gives others fuel for their own aggressive acts. Until we recognize the evil around us as just that - evil - we will never be able to curb the increasing tide of negative and harmful influence all around us. The world needs more than another 'great leader' - it needs more 'great servants'. 

The answer is for us to be examples - to not only hear the Word of God, but to become 'doers' of the Word. We must stand with those who cannot stand alone. We must bind up the wounds of those who have been affected by the aggression of others. We must be agents of peace and reconciliation. What does it mean to reconcile? It isn't that we bow to whatever is not desired - giving into it. It is that we 'win over' those who do not know Christ as their Lord and Savior by being good examples of his grace and love in an otherwise very negative and hostile world. Just sayin!

Celebration of Grace

¹⁰ He continued, "Go home and prepare a feast, holiday food and drink; and share it with those who don't have anything: This day is holy to God. Don't feel bad. The joy of God is your strength!"   ¹¹ The Levites calmed the people, "Quiet now. This is a holy day. Don't be upset."  ¹² So the people went off to feast, eating and drinking and including the poor in a great celebration. Now they got it; they understood the reading that had been given to them.

(Nehemiah 8:10-12)

Revival brings a response of heart that cannot but help bring praise to God.  The people of Israel had been listening intently to the Word of God as Ezra, the priest, brought it forward.  They were moved by the Word - brought to a place of awareness about just how far they had drifted from what God had intended for their lives.  That is what a fresh look into the Word can do for us - it can bring us to a place of recognition and repentance.

Ezra is a wise leader - he knows the passion of their hearts, but he also recognizes the struggles they are having.  He sees the older members of the congregation and understands their deep sorrow over the loss of the former ways of worship.  The "old ways" of worship were destroyed when they were taken into exile.  The temple was destroyed, the walls of the city brought down, and even the "instruments" of worship were carried off into foreign lands.  The old was gone - that brought deep sorrow to those that remembered the "former glory" of the old ways.

Yet, he connected with the freshness of worship that God was preparing for his people in this season of their growth.  They were allowed to "return" from exile in a foreign land, now they were returning their hearts to their God.  The people had a renewed awareness that God was with them - that is the beginning of revival in the spirit of man.  When this awareness begins to dawn, there is a corresponding awareness that the worship God desires stems from a heart that is free of compromise.

There was weeping that day in Israel - some out of sorrow because of all that had been lost, some out of joy for what lay ahead.  Perspective often determines our response.  When we hold fast to what is lost, we are rarely able to grasp what lays ahead.  Ezra reminds the elders in the crowd of that very fact - let go of the past and embrace the freshness of the present.  

The Word of God had impacted their hearts - it rang true in their minds, affecting them in the depths of their souls.  The hunger of their souls brought them to the place of exploration of the Word.  As is true with all times of revival, God honors the hunger of souls willing to be "real" with him.  The dryness of our spirits is refreshed in the newness of his grace - whenever we are willing to truly be "naked" before God.

The true, unencumbered celebration of God is the outcome of a seeking and transparent heart.  We often worship out of a sense of obligation - God desires worship that is given out of a sense of awareness and hope.  The beginning of revival is hunger.  The means to revival is repentance.  The response of revival is worship from a pure, unmasked heart.  

No more "holier-than-thou"

¹ By the time the seventh month arrived, the People of Israel were settled in their towns. Then all the people gathered as one person in the town square in front of the Water Gate and asked the scholar Ezra to bring the Book of The Revelation of Moses that God had commanded for Israel.

 ^2-3 So Ezra the priest brought The Revelation to the congregation, which was made up of both men and women—everyone capable of understanding. It was the first day of the seventh month. He read it facing the town square at the Water Gate from early dawn until noon in the hearing of the men and women, all who could understand it. And all the people listened—they were all ears—to the Book of The Revelation.

(Nehemiah 8:1-3)

We hear much talk about revival in America.  These concerns about revival have churches preaching that we need to bring back prayer in our schools - in the face of severe opposition to keep it out.  There are movements to reach out to the "un-churched" - connecting with them in a "seeker-friendly" manner.  All this is well and good, but it misses the mark of how and where revival starts.  Revival starts with the cries of hungry hearts that desire obedience over comfort and the desire of a leader to bring forth the word in a manner that does not compromise its integrity.

Ezra was such a leader to Israel - he had received grace to return to their home land and he had the familiarity with the Word of God as a "scribe" of that word.  His position as leader was appointed by a worldly king, but anointed by a divine God!  As such, he was in the unique position to bring the people to a place of revival.  

The leader plays a great part in the times of revival - but it is the individual hearts of the people that must be in alignment with that move of the Spirit that brings people to the next level with God.  These believers stood before Ezra that day many years ago with several earmark characteristics of the heart of one who desires revival - not just in the church - but in their individual lives.  Those characteristics can apply to each of us today:

• They were hungry - there was a great number of them who were hungry for something more in God.  Whenever a group of passionate people begin to gather together, there is a tendency for the passion of the individual members to "build" or "ignite" the passion of the others in the group even more.  Where there is a similar longing of the heart, there is a tendency for that longing to build.
• Their hunger caused them to want to understand the Word of God like they never had before.  It is one thing to hear - it is quite another thing to hear and come into understanding.  The hunger of a passionate, seeking heart will move the Spirit of God.  There are times in our lives when the Word of God is spoken, but it falls on deaf ears and a hard heart.  The hunger of revival breaks through the resistance of heart - opening us to new understanding.
• There was an attentiveness to the things that they had learned of God.  Revival begins with hunger - but hunger is only sated when there is an intake of what is provided.  Their desire for more of God was affecting their mind - they were no longer content with double-standards.  They desired to "attend to" one thing - God's will.  We come to that place of choosing to embrace God's will by the revival of our mind, will, and emotions.  
• There was a unity in the group - no one displayed any level of arrogance or "holier-than-thou" persona.  In other words, they were "real" with each other and they were "real" in their display of love for God.  There is nothing more liberating than to make the choice to get truly transparent with God and with each other.  In turn, there is a sense of worship that builds until the heart cannot contain it any longer.  That kind of worship is what God desires.  When he sees that embracing of him, he cannot but help reach out in embracing his people.

Tomorrow we will look at the response of revival.  For today, consider your level of hunger.  Is your hunger for God's best in your life enough to bring you to a place where you finally "get real" with him and with those in community with you?  If not, then you know where to begin!

Come and be Revived

¹ “Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. ² After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.
³ Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains,
   like the spring rains that water the earth.”

(Hosea 6:1-3)

Two actions are presented for us to take and two are promised that God will take in response to our actions.  The first action for us to take is to "come" - to move toward God, approaching him with the specific purpose of returning to our first love.  It is easy to lose our focus - to get distracted by the stuff of the day and to not be as attentive as we had once been in our Christian walk.  The call is to return.

The second action for us to take is to return.  You cannot return to some place you have not been.  So, this message is to believers - those who have an established relationship with Christ.  This implies that it is indeed possible to drift in our attentiveness.  There is a call to refocus thoughts and the processes we undertake to keep our thoughts fixed on him.  This is more than a mental assent though - there is action required.  There is a change in focus and in position.  Since focus determines our position, it is natural to see that our position has been affected by being inattentive to the things that build us up and make us strong in our Christian walk.

God has some steps he promises to take in response to our return - he will revive and restore us.  Similar concepts, but uniquely different.  When the promise is to revive us, it is not something we do for ourselves in just changing our focus.  That change of focus moves the heart of God to reach out to us afresh, with restoration, re-animation, and remembrance.

Restoration involves affecting us in such a way that our depression is removed, our actions are invigorated, and our lack of usefulness for him is reignited.  Revival opens us up to the awareness of growth and the production of fruit.  In sin - our only consciousness is of that sin.  While in a sinful state, our ability and desire to fellowship with God goes into a dormant, unused stated - we wander away.  With our return, God promises re-animation of our spirit - bringing a reawakening of our desire for fellowship.

Re-animation is the process God takes in helping to make our spirit alive and well.  There is a renewed ability to move and be active - as God would have us to be.  Re-animation gives us a zest for life - it invigorates us.  When God is at work animating us, we are vivacious!

Renewal involves bringing to remembrance the things God has previously spoken into our lives.  When we drift into complacency, we lose touch with the promises of God, the depth of his love, and the assurance of his care for us.  The process of renewal brings restoration of memory - we turn our mind's eye to him and take our eyes of those things that attracted us away from him in the first place.

He revives and he restores - putting that which has become useless into a place of usefulness once again.  There is no greater place to be than in the hands of the skilled craftsman - being formed into the image of his vision.  We can try as we might, but what we produce with our lives outside of his skilled hand crafting us, we will never produce the thing of beauty that he intends.

The call is to come - to return.  Allow God to reignite the passions of your heart toward him once again.  No matter how closely we think we may be following him, there is always opportunity for his fire to burn a little "hotter" in the recesses of our heart!

Carpe diem!

 ⁵⁰ Your promise revives me;
      it comforts me in all my troubles.

(Psalm 119:50)

We have spent several days looking at the topic of revival - the process of being renewed in our inner man.  We will continue today along that line, looking at what it is that helps us to experience revival in our minds, souls, and emotions.  The most important thing we can see is that revival involves putting into practice what we have received.  We are constantly getting input into our minds - through what we see, hear, and sense around us.  This input is run through filters we have created over the years - sets of values we have formed, beliefs we adhere to, knowledge we have amassed.  In turn, we either reject or accept that input as good, bad, or indifferent.

God often brings things into our lives that will lead us into times of revival (refreshing) that are not immediately interpreted as "good" or "enjoyable".  In fact, we might think that God is really being "unfair" in what he is allowing to occur around us or within us.  We interpret the "thing" that is happening as "not good" and therefore, we often reject it as not from God.  In turn, we may never really see the value in the bad stuff we go through.  I am not saying God brings bad stuff all the time, but it is even possible that the bad stuff in life becomes a means of God's refreshing - it is in the interpretation of that event that we see the value of the event.

Revival is a result of setting our minds, will, and emotions on seeing God's purpose in the moments we are experiencing.  Life is a series of "moments" - all strung together to produce minutes, days, and years.  In the course of looking back over "moments" that have gone by, I have realized that certain "moments" created life-long influences in my life.  My life was deeply affected by the moment.  We often miss out on the blessing of the moment because we are so focused on the big picture of the life-long journey.  Revival begins with one moment - one tiny slice of life, one presented opportunity, one little break in the fray of the day.

Revival also involves learning to love the right things - an eagerness of heart, mind, will, and emotions to love what God loves.  God is a God of peace - therefore, he is all about what produces peace in not only our hearts, but those of others.  God is a God of love - so he delights in showing us how deeply he loves us and wants us to do the same in the lives of those around us.  God is a God of possibilities - so he creates moments in which we can see what looks impossible in order to show how he opens up possibilities in his plan and purpose.

Revival involves reassurance and abandonment.  These terms seem contradictory to each other - abandonment is seldom equated to be a reassuring thing.  Yet, it is in the abandonment of ourselves (and the things we hold so near and dear to our hearts) to the touch of our Lord that we are made new - that good things will result.  We want to know that when we abandon the things we have held dear and nurtured in our lives (even if we have nurtured some of the wrong stuff), that God will replace them with things more precious, more valuable, more creative.  It is easier to abandon the stuff we know is not good for us - like going from eating potato chips to snacking on fruit.  It is quite another thing to abandon something that we don't fully recognize as bringing harm to our lives.

To abandon means to lay down - to cease to take something up over and over again.  We actually cease to use that thought process, that method of solving the problem, etc.  We leave behind the old - never to return to it again.  This is tough!  Yet, renewal involves God placing his goodness deep within the freshly plowed ground of our mind, will, and emotions.  In that process, he makes those "abandoned" things less appealing and less rewarding.  Revival involves a hope for growth - it is a sense of a new beginning.  No other place is as "uncertain" as beginning something anew - yet, no other place has as much reward as new beginnings!

Whatever the moment is for you today - don't neglect it.  The moment may only pass but this one time - seize the moment.

Invitation into revival

7 When the Philistines heard that Israel was meeting at Mizpah, the Philistine leaders went on the offensive. Israel got the report and became frightened—Philistines on the move again!  ⁸ They pleaded with Samuel, "Pray with all your might! And don't let up! Pray to God, our God, that he'll save us from the boot of the Philistines."  ⁹ Samuel took a young lamb not yet weaned and offered it whole as a Whole-Burnt-Offering to God. He prayed fervently to God, interceding for Israel. And God answered.  ^10-12 While Samuel was offering the sacrifice, the Philistines came within range to fight Israel. Just then Godthundered, a huge thunderclap exploding among the Philistines. They panicked—mass confusion!—and ran helter-skelter from Israel. Israel poured out of Mizpah and gave chase, killing Philistines right and left, to a point just beyond Beth Car. Samuel took a single rock and set it upright between Mizpah and Shen. He named it "Ebenezer" (Rock of Help), saying, "This marks the place where God helped us."

(I Samuel 7:7-12)

This passage comes at the end of about three chapters recounting the battle of Israel with the Philistines.  The first attack against the Philistine armies did not go well - four thousand of Israel's men left dead in the fields, with the remainder of the army returned to base camp in utter defeat.  Israel's elders come before the prophet Samuel and ask him for insight into what went wrong - what could be done differently in the next battle against those Philistines.  Before he could answer them, they come to the conclusion that they need to bring the Ark of the Covenant (the presence of God) into the midst of the battle.

The Ark is brought from Shiloh to the place of the battle.  As it arrives, the troops gathered there begin to hoop and holler - a huge celebration of its arrival.  They plan to march out, certain that this time the battle will be theirs.  Instead, the Philistines hear all the commotion, realize that the God of the Hebrews was in their midst and begin to attack with all their might.  The men of Israel are again left in the fields dead and dying - this time, thirty thousand.  To top it off, the Ark of God's Covenant is taken from the hands of the priests and carted off into Philistine territory.  To the leaders of Israel and the entire nation, this was a loss beyond all other losses.

The story does not end there.  The Philistines cannot escape the results of the presence of the Holy God of Israel being in their midst - they are struck with tumors, their false idols fall to the ground and are broken into pieces, the people of the land of Philistine are in utter panic because wherever the presence of the God of Israel goes, there is certain judgment!  They want to be rid of the Ark of the Covenant rather than having it in their presence.  So, they craft a plan to return it to Israel - with what they consider to be compensation for their removal of the Ark (five gold tumors and five gold rats).  It is sent back on a cart - no one would even carry it for fear of death!

As the Ark returns to Israel, a celebration ensues.  A group of Philistine leaders hung back on the outskirts, watching to see that the Ark made it back to Israel and that their "offering of compensation" was accepted.  In other words, they wanted to know if they had appeased the God of Israel!  Here's what happened next - something that we almost miss when reading through this account of the power of the presence of God:  From the time that the Chest came to rest in Kiriath Jearim, a long time passed—twenty years it was—and throughout Israel there was a widespread, fearful movement toward God. (I Sam. 7:2)  This may not seem like much to us, but look at what the return of God's presence did for the nation of Israel - there was revival!

For twenty years - the people began to move back toward God.   That implies that they had first moved away from God.  In fact, if we read a little further, we see that they had embraced the gods of the land - making idols, involving themselves in worship of other gods instead of the One True God.  They forsake all their false worship and embrace God once again.  It says they gave their "exclusive attention and service to God".  Wow!  Look at what the presence of God has the potential of doing!

The passage above gives us the accounting of what happened next - utter panic amongst the Philistines.  They thought nothing would be different after they had been encountered by the presence of the Holy God of Israel, but they were wrong.  They continue in their worship of false gods, Israel returns the worship of the One True God, and victory for Israel ensues.  

The invitation today is really a question:  What will you do with the presence of God?  Will you seek to avoid the move of his spirit in your heart?  Or will you embrace it, moving toward God?  We are invited to make steady, consistent movement toward him.  If we do, we are ensured a revival of our spirit like none other!