I am a revivalist at heart. I didn't know that when I began the journey into ministry of deliverance and healing but it didn't take long to learn what that kind of ministry had to do with revival. Revival must take place in the individual before it can become congregational. A dead soul that has not had the life of the Spirit of God breathed into it cannot be revived because it hasn't been born yet. After this genuine "rebirth" takes place then a person can begin to identify as a child of God, this doesn't happen first it happens next.
Refreshing Waters Offer Revival
When I first read the words of David's thirst for God my spirit quickened within and my soul was interrupted! I realized I too was thirsty for God, I saw myself as that deer in a dry and desert wasteland in need of refreshing waters. That's the Spirit of God, a refreshing river that never runs dry and if we will go to Him and drink we will never thirst. Jesus said ....but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:14 NIV
Revival can be defined as a renewed and more active attention to God, an awakening to the concerns of the Spirit. The word revival comes from a Latin word meaning "live again." It is a returning or recovery from death to life. It is time for the Church to return from the dead! Amen? Revival begins with an exchange. We exchange our filthy rags for garments of righteousness; at the cross on Calvary we make this exchange. We make this exchange with a repentant heart. As David said, Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me Ps 51:10 NKJV. I must say that when I would go to the Lord for mercy and grace in exchange for guilt, shame and condemnation, I would go with my head hung low, feeling completely unworthy of any good thing the Father would have for me. Yet God states in Isaiah 53:10 "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand." Yes, strange as it might seem, it actually pleased God to send His Son to the cross on our behalf. Why? Because God was going to have a generation after Jesus Christ. A family. God had this plan that millions of seed would come forth as family because of Christ Jesus crucified and resurrected! And as believers we too have been crucified in Christ (Galatians 2:20) and raised in heavenly places. This is the beginning of revival for a believer in Christ Jesus.
Spirit Life Regenerates the Mind
Next is the regeneration of the mind. The spirit led life can only happen when we allow the new man to live by putting to death the deeds of the flesh. Sin will keep us as the walking dead. We may have a new spirit but it is imprisoned and quenched if we continue to walk according to the ways of this world. We must learn our Bible, understand how to walk in the new creation. Allow the fruit of the Spirit to come forth.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. [Gal 5:22-25 NIV]
If we would "keep in step with the Spirit" we would stop side stepping with Satan! It is impossible to be revived and continue in life if we walk in death. The world is at odds with God, it is hatred towards God so if we love the world and the things of the world then we too are at odds with God. Sean Smith in his book I Am Your Sign says "Revival, in its truest essence, is the manifest power of God lifting humankind to the proper standard of supreme life and righteousness." He then goes on to say "A revival is a revolt against anemic, watered-down, knock-off Christianity. A revival is essentially an unfiltered and unadulterated manifestation of God." The world would certainly be a different place if we were living by the righteous standards God set for us to live by. We must first hear the truth of God, however, unpleasant those words may seem to our flesh at first. The gospel was never meant to make us feel good, rather that has been a desperate attempt by the Churches system to fill seats and get numbers. That "systematic mindset" does not save souls it builds social clubs! Those days are over. No more will God allow entitled preachers in the pulpits that bring a gospel that actually loses souls! No, we are going to see "mainstream preaching" revived as well. When God touches His called out ones to bring the truth of His word with passionate fire we will see a holiness revolt! Praise God what a time we will have when we all meet in the most conspicuous places worshiping a powerful and majestic God! Hallelujah!
Partnership with God Ushers Revival
God will need us to partner with Him if He is going to pour out His Spirit on this world. We must turn from our wickedness so that He can heal our land. Revival will heal our land. Revival will bring in the harvest of souls larger than anyone could imagine. We must be hungry for it.
A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah. You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. [Psalm 63:1 NIV]
Once we recognize the dryness of our souls cannot be hydrated by anything this world has to offer it, then we will cry out to God for a saturation of His holiness, His Spirit. When we become like the Psalmist and our whole being longs for God, our minds, will, emotions and body, hunger and thirst for a touch from the Stream of everlasting Life, then we will see revival. When we get to that place of an awakened spirit, repent and forgive then we will love at levels so deep that we will want the whole world to know what we have! But first we must allow the Potter to put us on the wheel and form us to be that beauty He said we were. We may not believe we are who He says we are but if we will allow Him to create His masterpiece we will be pleasantly surprised at who we can be in Christ. But now, O LORD, You [are] our Father; We [are] the clay, and You our potter; And all we [are] the work of Your hand (Isa 64:8 NKJV).
Lighting Up the Darkness
We are to be a light among a dark world and we have that light in these weak vessels but it is to show God's glorious power. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us (2 Corinthians 4:7). Everything God does is to bring Him glory and not vain glory but rather a glory that would get the attention of the world. Glory that would cause humans to look and see the Awe that is God, thereby turning from this world to Him so that He could have what He created in the first place. Family.
Revival is here. Revival is increasing. Revival will come in tsunami size increments all over the nations and God will have His way. God will have a remnant that will bring in the greatest harvest ever known to man. Will you be a part of it? If this is something that cries out in your heart than I urge you to get up and get moving. Pray with all of your being for God to pour Himself out like a flooding river upon your life and ask Him to use you to be a change agent for this world.
Ernestine Graham
2/26/17