Isaiah 64:1-2 – Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence —  as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence!

THEME OF THE DAY: WHAT WE SEE IN REVIVAL. The cry of the hour from many Christians and churches is for revival; for the Lord to send a mighty work of renewal in our land and churches. And it is a good and right cry. When we see the unbridled immorality engulfing our nation, lifestyles the Lord calls abominations being celebrated, and the languishing indifference of Christ’s church failing to be culture-influencing salt and light, the only answer to our many ills is God-sent revival.

When it comes to prayer for revival, the words of David capture this yearning. He pleaded with priority and urgency these words, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple” (Psalm 27:4). Is not revival a spiritual awakening of seeing the beauty of the Lord afresh? Is it not a deep longing to encounter God with rejuvenating power removing worldliness from us and creating a longing for holiness and heaven within us? May revival be rightly defined as God taking us from a routine, sleepy-like, status quo-style of Christianity lacking passion for Christ to an insatiable pursuit of Him?

As our desire for revival moves us to prayer, we must be ready for three experiences. These patterns or experiences are rooted in Biblical examples and church history accounts. First, as God begins to answer, whether individually or corporately, our prayers for revival, He will reveal His holiness or the splendor of His glorious perfection. Holy, holy, holy will be our encounter with Him. It must. This is the very essence of our God. And this will lead to a very painful second step of exposing our sinfulness. We may even call this the “trauma of holiness.” We will see our sin in a different and deeper light. We will loathe ourselves. Like Job experienced, God will show us the corruptness of our heart and we will feel totally undone in His Presence (Job 42:6). We will also see how we have failed to have holy and godly speech. Like Isaiah, we will be crushed or humbled to see how our speech has too often been unholy, ungodly, and worldly (Isaiah 6:1-5). The sins of the tongue so easily tolerated like gossip, snappy unkind comments, and criticalness will be seen in a different light; the light of what they did to the Son of God. And, again, like Isaiah, we will cry “undone, undone I am.”

After these two experiences with the Lord in the work of revival, and we have been duly humbled by His holiness and our sinfulness, the third work of revival comes to us; the revelation of His love. And when the Lord answers the prayer of Ephesians 3:14-19, to know the love of Christ, it will be overwhelming to us. Isn’t it amazing that in the Apostle Paul’s prayer he would ask for us to be strengthened in our inner being so we can know, even handle, Christ’s love? Have we ever meditated long on the Ephesians 3 prayer? How often do we ponder that God says we must be given divine strength in order to be able to experience the height, depth, width, and breadth of His love? And how have we heard from our pulpits this type of need and experience of Christ’s love? Let’s not cheapen or misinterpret God’s love by merely quoting John 3:16 and glossing over His love in a light, sentimental manner. It is powerful, so powerful, we must be divinely-enabled to experience its fullness. And that, my friends, is what I believe is the ultimate goal and experience in revival – be overwhelmed by God’s love in Christ that so radically changes us, we will never be the same in this world. It will be a change so radical that every day we will live with passion for the Gospel in our families, churches, and communities; a passion that just might be used by our Lord to bring another Great Awakening to our desperate land.

PRAYER: “Lord, send revival and allow me to receive it with a willing heart to be changed by it.”

QUOTE: “Pray for revival we must, but be prepared for its life-changing impact upon us.”