Revival, What is it?

What is revival? How would you describe it? Has it ever touched you personally or your church corporately? The basic definition that comes to my mind is to say revival happens when God shows up. Our Church is preparing for revival services to be held in April so the word revival has come up a lot lately. I have begun thinking along these lines and wanted to have a deeper meaning of the word and all it stands for. Our Church leadership, as well as myself, want to see something God-sent happen in our Church and our community. The dictionary defines revival as a restoration to use, acceptance, or activity. To impart new health, vigor or spirit or, my personal favorite, to bring back to life or consciousness. I ran across this scripture today in my devotions and it is a scripture that I like to post on the refrigerator door when I am longing to see God move. In Joshua 3, Israel is getting ready to wage war against the people occupying their promise land. Joshua tells the people before they go to war and see God show up on their behalf they must "Sanctify themselves". Sanctify means to be clean or to make clean. If we want God to show up we have to be made clean. I found a couple of quotes about what revival is that have helped to give me a better grasp of what I am praying God will do through a revival.

Revival is....
"The awakening or quickening of God's people to their true nature and purpose."
Robert Coleman
"The sovereign act of God, in which he restores His own backsliding people to repentance, faith, and obedience." Stephen Olford
"An extraordinary movement of the Holy Spirit producing extraordinary results."
Richard Owen Roberts

The word revival is not found in the scripture but the concept is there as early as the children of Israel when they were called to observe three feasts each year. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was a seven day event where no leaven was to be found anywhere. Getting rid of the leaven in the bread became symbolic of getting rid of the sin in their lives and returning back to a right relationship with God.
Do you have any leaven that needs to be taken out? Do you need restoration back to use or activity? Perhaps, your spiritual life right now is non-existent and you need to be brought back to life. Our relationship with God is the place to start. Before we can have a true revival we must wage war on Satan and get right with God. We must sanctify ourselves or make ourselves clean and obedient so that God can do something great and awesome among us. I do not want to be the one who stands in the way of seeing God move. Do you?

Joshua 3:5 -"And Joshua said to the people, 'Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.'"
I Corinthians 5:6b-8 -"Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." NKJV

Running into Clothing Racks

My son Trenton, who is four years old, has been described by many as "All Boy". Up and running from morning to night, he goes and goes like the energizer bunny. Yesterday, I took him into a clothing store to look at a few things. In this environment, I have learned to continually hold his hand because otherwise he tries to run off. Needless to say, he was not happy with me and began telling me all about it. It is then when we pass a rack of clothes he lunged forward throwing himself into them. He looks up at me and says as loud as he can, "Mom, why did you do that to me?" I immediately reply in disbelief, "I did not do that, you did!" We did this routine one more time before I realized exactly what he was doing. He wanted everyone in that store to think I was intentionally running him into racks of clothes because he did not like the circumstances he found himself in. We left the store shortly thereafter in order to deal with this rebellious activity. During the drive home, I was reflecting on this whole thing when I realized as ridiculous as this scene had been, I had done the exact same thing to my heavenly Father. Sometimes I rebelliously go the wrong way. I make the wrong decision to throw myself into the fire of selfish disobedience. I then want to immediately turn and blame God for the circumstances I find myself in. It is not His fault. It is mine. I choose not to be lead by His all knowing hand. Instead of acknowledging this, I want to cry out so that others may know God has let me down even when He has not. I wonder if His response is like mine to my son. One of disbelief, wondering how we could blame Him for something we choose for ourselves. Just food for thought today. Are you living out the consequences of a sinful choice and blaming God for the hardships you are now enduring? Believe me, when we see ourselves in this picture, it is a hard pill to swallow. Rebellion is not something to be taken lightly. If we do not deal with it, I assure you God will. Make sure to adjust your attitude and actions today to show an obedient child holding tight to the Father's loving hand.
I Samuel 15:23- "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king."
Psalm 78:7-8- "That they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments; and may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright and whose spirit was not faithful to God."
Jeremiah 5:23-25 "But this people has a defiant and rebellious heart; They have revolted and departed. They do not say in their heart, 'Let us now fear the Lord our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season. He reserves for us the appointed weeks of harvest.' Your iniquities have turned these things away, And your sins have withheld good from you."

Strength For The Pilgrimage

In our Ladies Bible study this week, we read the following verses and I felt God wanted me to pass them on to you. I hope they begin to mean something to you as you mediate on them this week.
Psalm 84:5-7
"Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. Who passing throught the valley of Bacca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools. They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God." (KJV)
The NKJV translates the phrase "In whose heart are the ways of them" to say "Whose heart is set on pilgrimage." When we truly realize we are just temporarily walking through this earthly journey, we get a whole different perspective on our daily trouble. Not only that, but the the word "Bacca" means weeping. Have you ever felt like you are in the valley of weeping? It is pretty dark down there. Isn't it? But God promises enough strength for every day, including when we find ourselves in the pools of water from our own tears. These verses end by saying those who find their strength in the Lord during their valleys will end in victory when we appear before our God. I can't wait to have my own personal time with my Father in heaven face to face where He can tell me exactly what my valleys of despair have done in my life and the lives of others here on earth.
II Corinthians 12:9b- " My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." (NKJV)

Complaining, A serious offense

Complaining.....I rarely go through a day without it. We hear it everywhere we go and from almost everyone we know. I am afraid I do it far more than I care to admit. We are not the first generation to complain about everything. It goes all the way back to the children of Israel and before. In Numbers 11, God supplies a story of a nation complaining and the consequences their complaining brought them. Verse 1 says, the people complained and the Lord's angered was kindled. God sent fire among the camp to engulf the ones who were murmuring against him. Israel cried out to Moses and Moses prayed to God to stop the fire. He did. Fast forward just one verse and the congregation began to desire to have meat to eat. They did not want the manna God had supplied but dreamed of the fish they ate while they were in bondage. Verse 10 says, there was great complaining among the people. Throughout their families they were so displeased with their situation that they were weeping among themselves about how they desired something besides what God had given them. Again God's anger was provoked. The children of Israel complained among themselves so much, God took notice and decided to do something about it. He sent quail, so much quail that it encircled the camp on all sides, a days journey in all directions and three foot high. That is a lot of fish! The first thing Israel did was not fall on their knees in thanksgiving that God had supplied. They went to hoard as much fish as possible. Verse 32 says, they gathered all day, all night, and all the next day. This was just another example of how ungrateful their hearts had become. I can just imagine God standing there shaking his head in unbelief that they could not trust his provisions enough to just gather what they needed. After all, he had been supplying manna every day for years at this point. God again grew angry and sent a plague to smite the people before they could even swallow the thing they desired so much. God wants us to desire him above all. When we show little restraint in our pursuit of material things, always looking to the next thing, continually complaining about what we don't have, His wrath is kindled toward us. Can't we just trust him to take care of us? He has for years why would he stop now? Complaining is a hard habit to break. We must take notice of what God has done and develop a thankful heart through reflection on His previous love and care. In this chapter of Numbers, Moses was also found making a complaint, but I believe the difference was that His requests were made to God directly and not everyone else. Israel made their agony known to each other and not to God. Dear friend this chapter hit me hard, God takes our complaining seriously. Death by fire and plagues are serious consequences. Take notice of your murmurings today and notice that you are truly blessed. He is our Father, His job is to see to our needs. Trust Him fully so you can reflect a thankful heart.
Read Numbers 11
Philippians 2:14-15 "Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world."
Psalm 142:1-3a "I cried unto the Lord with my voice, with my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before Him: I shewed before Him my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knew est my path."

Record Books

Record Books. Have you ever noticed our society is full of them? Our schools have them. Our sports teams have them. Our Churches have them. The government has them in several different forms, financial and criminal. If they are good we use them, if they are bad we hate them. We try to keep track of everything. Records tell a story of our life, good or bad. We can never really get away from our past here on earth. For the people close to us, we keep records {even though they are not written down on paper} of past hurts and disappointments. Our responses to people are based on what our record of them tells us. We can never be completely unbiased to that person again. If we personally let someone down, it also effects our reaction to them.
This week I became so overwhelmed with how great our God is when I sat and meditated on some verses about God's record books. There is the Lamb's book of life that records our names when we accept Christ as Savior. This book gets us into Heaven, but the book I want to look at is the one God chooses not to keep. Psalm 130:3 says, "If you Lord should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?" Praise God in several different languages that when we mess up and seek His forgiveness, He forgives. He changes the permanent record against us. If He did not pay for our sin and continue to give us a new slate who could stand? Not me, the guilt alone would kill me. Thank God, we can go to His throne and leave it there! He has forgiven me for so much, I cannot help but worship Him. I stand in awe of Him and that makes me want to serve Him more. Who else can or will take our wrongs and remove them as far as the east is from the west? Only our God can completely remove them and give us a fresh start. Our permanent record, whatever it may be here on earth, can be changed forever with God's forgiveness. Turn to Him today and start fresh. He is faithful to forgive(I John 1:9) and dear sister, if He has forgiven you of so much already, fall on your face today and worship Him with me in complete awe. "He has not dealt with me according to my sin." I can stand! He is the lifter of my head. Praise be His name!!!
Psalm 130:3,4- "If you Lord should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared."
Psalm 103:10-12- "He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us."

Soaking in the Word

I love baths! You know the hot water, scented bubbly ones that you can lay and soak in until your skin wrinkles. There is just something about immersing yourself in warm water that relaxes. A true Calgon take me away moment. Add some chocolate and candles to the mix and it just might be heaven on earth, at least for this mother of three. It is my sanctuary away from kids, troubles, and aggravations.
God's Word should be like a warm water bath. We should be immersing ourselves in it, letting the Word soak through everything in us, changing us. So many times our exposure to the Word is more like a shower we get once a week in Sunday morning service. We move on and never look back, never changing a thing. God's Word was made to permeate us to the very core, changing everything. God promises that His Word will change us if we meditate on it and memorize it. It will take root down deep. Immersion in it causes us to grow in spiritual maturity. It helps us show fruit. It makes us react differently in similar circumstances. It shows us our dirt and helps us get rid of it. God's Word can be our sanctuary from life's storms.
Don't just get a shower of God's Word today, spend some time soaking in it. It will give comfort for the journey and when change comes you will be refreshed.

Psalm 119:9,11- "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy Word. Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."
Psalm 119:92,97,133-"Unless thy law had been my delights, I should have then perished in mine affliction. O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day.
Order my steps in the Word; and let not any iniquity have dominion over me."
Joshua 1:8- "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein; for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success."

A Very Present Savior

Last night my son woke up in the middle of the night moaning and crying. As a Mom, of course, I was awakened and immediately went to see what was wrong. I got to his bedside just in time to hold him while he vomited all over the bed. I picked him up and carried him to the bathroom to clean him up. After waking his dad up for help, I took him to the living room and held him to calm him down. Eventually, we again settled down for the night. He, on the couch and mom on the floor beside him. I dosed off a little here and there, but did not get much rest due to the raspy, coughing spells and an occasional bout with vomiting again. While laying there on the floor listening for what need may come up next, I realized, when I am going through an especially hard time in life, all I have to do is call out to Him from my darkness and He promises to come to my aid.
During the long night just before the light shines through, I can picture my wonderful Savior laying beside the bed stroking my head telling me the same things I was repeating to my son last night. "It is okay, I know it is hard and you are miserable. I love you. I am here. It will be over soon. We will get through this together." If you are going through something difficult, please call on Him. Visualize Him sitting beside you comforting and assuring you of His unconditional love. He is there beside you completely anticipating your every need. All we have to do is ask. He wants to deliver us. He is waiting to deliver us. He is our place of refuge. He is our strength, He will sustain us. Praise the Lord otherwise where else would we turn? With Him beside you, you can make it.

Psalm 46: 1 -"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."
Psalm 55:22 -"Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you."