“The stories of revivals form the true history of the church and to observe the means and instruments by which God has carried out His work cannot fail to be profitable and quickening…”
Scottish preacher, Horatius Bonar, witness to the revivals in Scotland between 1839-42.
As I write these words, I have to admit I’m mildly embarrassed for a couple of reasons. I decided to take a long lunch today, leave the house, and commit to writing things that my wife has been after me to write for quite some time now.
Putting her off, I have waved my hand in dismissal of the suggestions she offered so patiently, week after week.
My wife knows that there is something burning in my heart. Something I have not understood fully. Something that was placed there when I was very young. Something that has consumed my thoughts, often consumed my sleep, and left me absent minded frequently in the midst of day to day living. That can make things difficult, to put it mildly.
What could possibly touch the heart in such a way to keep it constantly pre-occupied if one isn’t careful?
It is love. I love God.
When I was younger God touched my life and put a desire in me to see global awakening, a revival of faith, a march of Divine Love upon the world that would heal and restore what is touched. At that time, I wasn’t certain what revival was, and so I devoured book after book on the subject, having to feed my hunger to know and to know Him. I felt that since revival and the promise of it was burning in my very soul, reading was one way to follow the paths of others as they were drawn toward Him.
When I was a teenager, there were thoughts and visions that would fill my heart and mind, making it difficult to sleep at night. I would see, in moments of Gods touch, thousands upon thousands of people calling out to Him, praising Him, praying to Him. It would be then that I would feel the Presence of God so deeply, that even the bed would tremble. I would stay awake for several hours while He spoke into my heart of things that I did not understand. Some of those things I likely still do not.
This went on for several years, and as I grew, life took hold. I became a responsible adult. I served in several ministries. But the burning inside was forced down below the layers of living that occupied my time. God would and did interrupt my life frequently, usually leaving me feeling a little wrecked on one level or another.
For many, many years, I had tried to follow His leading and direction on and in my life. I was certain that I needed to follow a particular path into the things that I felt He had called me to be and to do. I applied myself daily to those things, only to come up spectacularly short, and failing. I worked hard to ensure that I would not accidentally follow the path He had set before me in my own strength, and yet, I failed, precisely because of that.
I had operated under so many human assumptions as to the type of man that God wanted me to be and to become. I was convinced that the image I had erected in my mind’s eye was something that God would approve of, endorse, and release into the destiny that I was created for.
I could not possibly have been more wrong.
I believe that there is a reason why the text of scripture encourages us to look for the path of life and to enter its gates, but that we must go in with the knowledge that the gate is narrow, and we are so blinded to its reality that we don’t usually see it. In fact, the text states that few do. I believe now, that the gate is narrow because we must go through it with only ourselves. Not with our callings, our degrees, our accomplishments, the accolades given to us as we strive for excellence.
I believe that few find it because the bulk of us do what I did…try to accomplish a Divine work using our wisdom, comparing ourselves to others around us, and imitating what we see there since humanity tends to approve of the things that are neat and marketed well.
Because nothing is impossible with God, He is not worried nor intimidated by our weaknesses and our daily attempts to crash the narrow gate with the lives we’ve built around ourselves that humankind might be approving of. I’ve have discovered and am discovering that nothing is impossible for God, and that the reality of heaven that is just on the other side of the veil, so to speak, from our view, is so full of righteous determination to restore earth to heaven that earth doesn’t stand a chance. Regardless of how bleak things might seem to be.
It is with those things in mind that I have begun to recognize lately that He is restoring my wounded and broken heart and life. Perhaps describing it as a resurrection would be better. What’s beginning to come into sharp focus is the echo and tenor of the word of God to an inexperienced teenager years ago who found inside himself an implanted desire for another Great Awakening. How I have prayed for this for years.
It is as if a light and soft rain is beginning to fall. I don’t believe that I’m alone in this. I believe that there are many, many others. We may be approaching the time where we must unite our prayers, be of one heart, and go to the Lord and cry out for a revival upon this nation and this planet.
We must ask Him for a revival that resonates through the ages. A move of God that is holy, a fire that can’t be quenched generation to generation. We must prevail upon Him, cry out to Him, and call upon Him to remember His works, as the scriptures say, in our day and in our time! We must go through the narrow gate, and lead many, many others. We are indeed called to this. We must go through first and then show them how it’s done.
Is the time now? Is today the day? Is the hour upon us for a move of God that will humble kings and exalt the lowly? For a day of justice and fire and for the answer of the countless prayers of the poor and downtrodden for justice? For the healing of the abused and forgotten? For the millions who have come to a crushing conclusion that God has forgotten them? We are called to tell them the truth, to live out this truth, and to be the ordinary people through whom God moves and does great and marvelous things!
If we will go through the gate, alone, and leave our accoutrements and our attempts at fashioning our own identities behind, He will meet us on the other side. This is my story. This is our story. It is my song.
“Rains of renewal come, I can smell it on the wind, a deluge for the hearts of women and men and I know, yes I know that He’s bringing revival again…” (1)
So what is the point of all of this? It is to say that in my weakness, He is revealing Himself. And this revealing is bringing healing and wholeness. My testimony is that God is faithful. I have no doubt that I will see that even more clearly in the years ahead. I do not doubt that as we yield to His processes in our lives, we can collectively find the healing that we need. Our lives are earmarked by Heaven for an earthly destiny that will lead to the restoration of all creation back to the kind and gentle hands of its Maker.
Whomever you are, wherever you may be, know that your prayers have not been unanswered. “He Who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps…”
He knows who you are. He knows where you are. He will not fail you. Come to Him.
And as someone else once said, “Let there be a revival, and let it begin in me”.
I’ve prayed this prayer. Join me.
- Lyric from the song “Revival”, from the album of the same name by David Mullen.
Original writing by REVIVALin2020©