Revival

When the outpouring of March rain arrives and brings forth green grass, budding trees, and surprise lilies, we know that spring is near. The coming season is one teeming with life, new growth, and blessings abundant. Similarly, as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit falls on thirsty souls we know that God is at work. He is active and eager to call all those that would come to himself for new life, spiritual growth, and abundant blessings in Christ.

Revival seems to be a word circulating within Christian circles right now. I will be the first to say the revival is a term that I have been skeptical of in the past. I don’t particularly have much revival experience either. The word always brought to mind scheduled church events designed to create a work of the Spirit. While that sounds great on the surface, my inner cynic viewed revivals as odd and somewhat fabricated. However, I do believe that there are times when genuine and very real outpourings of the Spirit take place and God sees to it that a new flame burns hot in his church, the hearts of his people, and in the souls of those eager to know him yet.

Currently, the wake of a special work of the Spirit at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky has reached churches, small groups, and schools across the country. You can read more details on this particular revival in almost any publication of your choosing, but it appears to have been a very real and genuine movement, orchestrated by God, that has stirred hearts across the globe.

I believe the Lord was and is at work at Asbury University, but I also believe he is at work in places unknown. While it might seem that our cultural moment has reached a point of no return in partisan politics, wayward sinning, and celebration of over indulgences of every kind, I believe the Lord has primed the hearts of a new generation ready and willing to pick up their cross and follow him. We’ve seen it on a large scale at Asbury and I am seeing it in my own personal circles.

Just this week I attended a gathering at my local church here in Knoxville that reminded me that Christ is still calling people, young and old, to himself and the Father. Our church leaders led us through a night of prayer and worship. Simple, sweet, and deeply awakening. Yes, this was a scheduled church event. It was fairly structured and could easily be painted as an effort to replicate the movements we have seen elsewhere, but I didn’t find anyone following a fabricated script or adhering to an alternative motive created by man. When asked why I decided to attend, my answer seemed to echo the voice of all those in attendance, “I am just curious to see what God does tonight.”

A curious heart in the hands of the Father has much potential for deep and genuine revival. God can do more with a humble sinner’s curiosity than any man can do with determination and acts of “righteousness”.

As we sang and prayed prayers of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication I became very aware that the Spirit was truly at work in the hearts of those standing around me. You could see it on faces, hear it in cries to God, and feel it in holding hands. A real revival of God’s people was happening in my midst. No news crews reported on the evening, no spotlight given to any one individual, just desperate hearts longing for a savior. Hungry we arrived, satisfied, yet starving we left.

I don’t think revival is about how long a worship service goes on, or even how many people attend. I hold fast to the belief that it is more about the stature of one’s heart and how intense the longing for God becomes as his Spirit makes more room for himself within you. Revival happens more often than we think, but a particular movement of God seems to be spreading in this day. Despite what the world says, God is still at work calling people to himself. He is calling me. He is calling you. Wake up and don’t miss what he has for you!

The end of the night brought a calming of the soul along with weak and sore legs from standing tall in worship, but Appalachia’s oldest oak would have fell before me on that night. Christ is at work in my heart. He has intensified my hunger for him. He is doing the same to so many and wants to do the same for you.

Though I still wrestle with sin and am not fully at home with Jesus yet, I can join with the Psalmist and say. “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

Father, pour out your Spirit, so that we would come to a more complete knowledge and lived experience of the gospel. Please keep moving. Please keep working.

Bring revival, Lord.

In Christ forever,

Amen.