Are You Revived?!

This last weekend I was able to preach at a nearby church in our local association. It was a revival! I'm not sure if they were revived when all was said and done. To me it seemed very similar to a Bible conference of sorts with an evangelistic emphasis. And being the 'evangelist' I'm not sure that I gave then quite what they were expecting. We had no one come up front, no one made a 'decision', not that I'm aware of. It was just simple preaching of the word of God, combined with fervent prayer--BAM! you have the key element in how God works among his people.

Genuine revival, restoration, or out pouring of God's Spirit is something that comes in an unexpected and unplanned fashion. We cannot conjure up revival any more than we can control the weather. This fact being true we should nonetheless pray with fervency, preach the word in season and out, being faithful in what we are to do as the church. We plant and water and God will give the increase.

Sometimes it seems as if we want to give the increase. When our expectations are not meet, the increase doesn't happen according to schedule, we question if what we are doing is right. We then come up with programs, methods, and techniques to get the desired results. Instead of growing frantic that we are not seeing the ends that we want, let us return to prayer and the Scriptures. Be faithful in those things! The Scripture commands to preach the word and trust that God will bring about those perfect and good ends that he so desires.

Losing sight of what God's will, as expressed in the Scripture, is easy. Nevertheless, we must have biblical fidelity in all that we do, not wandering from the truth just to achieve what we have set as goals and desired results. Setting everything against the crucible of the word is hard, yet we need to take such action. The ineffectual nature of the church today is not because we don't have the right methods, but it is simple due to the lack of the genuine preached word, it is a lack of genuine and fervent prayer, and it is a lack of fear for God.

With all the open ended thoughts that this blog leaves I must finish with this; my involvement in the revival this weekend was good. I was able to preach four times in three days to many people. The word was preached to the redeemed and lost alike. Ideological differences were set aside by some, brothers and sisters in Christ joined together around the word, and I pray that lives will continue to be changed by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.