Revive us again; Fill each heart with Thy love; May each soul be rekindled With fire from above.
Revival time is here again for some churches. It means getting preachers and singers booked ahead of time. It means putting an announcement in the church bulletin and for some it means to make posters and getting church members to go to their local stores and other places to ask permission to place them where they will be in the public's eye.
What is a revival? Why do we need revivals? Who should be invited? What is the most important thing for a revival?
Lots of times a revival looks good on paper. The posters look great, it looks good in the bulletin because the guest will see the announcement and think that the church really cares for the poor in spirit and the lost. But, where does a revival began? It begins with each member especially the leaders, pastor, deacons, right on down to the choir with much prayer.
I feel a revival should be prayed, planned and receive power of the Holy Spirit before it can be effective to anyone.
Many times the church looks out the stained glass windows and says "Man, this world sure does need a revival" But, in fact it's the church who needs the reviving.
Christ's letters to the seven churches reveal some circumstances that made it necessary for a revival. In the first letter to Ephesus, Christ praised the church for their perseverance and discernment, but He stated that they had forsaken their first love.
Revelation 2:4-5 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent
Many times as the excitement of Christ grows cold, we lose the zeal that we had at first. We become bogged down in the ritual, going through the motions, but we no longer experience the joy of serving Christ. Revival helps restore that first love and passion for Christ.
I preached a night of revival last week in Winston and my opening statement went like this: "A revival is a spiritual awa-kening so, if we need a spiritual awaking then we must be dosing off spiritually.
I believe that our country has dosed off spiritually and so have a lot of individuals. When a country or a person sleep walks spiritually through this world then they will stumble and when they stumble, sin and rebellion enters"
As a Christian I know you have heard many times "to be filled with the Holy Spirit" What does that mean?
Same as your fuel gage in your car. We can tell how much a person allows God to work in their lives by their fruit of the spirit. What is the fruit of the spirit? Paul said in Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance:
Just as the fuel gage in our cars are not exact but, it gives you an idea. We can see in others just how much of the Holy Spirit they allow in their lives by their outside character. Lots of times folks will act very different in church than they do elsewhere. Who are they fooling? They might fool some but, they will never fool God. Those are the Christians that are looking out the stained glass windows of church and saying..."man, just look at those people, they need reviving"
Those are the ones that need to be at revival each night and get revived themselves.
Many times but, never realize it, they are the ones who keep the lost from coming to church or a revival. The lost are thinking, if that's what you call a Christian, then I'm just as good as they are and then they build their salvation on works and not Jesus. We all need a revival and be revived and stay that way, not only for ourselves but, for others.
Love in Christ Jesus, Ronnie Miller www.themillersbiblestudy.com
