The Cry For Revival And Visitation

Inside every person, there exists a yearning - a hunger for something more than what we have. It can create an ever-deepening void of loneliness and uncertainty. It is often mistaken as a need for new things, new experiences, or new friends. We find ourselves dissatisfied, discontent, and unfulfilled in our jobs, our friendships, and even in our faith experience.

We may attempt to acquire more possessions and greater wealth to fill the void. We may change jobs or even think that ending a relationship is what's needed. Worse still, some may even dare to consider that this emptiness has come from within their marriage.

Within the Church, we may try to fill this emptiness by chasing after the latest movement hoping that it is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit even though it may have no biblical foundation or historical precedence. Frustrated and fed-up Pastors leave existing churches and start new ones. Hundreds of Pastors leave the ministry each week due to burnout. Churches ask many to leave because their needs aren't being met.

The void within gets bigger and deeper every time we try to fill it with anything, or anyone, other than Jesus. Our God is calling us to have an intimate and vibrant loving relationship with Himself. Our learning must be from Him not just about Him. We must begin to work with Him, not just for Him. Our great creator, God, longs for intimacy with us, His Bride!

Here in the United States, the church has convoluted the Great Commission by thinking about what Jesus can do for us, not what we can do for Him. Churches have become convalescent homes for Christians. We seek "new" manifestations of the Holy Spirit and flock after "new" teachings. We use Madison Avenue marketing techniques to reach the lost. We "book' celebrity speakers, musicians, and comedians to attract a crowd yet the Great Commission is all about leaving the 99 to find the one.

We have abandoned the sacred and holy and filled our churches with programs and not His presence. We start more and more ways to meet our 'inner' needs. Self-help groups abound everywhere. We build worship services and sermon series around what people want to hear, not what God wants to say. We preach multi-step messages on how to have a great life using Scripture out of context as a pretext for a proof text to support our self-suppositions and confirmation bias. We are more sensitive to the spiritual seeker than to God.

We are trying to give the world a new definition of the Gospel rather than a new demonstration of its power. We spend more time getting our clothes pressed than pressing into God! We want the "power of the resurrection" but not the "fellowship of His sufferings" (Philippians 3:10). Rather than pursuing a prophetic word from God, we settle for a pathetic word from man.

We exert all our resources preparing buildings and "felt need-how to" messages to attract visitors rather than becoming attractive, taking on the holy fragrance of Christ as we prepare ourselves for a Holy visitation. Our churches are focused more on becoming "healthy" rather than becoming holy, conforming to human whims rather than conforming to the will of God. We are driven more by purpose than by His presence.

Throughout the world, we are seeing supernatural outpourings of the Holy Spirit, which is resulting in record numbers of new Born-Again believers and church growth. Yet, here in the United States, three out of five churches are either stagnant or dying. More churches close their doors than open them. New churches are being planted daily, yet statistical evidence says that less than 50% of them will survive. Church leaders are crying out for renewal and revival, but the simple truth is that God cannot bring more people into the church beyond their capacity to disciple them. Our churches have become weak, emaciated, powerless social clubs. The anointing of the Holy Spirit has departed and Ichabod is written across the doorways.

The term 'revive/revival' does not exist in the New Testament. Modern-day 'revivalism' has its roots in Pelagianism and should be studied for its actual effects on the church. The closest Greek word to the English word 'revival' is "anazopureo," a word that means to re-kindle like a fire, and is used only once in the NT directed explicitly at Timothy "to fan into flame the gift of God" (2 Timothy 1:6). It has nothing to do with making something dead regain life or consciousness, which is the definition of 'revive.'

The word 'revival' has developed into many complicated interpretations, including calling it such things as 'cultural transformation,' 'community awareness, '‘renewal,' 'outpouring,' 'reformation,' or 'restructuring.' Some say it is a mighty move of God in the Church, and Christians repent of their hidden sins and then spill over into the community so that non-Christians are convicted of their sins in the streets and cry out to God for salvation. Others say it is using 'power evangelism' where all nine gifts of the Holy Spirit are operating to heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, walk on water, multiply food, have angelic visitation, and so on (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). Most say it is about living like Jesus. Yet, they never operate in the supernatural because they believe Jesus stopped the supernatural gifts at the end of the first century even though He never changes and is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). The New Testament is very clear that the normal Christian walk includes all those things which are why it doesn't mention 'revival.'