The day I quit waiting for revival (and quit my job for good measure)

If you ask a spiritually inclined friend what images spring to mind when you say the word “revival”, its curious to hear what they’ll say (I’ve tried it, you should too). These are the kinds of answers you’ll get: revival is when churches have super long meetings that go on through the night and are held every day of the week. It includes miracles, masses of people coming from far and wide, really intense, heavenly worship, many converts, powerful preaching, physical manifestations of the spirit (people falling to the ground etc).

If you would prefer a less subjective source you could try a definition of revival from Wikipedia:

"A revival meeting usually consists of several consecutive nights of services conducted at the same time and location, most often the building belonging to the sponsoring congregation but sometimes a rented assembly hall, for more adequate space, to provide a setting that is more comfortable for non-Christians, or to reach a community where there are no churches. Tents were very frequently employed in this effort in the recent past, and occasionally still are, but less so due to the difficulties in heating and cooling them and otherwise making them comfortable, an increasing consideration with modern audiences."[ha ha ha!]

My own ideas about revival were not very dissimilar to these (except for that Wikipedia definition, that was just for laughs ;-) Subconsciously something told me that I should just keep praying and waiting and hoping for revival. When revival came we would all be saved at last! And then I read a story about Charles. This is how his story went. After having been baptised in the Spirit the previous night:

“Charles finally rose, prepared for the day, went to the law office, and began his career as an evangelist. He first spoke with his employer, Judge Wright, who left the office greatly troubled by Charles’ words. Later though, he would be wonderfully converted as a result of their conversation. Charles had a case scheduled for ten o’clock that morning. When his client, who happened to be a deacon in the church, came in for his pre-trial appointment, he asked, “Mr. Finney, do you recollect that my cause is to be tried at ten o’clock this morning? I suppose you are ready?” Charles told him, “I have a retainer from the Lord Jesus Christ to plead his cause, I cannot plead yours.” When Charles explained what had happened to him and said that he now intended to preach the Gospel rather than practice law, the deacon hung his head and walked out. He was so affected by Charles’ words that he went directly to settle his case himself, then returned home to pray and rededicate his life to the Lord.”

Charles Finney went on to lead thousands to a saving knowledge of Jesus. In one city there were 100 000 people saved. “It seemed wherever Charles Finney went, the Holy Spirit touched lives in wonderful ways because of his submission to Christ.”

I have been powerfully reminded of the wonder of it all. The wonder of a Spirit-filled life. The term is bandied about all too casually I think. Jesus said, “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Jesus coined the term “born again” to describe what we call “revival”. Why the need for a second birth? The first birth bestowed on us our flesh and blood and all our human faculties. But human-beings don’t inherit the kingdom of heaven, spirit-beings do. The rebirth is as much of a miracle as the first. The rebirth re-generates us as descendants of God. This explains the crackling, electrical, world-shaking potential that pops and buzzes from the spirit-filled believer who walks in intimate communion with Him. We are (quite literally) of a different breed now. We are born of the Spirit.

When the reborn believer kneels before Father God and receives from heaven the divine exchange of the red-hot, melting love that comes from Father for the bitterness and hatred that was in his heart before, when he stands to his feet and begins to love his fellow human-beings with his hands and not only his words, when he walks with one ear to the needs of others and the other to the whispered directions of the Spirit, when he throws his hands in the air and worships the King who sits at the right hand of the Father and is filled with glory and praise and inexpressible joy, THIS, this IS revival!

And so I determined early one Monday morning that it was time for me to quit waiting for this mystical thing called revival. My life is as revived as it will ever be. I determined never to work another secular day in my life.* Now is for living and being what Father has chosen me to be. I am born of his seed and He is raising me up in His family business, one day to inherit with Him. The wrong question is “when?” the right question is “what now?” I’m pretty sure that God loves all of the stuff that we would normally associate with “revival” (listed above), but, like ol’ Charles over there, I’m not planning on waiting around for one to start. In truth, the revival started a long time ago and I’ve missed too much of it already!

* I still have a day-job, but it is no longer a means to an end.