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There’s been some talk in chapel and in vespers about
revival on campus, and people saying that God’s moving on this campus, and
forgive me if I’m making this out to be a bigger thing than it is- I’ve heard
whispers of revival on campus, and there’s something deep inside me that really
wants to see God do something tremendous here on campus, and I think that’s
true of all of us weather we believe a revival will happen or not, we all want
it.
Unfortunately I’m terribly sad to say that if we all gather together
because we’ve heard rumors from a few about what’s been happening at Asbury seminary
since two weeks ago, and that God is ready to move here on this campus, and we wait and expect God to show up and start a
revival, we will all be very, very disappointed, because God’s not going to
bring revival. God’s not deemed now any better than a week ago for revival. We
could wait in silence and fast for days and days, and it won’t make a bit of difference.
I’ve thought a lot about revival, and I think that what most
of us have is a mostly unbiblical concept of God’s relationship with the church.
If we want to see revival come, we need where it comes from. I think that the
core problem with our understanding of revival is that we make it something God
does to us. That just plain doesn’t make sense. Why would God ever hold revival
from us? Why would God wait until now? I would like to propose the radical
thought that God is omnipresent and that anyone who honestly confesses Jesus
Christ as Lord has the Holy Spirit.
So I want
you to know how to discern what is truly from God: No one speaking by the
Spirit of God can curse Jesus, and no one is able to say, "Jesus is
Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.
-1 Corinthians 12:3
Well, if God’s already here, and we already have the Holy
Spirit among us, then where’s the revival? I get the feeling that sometimes we
pray “God, we want revival” but we don’t realize that God’s going “Greenville,
I want revival!” and that it’s not God showing up that will cause a revival, it’s
when we start showing up.
I watched three guys get up and talk about revival in Greenville
during vespers, totally unplanned by them, and I couldn’t help but wonder how
much of it was the Holy Spirit, and how much of it was them and their feelings.
I think I realize now that it was both, and it’s supposed to be both. The closer
we are to God, the harder it is to tell the desires of the Spirit from our own,
because our desires will come closer and closer to the Spirit’s desires.
Revival is something we have to choose and engage if we really want it. Not just
those three guys that got up in vespers, but everyone. God’s been waiting on
us, and since we have the Holy Spirit, and we have the desire for revival, what’s
holding us back? That’s right, nothing. We are sadly standing around, waiting
for a revival to happen.
Let us change that.
But what will revival at Greenville
look like? I agree very strongly with Dr. Hartley’s concept of a community
relationship with God. We need to know that we have a shared relationship with
God. What exactly that looks like, I have no clue because I’ve never seen it
before, but I think a good place to start would be to go before God in prayer
and listening as a community.
If you agree with me or think I'm totally off the
wall, please let me know. My minds going a mile a minute and I question
my ability to think straight.
That’s all for now, I’ve got to go to bed.
In Christ,
Patrick
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