DO YOU BELIEVE IN REVIVAL?

DO YOU BELIEVE IN REVIVAL?

 

If you believe in revival, my next question would be: What do you do to get one?

Wherever I go to Christian groups or churches, I hear that we have to pray for revival. I have heard this for years. Some are saying that revival is here, but we have to believe it and receive it.

I have another question: What is revival? I have looked up the interpretation of the word. It means an awakening or a conversion. It might be individually or collectively. I think that we most of the time think about it as a collective experience or awakening. When we talk about awakening, there must be something we should wake up from. When we leave for work in the morning, most of us have been woken by an alarm clock. Today we need a spiritual alarm clock making us ready for a revival. In one way I think that an alarm clock is ringing every day. It is enough to turn on the television or read some newspaper and we hear about terrible events all over the world and the world is every day threatened by a new world war. We read about natural disasters, hunger or some other terrible disasters. Are we getting so used to hear about these things that we do not care any more? If the events are far away, we might be able to push them away, but it is more difficult when things happen close to us. Some people live in constant fear and that might lead to a passive attitude or paralysis. There is no awaking in that.

In Luke 15 we read about two brothers. One of them took the inheritance that his father gave him and wasted the money on prodigal living. This story is actually called the prodigal son. The other son stayed with his father doing nothing wrong. One day the prodigal son returned back to his father and the father welcomed him with open arms. This son experienced a revival in his life. He had entered a wrong way of living, but he regretted and came home. This can happen to each and everyone of us.

We have gone astray, received an awakening, regretted and then we are restored.

When we read stories about revival, we are not reading so much about individual revival, but more about what has happened in a church or a bigger area or even a whole country. Sometimes it happens as a result of a long time of praying and many churches have gone together to prepare for revival. I remember that my father was part of a committee in Oslo at the end of the fifties when Billy Graham was coming. Many churches worked together to prepare for revival. Two of my girl friends got saved during those meetings. I believe that the new converts were taken care of, but the revival did not continue.

In more recent times we have heard about revival in America, Canada, different places in Africa, Asia and Europe. When we think about revival, we think that people convert to Jesus. We experience signs and wonders, and The Holy Spirit is manifesting in different ways and in different places. The Holy Spirit doesn’t only manifest at meetings, but people feel the need for confessing their sins at work and other places. There might be less criminality. Even the agriculture might flourish. It gets more common to talk about Jesus and many can testify about an encounter with Him. Revival will sometimes come through an anointed preacher, but we can also have a “faceless” revival. People are hungry for more of God and many are travelling far to receive more of Him. Some are bringing the wave of revival with them home.

I have been reading about revival where there was no planned meetings, but the Spirit was so strong that people were convicted of their sins wherever they were. There might also be meetings, but not the usual ones with three songs, information and offering, two more songs and a sermon. No, the Spirit does what He wants and when He wants.

               A true revival is free from human and demonic control.

I believe in revival, but what can I do for it to come to my church and to my area? I believe that I should draw closer to Jesus and seek Him before anything else. (Matthew 6:33). I need to confess my sins and repent from my sins and bad habits that are binding me. I need to pray for cleansing in myself, for my family and my church. I can pray that The Holy Spirit will come to people in my area and to come over the entire region. We are all called to be living witnesses for Jesus and talk about Him when The Holy Spirit leads us. If many people pray for the same things during a long period of time, I believe that we finally will see a revival. I cannot decide when a revival will come, but I can do my part to prepare for one.

LET US PREPARE FOR REVIVAL!

Mother Else