As individuals and as a church, we need a hunger for renewal and an understanding of these seven components of spiritual revival.
All of us need a certain amount of stability and structure in our lives. It is natural for human beings to create daily routines. Over time those routines can become a habitual daily grind—a life of complacency—a gray world without passion, excitement, spontaneity or purpose. This listless existence is all the more tragic when it strikes the heart of a Christian.
When Christians slide into complacency, they need a renewed zeal in their love of God, a revived submission to His Word, a deeper commitment to each other, a burning desire to build strong marriages and families, and a willingness to spread the gospel. Complacent Christians need a revival—a renewed enthusiasm that motivates us to obedience and faith.
All of us have been stirred by reading the Bible, by hearing a sermon or by feelings of guilt to an enthusiastic declaration that "tomorrow I'll be different. Tomorrow I'll participate in more Bible study, I'll pray more, I'll conquer a sin, I'll be more caring, I'll be a better spouse or parent." But tomorrow comes and soon the zeal wanes. When zeal is based entirely on emotion, it is easy for it to quickly fade or get misdirected.
Misplaced Zeal
Stephen Covey, in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, tells a parable of how easy it is for zeal to get misdirected. He relates a story of workers who are clearing the underbrush from a jungle. They're hard at work with their machetes. The managers are sharpening machetes, writing policies and manuals and setting up seminars for muscle development and creating work schedules. Everybody's working hard, full of zeal and accomplishing tasks.
Then one day a leader climbs up a tall tree, surveys the area, and yells down, "Wrong jungle!"
It is possible to have a misplaced zeal for God. The apostle Paul said of the Jewish people of his day: "They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge." Paul explained why their zeal was misdirected, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God" (Romans 10:2-3).
In fact, without the proper guidance of God, a person's misplaced zeal can actually work against what He is accomplishing. The Gospel of Mark records an incident where Jesus healed a leper and then instructed him to show the priests, but not to tell anyone who did the healing. In his zeal, the leper told everyone who would listen. The result of the ensuing controversy was that Jesus could no longer preach in the city but had to minister in the countryside (Mark 1:40-45).
Components of Renewal
To revive something is to bring it back to life. Here are some important components of sustained spiritual revival:
Congregational revival begins with personal revival.
All group revivals begin with individuals who come to realize their hunger for God and how corrupt their nature is before Him. They embrace their need for God to heal them at the deepest levels of their being and to create in them a new way of thinking and feeling. If we feel spiritually self-sufficient, then we will experience no need to be revived.
There can be no spiritual revival without a willingness to be healed of our emotional hurts, to let go of the past, to be stripped of self-sufficiency, pride and inordinate physical desires and to be willing to submit to God's plan for our lives.
The prophet Isaiah wrote, "For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: 'I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones'" (Isaiah 57:15). God's Spirit will only interact with and revive those who are humble.
Personal revival leads to personal renewal.
Revivals don't begin with the unconverted (who have never been spiritually alive), but with those who have been spiritually awakened only to fall into complacency.
Israel's King David prayed for personal renewal when he recognized that he had fallen into a spiritually complacent and morally corrupt state. He writes in his famous psalm of repentance:
"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit" (Psalm 51:7-12).
David understood that only through total repentance could he again experience the "joy of salvation." He prayed to God to be purged, washed, to "hear joy and gladness," to have his sins blotted out, to have God create in him a clean heart and to have a renewed spirit.
He also understood that only through this personal revival and renewal could he hope to help others turn to God. He writes in verse 13: "Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You."
Personal renewal involves a dramatic change in thinking.
Spiritual complacency doesn't happen overnight. It is the result of a slow deterioration of prayer and Bible study, allowing our thoughts to be filled with worry and anxiety, expending our energy on acquiring material possessions, letting love in our relationships for others wax cold and compromising with sin.
Once we hear the call to be revived, we must participate in the daily renewal of the mind that Paul writes about in Ephesians 4:17-23: "This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
"But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind..." See also Philippians 4:4-9.
Personal renewal leads to a renewal of energy, dedication and commitment.
King Hezekiah led one of the greatest revivals in the history of ancient Judah. Notice what 2 Chronicles 31:20-21 says about Hezekiah's success: "Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and true before the LORD his God. And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law and in the commandment, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart. So he prospered."
Hezekiah first sought God's will in how He was to be worshipped and the instructions of life contained in God's law. He also obeyed "in every work. . . with all his heart."
Personal revival leads to influencing congregational repentance and unity.
Hezekiah launched his reforms by restoring the worship of God in the temple. He had the priests renew the sacrifices and the observance of the annual Holy Days. Individuals began to repent and a revival spread over the entire nation.
"Also the hand of God was on Judah to give them singleness of heart to obey the command of the king and the leaders, at the word of the LORD" (2 Chronicles 30:12). The result of congregational repentance and revival was a singleness of heart in the people as they responded to God's teachings.
Congregational revival leads to renewed group worship of God and obedience to His Word.
The people of Judah had lost the understanding of the observance of the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread. Hezekiah reinstituted the observance of these festivals. In 2 Chronicles 30:22-24 we see the results of this revival: "And Hezekiah gave encouragement to all the Levites who taught the good knowledge of the LORD; and they ate throughout the feast seven days, offering peace offerings and making confession to the LORD God of their fathers.
"Then the whole assembly agreed to keep the feast another seven days, and they kept it another seven days with gladness. For Hezekiah king of Judah gave to the assembly a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep, and the leaders gave to the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep; and a great number of priests sanctified themselves."
Congregational revival leads to a furtherance of God's work in the world and influences others to turn to God.
"The whole assembly of Judah rejoiced, also the priests and Levites, all the assembly that came from Israel, the sojourners who came from the land of Israel, and those who dwelt in Judah. So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. Then the priests, the Levites, arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard; and their prayer came up to His holy dwelling place, to heaven" (2 Chronicles 30:25-27).
The revival began in Jerusalem but visitors from the Northern Kingdom were also renewed and took that sense of revival back to share with others.
Seeking Personal Revival
What can we do to be involved in renewal and revival in our personal lives and in the Church of God as a whole? First, we must understand that renewal and revival are based on a deep, personal spiritual hunger that motivates us to seek healing from God. Secondly, we must be willing to set aside our own viewpoints and seek God's vision and ways.
1. Seek to be focused on the Kingdom of God. Have a clear vision of that Kingdom as the goal of your life and strive to incorporate the values of God's Kingdom into every aspect of your life. Study Matthew 5 through 7.
2. Seek a clean heart and humility before God. Study Psalm 51.
3. Seek to bear the fruits of God's Spirit through renewed daily prayer and Bible study, along with fasting and meditation. Study Romans 6 through 8 and Galatians 5:16-23.
4. Seek to build the unity of God's Spirit in your family and among your Church brethren. Study Ephesians 5 and 1 Corinthians 12 through 13.
5. Seek to be grounded in the basic, core doctrines of the Bible and not to be blown about by every wind of doctrine. Study Matthew 22:34-40; Exodus 20; and Hebrews 6:1-2.
6. Seek balance in all areas of life. Study Luke 2:52.
7. Seek to face problems realistically and to maintain a positive attitude. Study Philippians 4:8.
Let It Begin With Me
Study these seven components of revival; pray about them and ask for understanding. Tear them apart word by word; talk about them with each other and seek a renewal of God's involvement in your daily life and in the life of your congregation.
One of the hotbeds for personal complacency, doctrinal deception, congregational infighting and acceptance of sin is when people are emotionally and spiritually insecure. It is ironic that another hotbed of complacency and compromise is when people are emotionally and spiritually secure in their own understanding. The solution lies in humility before God to guide us instead of trusting our own understanding, which can be motivated by fear, pride or a desire to make the Bible say what we want it to say.
Misdirected zeal can lead us to busywork. We can have a well-designed organization and a sense of accomplishment, only to find out we're chopping down the wrong jungle. Personal and congregational revival, sustained in daily spiritual renewal, results in a clear vision of God's Kingdom, zeal to do His will, a commitment to His work in us and the preaching of that Kingdom to others.
There's an old song that said, "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me." Christ is calling His Church to be revived and to maintain that zeal and enthusiasm as a lifelong commitment to become more like Him. All of us need to hunger for that revival and pray, "Let there be a spiritual revival among your people, and let it begin with me." UN
