For almost a month now Christian circles have been buzzing about the revival breaking out at Asbury College, I am cheering you on. During high school, I visit there for a weekend and planned on attending college there. That weekend my best friend and I met and prayed with some students in the dormitory we stayed in, I wanted God to guide my path and the way I should live.
Even, way back then there was a desire and need for true revival in the church and I wanted to give God all I have to God. Where I live in the South it is common for some churches to hold “revival” meetings annually. This is not what is happening at Asbury, other colleges, and around the world today.
You see, Southern revivals are planned and overstated by man, but true revivals are overstated by God and only happen in His time. Ever since the Great Awakening in the church back in the early 1900s, generation after generation has prayed for revival here in America.
I can remember watching the Billy Graham Crusades on TV when they were televised in the 80s and early 90s, thousands of people would rush the altar to come to God with a little faith. These were more of salvation experiences for the lost and not revivals of the church when the Holy Ghost moves, but not like a genie in a bottle.
Great preachers like D.L. Moody and Billy Graham held their crusades on the road annually and packed stadiums and yet another great awakening in the church has yet to occur. Not because the great preachers weren’t preaching correctly or powerfully, but because it was not God’s will or His time. You see, we cannot control or manipulate the Holy Spirit into moving when and where we want; because the Holy Spirit is part of the triune God whom we follow, not the other way around.
The Holy Spirit!
Moses tells us the Holy Spirit was here in the beginning (Gen. 1:2,) later God spoke through the prophet Isaiah about the Spirit being with God’s people (Isaiah 59:21.) The Holy Spirit is one of the clearest ways, God leads His people. We need Him like the oxygen we breathe.
By the time we get to the book of Malachi, God’s people had become deaf to His voice (Malachi 2:15- 17.) God never stopped speaking and being with His people, they just stopped following His ways and listening to His Spirit. The Spirit is a Godsend, it’s not man directed.
In the New Testament, before Jesus went to the cross, He promised to send His followers a Helper to lead, guide them like a compass, and comfort them (John 14:16.) Still, the Disciples had no idea what would happen in that upper room at Pentecost. Again, this was not a planned act of the Spirit by the church; it was orchestrated and predicted by God Himself.
The promise of the Holy Spirit is a gift that cannot be earned, boasted about, or controlled by anyone but God Himself, the Spirit moves as God leads. Every born-again believer receives the gift of the Spirit and also various gifts of the Spirit; I’ll discuss that more later this year.
But for now, we need to understand the role of the Holy Spirit in every believer’s life. Despite what many may believe and teach, the Holy Spirit is more than just a comforter who makes us feel good in hard times. It is the Spirit’s job to lead, give us peace, and convict us when we are wrong.
Unfortunately, many false teachers in the church teach that it is the devil who convicts us and doesn’t want us to have all we want. It’s as if these teachers are just as deaf to the voice of God as God’s people became in the Old Testament and even the angels did in Heaven.
The Apostle Paul told the church that they live by the Spirit and not the flesh because the Spirit and flesh are at war with each other (Galatians 3:1-4; 5:22- 23.) If we live by the flesh we are heading toward death, but if we live by the Spirit we will be revived and live!
You cannot revive something unless the heart stops; when we die to the flesh—ourselves, as Jesus commanded us to do (Matthew 16:24)—then we can be revived! We must be emptied of ourselves and our desires to be filled with God’s Spirit.
This is how we are born again and experience new life, and we experience it daily as we deny ourselves. Humility enables us to surrender and let go, pride puffs us up in ourselves and traps us in our fleshly wants. Remember something has to die before it can be revived; humility is a type of death. We must die to our flesh and desires, hold on pain ends and there is hope.
The Apostle Paul taught how the Spirit unifies the church (Ephesians 4:1-6), He doesn’t separate us or elevate us from other members of the church, which is the pride of the flesh and it needs to die in every believer; the Spirit will sanctify us.
The church is a community of believers led by the Spirit, not selfish ambition or pursuit of earthly gains, each working together like the eternal triune God to fulfill the purpose of God by living through the Holy Spirit!
3 Comments
I like the songs God is an On Time God. There’s another one that says even when he’s three days late, He is still on time. We can’t always see how He is moving or why; we just have to trust He knows best and follow His lead.
You make some interesting points here. I especially like your emphasis on God’s lead role. We often get that mixed up, and it never goes well. Thanks!
We do not allow God to be in the lead always. Thanks for sharing Martin.