Insights on preparing for revival
Actually, there is something I would to share before I get to what I really want say. Mainly I want to share it because its kind of funny. What I really want to talk about is pretty serious, so let me get the funny stuff out of the way first. Most people who know me know that the only time you are likely to see me in a suit is at pretty formal occassions where there is not way out of it. For example a funeral. Or on rare occassions at a wedding (Usually I wear that far out looking robe that I got on loan from a friend and he never asked for it back). Any way with Gaby and Conrad’s weddding this week end I realized I should probably get me suit out and see it it shrunk (that tends to happen as you get older, clothes mysteriously shrink when left unworn for any considerable period of time). So I took the suit from the very back of the closet, tried it on and it fit and it seems like everything was hunky-dory for the wedding. But check this out….
See those holes? Man, my suit was all moth eaten when I took it out of the closet. Bummer. I guess that what happens when you leave stuff in the back of the closet to long. The thing is that suit isn’t even fully “natural” fibers. Those moths must of had to spit out a good deal of the synthetics to get to the real stuff. But hey, the whole back of the suit arm looks like that - lots of little holes… Oh well, I did manage to find another suit that looks like style wise it is from the general period of history we are currently living in… but then hey I’ve never been much of a trend setter.
On to the real story. I came across this really good article on revival. Its from a wonderful site called “Awake and Go”. It is very much a kindred site to our own Cry for Awakening site, only much more in depth and well done that our little spot on the web. This article is called “Seeds of Revival: Insights on Preparing for Revival.” It features insights gleaned from Frank Bartleman’s history of the Azuza Street Revival of 1906. I’d like to share some of those with you.
This good looking lad to the left here is Frank Bartleman. He wrote extensively about the Azuza Street Revival of 1906. He is unique in that his writing flows from much first hand experience with the revival. One of the things he said concerning revival was this: “Undeniably, revival is a miraculous work of God, But true revival never comes apart from the preparation and the participation of a remnent of God’s people. Oh, how the Church needs to rediscover the unchanging principals of revival. It is time for a new wave of young pioneers to rise up and cooperate fully with the Holy Spirit’s revival process.
Almost a year before the Azuza Revival Bartleman wrote urging the church to prepare for a mighty visitation of the Spirit. He writes, “Christendom is rapidly assuming an attitude of expectancy, the great prerequisite for a visitation from God.” Wow, that seems so simple - but the truth is this expectation comes at the price of anguishing in prayer, a price most Christians seem unwilling to pay. Bartleman goes on talking about the Azuza Revival - During those months preceding the Pentecost, the Spirit was constantly seeking a company through which He could manifest Himself, and gather people. He used various agencies and instruments just as far as He could. After the Spirit had made several efforts, and a number had failed Him, He finally succeeded with a crude, weak body. There was little to commend itself even in this, aside from desperate abandonment and childlike faith. But those were the prerequisites for the beginning of the work. The last part of this paragraph grips me - the group had little to commend itself aside from desperate abandonment and childlike faith. After two years of praying for awakening how much I am aware of the rarity of desperation and childlike faith. It is like anything and everything stifle this childlike dependance on Jesus. The abundance of resources, the comfort, and the countless diversions act like a vaccination against faith. It becomes wearisome after a time. Bartleman reveals in his writings that some churches actually missed the revival, it literally went around them like a tornado suddenly bearing to the left of the right and passing around a house or building and leaving it untouched.
At the end of this article the author, Dave Smithers writes: Revivals don’t just mysteriously happen, they are born through a cooperative effort between the church and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit begins this process by filling us with a holy discontentment over our own impotence and spiritual barreness. Next, in response to our hunger, He imparts a divine seed vision for revival deep within us. God then requires us to become broken and willing to cooperate with this vision in an ongoing process of faith, humility, repentance and prayer. God is the only one who can open up the womb of revival, yet no revivial is ever born without much costly travail and cooperation by the Church.
Reader, ask yourself a simple question: Has the Holy Spirit filled me with a holy discontentment over our impotence and spiritual barreness? Has the Holy Spirit imparted a vision of revival to your heart? Finally, is there any sustained evidence that you are willing to cooperate with that vision of revival? May the Holy Spirit fall to awaken the hearts of his praying remnant. May that remnant rise up and in faith cry out for Jesus to pour out a fresh anointing of revival fire on the church of this Essex County region and beyond. What are your thoughts?
Full article Seeds of Revival