Will You not Yourself revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You? (Psalms 85:6) Some people are praying for revival… but do you know what they mean by revival? They mean an emotional atmosphere that compels them to do the thing that they’ve been unwilling to do when they didn’t have the emotional atmosphere… but they knew they should have been doing it all along. But this isn’t revival because this would be a compulsive thing… this would be coercion. Whenever you do something because you have to do it… or an emotional atmosphere or some other psychological pressure makes you do it, and then in that sense it’s not a moral action. A moral action has to be a free action. If you’re forced to do it, then there’s no benefit or virtue in you doing it. In our Christian circles the word revival has become a household word. We are constantly speaking about it and praying for a revival; but wouldn’t it be proper to know what we mean by it? To the Samaritans our Lord said, You worship what you do not know, let Him not have to say to us, You don’t know what you’re asking. The word revive is clearly defined; it is from the Latin, and may be interpreted as this—to live again, to receive again a life which has almost expired; to rekindle into a flame the vital spark which was nearly extinguished. We do not expect to see the revival of a person who is totally dead, and we could not speak of the re-vival of a thing which never lived before. It is clear that the, term revival can only be applied to a living soul, or to that which once lived. To be revived is a blessing which can only be enjoyed by those who have some degree of life. Those who have no spiritual life are not, and cannot be, in the strictest sense of the term, the subjects of a revival. Many blessings may come to the unconverted in consequence of a revival among Christians, but the revival itself has to do only with those who already possess spiritual life. There must be vitality in some degree before there can be a quickening of vitality, or, in other words, a revival. A true revival is to be looked for in the church of God. Only in the river of gracious life can the pearl of revival be found. It has been said that a revival must begin with Gods people; this is very true, but it is not all the truth, for the revival itself must end as well as begin there. The results of the revival will extend to the outside world, but the revival, strictly speaking, must be within the circle of life, and must therefore essentially be enjoyed by the possessors of vital godliness, and by them only. Is not this quite a different view of revival from that; which is common in society; but is it not manifestly the correct one?
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 20:08:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015