Revival

I just wrote an entire discourse on revival. Where it went, no one knows. I hit that "publsh" button and the good folks in the cyberworld told me it had been published. But it was gone. Vanished. As we say in South America, se hizo humo. Up in smoke.

So I will try again. This subject is important enough I cannot let the cyber-demons eat it.

What do you know about revival? Have you ever experienced a true revival? What about a spiritual awakening among the lost; have you experienced that? I heard a man preach Sunday. He is hungry for revival. He wants to see his church revived. And he was honest enough to say he had never seen a revival.

His message made me think. It was a good one, to be sure. The long arm of the Holy Spirit stirred among us. Some were able to ignore Him; but not all of us. God spoke.

Why do we not hear about revival in America these days? Has God closed up heaven and told us that it's too late? I don't think so! I actually believe the problem is on our end. We have not because we ask not. When we do ask, we ask for the wrong reasons. I think those words from James 4 are applicable to revival.

There are many reasons we do not see a revival today. One of them, perhaps one of the greatest reasons, lies with the preachers. We preachers are too soft, too complacent. We love our comfort. We love our frills, our fringe benefits. We even believe we deserve them, all the while preaching against prosperity theology.

I listen to preacher talk among themselves. I have heard the coarse language. I have heard the off-color comments. I hear them laugh at things that should bring tears.

I read the surveys. I know that preachers are far more in love with the internet than they are the Bible. One man told me that his preacher bragged about not studying the Bible. He did not prepare sermons because he feared he would forget them before he ever got to the pulpit. Preacher, fall in love with God's word. If you cannot, then quit preaching. Quit starving God's sheep.

I know that preachers have lost their zeal for prayer. The demands of a modern-day church suck out the zeal like a hungry leech. Yet we have not because we ask not. We must rediscover the joy of sacrificial prayer.

Our cups do not run over. Norman Grubb wrote of that on page 19 of his booklet, "Continuous Revival:" "But here comes the point of it in this message of revival. We are to recognize that'cups running over' is the NORMAL daily experience of the believer walking with Jesus, not the abnormal or occasional, but the normal,continuous experience."

If America is to experience revival, my prayer is that America's preachers get in on it.

Revive us, Oh Lord!