A Personal Revival Part-1

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning [to Me] and resting [in Me] you shall be saved; in quietness and in [trusting] confidence shall be your strength. Isaiah 30:15

People have approached me and said that our church needs a revival. I agree, but I personally feel we need a personal revival before we can experience a corporate revival. Recently, a few people shared with me how they feel stagnant and dead inside because they have lost the appetite for God. Some are seeking to find a formula that would bring them out of the deadness in a hope for a renewal.

According to Psalm 85:6, a personal revival is to experience joy of communion with God that satisfies the soul, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” Also, the revival is dependent upon God, and the word “again” tells me that the Psalmist experienced in the past and hopes to experience the joy in the future. Therefore, desiring to see the passion of God to reign in the center of our souls should be our personal vision when one feels dead.

The problem is we think we know enough about the Bible and feel unnecessary to rest in the Word that give us spiritual strength for the soul.

A white-haired elderly lady had just left the grocery store and was headed home. When she spotted her car, she noticed that there were four young men getting into it. She immediately dropped her grocery bags and pulled out a large caliber handgun from her purse. With the gun drawn, she hurried up to the car and shouted, “Get out of the car right now.” The men quickly left the car and ran away. The woman, who was still pretty startled by what just happened, went back and picked up her bags and got into the car. Settling herself down she went to put the key in the ignition. She had trouble getting the key in and just thought that it was her nerves.

She took a big breath and began looking around the front seat and suddenly realized, “This is not my car!” She got out and spotted her car just a few spaces away. Feeling awful about what just happened, she drove straight to the police station to report what she did. As she finished telling her story to the officer, he burst out in laughter. “There are four guys in the next room who just said that they were car jacked by a white-haired elderly lady with a large caliber handgun.” Pride tells us that we know everything and that we don’t need to depend on God. Therefore, we feel no need to read the Word intimately.

Nancy Demoss in her message “Reviving Our Nation through Brokenness” said:

• Proud people focus on the failures of others, but broken people are overwhelm with a sense of their own spiritual need.
• Proud people are self-righteous, they have critical fault finding spirit. They look at everyone else’s fault with a microscope but their own with telescope, and they look down on others. But broken people are compassionate. They can forgive much because they know how much they’ve been forgiven. They think the best of others. And, they esteem all others better than themselves.
• Proud people have independent self-sufficient spirits, but broken people have dependent Spirit and recognize their need for others.
• Proud people have to prove that they are right, but broken people are willing to yield their rights to be right.
• Proud people claim rights and have demanding spirit, but broken people yield their rights and have meek Spirit.
• Proud people are self-protective of their time, their rights, and their reputation, but broken people are self-denying.
• Proud people desire to be served, but broken people are motivated to serve others.
• Proud people desire to be successful, but broken people are motivated to be faithful and to make others successful.
• Proud people desire self-advancement, but broken people desire to promote others.
• Proud people have a drive to be recognized and to be appreciated; they are wounded when others are promoted and they are over looked. But, broken people have a sense of their own unworthiness. They are thrilled that God would use them at all in any ministry. They are eager for others to get the credit, and they rejoice when others are lifted up.
• Proud people have sub-conscious feelings: this ministry is privileged to have my gifts and me. They think what they can do for God. But, broken people have the heart attitude that says, ‘;I don’t deserve to have any part in this ministry,” and they know that they have nothing to offer God except the life of Jesus flowing through their broken lives.

How do we recover from lifelessness? First, return to the Lord by confessing the sin of joylessness by acknowledging the deadness of your heart (Psalm 61:2). Secondly, pray earnestly that God would restore the joy of obedience (Psalm 40:8). Lastly, live out your faith in the hope of doing so will rekindle the delight (1 Peter 1:22).

Pastor Tae