Last night concluded the meetings for our Spring Revival.  In each service, the Word of God was preached without compromise, and God’s people were challenged to examine themselves in light of what the Bible says a Christian should be.  We were given the Truth, in love, and God worked in many hearts, as evidenced by the response each night during the invitation.

But is the Revival really over?  Did we even have Revival?
How do we know?

We were reminded that revival is not about lost people coming
to Christ (though it’s certainly not prohibited!), but about God’s people repenting and coming back to a closer walk with Him.
It’s about setting aside the things that are keeping us from following hard after Him, to live holy lives that truly glorify Christ.
To paraphrase what we heard: “You can’t revive something that hasn’t already been ‘vived’.”

So what do we do now? There are no more “Revival meetings”. The evangelist and music team have gone home. This Sunday morning, it’s back to “business as usual”, right?

It may be, but it doesn’t have to be.

You see, the Biblical pattern for revival is that God sends it when His people get serious, repent, lay down their idols, and commit to following Him and Him alone. They commit to being obedient, not just in the areas where it’s easy, but in every area of life.  They make the priorities of their lives the same as God’s; they love, embrace and nurture what He loves, and hate, shun and refuse what He hates.

If that is not what happened, then we did not have revival.
We had some great services, with wonderful music and tremendous preaching, but we did not have revival.  Revival is not merely about a series of meetings that stir the heart.  God sends revival when His people want it more than anything, and are willing to do whatever is necessary.  Ending the scheduled meetings does not mean the revival is over, and extending them for another month would not mean it was still going on.

Did we have revival?  It’s far too early to tell. If we did, it will be obvious in the lives of our people.  It will show up in relationships, attendance, giving, personal habits, and many other ways.  And if all we had were a few special meetings, then that will become evident as well.

Only time will tell.

Filed under: Observations | Tagged: repentance, revival |