What Does Revival Look Like to Me Right Now?

31 Jul What Does Revival Look Like to Me Right Now?

The last few weeks in our church we have truly seen a shift in services and we have felt what I would call some “birth pains” of revival. You know what I mean. When you begin to feel new life coming and excitement and hunger are in the atmosphere!  If you have been in church for years you have all kinds of thoughts come into your mind when people mention the word “revival and revival fire”.  You may see a powerful meeting in your mind where people are being saved or you may see extended meetings night after night where people are getting saved and set free.  But these last few weeks have been different enough that is has caused me to ask the question.  “Lord, what does revival look like for this season here?”  God knows I don’t want to have any religious, preconceived ideas or try to make anything happen on my own.  I just want to know what God wants when He says revival.

In answering my question of what revival looks like, I have seen God stirring this revival in me through questions either He is asking me or I am asking Him.

One of those questions was, “When was the last time, Karen, you asked me to convict you of any sin that was in your heart?”  Wow, that question stung me.  I began to think about it and again, I had to be honest with myself.  I don’t know of any sin in my life right now.  Most of us as Christians do try our best to live holy and right before God. It’s not that I don’t deal with sin but I quickly realized that many times I wait for Him to bring it to my attention and then I deal with it.  Ouch!  The bible tells us in Jeremiah 17:9 “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?”  It goes on to say in verse 10 “I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. Now God didn’t ask me the question because He didn’t know the answer. God wanted me to answer the question and begin to pray that God would break my heart for the things that break His heart. That includes things I do that don’t please Him too.

Another example is while in early morning prayer last week, a line in a worship song I was listening to became a moment of yet another question. This time it was me asking God a question. The song All My Worship was playing in the background and I heard the line:

I will stay here for a little while
Till I look like the one I behold

Immediately, I saw myself in a mirror asking myself this question – Do I look like Him?
Or do I look like me?
Have I spent enough time in His presence to look like Him?

That question came with a flood of others such as,
Do my actions look like what He would do?
Do my thoughts reflect what is His Word ?
Do my words give grace like His do?
Do my words carry weight like His do?
Do my eyes see through the flesh into the Spirit realm ?
Do my deeds line to up His? Do I go about doing good?
If you asked a friend, would they say I looked like Jesus?
If you asked my family would they say I looked like Jesus?
If you asked my coworkers would they say I looked like Jesus?
If you asked a stranger would they say I looked like Jesus?
Better yet, if you asked my enemy would they say I looked like Jesus?

That last one really broke me.  But in my heart as I am crying out for revival I have to say I want to look like Him when I look in the mirror. I don’t want to see me. I want to see Jesus. I want others to see Jesus.

This is the way we truly die to self – When YOU desire to look like Him so desperately that YOU don’t matter anymore. We try in our own flesh to die to ourselves and obey what Jesus said in His Word. But today I realized that “to truly die to myself is to pursue the desire to look like Him and then I will be no more”.

The Word tells us that Jesus Himself never did independently apart from the Father.
Oh, how we love to boast on our independence. But independence is really all about SELF.
The dictionary meaning says things like “to be free from the control of another, not depending on another’s authority”. It means we consider ourselves self sufficient, self reliant, self supporting and self standing.

While hearing myself asking all those questions, I could hear my heart all the while saying,
Mirror mirror on the wall
Who is the greatest of them all
I want to see Jesus….when I look in my mirror.

So what does revival look like to me right now?  It’s coming in the form of questions. Questions that like arrows are shooting straight into my heart causing some pain but bringing a refreshing that follows the repentance just as His Word promises us in Acts 10:19.

As for revival, these questions feel like an alarm clock to my spirit. They are waking me up. They are demanding my response. Now just like an alarm clock, I have options.  I can turn off the alarm and go back to sleep.  I can hit the “snooze” button and deal with issues another time or I can respond by waking up, dealing with any sin the Lord shows in my heart, known or unknown. My heart is stirring with revival to pursue Him more.  Revival Fire Fall!  I only know in part what you look like but I am ready for all God has to pour out on us!

Now I have but one question for you today, “Do you have time for God to interrupt your life with revival?”  If you are wondering what revival looks like, I pray you will answer with a shout of “Yes, Lord! Bring revival and interrupt my life and show me what revival looks like!”