Revival

 

Since last week there has been revival lighting up the campus of my seminary in Wilmore Kentucky. Asbury University and Asbury Seminary are presently dealing with an influx of people from around the country and world traveling to their campus to get a taste of this beautiful revival taking place.

I’ve heard it said over and over. “It all started with a regular Wednesday chapel service and just evolved into something so much more.”  Words like awakening and revival have been used. Some choose to not call it anything, as not to put this holy time in a box with a name.

With or without a label, what is happening there is nothing less than incredible and beautiful. People repenting, worshiping, praying and healing.  People want to “come and see” and others don’t want to leave this amazing out-pouring of the Holy Spirit.

As this event in time continues the question arises….”how long will it last?”

In the hospital when someone passes out, you grab the smelling salts to revive them; but the first question when they’re awakened is, what caused them to pass out in the first place? Was it fear? Exhaustion? A metabolic imbalance?

Because no medical staff ever handed someone smelling salts and sent them on their way without looking deeper. To do so would be malpractice. There’s usually some deeper issue involved. Something else that needs tending to.

The same with revival.

The Holy Spirit didn’t suddenly show up at Hughes Auditorium at Asbury College last Wednesday. Holy Spirit has been there, but suddenly everyone had ears to hear, eyes to see and hearts to understand.

When we talk about revival, it’s not a sustainable word.

Revival is a jump-start. You wouldn’t want to jump start your car every time you stopped somewhere. If your car keeps losing power you get a new battery.

Revival is to wake up from a slumber. To breath in the smelling salts of the Holy Spirit.

Once we’re awake, we go from there. Usually the first thing to do is to figure out why you ever slumbered to begin with. Maybe you needed more sleep. Maybe you’ve lost “consciousness” due to fear. Maybe something needs healing deep within.

Spiritual revival is God giving us the eyes to see and the ears to hear. It’s the jump start of our faith. It’s the opening of the veil as time stands still and we feel the restful presence of God.

No one ever wants “revival” to end. The feelings of euphoria and closeness to holiness is palpable from every eyewitness.

But all “revival” must turn into a “sustainable” path of faith. Revival is a reminder to “wake up sleeper!” To stay aware. To stay connected, and to nurture those things in us which keep us spiritually healthy.

We are a culture physically living on a lack of sleep and exuberant amounts of coffee. We’re also a culture that’s sometimes spiritually living on lack of prayer time, contemplation and scripture, trying to keep ourselves awake with a slow IV drip of streaming worship music and one Sunday service a week.

None of which are sustainable.

We have to ask ourselves how revival even begins. It starts with prayer. People will tell you that the prayer on that campus at Wilmore for several years has been “Bring a revival Lord”. “Wake us up Lord!”

And although the next question from many is “How long will this last?” The real question should be “Now that we’re awake, what should we do?”

“This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”-Ephesians 5:14

It’s not coincidental that the first thing that many people did at the start of this experience was to repent. When Christ shines his light on us we can see. All the things we’ve shoved into dark corners of our lives are revealed. It brings us to our knees.

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.”-Isaiah 60:1

“And do this, understanding the occasion. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.”-Romans 13:11

I think we can learn allot from Isaiah in this moment. This scripture has been on my heart since the beginning of this year and now profoundly present in my observation of this time of revival.

Isaiah 6:1-8- ”It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple.  Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.  They were calling out to each other,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!
    The whole earth is filled with his glory!”

Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.

Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. ⁷ He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.”

Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?”  I said, “Here I am. Send me.”

 

Did you see the first thing that Isaiah did as the train of the Lords robe filled the temple? He repented. And as Isaiah’s repentant words leave his lips an angel touches his lips with a burning coal.

 

His guilt was removed and his sins forgiven.

 

It was at that moment that the Lord asked “Whom should I send?” and without a moment’s thought Isaiah said “Send me”

 

The answer to where we go from here, I believe, rests in this heavenly interaction that Isaiah had with God.

We have to be a people who are awakened by the presence of God so that we too can say “Here I am. Send me.”

We can’t stay and bask in the presence of revival. We too must “go”.

 

As Gods robe fills Hughes Auditorium and God awakens His people and cleanses their hearts, I can’t help but believe that He speaks a question to all of us near and far, as well.

 

“Whom shall I send?”

 

Father may this time of awakening not only give us eyes to see and ears to hear. May it give us voices to say “Send me”

 

-Pastor Patti