REVIVAL NOW

(1st in a series)

SIMPLE! That's the best word to describe Revival. Most Christians don't get revived, because it is so simple! Revival is personal and immediate, and is just the constant experience of any Christian who will "walk in the light", but this means an altogether "new" sensitiveness to sin, a calling of things by their proper name of sin, such as pride, hardness, doubt, fear, self-pity, and not pretending that they are something else.

"Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3)

Too many Christians try to fit things into their own little doctrinal scheme, instead of just coming humbly to the Cross of Christ for cleansing from their own personal sins. Correct doctrine is good, if you practice it; but that never happens until self is set aside and you come to Jesus just as you are: A no-good child in whom God has no pleasure.

"For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself." (Galatians 6:3)

Revival is when you constantly choose to die to the big "I", that Jesus might be all, and continually come to him for cleansing in his precious blood. It means a readiness to "break" and confess at the feet of him who was broken for us, for the blood of Christ doesn't cleanse excuses, but always cleanses sin, confessed as sin; and then Revival is just the daily experience of a soul full of Jesus and running over!

When the life of the Lord Jesus is poured into your heart, you are victorious, because JESUS is always victorious. In heaven they are praising him all the time for his victory. Whatever may be our experience of failure and barrenness, he is never defeated. His power is not bound. And we only have to get into a right relationship with him, and we shall see his power being demonstrated in our hearts and in our lives and service for him. His victorious life will fill us and then overflow to others through us!

If however, we are to come into this relationship with him, the first thing we must do is learn that our wills must be broken to his will. To be broken is the beginning of Revival. It may be painful and humiliating, but it's the only way. It is being, "not I, but Christ".

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)

The Lord Jesus cannot live in us fully, and reveal himself thru us, until the proud self inside of us is broken. This simply means that the hard un-yielding self, which justifies itself, wants its own way, stands up for its own rights, and seeks its own glory, at last bows its head to God's will, admits it is wrong, gives up its own way to the Lord, surrenders its rights and discards its own glory; that the Lord Jesus Christ might have all and be all!

As we look honestly at our life, we can see how much of this self there is in each of us. It is too often self who tries to live the Christian life (and the fact that I say "try" indicates that self can't do it). It is self, too, who is often doing the "work".

It is always self who gets irritable and envious and resentful and critical and worried. It is self who is hard and unyielding in its attitudes toward other people. It is self who is shy and self conscious and reserved. No wonder we need to be BROKEN!

As long as Self is in control, God can do little with us, for the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5, is the complete opposite of that hard, unbroken spirit within us and presupposes that self has been crucified. (see Gal.2:20 above again)

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Galatians 6:7)

Being broken is both the Lord's work and ours. He brings his pressure to bear, but we have to make the choice. If we are sincerely open to his conviction, then he will show us the expressions of this proud, hard self that causes him pain. Then we can either stiffen our necks and refuse to repent, or bow the head and say, "Yes, Lord!"

"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." (Galatians 6:14)

Since the Holy Spirit's conviction is continuous, we shall constantly need to be broken. Of course, this can be very costly, when we see all the yielding of rights and selfish interests that this involves, and the confessions and restitutions that are necessary.

For that reason, we are not likely to be broken except at the Cross of the Lord Jesus. The willingness of Jesus to be broken for us is the all-compelling motive in our being broken too. We see him "who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:6,7p) -- God's Servant and man's servant.

We see him willing to have no rights of his own, no home of his own, no possessions of his own, willing to let men revile him and not revile again, willing to let men tread on him and not retaliate.

"And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air [have] nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay [his] head." (Luke 9:58)

Above all, we see him broken, as He meekly goes to Calvary to become man's scapegoat by bearing our sins in his own body on the Tree. He spoke thru David in Psalms 22:6p and said: "But I [am] a worm, and no man" Anyone knows the difference between a snake and a worm when you try to strike at them. The snake rears itself up and hisses and tries to strike back: a true picture of self. But a worm offers no resistance, it allows you to kick it or squash it under your heel: a picture of brokenness. And Jesus was willing to become just that for us: a worm and no man. And he did so, because that is what he saw us to be: WORMS, having forfeited all of our rights by our sin, except to deserve Hell. And now He calls us to take our rightful and true place as worms for him, with him. But only the vision of the love that was willing to be broken for us can make us to be willing for THAT!

"Lord, bend that proud and stiff-necked I, Help me to bow the head and Die: Beholding him on Calvary, Who bowed his head for me!"

But dying to self is not a thing we do one time. There may be a first time, when God first shows us these things, but ever afterward, it will be a constant dying, for only so can the Lord Jesus be revealed continually through us.

All day long, the choice will be before us. It will mean no plans, no time, no money, no pleasure of our own. It will mean a constant yielding to those around us. Every humiliation, everyone who tries and vexes us, is God's way of breaking us, so that there is a deeper channel in us for the life of the Lord Jesus Christ!

You see, the ONLY life that pleases God and that can be victorious, is HIS life -- never ours, no matter how hard we try. We can never be filled with his life, until we are ready for God to bring our life constantly to death, by our cooperation.

Choose you this day whom you will serve! Find out what Real Revival is in your daily life and see what God can do with you now. -- Revival Now!

Just as I am, with-out one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

Just as I am, and wait-ing not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

"And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives." -- "And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." (Matthew 26:30,39)

Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.  --Richard 

(Please see Cups Running Over next. Thanks. :)