Revival In America

Revival IS needed in America. 

We come from a nation that, at its beginning, had a Biblical Understanding of life.  We can see that in education, as Scripture and prayer were in the New England Primer, which was used to educate our founders. Many of the church members I have gotten to know over the years had prayer in school, Bible in school, and it was just part of life in earlier days.  We can see this expressed in blue laws, in which businesses are largely closed on Sundays. Think of that! It is hard to imagine today, but Sundays looked more like Christmas Day or Thanksgiving Day when businesses were all closed. It almost feels eerie to have so many companies empty for a day.

Of course, we could talk about the moral decline in America, going from I Love Lucy, where Ricky and Lucy slept in separate beds on television to avoid any kind of immoral or obscene image, to where we are today, where any child with a smartphone can access the pit of hell. However, what I would like to write about in this article is how revival works, so that revival can start with you and me.

The dictionary defines revive as regaining life, regaining strength, and energy.

Revival is for the Believer. You cannot REVIVE something you never had. Believers need to keep the FIRE burning bright with passion for God and for the things of God.

Romans 12:11 tells us as followers of Jesus, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.”

Zeal is enthusiasm for Jesus. We do not want to be excited about Jesus just when we first heard about Him, but we want to be gaining enthusiasm and passion for Jesus as we walk with Him.

Fervor is from a Greek word meaning to boil over. Fervor is when a pot is on the stove, and it reaches its boiling point, and it begins to foam and bubble over. May we keep this spiritual fervor while serving Jesus. To stay on fire for Jesus, we need fuel for the fire.

God’s Word is FUEL, Christian Fellowship when we talk about God with each other and pray for each other is FUEL, Prayer is FUEL, Quality Time with God is FUEL, Worship is FUEL, Praise Music is FUEL – all these things fill us up in the SPIRIT.

Let us explore three occasions of REVIVAL from the Bible. May we learn how to turn up the spiritual temperature of our lives.   

First, let us look at the revival during Gideon’s time in the book of Judges.

Gideon lived in a spiritually dark time for Israel.  Gideon was in the middle of some farm work when God sent an angel to him. Revival started with God.

Revival always starts from God. He may use people in the work, but He gives it the spark. This was what God did with Gideon. God was going to use Gideon to bring about godly change for Israel.

Gideon, like most of us, did not think he was anybody special.  He might have thought God made a mistake choosing him, but God told him, “I will be with you.” God does not call the gifted; God gives gifts to the called.

Now, let’s zero in on Judges 6:25-26, “That same night the LORD said to him, ‘Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the LORD your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering.”

Here we can see the need for revival. God’s people were drifting into worldly ways. Baal worship and Asherah worship were invading the home.

Baal was the thunder and rain god, and Asherah was the fertility god – so these false gods promised more crops, more livestock, and more children for families.

The same type of worship still happens today, just replace the name Baal with Money and Asherah with Immoral Sex. It seems Baal and Asherah worship is just as much a temptation today as it always was.

So, God had Gideon CLEAN HOUSE. Here is something we can do to encourage REVIVAL.

God told Gideon to tear down the idols. Whatever gets in the way of worshipping God with all our heart needs to go!

There is a newer song out I have really been enjoying called: Dusty Bibles by Josiah Queen. In the song, he expresses the anxieties and distress of this generation and says, “We got dust on our Bibles, but brand-new iPhones, no wonder why we feel this way; We walk with our eyes closed, blind leading blind folks; And I'm done with those idols and dusty Bibles.”

This song is about clearing out the idol that is in the way of his communion with God. Josiah Queen desires a RICHER WALK with GOD. Yet he’s noticed he was spending fruitless time reaching for his phone and scrolling through his iPhone. He knew God would REVIVE his soul, SO his IDOL needed to go!

The average person in America spends 3-4 hours scrolling on a phone; this IS NOT giving people joy and peace in their souls; it is the opposite. We are made for God. Idols always fail.

So here is a question to prepare for REVIVAL: what is in our way of better quality time with God, and are we going to clean house?  

Now, let us move along to a second REVIVAL: King Josiah’s REVIVAL.

King Josiah also lived in a spiritually low time in Israel. Josiah, like Gideon, cleaned house in Israel, removing idolatry. He also wanted the Temple of the LORD repaired and cleaned up.

During the cleanup, the Bible was found in the Temple and read before King Josiah. Obviously, the Bible had been neglected. 

They were in a sad spiritual state BECAUSE the Word of God was neglected. So, it is with America. The more we drift from God’s Truth, the sadder the mess we find ourselves in.  Nations rot without God’s Truth.

However, when the Bible was discovered, Josiah led everyone in Jerusalem to honor God’s Word. 2 Chronicles 34:30-31, “ He went up to the temple of the Lord with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the Lord.”

The WORD of God led to REVIVAL in Jerusalem and far beyond. When we rediscover the value of God’s Word and make the habit of staying in God’s Word, REVIVAL happens.

First of all, remember God’s WORD is POWERFUL. It does not matter how much we have read the WORD; God can use it to change our lives today. After 19 years of walking with Jesus, Bible seminary, and preaching for 16 years, I am still seeing new things in God’s Word today.  God spoke all of CREATION into existence by HIS WORD – when we take in God’s WORD, Power from God is unleashed in our lives.

Second, we need to keep the habit. I know making a habit can be hard. Often, we say, I do not have time for it, or I have trouble understanding it so I stopped trying. But we will make time for what’s important to us.

My Great Grandma had a habit, every day, she would gather my mom as a child would open the Bible, read a chapter with her, and pray. My Great Grandma was an immigrant from Germany; she and my great grandpa came to Lafayette without many possessions. He worked at a department store. They were not highly educated. They were simple people, but Great Grandma was a committed Christian, and she was going to gather my mom for devotions no matter what my mom thought about it! It was a priority!

We will make time for what we treasure. I bet that if you discovered a treasure map in your attic. If there were a treasure identified on your property. You would not stop digging because it was hard; you would find a way to get it done to get the treasure! God’s Word is GOLD. 

Now, the last REVIVAL I will address is the REVIVAL in Nineveh. Again, God initiated this revival.   God sent the prophet Jonah to Nineveh. Jonah eventually came and shared God’s Word, and then looked at Nineveh’s response to God’s Word: Jonah 3:7-9

“This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles:

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. ⁸ But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and, with compassion, turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

REPENTANCE Led to REVIVAL. Here, the Ninevites changed their lives for God. REPENTANCE is letting God reform our ways of living. 

One of the biggest obstacles to repentance is the idea that I already did that. Repentance in our mind should not be something we think is behind us; repentance is for TODAY.

How many of you know, it’s not how you start a race; it’s how you finish. The prize does not go to the one who started well, but to the one who finished well. 

I have an elder from my church, and I think about when it comes to finishing well. When Norm was in his 70s, he remained hungry for God’s Word until he finished his race. He also kept letting Christ change his life as he approached the finish line. 

He once said to me, “At first I thought sermons I heard were all for someone else, but then God showed me, they were for me, for me to learn from, for me to hear, for me to change my life.” 

REVIVAL comes when we realize that we still have parts of our lives that need to be yielded to God today. Revival happens when we give God more room to work in our lives. When we seek God more in our hearts. 

As the great hymn says, “May each heart be filled with God’s love, may each soul be rekindled with fire from above!”  LORD Jesus, revive Your People in America today!