How to Position Yourself for True Revival

All Christians would probably vote yes for a revival to break out. We all want to see powerful conversions from spiritual death to eternal life. We want to witness an awakening sweep across a dull and dusty church in America.

I believe in healings and miracles … but I don’t see nearly enough of either one of these beautiful manifestations of the power of God. Who among us would not want to operate in a daily, uninterrupted flow of Holy Spirit power that sets people free from their strongholds and demonic oppression?

What about Christians forsaking all and committing to take the gospel to the farthest and darkest places on earth?

We all desire revival. But true revival is not cheap.

Friends, I am concerned that we think that it is.

The kind of revival that we long for will not fall upon the casual Christian. It won’t come to a compromised church. We will not be able to taste the fruit of revival until we tap into the root of revival.

So, I have been thinking about what it requires of me to experience the elevated fire of God in my own life. I believe that I have received a few things from the Lord that will help me position myself to experience revival in my own soul. Today, I simply leave them with you to consider for your own life. These things will also help our churches and ministries to experience revival. I want it deeply. But it will not come to the prematurely satisfied. We need to build our hunger for revival before we taste of it.

To position ourselves for revival, here is where all of us must begin:

1. Know what God actually offers. Understand what God has offered to His people, what God has promised to His people, what God has required from His people and what God has demanded from His people. Revival is linked forever to the desires of God. We find all of these things in the written Word. Apart from a renaissance of commitment to the Word of God, revival will not happen in this season. A return to the Word is required. Not for those who only hear, but to the doers of the Word, revival will come.
2. Do a spiritual inventory. Assess where you are personally in comparison to what No. 1 reveals. Measure the distance between No. 1 and where you are. We cannot pretend to be in a better place than we actually are. No matter how consecrated, committed and convicted I am in my walk with God, there will be a gap between all that God offers and all that I am living in. A spiritual inventory openly, honestly says, “Father, here I am. I’m living beneath what You desire for me and all that You offer me. Meet me where I live, and bring me into deeper fullness with You.”
3. Humble yourself, and mourn. Let the weight of the distance between No. 1 and No. 2 impact you in the deepest way. Grieve over the distance between what God desires and that for which you have settled. Acknowledge the gap to be real and urgently in need of remedy. Allow yourself to feel the distance between you and Him. Revival comes to those who grieve over the current status of their hearts and the collective heart of the church. Apart from the discomfort of mourning over our ways, revival will continue to tarry.
4. Cry out in prayer. Confess where you have fallen short. Confess for yourself, your family, your church, your community, your tribe and your nation. Align with His heart and declare the transgression. Agree with God that this cannot continue. He is waiting for your cry; He is waiting until your heart is emptied of grief over falling short and is instead eager to be raised anew in hope, assurance and sobered alignment with what He is about to do.
5. Believe in God’s grace. Trust that God will honor your mourning and your crying out to Him. Believe that He is pleased with your repentance. Trust that He will powerfully move on your behalf within the space in your heart that you have now newly created. Anticipate change to come within you and through you. By this step, you have done most of the heaviest lifting. The devil fights our repentance and confession more than anything else in this list. He lies to us and says, “It’s not that bad. You’re a better Christian than most. Good things are happening at your church. Why can’t you just be satisfied? Quit thinking like a fanatic.” Don’t listen to the enemy. Let your assessment be gained from God’s exalted perspective, not the devil’s wicked point of view. You need not fear an honest assessment because God’s grace will meet you wherever you are—no matter how far you have drifted from Him.
6. Commit to a new way. Listen intently to the many ways through which God will begin to freshly speak to you. Repent continually in a radical level as He will reveal obstacles, practices, relationships and false belief patterns that have hindered revival in your own life. Commit to obey all that He reveals to you. Do the right thing, no matter the cost. Seek His face in all matters, and reorient yourself away from the world and unto the King.
7. Abide in this new revelation. Don’t budge from this new way you have chosen. Don’t allow anyone to talk you out of it. Don’t try to control others to do as you have now done. Welcome God to deal with them as you pray for them. Deny yourself. Carry your cross, and die to lesser loyalties. Pray, fast, gorge on the Word, worship fervently and pursue deep fellowship with others who are burning for Him. Let His love constrain you in all matters. Advance the Gospel; wage war in the Spirit against the evil one, and love without reservation.

I am committed to living out these principles I have listed. I am assured that revival will continue to build in my own life. I believe it will also burst from my life. I will relentlessly lead whoever I can to walk in this way with me. Friends, we are all hungry for revival. We just need to remain fixated on God releasing it until it comes to us.

I believe we are close.

Tune into this episode of Mavericks and Misfits with Jeff Lyle on the Charisma Podcast Network. {eoa}

Jeff Lyle is the senior pastor of New Bridge Church in Lawrenceville, Georgia.