SCRIPTURAL INGREDIENTS TO
REAL PERSONAL REVIVAL
ARTICLE
There is a tremendous need in the church today regarding three biblical areas:
1) the true way of salvation
2) the true way of sanctification
3) the true way of revival
In this article, we will look at one of these, “the true way of revival.”
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REVIVAL’S LIFE, LIBERTY AND VICTORY
As a believer, you definitely want to experience life, liberty and victory. You desire to see your heart revived and your faith alive and growing. You can be confident that God is Who He says He is and will do for you what He says He’ll do. The Lord has promised to do wondrous things for you in revival.
There is only one way to it—and only God can do it. But, before describing the way to true personal revival and what genuine revival really is, let us first point out four things that it isn’t:
• It’s not more of today’s routine “religion”.
• It’s not manmade good works.
• It’s not pride promoting flesh.
• It’s not foreign spirits masquerading as the Holy Spirit to bring about a counterfeit imposter that calls itself revival.
This imposter will only generate a false revival that grieves the Spirit of God and parades its vanity in the face of God’s holiness.
A revived heart is one which is contrite before God, hungry for His holiness, confirmed in its faith and filled with God’s Spirit. By such, this revived heart is full of spiritual life, lavished in liberty and resting in victory!
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CONVICTION-CONTRITION-CRUCIFIXION-CONSECRATION
Conviction and Contrition
Many people today have a strange idea as to what revival is. They seem to think it begins with the roof blowing off. However, as Roy Hession, revivalist of the 20th Century said, “Revival is not the roof blowing off, but the bottom falling out.” When a person gets a vision of the holiness and majesty of God, he will be convinced of the wretchedness of his sin. Before he experiences the forgiveness and grace of God that issues him into glorious revival, he will feel the desolation and wretchedness of his sin. Before he feels the light from forgiveness and the “roof blowing off,” he first will feel the dark, desolation of regret and conviction that comes when the “floor” of self and sin can no longer support him.
For personal revival to occur, there must be a deep conviction of sin and brokenness over it. The Lord is only near to those of a broken and contrite spirit, (“to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” Isa. 57:15)
To see God high and lifted up, we must see Him as holy. When we realize God’s disdain for sin and how severely He judges it, as He did with King Uzziah, we will respect and value His holiness and deplore our own sin. Whatever crisis or event precipitates our seeing our own sin, seeing God’s holiness and His glory in a new and convicting way is the precursor of personal revival.
Our initial response to conviction and brokenness may be to recoil. This is because we have a negative impression of the pain of conviction. But, God so accompanies this work of conviction with His grace; He so covers our contrition with His forgiveness that negative will actually change to positive, recoil to embrace with fear being swallowed up by God’s love. The spirit of humility comes to reign, and the spirit of pride must resign.
There is one major realization when personal revival begins in our heart and that is how full of pride we are. Pride and revival are mutually exclusive. Ironically, most of what we see in churches and on television today, being lauded as Holy Ghost revival, is reeking with pride. Pride is especially odious when it heralds itself with accolades of morality and religion. If we are to see revival, we must be willing to see ourselves for what we really are and be stripped of our pride. Revival calls us to prostrate ourselves before God. We must keep our hearts laid open before God in continual readiness for repentance.
True conviction of sin is initially a desolate feeling. But our repentance and God’s forgiveness will pour peace, joy and glory into our once broken heart. We thank the Lord that repentance and continual joy are not exclusive
of one another. In fact, repentance actually
enables joy.
When we respond to God with conviction and contrition, we can trust the Lord to do wondrous things for us. (Please read the “Repentance” section in our combined booklet “His Way to True Salvation“ available in our Bible Studies & Bookstore and on Amazon.)
Crucifixion
What is often called revival today is actually only consecrated flesh. True, God is looking for consecrated service—but not service from consecrated flesh, which is natural fallen self having consecrated itself to God in its own strength, in the name of Jesus. This is a masquerade using God words and parading proud flesh. At salvation, our flesh, our old man, wasn’t consecrated to God and reformed to follow Him, it was crucified with Christ. We were regenerated to be indwelt by Him and by faith to live by Him. (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. Gal. 2:20).
Consecrated flesh is the kind of consecration that is usually full of hidden self serving motives. God doesn’t want our flesh consecrated to Him. He wants it put to death on the cross. At salvation, our old man has been positionally placed on the cross. (Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Rom. 6:6) Now, while here on earth, we are, by faith, to experientially walk risen with Christ. To do this, our old man must be experientially reckoned to its position of crucifixion with Christ. (Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 6:11) Our present earthly condition is meant to match our heavenly position. (Please see our books and booklets pertaining to this topic available in our Bible Studies & Bookstore and on Amazon.)
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Consecration
God wants our service for Him to come by the power of His Spirit. This will only happen as He reveals His Shekinah glory through a broken and contrite vessel wholly yielded to Christ. The victorious Spirit-filled life is not our strength serving to perform good consecrated work for Him—but His Spirit enabling work through us. This is both the result of personal revival and the heart of personal revival.
(Please see our books and booklets pertaining to this topic available at in our Bible Studies & Bookstore and on Amazon.)
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WE CAN’T—JESUS CAN
Spirit consecration and filling has a profound impact on our spiritual and practical Christian life. Spirit consecration and filling happens when we come to that place where we realize we can do nothing and that Jesus really wants to do it for us and through us.
Whatever events or crises in our life God allows to bring us to such a desperate realization of our need, it serves to cause us to cease from our own deadly doings. In absolute assurance and faith, we cry out to Jesus. This is when He becomes all of our hope and all of our strength. We no longer have any hope in ourselves, no more hope in “the little engine that could.”
This is when the hope of all hope becomes the miracle of all miracles: Jesus simply does it. He actually does do it; it really happens. This realization and personal application may come by a physical, financial, emotional or spiritual need. But however it comes, it comes as an all-or-none reliance on Jesus. Although I had been through several fiery trials, physical and financial, mine especially came in the realm of spiritual warfare.
The bottom line realization is in Colossians 3:10, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:” Although you gave your whole heart and life to Jesus at salvation, taking Him as Lord and Savior, now you must learn to walk in His Lordship. It’s wonderful; it’s scriptural; it’s liberating; it’s amazing; it’s heavenly—it’s Jesus!!!
Finally, there is a rest that results from Holy Spirit consecration. Resting is a matter of living by faith. (Faith that works, not faith plus works.) By this, we believe God is not only Who He says He is but that He will do what He says He will.