Television • Radio • Film • Internet • Publishing

Heart Cry for Revival

By Edwina Patterson
Founder, Redeeming the Time
Director of Prayer, Women in Christian Media

Charles Spurgeon noted, “Alas, many of us lack revival, but few of us feel that we lack it.” What he’s saying resonates with me.  Our lives have become so out of balance, we seem to be oblivious to the very things we most need.

Revival is not an emotion or hyped-up excitement; it’s an acute awareness of God. Revival becomes possible when we get on our knees, and see our sin from God’s viewpoint.  We must, as Spurgeon said,” go low enough to be blessed.” We become broken before the Lord in order to be blessed.

In our hectic world, one controlled by schedules and agendas, too often we become distracted from Christ’s teachings and our behavior and conversations are no different from that of the world. Our fellowship with the Lord suffers.  We substitute religion for a relationship, we settle for Christianity without Christ, and look for forgiveness without repentance. Oswald Chambers said, “We slander God by our very eagerness to work for Him without knowing Him!”

We attend church on Sunday because it is a status symbol and we want to check one more thing from our list. We think we’re too busy to meet with the Lord daily. We make excuses for not getting involved with mission projects, volunteering in the children’s division, sharing the Gospel with a co-worker, or ministering to the elderly and sick. Our lives are filled with material things, meals, and menial tasks. Our days are governed by cell phones, emails, faxes, iPods, and time. With one eye on our watch and one on our schedule, we race through life editing God right out of it. We feel empty and too often don’t know why.

The reality of today is, now more than ever, our thoughts are occupied with innovative ideas and appointments. We race to stay ahead of the other guy and make an impact in the corporate world.  Calvin Coolidge said, “The chief business of the American people is business”…and he was more correct than he knew. 

Henry R. Luce once said, “Business, more than any other occupation, is a continual dealing with the future; it is a continual calculation, an instinctive exercise in foresight.”
TV. Radio. Internet.  Marketing. Advertising. Media. It’s technical, it’s ever present, it’s immediate—it’s a business.  Even non-profit organizations and ministries fall into the “business” category. No matter what you started out wanting to create, in the end, it becomes a business.  Employers, employees, support staff, volunteers, overhead, pay checks, insurance, out sourcing…business concerns.  They take our time and our concentration. But I am feeling the Bible tug at my heart in the midst of what I perceive are the pressures and distractions of conducting business—even Kingdom business—in today’s marketplace. I remember the apostle Paul saying that the chief business of the believer is to be about the Father’s work (Ephesians 4-5).

When I take time to really think about it, I find myself asking some big questions. What has happened? Where did we get sidetracked?  Can business, especially Christian ventures, maintain their Christian witness and still be successful? What does success look like in God’s eyes? Can we be successful in a way that pleases God? Of course we can! “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business,” said Henry Ford. And I agree with him. If we profess to be Christians, we should conduct our lives—and business—as Christ would. Success isn’t measured only by dollar signs and bank accounts.  That’s surely one measure of our business acumen—but there’s another measure that is just as, if not more important. That’s our motivation—the heart behind what we do. And…it’s measured by thoughtfulness, kindness, helping others, crying with a friend, listening without judging, standing up for the truth, not compromising your ethics or morals, and sharing the message of God’s great love—all those things count for eternity. 

Often we play at the idea of revival and enter God’s presence with unholy lives. Every time we sin—no matter how small—we challenge God’s sovereignty.  We experience a clash between our will and His will.  When we sin, we put our will above God’s will. At that moment, we are guilty of the same sin (independence/pride) that caused Satan to be kicked out of heaven. And the separation in our relationship with God grows. With genuine repentance, our sinful self-centeredness becomes God-centered and always results in a visible difference in our lives.  It’s more than merely saying, “I’m sorry.” It involves a change for the better as we turn away from sin while turning toward God.

Quickly excusing sin as wrong choices, we blame drugs, greed, problems resulting from childhood, alcohol, jealousy, depression, and anger for the problems we experience and the situations we face. Believing sin is confined to robbing a bank, murder, or rape, we fail to recognize that pride, lying, gossip, bitterness, filthy language, disregarding our responsibility as parents, or not witnessing to our neighbors is sin in God’s eyes.

We don’t like the word sin. It makes us uncomfortable and out of step with our “user friendly” culture. We confuse biblical Christianity with society’s interpretation of moral issues. And we have become desensitized. We choose to focus on God’s grace—His mercy, forgiveness, and love—and forget that all His attributes are anchored in His holiness. A holy God must judge sin. If we don’t understand the seriousness of sin, we’ll never take sin seriously.  Is it any wonder that in our quiet moments, revival—that renewing of our vital relationship with God—seems like a wish that has little hope of ever coming true?

We don’t understand the term revival, think it’s an archaic word not meant for today’s busy society, and ignore God’s warnings and wooing. It’s no wonder our lives are unbalanced, stressed, ineffective, and weak. Many believe that revival means evangelistic meetings—but that’s not it. Evangelist and author Joseph W. Kemp said, “Revival, strictly speaking, means the reanimating of that which is already living but in a state of declension.” Revivalist D.M. Paton graphically stated, “Revival is the inrush of the Spirit into a body that is ready to become a corpse!” When we do not live in a close relationship with God, we do become corpses—corpses running our families, our businesses, our ministries, attending our Sunday school classes and worship services.  We need that “inrush of the Spirit” to permeate all that we do.

We need to remove our masks—the masks of founder of ministries, CEO of businesses, high power executives, TV and radio personalities, and support staff—and realize that the basis of revival is a relationship. It’s a relationship that transcends our titles and labels and penetrates our hearts. It’s God himself reviving the fire which we’ve allowed to be extinguished by busyness in our lives. It’s the joy of experiencing a renewed passion for the Lord and His blessings. Revival is believing in Christ and behaving like Him.  The world isn’t impressed with a carbon copy of itself.  People want to see a difference—true success stories—of persons who clearly reflect Jesus Christ regardless of their circumstances.

The bottom line is, genuine revival produces joy and freedom in the midst of schedules, appointments, and agendas.  It’s a freedom from the guilt that haunts our minds, paralyzes our days, and destroys our witness. It’s true biblical joy that fills our lives with strength to keep on keeping on, peace in the midst of the storms we experience, and supernatural love that overflows onto all we meet, pointing them to Jesus.  We refuse to be silent, to allow the rock and trees to sing His praises without joining them.  We view every meeting, every acquaintance, every encounter as a divine appointment, an opportunity to share His love.  Our hearts dance for joy and our faces shine much like Moses’ did.  We aren’t victimized by the busyness of our lives. We’ve been revived…and it shows and overflows onto all we meet, in our business, our communities and our homes!

With renewed strength, energy, confidence, and contagious hope, we step out of offices, homes, and churches, and share God’s love with a hurting, busy world, infecting them with His love.  The result: revival spreads like a wildfire. 

Do you have the feeling that business, or the busyness of life is turning you into a “corpse?” That’s not God’s will for your life. Our prayer and goal for this year at WCM is to energize, equip, and encourage you to have the “inrush of the Spirit.” Our whole world needs revival, but it begins with one. Will you be that one?

Edwina Patterson is founder of Redeeming the Time, a ministry focused on equipping others to buy back the past…and focus on the future; www.redeemeingthetime.org and Director of Prayer for Women in Christian Media (WCM) a professional women’s organization. www.womeninchristianmedia.org