Revival Comes with a Cross

I've started a new blog dedicated to Revival and this is my first entry:

REVIVAL COMES WITH A CROSS

Revival comes with a cross. God makes us alive in Him so that we will be willing to die for Him. When God comes in revival He is simply bringing the church from where it is back to where it should be. The Church in America today looks nothing like the Church of the New Testament (except possibly some of the churches in Revelation!). The heart of New Testament Christianity is the cross. Of course the cross of Christ is central, but the cross I'm speaking of is the cross that Christ's disciples must pick up and carry. In Matthew 16 Jesus says to his disciples: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done" (24-27.) In revival God comes to lay claim on His people. He doesn't just come to bless, renew, refresh, and heal; He comes to slay His disciples. For the believer genuine revival is heart wrenching! It's hard to have a comfortable crucifixion! In revival God places His finger on things that compete for our affections and says, "forsake them". He exposes our passionless praying and preaching and says, "repent". He sifts our motives until, like Isaiah, we cry, "Woe to me!...I am ruined!". This is a consistent and common characteristic of genunie revival. When God draws near we begin to see ourselves in new light. Our "holiness" begins to look like filthy rags. Our "fire" appears dim and flickering. Our "burden" is seen as a mere inconvenience. True revival comes with a cross and the first ones crucified are those who think more highly of themselves than they ought. (see Romans 12:1-3). Do you still want revival or are you just looking for a "touch" from God? Jesus didn't bypass His cross and neither can we. Revival is costly, but if we don't pay the price, then America will soon pay for her sins.

If interested you can access my blog at: http://rendtheheavens.blogspot.com

I will also be preaching Sunday night on this theme at our church so your prayers would be appreciated.

Steve

It Has to Start with me Today!

My Brothers and Sisters who are looking for Revival, as we look all around us, at the state of the church today and complain, don’t we know, we are part of the problem.

If it dose not start with me it ant going to happen, how long are we going to keep playing the games.

When are we going to take a good look at our own hearts, and say this has to change now, today is time for us God’s so called people to REPENT, we have loved this world, and have become sick, and Jesus is calling for us to stop all the talking about revival, and have one, revival will come as we get sick of sin, in our young people, in our land, but most of all in me!

Revival has nothing to do with the unsaved, they have never lived, revival is to do with me, we know what’s wrong, but will not make the change! We have become stuck in a rut of our traditions, our Sunday of 11am meetings, and we don’t think to call for a meeting to cry FIRE!!

Who of us is going to wake up TODAY!! And not shut up till we call the Church to REPENT of all it’s willful sins, and fall in LOVE with JESUS all over again! It’s Love that says I WILL, it is NOT a feeling it is an act of my will, and obedience to the Voice of Our Loving God, Who is crying out to us today, return to me now before I have to bring down judgment on you again! And more judgments on this land!!

It’s NOW WAKE UP Time, LET’S REPENT

No more waiting around for others to be ready, let us go up at once!

Ian

Mahoney wrote:
See, here is my problem with the whole idea of "revival". The term "revival" bothers me because it seem like we are always waiting for something.
I agree with everything you wrote, but I refuse to call that "revival". It is nothing less than the normal Christian life! It is God's pathway to our inheritance.

JennRich writes:
Yes, I agree it is the normal Christian life, but I think when most preachers speak of revival they are referring to a deep CLEANSING among a body of believers, cleansing of secret sin that we tend to cherish in our hearts. I know that God has brought me through (I'm still in it, actually) a cleansing time the last few years, and I'm horrified at the sin I "didn't know" was there until he revealed it. But as a result, my hope and faith in Him is so much greater than ever; He's everything to me.
I do believe that God does this in the life of every true believer. But how sweet it would be for a whole body of Christians to go "through the fire" AT THE SAME TIME ("revival"), and think of what a witness we could be to lost onlookers. . . .

If the normal Christian life is Acts 1-28, then the normal Christian life contains revival. The problem is that we are trying to start with 2:2, and forgetting what the disciples did up to then, which is not just chapter 1, but also Luke, since Acts is just Luke part II.

Namely:
-being born again,
-preaching that men should repent locally
-identifying with Christ in suffering, death, burial, and resurrection
-tarrying in prayer until being endued with power from on high
-preaching to whoever God calls you to and coming under severe resistance, persecution, and rejection

In all honesty, I think that the average Christian today doesn't get past the first item.

I will go pray now before I fall into the trap of calling others on what they are doing wrong and not doing it myself.

Mahoney,

I believe revival is God bringing the church back to normal. If our Christianity was normal we wouldn't need revival. I completely agree that what I've described is normal Christianity, but the sad fact is I don't know to many Christians who are "normal". Leonard Ravenhill's last book was entitled: Revival God's Way, How to bring the church from where it is to where it should be. That's the reason I call it revival. Revival is the church getting back to normal. If the church was normal we wouldn't need revival. Finney said that revival presupposes declension. Anyway, regardless of the terms I think we agree that our Christian experience (individually and corporately) needs to get back to normal.

God Bless,

Steve

I've uploaded this sermon to the internet. You can download or listen to it here:

Revival Comes with a Cross

http://www.zshare.net/audio/s-noel-revival-comes-with-a-cross-mp3.html

It's an hour long. If anyone takes the time to listen to it let me know

Steve

Hey guys,

I was able to upload this message with a little better volume.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/revival-comes-with-a-cross-noel-mp3.html

God bless,

Steve

I listened to 45 minutes of this before I had to go out, it really blessed me, brought a fresh perspective to it (especially about Satan talking us out of our cross). I also thought of the method of execution chosen, we often compare the cross to an electric chair, but it's not like that. It's the long, drawn-out AGONY of it that makes crucifixion so difficult, and yet all the more essential,

Thank you brother,

Adam.

While I believe that a Spirit-filled lifestyle must be the norm for us as believers, I do believe there is such a thing as a revival outside of that.

History has repeated Acts 2. When God's people pray and obey, there is a "pouring out" of God's presence. Peter in Acts 3:19 describes it as "times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord." In the original greek times of refreshing actually means a "season of revival" from God's presence.

Revival is the great need today. While we must glorifiy Jesus, walk in the Spirit and be a witness, we must pray the prayers of the Bible "God make your power known! Make your name known among the nations once again!"

Send revival Lord