Jesus is revival. Its the crisis of our age, a lack of awareness of His presence. Its Jesus Himself we desperately seek. Its confusing to Christians who know that they found Jesus, but there is also a life-long pursuit of Jesus and His presence. We must continualy seek His presence. Its the pearl of great price. Can we cry out as the psalmist did " As the deer panteth for the waterbrooks so my soul longeth after thee." Can we say as David said "Restore unto me, the joy of my salvation." Can we cry out to God and make this plea "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." Can we pursue Holiness, can we desire, above anything else to have clean hands and a pure heart?
Revival is something that happens to us when the shekinah glory of the Lord comes down, when there is such an awareness of His presence that men and woman can can stand in the refining fire of God and exalt His holiness, fall on their faces in the awe and majesty that comes, not from a head knowledge, but from a radical encounter with a living God that has "stepped down." When He steps down, time ceases to have meaning. The cares of this world disappear. The world of all possibilities open up. There is great joy, there is weeping, the lost cry out "is there mercy for me," and they rejoice to find out , yes indeed there is mercy for the man of Calvary has come and walks in the midst of His people. Jesus, that name, the fullness of the Godhead, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is revival. God Himself is an encounter.
A heart that has not been enraptured by love, is a heart that has not had an encounter with the Living God. Revival is encounter! In the agony of illumination , we cry out to God and from the very alter of the living God, with tongs mind you, the angel touches you with fire, refining fire. THIS IS REVIVAL. One man or woman will agonize at his or her state, he or she will cry out to God, and God will send fire from the alter itself . The impenitent will harden and will flee, and those who linger in the light from the coal from the alter will be revived and refined and the fire will spread and it will consume. And a people will cry out and worship God and they too will cry “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty.”
Brother Tozer writes this in "Pursuit of God.'........
Everything is made to center upon the initial act of “accepting” Christ (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible) and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls. We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we have found Him, we need no more seek Him.
This is set before us as the last word in orthodoxy, and it is taken for granted that no Bible-taught Christian ever believed otherwise. Thus the whole testimony of the worshiping, seeking, singing church on that subject is crisply set aside. The experiential heart-theology of a grand army of fragrant saints is rejected in favor of a smug interpretation of Scripture which would certainly have sounded strange to an Augustine, a Rutherford or a Brainerd.
In the midst of this great chill there are some, I rejoice to acknowledge, who will not be content with shallow logic. They will admit the force of the argument, and then turn away with tears to hunt some lonely place and pray, “O God, show me Thy glory.” They want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God.
I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain.— Pursuit of God
