Revival Meetings????
It has been a while since the last post. I have been busy. I have also had a great deal on my mind. It will manifest itself on the posts that will be coming over the next several days.
This one started when I reconnected with a friend after several months. I said that we should stay in touch and that it had been way too long since we had seen each other. She and her husband, like me are professional Christians. They get remuneration for their ministry.
She suggested that I invite she and her husband to preach "revival meetings." She even suggested they might do the same for Janet and me. I think you know where this is going.
I have often wondered what that term "revival meetings" is all about. I have been in revival times. I have been in meetings where revival and great repentance started. I have never seen a revival really take place in meetings specifically called "revival meetings."
I believe that revival is not event-centered. It is personality and person-centered. That Person is the Holy Spirit. While we can pray for and cry out for revival, it is the Spirit who brings it.
Scripture says that the Spirit is like the wind and moves the way He wants and when He wants. This is by no means capricious. The Spirit is intentional and moves in the most necessary and intelligent ways.
So why would someone want to try to force something with "revival meetings." While I enjoy the ocassional event or special meeting, I cannot grasp the idea of "revival meetings." Are we trying to tell God where and how to work?
I have seen revival take place at a camp fire and at a lakeside Bible Study. I have had a sense of revival during a work project among the poor. I have seen revival breakout in a living room chat. Then again, I wonder if it was revival or God manifesting Himself as He wanted.
Here is what I think. The idea of revival may not always be a correct one, if one ascribes to the theological position that a faithful God will honor with grace His faithful people. In other words, He will convict of sin and convince of the need of repentance and renewal when we really seek Him. If we are doing that regularly as a community of believers, then we will know His reviving constantly.
Does that make sense? In other words, I think that we are so faithless, if we are constantly looking for the next manifestation of the Spirit. Shouldn't we continue in our faithfulness and count it as a bonus when the real manifestations come? Isn't that what real faith and following is about? For that matter, do we really need to see manifestations if we are faithful.
So, what do you think?
This one started when I reconnected with a friend after several months. I said that we should stay in touch and that it had been way too long since we had seen each other. She and her husband, like me are professional Christians. They get remuneration for their ministry.
She suggested that I invite she and her husband to preach "revival meetings." She even suggested they might do the same for Janet and me. I think you know where this is going.
I have often wondered what that term "revival meetings" is all about. I have been in revival times. I have been in meetings where revival and great repentance started. I have never seen a revival really take place in meetings specifically called "revival meetings."
I believe that revival is not event-centered. It is personality and person-centered. That Person is the Holy Spirit. While we can pray for and cry out for revival, it is the Spirit who brings it.
Scripture says that the Spirit is like the wind and moves the way He wants and when He wants. This is by no means capricious. The Spirit is intentional and moves in the most necessary and intelligent ways.
So why would someone want to try to force something with "revival meetings." While I enjoy the ocassional event or special meeting, I cannot grasp the idea of "revival meetings." Are we trying to tell God where and how to work?
I have seen revival take place at a camp fire and at a lakeside Bible Study. I have had a sense of revival during a work project among the poor. I have seen revival breakout in a living room chat. Then again, I wonder if it was revival or God manifesting Himself as He wanted.
Here is what I think. The idea of revival may not always be a correct one, if one ascribes to the theological position that a faithful God will honor with grace His faithful people. In other words, He will convict of sin and convince of the need of repentance and renewal when we really seek Him. If we are doing that regularly as a community of believers, then we will know His reviving constantly.
Does that make sense? In other words, I think that we are so faithless, if we are constantly looking for the next manifestation of the Spirit. Shouldn't we continue in our faithfulness and count it as a bonus when the real manifestations come? Isn't that what real faith and following is about? For that matter, do we really need to see manifestations if we are faithful.
So, what do you think?
posted by Larry at 2:07 PM
3 Comments:
Since we're off early Monday morning for the 'renewal' (revival) convocation, I'll have to wait to let you know if it happens. Actually, it borders on something not too godly when we attempt to predict and control the Spirit.
Revival is not event centered, programmed into a meeting schedule.
Maybe after further discussion with your friends, the semantics may change as they begin to describe what their ministry has been experiencing and what they anticpate your ministry will bring.
revival is personal and comes whenever we submit to our living God. It can be event oriented if everyone is there for the same reason. Even if we don't experience the manifestations we associate with revival does not mean that revival is not taking place. Just like taking a vitamin doesn't come with experience, something is taking place. Something is beginning. perhaps...
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