Posted on 03/22/2017 4:57:44 PM PDT by metmom
We tend to think revival is something God drops on us without our participation and then we just enjoy the feeling.
Instead, it follows the same principle as individual repentance. It is individual repentance. God draws us to His Son, but we have to make the first conscious move toward God before He will draw close to us. Revival on any scale requires individuals who will draw close to God.
James chapter 4 describes the process. In verses 1 through 4 he says: "Where do wars and fights among you come from? Do they not come from your lusts that war in your body? You lust and do not have, so you kill. You desire to have and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have, because you do not ask. You ask, and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your passions. You adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."
This is the human condition that needs revival, whether the revival is corporate or individual. Humanity is in this shape because of the law of sin described by Paul in Romans 7:14-8:2. Lust is what keeps us inordinately attached to the things of the world. Peter speaks of having escaped the corruption that is in this world through lust (see 2 Pet. 1:4).
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ping
Excellent comments.
thanks Metmom......very good food for thought.
It occurred to me some time ago that likely the reason we don’t see the Holy Spirit move through the church as He did in the book of Acts is because we don’t live like the Christians did in the book of Acts.
I can’t see God blessing us while we hug sin close to our hearts.
In the book of Hosea, it says something like, "Their deeds will not let them turn to God." So it's not just us, it was ancient Israel, too!
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