CHURCH INTERRUPTED

Hab.3:2 – “O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy”

Over the last twenty years or so it seems like Christians everywhere are calling for revival. They may use different phrases such as renewal, awakening, or outpouring but all are praying for some kind of divine intervention. Apparently Christians everywhere know the status quo in the church in America can never solve the problems in our deteriorating society. But what exactly are we asking for? What happens when God sends revival? Is it possible that many who have asked for revival may actually reject the answer to their own prayers when it comes?

At the end of the day revival comes in different forms and inevitably becomes “the sign spoken against”. Jesus was attacked in His home town when He talked about miracles among non-Jews, Peter was arrested when a lame man was healed in the temple, the disciples were accused of public intoxication when they spoke in tongues, Whitefield was thrown out of the churches in England because of various manifestations (laughing, feinting, crying out). Revival comes in assorted shapes and sizes, rarely is it the way you thought or wanted. Here is how Arthur Wallis describes revival.

“For a definition of revival, we must appeal to the people of God of bygone years, who used the word with consistency of meaning down through the centuries until it began to be used in a lesser and more limited sense in modern times. Numerous writings on the subject that have been preserved to us will confirm that revival is divine intervention in the normal course of spiritual things. It is God revealing Himself to man in awful holiness and irresistible power. It is such a manifest working of God that human personalities are overshadowed and human programs abandoned. It is man retiring into the background because God has taken the field. It is the Lord making bare His holy arm and working in extraordinary power on saint and sinner.”

I love what Wallis said, “revival is divine intervention in the normal course of spiritual things”. Jonathan Edwards once described revival as someone’s prayer for rain interrupted by a rain shower. The funny thing about that, sometimes we would rather keep praying for the rain rather than enjoying the downpour when it comes. Lord, please come and interrupt our churches with Your downpours of rain.