Ps.68:24 – They have seen Your procession, God,
The procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary.
I love revival, I love it when the Lord comes down and makes everything new. Christians who do not ever experience renewal or outpourings of the Spirit tend to gradually gravitate back to their former way of life. They may not fall into blatant out and out sin but their life and lifestyle smells and tastes like the culture of the world. Their conversation never turns to the Lord or the scriptures or testimonies of what God has done in their lives. Their preoccupation with the things of this present life crowds out any talk of the Lord.
I have been thinking about the outpouring of 1994 recently and how suddenly everything changed in church. From outward appearance not that much had changed; we were still singing and preaching and doing all of our church activities but none of that was the same. There was a new fervency and joy in the worship, everyone was singing and singing out with incredible joy. The conversations outside of church were often filled with stories about all the Lord was doing. Church was fun and none of us could get enough of it. Jonathan Edwards is known for revival and his writings about revival. Here is a short description of how the Christians in his church were effected by the outpouring of 1734-1735.
“And even at weddings, which formerly were merely occasions of mirth and jollity, there was now no discourse of anything but the things of religion, and no appearance of any but spiritual mirth. Those amongst us that had been formerly converted, were greatly enlivened and renewed with fresh and extraordinary incomes of the Spirit of God; though some much more than others, according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Many that before had labored under difficulties about their own state, had now their doubts removed by more satisfying experience, and more clear discoveries of God’s love.”
The thing that grabbed my attention here was the weddings. I have often been troubled by the goings on at Christian weddings. Often the wedding itself is quite spiritual but the reception often looks like a worldly party. Edwards described the same thing at his church, even the wedding culture was effected by the move of God. Rather than a secular atmosphere with worldly behavior Edwards said that the weddings in his church began to carry “an appearance of spiritual mirth” (if you are not sure what mirth is it is simply joy). So rather than rules and regulations what we need is another visitation; without times of renewal we tend to slip back into the quagmire of worldly activity.
