For a long time we, the church, thought that revival was great meetings with a lot of people coming and a lot of people getting saved and healed. Miracles happening. There would be a great speaker, a man of faith leading all this. Lots of publicity taking it around the world. I enjoy all these meetings as much as anyone, and I have been blessed. But what is revival in God’s eyes?
We have been distracted too often by looking to a man. We exalt him and put so much pressure on him through the adulation, that it difficult for some to stand and remain in humility and in the truth. In revival, God alone is exalted.
Maybe our problem has been being short-sighted. Maybe the meetings and the times spent with God, were just to help prepare us for the real thing.
In our area, Raleigh, North Carolina, I see revival every day.
I see revival when I see a formerly homeless addict hugging his enemy and sharing Christ with him.
I see revival when a person lays down his pride, and kneels on the sidewalk, and publicly confesses his sins, receiving salvation in front of many strangers and scoffers..
I see revival when I see a formerly shy woman come out of the safety of her church building and fearlessly bring the presence of God into a crack house.
I see revival when a person reaches out to the unreached people groups in his work place, sharing Christ boldly with great love and compassion. One who is willing to be a living word.
I see revival when I see ordinary Christians reigning with Christ in all the darkest areas of the city. Christians who know their authority and use it. Christians who don’t fight with the devil but know how to stand in the victory of Christ, scattering every principality and power. Christians, who without regard for their own safety, usher in the kingdom of God at night, displacing Satan who, by our absence, has ruled the night in our city.
I see revival when Christians unashamedly do miracles and healings in the streets in full view of the public. Christians who will contend for the faith for years for a person who falls back repeatedly into sin, drugs, or alcohol.
I see revival when people run up to us in the streets and beg for prayer.
I see revival when I see Christians with sanctified and holy lives, free from evil thoughts and desires.
I see revival when I see Christians so full of the love of God that they will sacrifice everything, their time, money, and resources to help another person. They respect and honor the poor sinner more highly than themselves. They love the poor and feed the sheep..
So you see, I believe the evidence of the revival that God does, will be found in the lives of the revived. As they live and do these works of God, others are revived by eating of their fruits and seeing their testimony of Jesus in action.
Hearing about the Lord in a meeting can never substitute for the revival that comes from living it out in the world. Jesus is revival. Let us live in Him.
Alice McGee