People often say that we need revival because revival will change our nation. We often read about people who are in pursuit of revival. To do this we are missing it on both ends. God changes nations as He initiates and sustains revival. Many people are in the pursuit of the experience of revival. They want the signs and wonders and to be able to tell the cool stories. What we need to do is to be in pursuit of God first and foremost. God brings about revival. Our deepest longings should be for him.
The church has many passionate pursuits. The church is passionate about church growth. Everything revolves around counting how many showed up. How many seats are in the pews is a passionate obsession by pastors and other ministers. This mentality drives everything. Churches plan, entertain, and promote man made fire. If God truly brought the fire from heaven like Elijah and Israel saw on Mount Carmel in I Kings 18 the crowds would come.
I recently wept at a Christian concert when crowds stood outside and packed the huge sanctuary and I thought about how few come to any prayer meeting. A concert artist can draw a crowd but Jesus cannot draw a crowd in most churches where he is supposed to be the main and only attraction at a prayer meeting. It pained my heart.
I find in these days that things that used to drive me as a preacher no longer hold my attention. Success has to mean more than how many showed up on a Sunday morning. Success has to mean more than how much money came in the offerings or how big and nice the facilities are. I recently talked to a pastor friend of mine who told me two families had visited his church numerous times and said they loved it but ended up joining a sister church in town. When my friend asked the two families about this it came down to the fact they wanted to join a big church. My friend preaches in a sanctuary that seats a maximum of 300 while the other church sanctuary seating capacity is close to 1,000. Ironically the attendance of both churches is nearly the same.
Have we really become so shallow as the people of God that we determine where we worship based on how big or nice the church facilities are. If that is the case nobody will come to Faith Community because we worship in a drafty warehouse with bare concrete floors, metal walls, and no shortage of spiders and spider webs.
I know God has churches off the beaten path who are in the passionate pursuit of him for revival. I know God has pastors who are no strangers to the prayer closet and prevail mightily with God in there and therefore prevail in the pulpit mightily. I know there are churches where the prayer meetings are not extinct. There are believers who travail in prayer like a woman giving child birth in agonizing prayer. There are churches where the Holy Spirit is welcome to upset the order of worship as the spirit works in people's lives.
I am not after an experience. I am after the God of the experience. I am after God to burn anew in our hearts, to bring us to repentance, and to brokenness. I am in pursuit of God to awaken the sleeping church and bring all of us back to life. More and more God is my passionate obsession and the burden deepens for him to turn the heart of this nation back to himself. As the Lord keeps increasing the burden and motivating me to remain in the passionate pursuit of him for revival, I want to devote my remaining days to this worthwhile pursuit. God is my magnificent obsession.
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