Revival Is Costly

When a bomb goes off the effects are both obvious and devastating. Buildings are obliterated. People can be killed and injured. Craters are left. Debris is left scattered. Bombs do damage.

There is a lot of talk about revival. People often quote II Chronicles 7:14 in revival preparation or prayer. Preachers preach on, pray for, labor for, and read about revival. How few of us have ever been in the genuine supernatural move of the Holy Spirit called revival. Most of us have attended revival meetings. I have preached several revival meetings in dozens of different churches. Notice I am intentionally using the phrase "revival meetings" instead of the word revival. Why? I have only preached three revivals in my life. While I have preached revival meetings all over the state of Texas in many churches only three times did I see God bring genuine revival.

The first happened after a youth retreat in east Texas. Our students came back from the retreat pretty fired up. They testified in the evening meeting and the Lord began to stir us deeply. Something happened that night after service that has never happened at any other time in my ministry.

A group of people met me at the back door of the sanctuary and asked if we could meet the following Monday night for another service. We did this for three weeks. The crowds were not large. The worship moved our souls. Nobody got saved but the Lord stirred our hearts with fresh desire for Him.

Years later a religious organization from our local junior college invited to preach a campus revival meeting. Before the meetings started they held a prayer walk I attended. My expectations were very low. I did not know the amount of prayer put into that meeting. I remember a young student named Jonathan Baldwin the Lord used mightily in intercession during those days.

When I extended the invitation on that first night it felt like a bomb going off. The atmosphere changed immediately. The Lord exploded in that building convicting those few dozen students of their sin. Weeping could be heard all over the room. The presence of God was so thick in the room it felt as if you could touch it. The only thing that kept going through my mind was to get out of the spotlight. I fell on my face putting head under a chair on the front row to cry out to God. A friend of mine began to lead us in worship. With no one leading that invitation but the Holy Spirit the invitation alone lasted nearly two hours. Those revival meetings that were scheduled for three days ended up lasting three weeks. Services lasted anywhere between two to three hours.

My life changed. For those three weeks my life consisted of praying, studying for the next message, working out , and preaching. Night after night I waved goodbye to Brenda and the boys as we labored for and in revival. I had to cancel other revival meetings. I sacrificed financially as those college students did not have money to pay me. It did not matter. God supplied my needs. One night I found money in my front seat after the service.

The revival flame spread to one youth group close to twenty miles away. Many doubted. Many criticized. There were a few who experienced the genuine move of God during those days. Several were saved. Many were consecrated to the Lord. God moved in ways I could only dream about. As suddenly as it began it ended. I will never forget that night.

On that last night when I pulled up to the building a group of students were outside talking. This was not unusual. On this night one thing changed. As I approached the door one of the students asked where we were going to eat after the service. On other nights the focus had been on the holiness of God. Most every night after the services we went to eat. I never ate dinner before the services and we often were out late at night eating and talking about what God had done in the service.. I rarely got home during those weeks before midnight.

On that night the focus had changed. I knew it immediately once the service started. That same overwhelming sense of God's presence was not there. Everything seemed flat and I knew in my heart it was over. We had taken the move of God for granted and not bathed it  and sustained it in prayer. Just as quickly as it started it ended.

Years passed. About a decade to be exact. My family then served in a church in Seminole, TX out west. A church member  asked me to hold revival meetings in the church and to preach them. After mulling the matter over in intense prayer I felt the Lord's leading in it.

We prayed. We prayed some more. We held early morning prayer meetings. We held Saturday night home prayer meetings. We prayed privately. The week leading up to the revival we had people  sign up to read the Bible in the sanctuary from Genesis all the way to Revelation. People read scripture in that sanctuary from early morning to late at night for an entire week. In fact that last chapter of Revelation was read to start the first revival service. Right away I recognized that same sense of the powerful presence of God like I did back on that college campus. The altar filled with repentant people. Some prostrate before the Lord. Many weeping. People were saved. Senior adults were saved. Students were saved. Even one Sunday School teacher got saved.

The worship in those days moved the soul. Services lasted easily up to 2 hours. Powerful testimonies were shared. We met for 23 straight days. I will never be able to put those days into words. Before I left the church each night I went to my office and blogged about what God had done that night while it was fresh in my mind and heart. I wanted to capture the essence of what God did each night. I have not gone back to read those blogs written in late July 2010 and August 2010.

For 23 days I prayed my  heart out. I slept very little getting up all hours of the night to pray some more. My days were given to study. My nights were given to prayer meetings before the service and preaching like God has rarely ever gifted me to preach. God moved. God saved. God revived. One man heard about what God did and came from as far as Odessa, over an hour away, to attend several services.

God never failed to give me another message in those 23 days. I look back on those days in amazement. It took a toll on me though. Physically. Emotionally. There was a price to be paid. The day after the services ended Brenda and I went shopping. What really happened is she shopped and I slept in the car. I never want to forget what God did in Seminole.

In fact, in response to this blog I am asking those who attended the Angelina College Revival or those who witnessed what God at First Baptist Church Seminole in the summer of 2010, to comment on what you saw and experienced from God when I post this on Facebook.

Now, here is the point. When God shows up like that things change like a bomb going off. Things change on multiple levels. Priorities get rearranged. Sin gets exposed. Prayers are intensified. Worship takes on a new intensity. A hunger for God increases. Holiness returns to the people of God. The lost are saved. And something else. If you do not get anything else from this get this down pat. REVIVAL IS COSTLY.

It cost men and women in Seminole to give up their nights to play instruments, sing in the praise team, work in the nursery, televise the nightly services, and be available to counsel the lost. It cost people to rearrange their schedules to attend services often late into the night and still have to go to work the next day. It cost the church money to run the air conditioning and lights continuously for 23 straight days. REVIVAL IS COSTLY.

The next time you say you want revival or plan some revival meetings remember REVIVAL IS COSTLY. It will cost you hours in prayer. It will cost you pet sin and comfort. It will cost you emotionally. It may even cost you financially. When God sends revival things change. I praise the Lord He still shows up and explodes His presence on churches, communities and countries. O how we need it.

Jesus, I ask You to send genuine revival to Your church and to this nation once again. I ask You to usher in days of refreshing and repentance for Your people. I ask You to explode Your power on Your people once again. Please help us to be willing to pay the price for revival. Help me be willing to pay the price for revival. Do it again Lord as You have done the past. You are our only hope to renew, refresh, and rekindle fire in Your church. You are the only hope to turn this nation to repentance and submission to You. In Jesus name, amen.

If you have ever experienced genuine revival please comment on this for others to whet their appetite for a fresh move of God.