If you want something different, you have to do something different. Crossroads Church is hosting a Revival weekend Oct. 31 - Nov. 2. All spiritual backgrounds are welcome. More information and details can be found here.
Something spiritual is stirring. When it hits, will you be ready? Four simple steps, taken straight from Scripture, can help prepare us for the next great move of God.
Throughout history, God has used specific moments in time to get his people’s attention. We call them revivals. They are unique outpourings of God’s presence, grace, and favor. While the details surrounding revivals change, the outcomes remain pretty consistent—sleepy Christians find their faith awakened; unbelievers walk into the family of God; and communities are changed as God’s goodness reaches even the most cynical and battle-scarred.
Revival rewrites the spiritual trajectory of entire generations and changes the world. Right now, we’re overdue—at least, if church historians are to be trusted. Some of the world’s foremost experts on the topic estimate that a new revival movement happens every 50 years or so.
The first tremors of God’s movement might already be hitting. Post-Christian nations like England and Wales are experiencing an influx into churches, especially among the young. In Brazil, tens of thousands of people have been baptized in the Amazon River this year alone. In spiritually hostile environments like Iran, India, and Nigeria, the church is growing at an unbelievable rate, even when that faith could cost someone their life. My friend, Brent, who studies search trends on the Internet, has noticed the number of people searching for “revival” has grown dramatically on Google in the past year.
If God chooses to do something unprecedented while I’m living on planet Earth, I want to be part of it. For what it’s worth, I also want to complete a marathon—and I know that if I try to do that without any training, I’d never cross the finish line (and maybe die in the process. Maybe.) Likewise, a desire for a fresh outpouring of God isn’t the same as preparing myself for the experience.
To be clear, God isn’t a math equation. Just because I put x, y, z in doesn’t mean that a, b, and c will come out. That being said, throughout the Bible, God’s pretty clear that those who seek Him will find him (Matthew 7:7 or Jeremiah 29:13), that He is constantly searching for those committed to him (2 Chronicles 16:9), and that He is doing a new thing, waiting for us to take notice (Isaiah 43:19).
But perhaps God’s never been so clear about what it takes to get his attention than he was to King Solomon. The ancient king of Israel was living through a high point of Israel’s history—having just completed construction on the temple, God’s presence came upon the structure in such force that the priests couldn’t even enter it. The entire nation celebrated for days on end. As the party died down, and the people returned home, God came to Solomon one night in a dream.
“Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:12-14)
Despite the tremendous first days of the temple, God knew His people would eventually take their eyes off the ball. Throughout their history, they’d shown themselves to be easily distracted, prone to confusion, and quick to leave their God behind. So in the night, God spoke to Solomon, giving him clear directions on what to do—not if, but when—the nation found itself sideways with Him.
It’s a simple, but powerful formula we can still follow. I believe God’s four-step process for spiritual breakthrough is humility, prayer, seeking, and turning.
These four steps work on a personal level. Anytime you feel disconnected from God, distracted from His work, or detached from His people, this is the path back. God is clear that these four things get his attention, and they can lead to forgiveness and healing.
And, they work on a corporate level too. When a family engages these steps, it changes the atmosphere in the home; when a church puts them into practice, communities around them take notice; when God’s people spread across different gatherings (and even time zones) dare to unify around these four things, revival just might be around the corner.
What does it mean to engage each of these four steps? Let’s dive into what scripture says, along with some practical ideas to put each one into practice.
Four Steps To Prepare For Revival
1) HUMILITY
The Hebrew word for “humble” (kana) means to “bend the knee.” To humble ourselves before God means to drop the charade that we so often wear around others, and agree with God’s assessment about the universe—that He is king, that we are sinful, and that the whole created order (ourselves included) belongs to Him.
To paraphrase one of my favorite writers, humility doesn’t mean thinking less of ourselves, but rather thinking of ourselves less. In this instance, it means taking the focus off myself and putting it back onto God. Across the pages of the scriptures, one of the things that God despises more than anything else is pride. It’s a virus that shuts us off from experiencing Him, connecting with others, and receiving good things from His hands (because to truly receive from God, we have to first admit that we can’t gain anything on our own.) In the Bible, God promises that humility comes before honor (Proverbs 18:12); that blessings and life come from developing humility (Proverbs 22:4); and that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).
Practicing humility might look like confessing your sins to God, diving into the specifics and not just generalities. It might be apologizing to someone that you have wronged in the past, asking for their forgiveness. It could look like asking God for breakthrough in your life that you’ve been trying to strong-arm yourself. It could be admitting that you have limits and saying no to an opportunity or going to bed earlier than normal. It might be as simple as making it a point to encourage others instead of fishing for it yourself.
Revival doesn’t happen without God—humbly admitting this is the best place to begin.
2) PRAY
While humility admits that we need God’s intervention, prayer is actually taking the next step and asking for it. James, the brother of Jesus, wrote to early believers that “you do not have because you do not ask.” Sometimes, it really is as simple as that.
Once, when walking along the road, Jesus encountered a blind man calling out loudly for him. Jesus called the man to his feet and asked a surprising question: “What do you want me to do for you?” While it might seem pretty straightforward (“Uh, Jesus, I think he wants his sight back. Duh.), Jesus waited for the man to ask—with specifics—before he did anything.
This ties back to step one, humility, because pride is generally the thing stopping me from asking for God’s help. So in humility, I’m making specific requests of God: That He’d send a revival that reawakens the cold faith of some dear friends. That all my children will come into a relationship with Him. That some broken family dynamics will be healed. That my friend’s dead marriage would come back to life. That he’d make a way for my family to move to a place better suited for us. That a friend’s cancer will be fully healed.
These prayers are more than “bless Johnny and Timmy.” They’re specific, gritty, and raw. I believe that’s the kind of prayer that God desires. Since He’s God, and I’m not, He is open to answer each of them in the way He wants… but I’m determined not to be the bottleneck of answered prayers because I wasn’t bold enough to ask.
If Jesus asked you the same question he asked the blind man, what would you say? Now, go and actually ask Him for it.
3) SEEK
We’ve humbled ourselves enough to pray, but that’s not where this ends. After we ask, we put our muscles behind the request and get moving.
How do you seek God? It’s not unlike the way you’d look for your friends back in grade school when you played hide-and-seek. You take a good look around. You listen for unfamiliar sounds. You check places they’ve hidden before. You slow down and look for anything out of the ordinary. Most of all, you keep moving. Nobody is ever found when the seeker is counting to 100 behind a tree, eyes closed.
The good news? God isn’t trying to remain hidden. Scripture explains that now is the time for seeking God (Isaiah 55:6), there is a reward for us when we do it (Hebrews 11:6), and that those who seek will eventually find (Matthew 7:7).
Seeking God is much less a checklist and more a lifestyle. It means training my eyes to look for Him at work around me. It means having my ears open for sounds of his movement in conversations with others. It means looking for him in places I’ve found Him before (in worship services, in nature, in books). And, it means trying new things too.
Scripture and prayer are a great place to start seeking God. So is intentional time with other believers in smaller group settings. Seeking likely includes worship—at weekend gatherings and using Spotify on your commute to work. But it could also mean trying some things you haven’t done before (or in a long time), like fasting—going without food or water for a set period of time to focus more on prayer. Or practicing silence and solitude, going without screens or distractions to see what God might say to you. Maybe it means getting out into nature and away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Or memorizing a passage of scripture, asking someone to pray prophetically over you, or raising your hands in a public worship setting.
If God is doing something new, it will likely require new things from us as well. Stay limber and loose. Hang onto a humility that allows you to try new things without being an expert at them. And most of all, keep moving, with your eyes and ears open.
4) TURN
Most of us live like spiritual hoarders. We’re walking with Jesus, but we keep picking up rocks along the way, filling our pockets with them. (More on what those rocks might be in a minute.) Before long, we have difficulty keeping stride with Christ because of the extra weight. We fall behind. Jesus becomes a speck in the distance, one we will never catch with pockets full. Turning is about emptying our pockets, so we can run light and free again.
Specifically, God commands his people to turn from their wicked ways. The word God uses here for “wicked,” in Hebrew, can mean “evil” or “bad.” We have a pretty good idea what that means. We can’t expect to experience a fresh encounter with God while we’re actively taking advantage of others, cheating to get ahead, or filling our minds with smut (sexual, political, or otherwise) from the Internet. Scripture goes into more detail here, but you can probably fill in the blanks in your own life. The sins that continually trip you up? That’s something we must turn from if we want more of God in our lives. A wise friend told me recently that “the cost of a new life is the same as the price of your current one.” Woof. That hits.
But that word “wicked” can also be translated as “harmful” or “unpleasant.” Sometimes, things getting in the way of us experiencing God anew are, on paper, neutral or even good. I can fill my schedule so full with service opportunities that I don’t have time to slow down and hear from God; people-pleasing can cause me to say “yes” to the wrong opportunities; reading the news might be okay for some, but it fills me with a sense of dread and despair; that new pop starlet’s album might be a creative breakthrough, but I have to be honest if it opens me up to lust or jealousy. At any of those points, I need to consider emptying my pockets of rocks—even if I, or others, find them shiny and impressive.
Early missionary Paul explains that it is “for freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1), and Jesus himself said that those who felt burdened should come to him to find rest (Matthew 11:28-30). That doesn’t mean following Jesus is always a breeze, because he also said walking with him would be like carrying around a cross. We choose to die daily—to ourselves, to our desires, even to some hopes and dreams—so that God’s kingdom moves forward. That’s hard. But there’s also lightness that comes from holding tightly to Christ, and loosely to everything else.
What’s slowing down your stride? Leave it behind. A bad habit? An addiction? Not sleeping enough? An overstretched calendar? A need to never say “no?” Keeping up with the other families at school? Too many kids’ activities? Extra work hours at home every night? Having to clear your browser history? Frivolous spending? Anger?
Want to really take it to the next level? Borrow this prayer from King David, the ancient king of Israel, described as “a man after God’s own heart.” In it, he asks God to reveal anything offensive in his life—and make the commitment to empty your pockets of it.
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)
Keep emptying your pockets of anything weighing you down, and you’ll experience the truth of scripture—that “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17)
MADE READY FOR REVIVAL
Sometimes, God breaks into our lives when we least expect it. And other times, perhaps He is standing at the door, knocking, waiting for us to get off the coach and let Him in. We do that by humbling ourselves. By prayer. By seeking His face. And by turning away from any roadblock, good or bad, that might be standing in our way.
Revival seems to be stirring. I’m working on making myself ready, not to earn God’s presence (no one can do that), but so when God says “go”, my shoes are laced and I can take off at full speed.
The time to prepare for war is before the bombs fall. The time to prepare for revival? It just might be today.
