antbib.com

Posted By Andrew on May 6, 2009

A few months ago, we chose not to renew our perpetualhoneymoon.com domain, and moved everything to our new www.antbib.com site. Unfortunately, my IT specialist did not transfer our folders, so when the domain expired, we lost our entire blog history. (Or as he says, our entire hog blistery.)  We were able to recover some files (thanks, Google cache!) and are basically starting over with our blog. I’m pasting in below what was my most recent post, originally dated February 14, 2009.

I’ve heard and read a lot of definitions of revival in the years since I was first privileged to be part of a group that experienced it (Him). My favorite definition is from the title of a book by Brian Edwards, where he defines it as “a People Saturated With God.” You could make the argument that Christians should always be saturated with God, but let’s face it- very few lives convincingly demonstrate such a reality. I’ve also heard it said that what is commonly called revival should simply be the normal Christian life. That sounds good, but again, let’s face what is reality, not what should be reality.
The fact is, history demonstrates convincingly that there are times when God chooses to work among ordinary people in extraordinary ways. Remarkable things happen as God reveals Himself outside the normal experience of most of His children. There is a deep sense of God’s presence, a reverence for His holiness, and profound gratitude for His love and goodness during times of revival. Sometimes supernatural signs and wonders accompany revival, but they are never to become the focal point. It’s about Jesus, and relationship with Him, and voluntarily exposing every area of darkness in one’s life in order to walk in the Light.
I mentioned that I was privileged to see just such a move of God more than ten years ago. It profoundly affected my life, and I’ve never been able to be satisfied with the status quo in Christianity since then. On several occasions in the past weeks, I’ve shared the story of that revival with different groups of people, and I said I’d give my right arm to see God display His glory in that manner again. Well, I still have my right arm, but He’s done it.
We’ve been experiencing what I can only call revival in the past week. Of course, it began long before then with many prayers, tears, and repentance. Over the course of a few months, we saw evidence of God at work in numerous individuals in our church. We wrote in a previous post about our children being drawn to God in response to His working among us. Each new manifestation of His power and glory only served to deepen the hunger of those who were already longing for Him.
Last Sunday, our usually predictable service was turned upside down as God showed up to meet with His children. We saw wonderful evidence of His power as He restored relationships, destroyed strongholds, rooted out sin, and filled people with His own Spirit. It was a glorious experience, and the next night we got together again just to give Him thanks and testify of His working.
After a long period of testimony, prayer, worship, and praise, I took the children outside to give them a little break. Jenny and Melody were full of questions about what they had been seeing. I told them, “Normally when we come to church, someone leads the singing and someone has devotions and someone preaches, but it’s people who are doing everything. Once in a while, we get things right, and God does everything better than we ever can. Some people call it revival when God is doing everything by Himself.”
Melody’s response has already been preserved in our Kiddie Quotes page: “Daddy, one thing I can see is that revival makes church a much better place.” I can’t say it any better myself. Revival certainly does make church a better place, and I’m convinced that God is waiting for the chance to do similar things in many more congregations. On the surface, we are about as unimpressive a church as you want to find, a small group with few material resources and no reputation. True to God’s nature, He chose “weak things of the world…things that are despised” to showcase His glory.
I’m convinced there are more hungry hearts out there. Surely there are more of His children who have been praying for Him to move in their own lives and in their group. Maybe someone’s faith will be strengthened by hearing the story of His faithfulness to one insignificant little church in South Carolina. Maybe their prayers will take on new meaning and earnestness. And maybe we’ll hear about another group of nobodies who are “saturated with God,” rejoicing in His grace while hungering for more. May God grant it to all who desire Him alone.

Category: Uncategorized
Tags: