Revival is an often visited topic in Christian circles. We know we need it, we know we are lost unless the Lord provides in us what we cannot earn or achieve. But I wonder, what kind of revival do we actually want?

Do we want the kind that gives us experiences and goose bumps, a feelgood festival suitable for a two second attention span?

Or do we want a real revival? If so, do we understand what that entails? The kind that only comes when we are Broken. Unable. Bereft. When the only One we want is God, and God is the only One we have.

When might this kind of revival actually happen? Truth is, it partly depends on us. Three years ago I wrote that we, the Church, need to wake up! But yet, we are still basking in the fading gleams of the sunlight that remains. Some are awake. Many remain drowsy or are fast asleep in the lap of our pagan culture. None of us really understand the storm at our doorstep. None of us are really ready. Perhaps the only ones who are close to being ready are those who understand how unready they are!

But all things remain the same, surely? Until the day comes when they are not. On that day the Holy Spirit will flood in on those who know their poverty. For those who are rich, only the spirit of the age will witness to them.

On that day, in the storm that will come upon us, we will be paid in a coin – one side of which is inscribed Revival and on the other, Persecution. The two will come together. This revival will cost, requiring us to give up comfort, safety, reputation, jobs, family and yes, even our lives. But it will be the kind of revival that produces lasting fruit. The kind with deep repentance that brings many sons and daughters to glory.

In this revival we will come to know the truth of the verse, experiencing it for ourselves:

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;  persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 

2 Corinthians 4 v8-11