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Many of us long for God to move in our churches, community and nation, but before that can happen we must ask ourselves the question:
What is the cost of revival?
We will get to that in a minute. I think about the great revivals through history and one of the things that stands out is that they came and they went. Much like “the cloud of God” in the Old Testament – it came and it went. Today however I believe that the Holy Spirit is ever-present among us and in us and we must expect and pray for a new kind of revival: “A personal revival” one in which each and everyone of us lives in personal revival every day and therein lies the challenge.
Pastor Craig Groeschel wrote a book called “The Christian Atheist” and the summary of the book is this: we say we believe in the God of the Bible, but we live our lives as if He does not exist. My old pastor Colin Dye says we sing the song “I surrender all”, but what we actually mean is “I surrender only that which I choose to surrender”.
We say “You’re all I need, you’re all I ever wanted”, but for many of us in the west our greatest goal in life is to earn more money, have longer holidays, a better car or a higher a status amongst our friends. And as a result we keep “sacred cows” in our lives which not even God is allowed to touch.
You see the thing is God does not want 50, 70 or 99% of your life He wants 100%. And before you call me a hypocrite and ask if I have surrendered all 100% of my life to God, let me say that I too am not perfect and struggle daily with my flesh as most people do.
One thing I have come to realise though is that when I was a “baby” Christian my favourite Bible verse was “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. I loved living safe in the knowledge that God loves me just as I am and that because of the Cross I now have eternal life with Christ.
Today however some 20 years later my favourite verse and purpose in life is this “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14. I’ve come to realise that there’s more to life in Christ then what happens at the point of salvation. After salvation comes transformation and a renewed purpose in life.
It’s time we really grasped who we are in Christ and start behaving like the glorious and victorious church we’re called to be today! Pressing forward towards the goal to win the prize.
The Bible says: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” 1 Corinthians 13:11
Some of us have been in church for over 20 years yet we still behave like children in the faith, feeding on baby formula milk rather then sinking our teeth in to the big steak of The Word and going out full of God’s strength, joining the battle for the lost.
Reinhard Bonke said “The church my friends is not a luxury cruise ship – it’s a rescue boat for the salvation of souls and every hand is needed on deck”.
I pray that God will break our hearts with the things that break His heart. It’s time we put God and the needs of others first in our lives. That’s what Jesus and His disciples did. They paid the ultimate price for the sake of the Gospel – death! The least we can do today is to die daily to our flesh and seek first the Kingdom.
For people in the west the cost of calling yourself a Christian is almost zero. By enlarge we don’t have to suffer persecution or fear for our lives because of our faith in Christ. Many in other parts of the world however are not so fortunate as us and daily die for the cause of professing Christ as their Saviour.
“The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.” Ephesians 1:17. God has chosen to act through His church – you and I. And unless we’re willing to lay all of our lives on the line, revival will remain a distant dream.
So there you have it: The cost of revival is your life, 100% yelled and surrendered to Christ.
Are you willing to pay the price?
