Revival - Remove the Rocks

With everything going on in the World and in our country and in our state and in our city and in our homes.  One word keeps coming to me.  That word is Revival.  I have felt and have had several people tell me how desperate they are to see a revival break out in The Church.  I really spent a lot of time praying about this word and contemplating the meaning of this word as it relates to our spiritual lives and the church.

I’m not going to go into all the definitions of it right now but:

Revival essentially means – restored, renewed, refreshed

Revelation 2:2-7 (letter to the church in Ephesus)

2 “I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. 3 You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.

4 “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! 5 Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches. 6 But this is in your favor: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans, just as I do.

7 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God.

These verses are telling us that the good works that we do are great, the patience we have shown in fighting against evil is truly the Work of the Lord. However, the attitude in which we are doing it is not the same attitude we had when we first became members of His church. When we first became believers. Essentially if we don’t have the right heart, if we don’t have the right focus, He can’t & won’t use us.

His church truly needs a revival, His church needs to return to its love for Him: But how does that happen and what is the current focus?

What is the gage that people use to determine whether revival is breaking out?

 I believe there is an attitude among church goers that if a church has a really anointed worship team or preaching – then revival can break out, if a church does all these different things and brings new people in then revival can breakout, if a church has a great children’s or youth program then revival can breakout.

If we can have these great services or large attendance, then the Holy Spirit will come down and revival will breakout.

If we can evangelize and bring people to Christ, then that’s revival, right?

No, that’s important, that’s our calling but that isn’t revival - Because in order to be revived in Christ you need to first be alive in Christ.

Which means that in order to have a revival we don’t need the Holy Spirit to show up and come upon us – He is already here!

The truth is - all those things that people believe will bring about revival in the church are byproducts of revival already happening in the church.

Revival can’t happen in the church unless the individuals in the church allow revival to happen in their lives.

Because:

Revival isn’t an event Revival is an attitude

In order to have an atmosphere of revival, you need to have an attitude of revival. Hence “It all begins with me”

So why is revival not happening? Because we as believers are hampering the Holy Spirit from freely flowing in our lives.

Hebrews 12:1

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

I am going to tell you a story about a rock.

Where we used to live in Southern AZ our house was on 5 acres.  Approaching our property was a dirt road that led up to our gate which was the entrance onto our property. This rock had been sitting at the entrance to my driveway since God put it there.  Over several years of driving over this area, the dirt had eroded away, and the rock has been getting more noticeable and becoming a little bit of an issue as came & went through our driveway.  Not a big issue but enough of one that pretty much every time I pulled up to the driveway I think “I need to get that rock out”.  It is small enough that you can still drive over it although it caused a little bump and you could attempt to drive around it, but in short – it was becoming an issue, it was hampering the flow of the driveway.

We had conversations regarding the removal of the rock at various times. Many a time I would say to my husband, “Husband, I’m going to take out that rock!” and we would discuss it and end up with comments like “It’s probably huge underneath the dirt” or “you’ll probably hurt yourself trying to dig it out.” “It will probably leave a huge pothole” and if you have ever lived on a dirt road you know that a pothole is way worse than a rock. – so, I did nothing about it. 

Finally, one day we were all working outside on our property and at one point, I made the decision – I’m going to go and get that rock out.

My girls and I headed out to the gate – we had my trusty mattox and a couple shovels.

While walking down the driveway I was mentally preparing myself for a fight with this rock and trying to determine how much fight was I going to give before I gave up and declared defeat. 

When we got outside the gate, I braced myself & took a swing with the mattox and … the rock moved – I swung again and low and behold the rock popped right up.  I stood there and looked at it and said, “Are you kidding me!!”

I didn’t look at my girls, but I swear I could hear them rolling their eyes. All this time this rock has been irritating me and it was only down about 3 inches. I picked it up and handed to Emma and asked her to take it back to the house because we were keeping it.

It took more effort to haul the shovels out there than it did to dig up that rock.  But I knew that the Lord was teaching me a lesson in this.

Was that rock causing a major issue? No, it was a nuisance.  But it was a nuisance that could have/should have been taken care of a long time ago.

How many times do nuisances become bigger frustrations and even major problems when they aren’t dealt with? 

All this time it had been bugging me and I did nothing about it- why?

Because I thought it was bigger than it was and that I couldn’t do anything about it.

In Matthew 17:20 we read:

(This is when the disciples had tried to cast out a demon, but couldn’t and they were asking Jesus why they couldn’t cast it out)

 20 “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.

 Mountains – I just needed a rock dug up. But I hadn’t even tried to move this little rock that was in my way – goes to show my faith.

You know what – we have an enemy who wants us to believe lies like that.

How many lies are you believing today that are holding you back?

How many rocks are in your driveway that need to be removed?

How many stumbling blocks are slowing you down or preventing you from walking in what God has for you?

But you know what – I am not going to be of little faith anymore. Today - It is not an option to allow anything to stand in my way. I need revival in my life – I need to return to my first love and truly love the Lord and other people again. Our mission statement here at the Springs is – Loving Jesus, Loving People in truth and grace, right? I need to get back to that time when I was on fire for the Lord – take the lessons and the maturity that has taken place in these years since then but return to that attitude of love.

It seems like we are embarking on the impossible, doesn’t it?

I am in a time where the Lord is telling me phrases like: We are on the verge, I have opened the gates and split the sea, now get moving. Take care of the unfinished business. We are headed for breakthrough.

And I’ll be honest with you, I have days I am thinking “no way is this going to work Lord”.  Because all I can see are those rocks.

And yet we have words in THE WORD that say, “All things are possible” “you are blessed because you believe I will do what I said I would do.”  And that through His mighty work within us can do immeasurably more than we might ask or think. Don’t we believe it?

We all have issues – whether it is physical, emotional, spiritual or several combinations or even all of these.

It is one thing to be oblivious to the blocks or rocks in our path. But it is something else to see them and do nothing about them.

How many rocks can you see and yet choose to do nothing about?

Fear, pride, addictions, insecurities, physical issues that you are ignoring or making excuses about.

God is calling us into awesomeness – but if we aren’t willing to clear the rocks how are we going to walk into those promises.

Ask yourself 2 questions:

1)     What are your rocks or stumbling blocks that are in the way?

2)     Are you a stumbling block for someone else?

Ouch – if you answered yes to that question, you need to get out of the way.  If your insecurities, fears, pride, jealousy, self-righteousness are in the way of someone else being able to walk in the path God has set before them – get out of the way.

I have had to dig up a lot of issues these last couple years.  Issues that were truly preventing me from walking in my calling, issues that were hampering the Holy Spirit from flowing freely. The result of not dealing with those issues was anxiety & fear.

I have had to surrender and get on my knees and seek the Lord’s strength and discernment and admit my sin, admit my anxiety, admit my lack of trust, whatever it is – and that process isn’t pretty, that process can be messy, and it can hurt but at the other end is freedom.

When we remove those things that are hampering the flowing of the Holy Spirit in our lives, when we remove the stumbling blocks, when we remove the things that are getting in the way of having an attitude of praise, confidence in the Word, a heart for others. Guess what?

Revival happens. The Holy Spirit starts moving freely, The Holy Spirit can freely work.

Suddenly, the fruit of the Spirit starts growing in our lives and it is seen by others. 

Suddenly, we are more in tuned to the gifts of the Spirit manifesting in our lives and we use them to edify and encourage other believers.

We are then able to IMPACT our families, we are then able to IMPACT our relationships, we are then able to IMPACT our church and that in turns means that we are then able to IMPACT our community.

Then all those things that are byproducts – anointed worship, anointed teaching, children’s & youth programs, powerful prayer, compassionate and effective outreach, and successful evangelism – happen.

It will happen when the Holy Spirit is freely moving – because it is the Will of God that those things happen.

You aren’t in this alone – that is why we assemble as a church. And I also promise you – whatever hole is left after you dig up that rock – The Lord will fill it if you let Him.

Today is the perfect day to start digging.

Today is the perfect day to ask the Lord to show you what needs to be removed.