The Price

 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Luke 11:1

Praying for revival is something I've been doing for many years now. I'm not alone. I have been with many fellow pastors and leaders who have fervently prayed for the very same thing. I wonder though; do we have any real understanding of what a true move of His Holy Spirit upon His church would result in? I don't think many of us, including me, have a real concept of what it would mean.

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, promised by Christ, gave birth to the New Testament church. At Pentecost, Holy Spirit power came upon the church in ways beyond belief. Those who had come to believe in the risen Christ, were infused with power from on high, and mighty and miraculous works were done by God through His people in the power of His Holy Spirit. I think when we consider what revival is, we think in terms of what happened at Pentecost, and we long to see Him move in that way again. Such a move is exciting to behold and even more exciting to be a part of. We have visions of great numbers of people coming to Christ, of lives and even cultures being transformed, and for sure, these are a part of what takes place when God moves upon a people. Yet there's another side of revival, of a Pentecost that is less exciting, less wonderful to behold, at least to our flesh, and maybe that truth is part of the reason why revival tarries. We don't have any understanding of what the cost will be.

Leonard Ravenhill, who lived and died passionately praying for, living for, a great Holy Spirit filled awakening in the church and the world it sought to reach. Of Pentecost he said, "Pentecost meant pain, burden, prison." I want to admit that in all my prayers for revival, those three never entered into my thinking. There was no room in my expectations for them. They didn't fit with what I pictured a revival to be. In truth, they still don't, but Ravenhill was right in what he said. Along with all the wonderful and miraculous works of the Spirit in the midst of the church, there came for those who were a part of that great move, much pain, deep burdens, and very often, prison cells....and death. The Apostle Paul knew all of them. So did Stephen, stoned to death shortly after Pentecost, and James, killed for his faith and witness of Christ. These are all part of the fruit of revival, but they simply don't fit with our westernized concept of what a move of God should be, which is something neat, orderly, and leaves everyone happy and blessed. True revival is anything but that. It's messy. It's dangerous. It will arouse hostility not only in the world the church seeks to reach, but in the church itself as many within it seek, as did the Jewish Pharisees, to maintain control of an "organization" they've invested much of their time and lives in.

True revival and awakening is taking place in many parts of the world. An awakening has been happening in China since the coming to power of the Communists after WW2. God is moving in ways beyond belief, but the cost to those who are in the midst of it is great; pain, burdens, and prisons, just as Ravenhill says. All of these and with them, death. The same can be said of many places in Africa, Russia, the Middle East, that are experiencing fresh moves of the Spirit. The devil doesn't pay much attention to believers who spend most of their time behind the doors and walls of their churches. All of that changes when these believers, empowered and propelled by His Spirit into a world of death, step out beyond those doors and walls. His response will be sure, powerful, and violent. Here in the west, we have little understanding of that, and almost no experience.....but if we are to have the awakening we pray for, we will. We most surely will.

I close with two thoughts from Ravenhill that should both convict and deeply challenge all who say they yearn for revival. He wrote, "The world isn't waiting for a new definition of the Gospel, but a new demonstration of the power of the Gospel." To that he added, "The world is sleeping in darkness while the church sleeps in the light." We must respond to these truths on our knees, confessing and repenting of their truth, and crying out from our hearts for the coming of that new and mighty demonstration of the power of His Gospel message. It will mean, in some degree and way, pain, burden, and prison. What comes to you and to me is, is that a price we're willing to pay to have what we say we so desperately long for?

Blessings,

Pastor O