A Post By Ed Pavlik
The world is racing toward destruction! God first saw the world reach this dreadful place when He came to Noah and told him He was going to destroy the world with a great flood and begin anew, all the while realizing that the world would reach that point again.
Only His Son, Jesus, could save humanity and the world God created. Jesus came to redeem us from sin by His loving sacrifice on the cross. He gave us a true picture of God and the life He wanted us to live. His birth brought new hope to His people and revival fueled by love — an example of how to love and what love could do in this world.
We say that when a person loses consciousness, he or she needs to be revived. Many in the world have lost their consciousness of God and who He is. A nation and its people can lose their love for the truth and one another. We need revival, and I believe it must start on a personal level — one heart at a time.
Let me tell you my own story of revival.
I was born into a Christian family and was raised as a Christian child, but it took 47 years for me to be truly awakened to God’s desire for my life. As a young person I went to Sunday School and church. I heard God’s word each week of my adult life, but Christianity was only a Sunday thing for me. I didn’t make it a part of the rest of my week.
I became disillusioned by my own sin and the way I saw Christians treating one another. An incident over a pastor’s removal for his ineffectiveness to grow the congregation’s size divided our church and brought a crisis in my faith. I asked God to show me if there was more to being His follower than I was seeing.
He answered my prayer with a vision of spiritual baptism that led me to a deeper relationship with Him than I could ever have imagined.
It began one night with my being awakened to the sound of running water, but I could not find the source of what sounded like a shower faucet left running. This happened multiple times a night for three nights. Each time I got up, I could find no running water or the source of the sound.
Finally, I shared my strange story with a godly neighbor who said, “It sounds like you had a ‘born again’ experience, a Spiritual baptism. God is calling you to a deeper understanding of who He is.” I trusted in what I felt God was calling me to do and repented of my sin of little faith and judging others.
The process I experienced was much like what A.W. Tozer describes in his ten steps to revival.
First, be dissatisfied with yourself and your relationship with God. There is more to God than we can ever know. He always wants to show us more of who He is.
Second, “do a thorough job of repenting. Do not hurry to get it over with. Hasty repentance makes for a shallow spiritual experience. Let godly sorrow do her healing work.”
Wandering in my wilderness while searching for God began when I was 39. It took me another 8 years of repentance and dissatisfaction with who I was in God before He knew I was ready to go further.
Third, don’t neglect prayer for yourself and others. Ask God to deepen your relationship with Him. “To desire revival and at the same time to neglect prayer and devotion is to wish one way and walk another.” Have faith in God and begin to expect as you pray and seek Him.
Tozer describes seven more steps, but this beginning led me to a glorious relationship and the new identity God was waiting to give me. The apostle Paul says, “If anyone be in Christ, they are a new creature, old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
This new identity unfolded before me in an amazing way. As I began to read the Word with a new hunger, God revealed more and more of His character, His love and forgiveness for me, His plan for my life, and His great sacrifice that makes us children in His family. Sunday church became more than an obligation each week; it was a time to worship and thank God for the gift of life and to give Him glory.
My quest to know God more and to make Him the center of my life was underway. It led me to a ministry of teaching God’s word to children and interceding in prayer for His struggling people, praying God’s word in faith for His will to be done.
To this day, He continues to call me, and each of us, to a life that honors Him more and more in the way we live. It is the beginning of a personal revival brought about by Christ’s love and the Holy Spirit who gives us a new identity in Him.
But, personal revival is only the beginning.
Jesus’ Great Commission compels us to reach out to all the world with His gospel. As each revived heart shares God’s story and their own, the Spirit can work to spread the glory of God and His plan for a new heaven and a new earth throughout a country and then the world.
God bless and strengthen you as you respond to His call to begin this great adventure.
Ed Pavlik
President of the Board
FaithPrayers National Prayer Line
Scripture of the Month
“God resurrected this Jesus, of which we all are witnesses”
—the apostle Peter, as recorded in Acts 2:32