I wish I could make widespread revival start today, but I can’t, and neither can you.  But here is the truth:  personal revival is totally available to you and me every day. NO MATTER what the last five days, weeks or years have been, you can return to a fiery, fervent, zealous love for Jesus Christ…right now.

For many years I sought to experience the Lord’s love.  It was my passion to do so, but it proved elusive.  But then the Lord opened my eyes to the state of my heart.  Though my spirit was yearning for Him, I was blind to the ways in which my heart totally resisted Him and His ways.  When He began to set me free through repentance, as gently as my Dad used to remove splinters from my palms, then I found the Love I had been searching for.  Oceans, torrents, floods, and rivers of love.  It was not a momentary experience I had to seek to repeat; it was a constant, unwavering Source.  He never went anywhere!  He never touched my heart and then flew away!  He was always present.  But it was in this state…this posture…at this humble gate:  the sinner being saved through simple, heartfelt repentance.  Revival, true joy, and unending love.

Here are five things I have observed bring true believers into dullness and depression, over weeks, months, and days.  Maybe you can relate to something.  If so, today this ugly rock can be removed off the spring of Living Water that is the Holy Spirit resident in you (the born-again believer), and you can be immediately restored to your first love.

1. Loneliness. For all our crazy American independence, we’re addicted to group-think as Christians.  We are so insecure that Jesus’ approval has lifted off us, that we need to find the people who are “right,” who love the Lord like we do, and who will teach us what we need to know, that when we come into a lonely season, we scratch and claw to find a church or ministry or group to make us secure.

Here’s a crazy verse that you don’t hear taught very often.  “They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, ⁷ greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’ ⁸ But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ,^[b] and you are all brethren. ⁹ Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. ¹⁰ And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. ¹¹ But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.”  Matthew 23:6-10.

You have a Father, you have a Teacher, you have a leader.  He is God, and His Son, Jesus.  He is absolutely available to you, in your painful marriage, tenuous relationships, failing health, and financial duress.  And His message to you is simple, “Return to me.”  Come into simple obedience again.  No one, nothing, no failure, not even your spouse can make Jesus far from you.  The ONLY thing that can make Jesus far is your and my own personal sin, especially unbelief.  This is such good news.  Revival today.

2. The pain, struggles, and unbelief of others. A sister’s husband leaves her.  A prominent church family finds their child is living as a homosexual.  A brother decides he no longer believes.  The pastor has an affair.

If it has not happened yet, it will.  The enemy will come for you to convince you every which way that GOD IS UNFAIR and his gospel doesn’t work.  Unbelief is literally like mold in the air.  Its spores settle wherever they can and grow rampantly, without regard to where they originated.  I have seen so many friends who have walked in a measure of humility and righteousness tripped and confused by the lives of friends and family, because they will not discern their unrighteousness.  It seems so compassionate, so loving, to hold their friends and loved ones up as innocent.  And then to accuse God.

Consider the question:  “How can a good God let bad things happen to good people?” Do you see what’s presupposed in it?  Who is considered good, and Who is being accused?  If there is any case that has all of history’s documentation, more evidence than could fill the oceans and cover the mountains, it is God’s case against men.  God is good.  Men are not.  The question above is already diseased with unbelief, even as it is formed.  The heart speaking it needs to quickly be rescued, not comforted.

To speak plainly, the church is so filled with unbelief, that we don’t even consider it a sin.  We comfort each other.  We call it a “struggle,” or a “journey.”  We watch judgment fall on those who have embraced such “journeys” and get offended with God.  I see it happen over and over and over and over.  “But they were missionaries!”  (who were bitter and joyless)  “They pastored faithfully for so long!”  (and were filled with fear of man and pride)  “They raised their kids to follow the Lord!”  (through religious control).  We are often fooled by external forms of obedience, but dear one, God never is.  Obedience to Him requires humility, a broken spirit, a repentant heart.  Satan loves to convince us that a repentant heart and an unrepentant heart are all the same.

Never, ever let someone convince you that they tried to repent and it didn’t work. This defies what repentance actually is.  It never doesn’t work.  Jesus didn’t die on the cross to take applications.  ALL who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved!!!  Understand when your friend is sharing about how they just can’t stop such and such sin, how they don’t believe anymore because of the hypocrisy of the church, or how God has heaped undeserved suffering on them, your friend may not have this intention, but Satan does:  he’s out to steal and destroy your faith.  Turn back to Jesus…never let the testimony of a fallen, broken, deceived human being drown out the everlasting and complete FAITHFULNESS of Jesus.

3.  “I’m not doing it right.” Equally dangerous is, “I’ve been doing it right.” They are branches off the same tree.  Have you ever pondered how Jesus never started any “ministries” like the ones we have while He was here on earth?  He didn’t start an orphanage, He didn’t start a Missions organization, He didn’t feed the hungry more than once without rebuking them for their lack of spiritual hunger, He didn’t “do it right.”  He started the church.  And put His very own heart into it.  Ez. 11:19.  His discipleship was reformation of the heart, not an introduction of the “right way.”  Oh, but how we love to start “right ways” to serve the Lord.

I see so many causes presented as a “right way,” armed with thousands of rounds of heavy duty scripture ammo, that bring people who are soft to the Lord into condemnation and shame.  Or bring disobedient believers into pride, seeking to preach and teach and lead.  A classic example is the injunctions in scripture to “feed the hungry,” leveled against believers with pictures of starving people from other nations.  How could that be deceptive?  Won’t we be judged for their hunger?  But then next week, it’s evangelism to the unreached…how could you not be a missionary?  Then next week, it’s abortion.  What kind of Christian are you if you’re not engaged in the fight?  The truth is, if our hearts are numb to any of these issues, if they don’t trouble us, then there’s something seriously wrong with us.  Anyone who fears the Lord hates evil.  But is Jesus calling us to be perpetually troubled?  Or to peace?

²⁷ Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  John 14:27-28

If you hate the religious complacency and denial of the church, then good for you.  But the path out isn’t taking up a cause, it’s obedience to the One who has already overcome the world (Jn 16:33). He has a path of obedience for you that is peaceful, fruitful, blessed, and joyful.  It’s YOUR path, with good works laid out for YOU (Eph 2:10), and it might not feed all of Africa.  Or stop the epidemic of abortion.  Or cure America’s obesity, and get them eating organic.  Or care for all the orphans.  Or stop the sex trade.  Or any of the other evils than run rampant when men defy God.  But you can go to bed at peace at night, if you obeyed the Lord. Don’t believe the lie that the Lord wants you up in arms, guilty and sad, fervently overwhelmed, or daily failing, never having done enough.  He wants the exact opposite.  Like any good Father, He wants you at peace.

Here’s a favorite verse of mine:

²⁸ Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” ²⁹ Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”  John 6:28-29

4.  Disillusionment and unfulfilled expectations. Zealous believers seek other zealous believers.  This is right and good!  But what is so rare is for zealous believers to be gathered around nothing more than Christ.  Usually they unite around some kind of cause, activity, organization, or doctrine.  Sometimes, in my own experience, in places where Christ was strongly present in the midst, somebody decides that what He’s asking for is zeal for a cause, activity, organization, or doctrine.  And within a few years, Christ is no longer strongly present in the midst.  The simplicity of individual obedience to the Lord Jesus and His gospel is replaced by some other teaching, admonition, and exhortation. Revival subtly gets exchanged for works.

Within a few years, you find exhausted, disillusioned, broken sheep.  If that is you, please remember the simplicity of finding Jesus.  Jesus does not require you to do anything but obey Him, so He, the Good Shepherd, can lead you out of sin into wide, green pastures.  Does He have good works for you?  Oh, yes, yes, yes.  But they will flow out of a restored heart and repentance, and they will be fire to you, not a burden.  They will bear good fruit right where you are, especially in your home, and then flow out from there.  As long as you preach Christ, not your works, you will never run out of good, fruitful works to do.

The thing that makes me ache is that people who are burnt by this very thing often, instead of turning back to Jesus and the simplicity of obeying Him from the heart, turn and find a different cause, activity, organization, or doctrine to adhere to.  Angry at the previous error, they swing into an opposite one, sometimes worse than the first.  How many of my personal friends, burnt by charismania, have swung into liberal tolerance of sin?  SO MANY.  How many, burnt by driving vision, have swung into some religious form of passivity?  SO MANY.  How many, burnt by doctrinal legalism, have swung into fantastical spiritualism that mixes the ministry of the Spirit with deception?  SO MANY.  None of these swings require personal repentance or humility.  Someone else was wrong, and something new will be the comfort.

If that is you, friend, I can tell you that OJ and I have been so burnt, so abandoned, so failed, so criticized, so disillusioned, so embarrassed.  But never by Jesus or His gospel.  Our zeal is brighter than ever.  He will never fail you.  Return to Him, and be comforted by the Holy Spirit, not by your new “thing.”

5. False expectations and alliances.  There are a few simple scriptural truths that have become so foreign to American Christians.  We are disoriented like someone whose compass lost its due north.  One principle is “…broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”  Mat 7:13-14.  Another is Luke 21:17, “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake.”  I know so many folks who were white-hot with zeal a few years ago, but their expectations were not aligned with these “due norths,” if you will.  They didn’t expect to be hated for the gospel, and they didn’t expect their message to be met largely with rejection.  They didn’t rejoice over the one or two or ten who were saved, but were crestfallen that it wasn’t hundreds or thousands.  Instead of rejoicing over the incredible miracle of one sinner repenting (which the scripture says causes ALL the angels to rejoice), they (and tell the truth, I should say we) felt like failures.  Like the big thing was yet to come.

Striving, failure, pain, sorrow, disillusionment, and anger…we were confused.  We were disoriented.  We had forgotten that if we live like Jesus, we’ll have a path something like His.  Even in America.  Especially in America.  The message you thought your friends would love, they reject.  The transformation you thought they’d rejoice in, makes them angry.  The hope you want to shout about, sounds like condemnation to their ears.  That’s the Jesus road.  There’s a lot of hatred.

OJ and I had to have our compass reset to scripture.  But I see that many others thought that if their message was so unpopular, it must be wrong.  It must be overboard.  It must be prideful.  So they reached out for a more popular message…with so many enthusiasts, it must be right?  And the fire in their eyes is dimmed and dulled.

I wish I could hug each friend, and say please return to Jesus and the simplicity of the gospel.  A lot may have been wrong, but HE never was, and the gospel never was.  Return to zeal, my friend.  Jesus is not far, in fact He is “…near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.”  Ps. 34:18

If you’re dull, admit it.  It’s so miserable to be dull, to be far from JEsus.  If you have taken on some religious routine that comforts your dullness, I hope you have a moment of revelation right now.  Where has the fire in your eyes gone?  Why live dull when Jesus came for YOU?  Just return humbly to Him, to His gift of repentance, to the simplicity of casting every care onto Him, and taking up only His easy yoke of simple obedience.

Love and grace to you.

⁹ Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. ¹⁰ Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; ¹¹ not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; ¹² rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; ¹³ distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.  Romans 12:9-13

Here are great books for such a moment:  Calvary Road and We would See Jesus by Roy Hession