Christian Ebooks

book excerpt

Let me begin with an open-ended statement, “You might need revival if . . .” This unfinished statement will help us recognize how important God’s renewal is for each of us since it must have an answer. It begs the question, “If . . . Then What?” As the statement implies, you might need revival if something is wrong, or if something is missing from your life. We are going to discover that there are many ways to answer this question to help us complete this statement. Somehow we have to determine what might be wrong or missing. We also have to understand what the word “revival” means before we can know what, if anything, is amiss. When it comes to being spiritual restored, many people may not know what it is and whether they might have it or not. And so, we need to know what revival is before we go any further. Simply knowing what this awakening is leads us to other questions. One of the most important questions may be, “When it comes to revival, do I want it?” Another question then follows, “If I want to be revived, how can I get it?” Some people may even ask, “Revival . . . is it contagious?” This leads us to a further question, “How can an author writing a couple of opening paragraphs to his book ask so many questions?” To answer that question, I acknowledge my own need for answers from time to time in my life; especially when it comes to revival. I am by nature a curious person, and so I tend to ask a lot of questions. Some of my questions are found sprinkled throughout this book. Hopefully, this book will help answer some of these questions for me and for you. A Biblical Concept of Revival Fortunately, these questions are easier to answer than one might expect. A good place to begin to find the answers would be to find a Bible passage, any passage, which speaks about revival. By doing this, we can learn what the Bible says about this renewing process. When we read our Bibles, we discover numerous “revival” passages; however, I have one particular verse in mind. Psalm 85:6, says, “Will You not revive us again, so that your people may rejoice in You?” As we read this verse, we can see it is a prayer request as much as it is simply a quotation or question. The point here is, in order to have revival, we must begin with prayer. The capitalized personal pronoun, “You” in this verse is a reference to the Lord God of all restoration and the One to whom the psalmist was speaking. Asaph, who is credited with writing the 85th Psalm, was crying out for a new relationship with his God, not only for himself, but also for his entire nation.