Sunday, February 28, 2010

Awakenings, Revivals and the God of This City

Since I was a child, I remember the talk about our need for revival. I remember the revival meetings and prayer meetings. If you grew up in the church I'm sure you do as well. There was this collective sense we needed a fresh outpouring of the Spirit of God, that ultimately we needed God Himself.

I was blessed as a child to actually grow up in a church that experienced an authentic awakening and revival. Growing up in that context and seeing such an outpouring of the Holy Spirit for years shaped my thoughts on what happened in church life. I thought what was happening in the church we attended was the 'normative' experience in every church. It was not until years later that I came to realize that the authentic revival that broke out at Castle Hills First Baptist Church under the pastoral leadership of Jack Taylor was not the 'norm' but rather a Sovereign visitation of the Spirit of God on that church.

As the years have passed, in every context where I have served (youth minister, church planter, pastor) in each church there was that prayer for revival, that talk of revival and awakening-but we cannot bring about revival or awakening in and of ourselves. It cannot be manufactured, programmed or scheduled.

We are seeing something on our campus that I can only describe (and I use this term carefully) as the beginnings of a potential awakening on our campus and revival among those who belong to Christ. It is a holy time. We are seeing Christian students thirst and hunger for greater intimacy with Christ, desiring for His Glory to be known and acknowledged on our campus and in our city. We are seeing young people praying with a sense of desperation and brokenness before Him over our need for Jesus Christ to be known and worshiped.

We are seeing young students who just 'show up' at our events, hungry and thirsty for something they cannot identify or name, but we know what it is-a longing for the Transcendent. God is moving. Please pray for UTSA. Please pray for the BSM on our campus. God is working in ways I have not seen Him work for so many years.

I believe that this movement of the Spirit is not limited to our campus. I see Him working and calling His people to pray across the city. I see a longing for Him that I have not seen for so long.

I do not know what is taking place in your church, among your people. Perhaps you are going through a difficult time. Perhaps your church is going through a challenging period. Perhaps the words 'awakening' and 'revival' seem like a distant dream in your context. I encourage you to join the growing number of people in our city who are on their faces crying out for the Lord to renew His works in our days. You are not forgotten. He loves you deeply. He is working.

Perhaps your church is experiencing the blessings of growth. I encourage you to give all glory to Him and to always be wary of the idea that we can somehow, in and of ourselves, 'grow' our churches or communities. Unless He is doing the building, we labor in vain.

In these tough times, more people are recognizing there must be something 'more' to life than the 'American Dream.' God is calling out to His people to return to Him wholeheartedly. He is calling out to lost humanity to find life through Jesus Christ, His Son. His Spirit is moving in remarkable ways. I pray that our city is awakened. I pray for revival in our churches. I pray that we humble ourselves before out King, crying out to Him because we so desperately need Him.

If you sense Him leading you to pray specifically for revival in our churches and an awakening in our city, I encourage you to join with others to specifically pursue Him in prayer. There is no better place for us to be than on our knees before our King.

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