Many times in Christianity’s history, churches have prayerfully and sincerely slipped into the flow of what the Holy Spirit is actually doing and saying. We call that revival. I have seen a number of these revivals in my lifetime and they have fascinated me … because they rise… and then they eventually fade and disappear. I have a  theory about it to share with you this New Year’s day. 

The Holy Spirit loves the unity that is created by Him in these unfortunately, all-too-brief moments of heaven on earth. The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit live in perfect unity in eternity and They love to see us live that way too. Sadly, I think that that is the place where we need to be more interested in loving and pleasing Him, than in the supernatural stuff that is happening. If we are not careful we can focus so much on the miracles etc. at those times, than we do on the One Who is touching us!  Man’s personal agendas creep in.

Sadly, there are many needy people in this world, and it is easy to become enamoured with signs and wonders and start to try to benefit from His Presence. Things like the Lord blessing the flock, as well as the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet. When these times of revival and refreshing occur maybe we need to carefully listen to what God wants to DO with what He created, when He brought this group of particular people together in the first place! He has a purpose for the fire that fell on them. It seems to me, that the leaders get so busy trying to spread what He is doing, they cannot see that they are trying to organise Him. And I don’t think we know we are doing it! 

Many wonderful people of God have been given a Grace to even know how to work together at those times. But that is still His Grace in action. We can only give away to each other what He gives us, in the first place. We are receivers first .. distribution happens almost as a secondary benefit – a bi-product … not the main event. On many occasions in church history the Lord Himself brought those sticks, and branches (the people) together to create His revival fire. 

At the same time, satan loves to create situations that cause the unity we have in His Presence to be eroded, broken, or displaced, and one by one those people that lived to love Him and each other, walk or drift away. Maybe they simply want to take the fire of His Spirit elsewhere. We need to remember … the Holy Spirit is the WIND. We cannot micromanage the WIND. You simply go along with where He is blowing! Persecution brought about the disciples’ dispersement in Acts.

At the same time, human beings also seem to be very fond of duplicating existing models that seem to be working. So they use this church’s model or that denominational theory to try to get God to do stuff. Their motivation is to bless people. But the root of God’s Vine is Christ Jesus – not us. Sadly perhaps we have not realised that revival happens in the first place without human help. Just because WE prayed, however we did it, that does not mean that is why revival is here. The thing is at those times of fire and blessing, it looks to me like the leaders try to take control of His fire – that’s when He will take His hands off – because He honours our choices, even when they are NOT GOOD.

And this leader goes over here to start another church – like that person had that fire in the first place! What do we have that was not given to us? Pretty soon, the lives that provided the kindling for that particular blaze – start to become separated. They try to repeat the pattern they thought brought heaven to earth in the first place. We forget that Father God takes the initiative, that’s what Christ’s coming shows us. We respond – GRATEFULLY. We are not the fire starters … HE IS. This is where I’ve seen many people come to a fork in the road. I truly believe it is possible to have two perfectly-right, God-kissed things in front of you… however, we need to know which one does HE value the most? 

It seems to me that we need to show the Holy Spirit far more honour and constantly look to His wisdom and guidance. He loves for us to pause and carefully wait for Him, and not run on ahead. I personally think pausing is extremely  powerful because He values US dying to self, our ambition, our hopes and dreams, above everything else. A  revival is a display of His love and passion for us. However, He is God, He can say more than one thing at once. We pray “Lord send the fire, please send revival” – because we want to see lives changed and souls saved. I think we need ONE aim – our singular aim needs to be to obey, please and follow Him in any season. Everything else, including signs and wonders, is secondary to that aim.

Jesus Himself did all kinds of unusual things in men’s eyes. Sometimes He told the people who were healed to tell no-one. At other times He disappeared whilst the fire of healing and change was burning brightly. WHY??? Why did He do what He did? I dunno, but I have a theory! However, we need to find out by leaning heavily on the Holy Spirit’s wisdom. Personally I think He did those things because His primary aim was to obey and please His Father. Our Heavenly Father HAS LONG RANGE PLANS – we dare not run ahead of them.

I don’t think God cares if we have Mega churches or not – what He is looking for is a people who will take the time to listen to Him, love each other and follow Him in through all kinds of circumstances. It seems to me that He loves people who esteem His approval over everything else. The hallmark of people like this is best expressed by a man who had his head chopped off! John the Baptist said … in the middle of a booming ministry (!!) … “He must increase and I must decrease.” And then he died.

People who value the Holy Spirit like this, lack human ambition, and I am blessed to know them. They would rather someone else’s ministry prosper, because they feel the heartbeat of God on what the other people are doing. Revival does not capture God – HE CAPTURES US!! The Lord is looking for a people who want what He wants no matter what it costs them. These are my thoughts at the beginning of this New Year.  May the God of all hope be praised and glorified among us even more in 2023. 👋🏻