Wednesday, January 14, 2009
God’s Original Design
Throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception. Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness—righteous, holy, and true.
—Ephesians 4:22–24
We hear the word revival tossed about frequently these days. Some churches claim to be having a revival. “Revival this week only! Starts at 7:00 a.m. and ends at 9:00 p.m.,” says their church signage.
I’m sure they’re having some great meetings; and I understand they are using the word revival in a loose sense. But real revival is not something we start or stop. It is something God supernaturally performs.
During dark times of moral breakdown, God has intervened. God in His grace has stepped in and brought about a spiritual awakening. That is what we need today.
The word revive means to be restored to its original condition. People today like to restore old cars. They will find a T-Bird or a Corvette or some other classic car and transform it to its original condition. These are people who are real sticklers about original paint and original parts. They say, “You don’t want any add-on parts. You want genuine parts.”
Spiritual revival is very similar. It means to get back to God’s original design.
Charles Finney, who was known to be a part of a great revival, said, “Revival is nothing more or less than a new beginning of obedience to God.” A. W. Tozer defined revival as, “That which changes the moral climate of a community.”
That is the kind of revival we require. Not just an emotional experience and not just a tingle down the backbone. We need to see God work, because our nation needs it like never before.
Something new is not the answer. The answer is to get back to God’s original intent—to the very standards He gave us.
Copyright © 2009 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org.
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