Are You In Revival?
At this moment that we live in, there is hopelessness and despair. There are dangers and risks. There are anger and fear. We are daily inundated with the news of the latest number of COVID cases and rising death rates. The unrest over racism simply fills the airwaves. Costs and destruction. Politics overwhelms us. Hatred fills our streets and our video screens. And a good majority of us are addicted to social media and the evening news. Both of which fuel the fires. Had anyone said we would be in such a place a mere year ago, we would have never believed it. Yet, here we are.
Some see this as the last days coming rapidly into place. Such days have been happening since the time of Christ, but now we see how it could happen right here, right now. This has become a topic for Christians that is very hard to argue with.
Hunger for revival?
The pain, the suffering, the injustice, the separation – these are all a part of us now. So in the midst of such a thing, how can we even consider revival? Yet we must. As hungry Christians, this should be a very strong thought for us. In fact, as people of God, revival should always be a topic we must invest in. To give our prayers to it to see it come again.
Revival has been on my mind for many, many years. I have experienced moments in the last 54 years that have forever shaped my thoughts on how God moves. We tend to look for something greater than our previous experiences. We are, in a way, supposed to. I look back at the things God has done that were full-on miracles. Some that happened instantly and some that took time. Literally things that happened that could not have been reproduced by mankind or orchestrated by him. These, most often, happened within some format of revival.
Read: What Action is Backing your Prayer?
My wife and I began to search our area for people that were in revival. Like-minded individuals who were either leading a movement or, like us, hungry for one. We needed an outlet with more of God. More of His Presence. More fellowship with His people. A difficult thing to do in the middle of a shutdown. But this began well before anyone ever heard of COVID-19.
Our hunt was, for the most part, proving fruitless. It wasn’t because no one else in our city is hungry, it was because we were searching for something that wasn’t going to be discovered in someone else.
What does revival mean?
The word revival means to “come back to life“. I have personally associated it with a couple of different things over my life. When I was a kid, a revival meant that some big-time preacher was going to come to church and preach for several days consecutively. They often had music and other things like tapes and “merch”. For most of my young life, that was what I understood revival to mean.
As an adult, I saw that revival (through the Brownsville Church Outpouring) was a great, life, and community changing event. One that was not just a few nights of good preaching and great music, but something that God would use to change the world. I was never there, but I watched the videos, I listened to the sermons, and I was transformed by the worship music. In fact, this experience changed everything I thought I understood about God.
The latter is what I have been seeking. As I said, when we experience something wonderful that stands out to us, we will want more. I wanted something more. I still want something more.
But the truth that I wrestled with was that in the midst of all that is transpiring in my community and around the world, how is it possible to have such a thing happen now?
We sought God in several ways. We took our bible study, that God was using in a tremendous way, online back in December of 2019. We had no idea where God would take it, but He has used it to connect with a wide variety of beautiful people that we now call our family.
His revelation in this bible study and the connections we have made, I could see something. God began to show me what revival meant.
I know it has been said a thousand times, “God send revival and start with me.” Bumper stickers, t-shirts, a million different memes. It’s been said in every way (and likely language) that can be imagined. It’s not enough, though.
The Lord asked me in my heart what revival meant. I saw that it means coming together, like-minded people that worship and hear God’s Word. He pointed out to me that having a desire to grow was, essentially, revival. The moment a person desires to go after God that means they are in revival. Being “revived”.
I was stunned. But only for a moment. I must admit I had some help in understanding this fact. I mean besides the download from God. It is vitally important to the Christians of today to have positive people feed into you! Even if it’s a podcast!
God initiated an awareness in me and my wife that we WERE in revival. We didn’t need to wait for someone who is leading something at a church or organization. His presence inside of us was doing all the work.
Having this new adumbration within us led us to a greater vision of God’s plans for us and our community. It led me to a sudden recognition that we had been so busy searching for revival that we didn’t see our job wasn’t to hunt for it, but, indeed, to spread it. Not to beat ourselves in the process of a quest on the matter, but to inaugurate the dispensing of it. The world is hungry for the revival inside of us, we must capitulate the mandate and broadcast this wonderful news.
In short, it’s time we live in revival (publically) instead of just talking about it. Quit waiting for someone to point it out to you!
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
- What is God telling your heart what revival means?
- What has God done in your life to make “known” that you were in revival?
- In what ways are you connecting with God to know what revival means?
- In which ways are you surrounding yourself with positive influences?
Matt has been writing blogs since 2008. Newspaper articles prior to that. Most of it has been about the goodness of God. “Life’s greatest purpose is God and all that entails.” He has written and published seven books with a long list waiting in line. His prolific writing is attributed, by himself, to a gift from the Great Master Author. The books range from devotionals to Christian and family fiction. The genres’ variety has demanded that he use pen names. So he writes all his devotionals and blogs under “Matt Davenport”. Adult/Christian fiction is written under M.R.Davenport. And he writes Y.A. under E.M.Oliver. The Y.A. writing is currently under a goal of two separate series’ that will, eventually, converge into one another. These two series’ involve a total of 10 books (one written and published already) that are set to culminate by the end of 2025.
He is married to his best friend and editor, Nancy. Between the two of them, they have 7 children and 12 grandchildren. They are blessed to reside on a beautiful, old farm (built during the Civil War) which they share with a very large heard of goats and two chummy barn cats. Which is all located in Oregon.
“While my work will always have a great range of story and character, I will never be embarrassed by children (mine or someone else’s) reading it.”
Sapphire Arts is his and his wife’s company. It is still in the baby stages and will eventually combine a publishing and design LLC. Add to that the talent they both have for creation (woodcraft, seamstress craft, digital design, etc), and SA will have much to offer.
They have a daily (Monday through Saturday) online Bible Study at 9 a.m. Pacific time. It is open to anyone who wishes to join in and watch by requesting to be friends with Matt on Facebook.
