Revival Generation (Part 2)
Posted by PropheticEdge | Labels: Revival | Posted On Monday, February 15, 2010 at 1:51 AM
Acts 2:42 "They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."
In this post, I want to address the first part of Acts 2:42 – "They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching." What exactly does this mean in context of maintaining a revival? I believe that this phrase is talking about listening to what God is saying as well as doing what He is telling us to do. When we position ourselves to hear what God is talking to us about, it allows Him to move through us. Jesus said that He only did what He saw the Father doing. He also told us that we would be able to do what He did, and that we would do greater things.
It is crucial that we understand the importance of taking time to listen to what God is communicating to us. Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." In this reference, the word delight is talking about us aligning our will with His will. In other words, positioning ourselves to listen to what God is saying to us, and doing those things as well. Through this process, we create intimacy with the Father, and His desires become our desires. This is what enables us to move in the signs, wonders, and miracles that we are called to walk in. As we move in these signs, wonders, and miracles, the flame for revival is sparked.
Revival comes from a place of intimacy with God. Intimacy occurs when we pursue a relationship with Him. The awesome thing that happens when we pursue a relationship with Him, is that He in turn pursues us. The relationship that is being formed here becomes the ground that we cultivate in order to grow in intimacy.
Let's look for a minute at the word relationship. First we have the word relation. Relation means two or more people who interact with each other. The second word we have is ship. A ship is a vessel that carries something from one place to another. So when the two words are joined, we see that relationship means: Two or more people joined together to get from one place to another. In this case, it is God and us joined together to get to a place of revival. The wind behind the ship’s sail is intimacy.
When we have intimacy in our relationships, we are able to share the deepest things of our heart with each other. It is God's desire to be in this place of intimacy with us. He desires to share His heart with us. As God shares His heart with us, we experience Him in new ways and our understanding of Him grows deeper. I like the way Kevin Dedmon puts it: "God wants us to have an encounter, so that we become an encounter, so that others can have an encounter. It is only as we encounter His presence in profound ways that we become a habitation of His presence, so that wherever we go, we naturally leak what is inside of us, so that the environment around us is affected by His presence within us."
The ultimate goal in revival is to saturate the environment around us with His presence to the point that not only we change, but the environment around us changes. As we devote ourselves to hearing what God is saying to us, and doing what He tells us to do, we become the catalyst for change, and we help spark the flame of revival. As the flame for revival is sparked, it is essential that we are connected to fellow believers. In my next post, I will be addressing the second part of Acts 2:42 – “They devoted themselves to fellowship."
In this post, I want to address the first part of Acts 2:42 – "They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching." What exactly does this mean in context of maintaining a revival? I believe that this phrase is talking about listening to what God is saying as well as doing what He is telling us to do. When we position ourselves to hear what God is talking to us about, it allows Him to move through us. Jesus said that He only did what He saw the Father doing. He also told us that we would be able to do what He did, and that we would do greater things.
It is crucial that we understand the importance of taking time to listen to what God is communicating to us. Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." In this reference, the word delight is talking about us aligning our will with His will. In other words, positioning ourselves to listen to what God is saying to us, and doing those things as well. Through this process, we create intimacy with the Father, and His desires become our desires. This is what enables us to move in the signs, wonders, and miracles that we are called to walk in. As we move in these signs, wonders, and miracles, the flame for revival is sparked.
Revival comes from a place of intimacy with God. Intimacy occurs when we pursue a relationship with Him. The awesome thing that happens when we pursue a relationship with Him, is that He in turn pursues us. The relationship that is being formed here becomes the ground that we cultivate in order to grow in intimacy.
Let's look for a minute at the word relationship. First we have the word relation. Relation means two or more people who interact with each other. The second word we have is ship. A ship is a vessel that carries something from one place to another. So when the two words are joined, we see that relationship means: Two or more people joined together to get from one place to another. In this case, it is God and us joined together to get to a place of revival. The wind behind the ship’s sail is intimacy.
When we have intimacy in our relationships, we are able to share the deepest things of our heart with each other. It is God's desire to be in this place of intimacy with us. He desires to share His heart with us. As God shares His heart with us, we experience Him in new ways and our understanding of Him grows deeper. I like the way Kevin Dedmon puts it: "God wants us to have an encounter, so that we become an encounter, so that others can have an encounter. It is only as we encounter His presence in profound ways that we become a habitation of His presence, so that wherever we go, we naturally leak what is inside of us, so that the environment around us is affected by His presence within us."
The ultimate goal in revival is to saturate the environment around us with His presence to the point that not only we change, but the environment around us changes. As we devote ourselves to hearing what God is saying to us, and doing what He tells us to do, we become the catalyst for change, and we help spark the flame of revival. As the flame for revival is sparked, it is essential that we are connected to fellow believers. In my next post, I will be addressing the second part of Acts 2:42 – “They devoted themselves to fellowship."
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