Revive Us Again
By Caron Cline
Burke County
Psalm 85:4-9 is a key passage concerning revival.
How do you know if you need reviving?
Revive means to restore to life or consciousness or bring back to life. Physically, if you need to be revived, you don’t know it. Someone else must recognize your needs and do something about it. You are unconscious—unresponsive.
Spiritually, revive in the Hebrew is ‘Chayah’ and means to keep or make alive, quicken, restore or be whole. Often, Christians do not even realize that they need reviving, yet Psalm 85 shows what is lacking in our lives when we need reviving.
- Joy— “Will You not revive us again that Your people may rejoice in You?”
(Again—Once more) The root word of rejoice is joy. We have heard hundreds of sermons on joy. We know that joy is not the same as happiness because it is based on something more solid than mere emotion. Joy is the steadfast belief that even in the worst of circumstances, there is a future of hope and prosperity. Joy comes from believing the promises of God and Nehemiah tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength. The key is that we are to find joy or rejoice in the Lord; not our possessions or our family or ourselves, but in the Lord.
God wants us to celebrate the truth that we are His. If there is no spirit of rejoicing in our hearts, there is a problem. Are we fully conscious? If we are revived, we are fully conscious of God’s blessings to us.
What has our Father done for us?
We can count our blessings, as the song says, one by one, and if we are honest, there will hardly be time to do so.
If we are lacking joy, we need reviving!
- Peace— “Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for He will speak peace to His people, to His saints”.
Peace-The Biblical definition is ‘to be whole’ or ‘to be sound’. This can be wholeness of physical or mental health or wholeness between people. God is the source of peace; Jehovah Shalom. (Judges 6:24)
Notice, that the Psalmist is asking God to revive them and now he says he will hear what the Lord will answer. God will speak and it will bring peace, for God is always for us and He has a good future in mind; a future of peace.
At the moment of salvation, we receive peace with God. Jesus’ sacrificial death and shed blood reconciled us to the Father. However, we must maintain the peace of God in our hearts and minds.
Colossians 3:15 says ‘Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body, you have been called to peace. And be thankful…’
When we allow Jesus to rule our lives, we will experience a deep sense of peace regardless of our circumstances. If He is not ruling our lives, there is no peace and we need reviving.
- Glory— “Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him that glory may dwell in our land”.
The Hebrew word for glory is ‘Kabod’ and means weight or splendor; majesty, honorable.
In Exodus 24:16-17 God’s glory appeared as a devouring fire to the eyes of the Israelites. Exodus 29:43 says that God would meet with His people and the Tabernacle would be sanctified by His glory. Moses begged God to show him His glory in Exodus 33:18.
2 Chronicles 7:2-3 says:
“The priests could not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. All the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down and the glory of the Lord upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshipped and gave praise to the Lord saying, ‘Truly He is good. Truly His lovingkindness is everlasting’”.
The glory of God is raw power. When God’s glory dwells in the land, in the home, and in our hearts, there is a supernatural power that changes everything. Sometimes it appears God’s glory is covered by a cloud and sometimes we see it as a fire. The bottom line is there must be passion in our lives for the glory of God. Do we have the fire of the Holy Spirit within? If there is no power and no passion in our lives for the things of God, we need reviving.
Today is the day to seek the Lord. Now is the time. We need a breakthrough individually and collectively as the body of Christ. God is sitting on the edge of His throne waiting for us to ask Him to invade our space.
Isaiah 64:1-4 challenges us to call out to the Lord: “Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your Presence—As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil—to make Your Name known to Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your Presence! When You did awesome things which we did not expect, You came down, the mountains quaked at Your Presence. For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him”.
Let’s ask God to rend the heavens and come down and revive us once more that we may rejoice in His Presence!!
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Caron is a follower of Jesus Christ and a member of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Morganton, NC. She loves to teach the word of God. Her desire is to see every believer growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.
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