Site Administrator posted on January 10, 2011 19:35
If you have been watching the HOPE Channel recently you have seen the presidents of the 13 World Divisions casting a vision of how they plan to encourage revival in their fields of evangelism. Our General Conference President Ted Wilson has set the pace for revival since he was elected last summer.
What is a revival? We recently planned an evangelism series around the need for revival at the Westminster Church with Pastor Hal Gates. Pastor Gates set forth in an energetic and candid way, the steps of personal revival. I wish that far more had availed themselves of this opportunity!?
One thing for sure when our church has a program emphasizing revival, first and foremost in realizing revival is to attend! Many commented by the final Sabbath, they wished they had attended the meetings. We do have CDs available but they will never replace the effort and investment of time and fellowship, a live meeting affords!
But just what is revival? It is an awakening to our real spiritual condition; it is a sense of an utter need for change and direction in our lives; and in this state, is to be offered the solution and remedy in reacquainting one’s self with our gracious God who has been seeking us even as we have run away from Him.
Revival is to be born again because one sees the imperative of a new beginning! It is not a cobbling together of our old selves. It is a sense of all things becoming new. Revival creates an openness to change to God’s way. Where one once resisted and doubted, making light of the messengers of change, one now is open to change for whatever means it takes! The promise that “where sin abounded, grace will abound all the more”, is a clarion call to action. Frustration and defeat melt away under the powerful guidance of the Holy Spirit in reformation.
Reformation is the result of Revival. It is an evaluation in a realistic fashion of where one is in their physical, spiritual and mental life. Reformation relies entirely upon the discerning power of the Holy Spirit to distinguish truth from error.
Hebrews 5:14, “But solid food is for the maturing, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.”
Ellen White describes this process such, “Experience is knowledge derived from experiment. Experimental religion is what is needed now. . . Some yes, a large number have a theoretical knowledge of religious truth, but have never felt the renewing power of divine grace upon their hearts…” 5 Testimonies 221-223
The time has come for a thorough reformation to take place. When this reformation begins, the spirit of prayer will actuate every believer, and will banish from the church the spirit of discord and strife.--Testimonies, vol. 8, p. 251.
Reformation signifies reorganization, a change in ideas and theories, habits and practices. Reformation will not bring forth the good fruit of righteousness unless it is connected with the revival of the Spirit. Review and Herald, Feb. 25, 1902