Category: Teaching

What Does Revival Look Like to Me Right Now?

The last few weeks in our church we have truly seen a shift in services and we have felt what I would call some “birth pains” of revival. You know what I mean. When you begin to feel new life coming and excitement and hunger are in the atmosphere!  If you have been in church for years you have all kinds of thoughts come into your mind when people mention the word “revival and revival fire”.  You may see a powerful meeting in your mind where people are being saved or you may see extended meetings night after night where people are getting saved and set free.  But these last few weeks have been different enough that is has caused me to ask the question.  “Lord, what does revival look like for this season here?”  God knows I don’t want to have any religious, preconceived ideas or try to make anything happen on my own.  I just want to know what God wants when He says revival.

In answering my question of what revival looks like, I have seen God stirring this revival in me through questions either He is asking me or I am asking Him.

One of those questions was, “When was the last time, Karen, you asked me to convict you of any sin that was in your heart?”  Wow, that question stung me.  I began to think about it and again, I had to be honest with myself.  I don’t know of any sin in my life right now.  Most of us as Christians do try our best to live holy and right before God. It’s not that I don’t deal with sin but I quickly realized that many times I wait for Him to bring it to my attention and then I deal with it.  Ouch!  The bible tells us in Jeremiah 17:9 “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?”  It goes on to say in verse 10 “I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. Now God didn’t ask me the question because He didn’t know the answer. God wanted me to answer the question and begin to pray that God would break my heart for the things that break His heart. That includes things I do that don’t please Him too.

Another example is while in early morning prayer last week, a line in a worship song I was listening to became a moment of yet another question. This time it was me asking God a question. The song All My Worship was playing in the background and I heard the line:

I will stay here for a little while
Till I look like the one I behold

Immediately, I saw myself in a mirror asking myself this question – Do I look like Him?
Or do I look like me?
Have I spent enough time in His presence to look like Him?

That question came with a flood of others such as,
Do my actions look like what He would do?
Do my thoughts reflect what is His Word ?
Do my words give grace like His do?
Do my words carry weight like His do?
Do my eyes see through the flesh into the Spirit realm ?
Do my deeds line to up His? Do I go about doing good?
If you asked a friend, would they say I looked like Jesus?
If you asked my family would they say I looked like Jesus?
If you asked my coworkers would they say I looked like Jesus?
If you asked a stranger would they say I looked like Jesus?
Better yet, if you asked my enemy would they say I looked like Jesus?

That last one really broke me.  But in my heart as I am crying out for revival I have to say I want to look like Him when I look in the mirror. I don’t want to see me. I want to see Jesus. I want others to see Jesus.

This is the way we truly die to self – When YOU desire to look like Him so desperately that YOU don’t matter anymore. We try in our own flesh to die to ourselves and obey what Jesus said in His Word. But today I realized that “to truly die to myself is to pursue the desire to look like Him and then I will be no more”.

The Word tells us that Jesus Himself never did independently apart from the Father.
Oh, how we love to boast on our independence. But independence is really all about SELF.
The dictionary meaning says things like “to be free from the control of another, not depending on another’s authority”. It means we consider ourselves self sufficient, self reliant, self supporting and self standing.

While hearing myself asking all those questions, I could hear my heart all the while saying,
Mirror mirror on the wall
Who is the greatest of them all
I want to see Jesus….when I look in my mirror.

So what does revival look like to me right now?  It’s coming in the form of questions. Questions that like arrows are shooting straight into my heart causing some pain but bringing a refreshing that follows the repentance just as His Word promises us in Acts 10:19.

As for revival, these questions feel like an alarm clock to my spirit. They are waking me up. They are demanding my response. Now just like an alarm clock, I have options.  I can turn off the alarm and go back to sleep.  I can hit the “snooze” button and deal with issues another time or I can respond by waking up, dealing with any sin the Lord shows in my heart, known or unknown. My heart is stirring with revival to pursue Him more.  Revival Fire Fall!  I only know in part what you look like but I am ready for all God has to pour out on us!

Now I have but one question for you today, “Do you have time for God to interrupt your life with revival?”  If you are wondering what revival looks like, I pray you will answer with a shout of “Yes, Lord! Bring revival and interrupt my life and show me what revival looks like!”

Chose to Forgive

By Pastor Karen Adams

Our Christian life will be strengthened and character built when we chose to do things God’s way. The world doesn’t understand how to forgive. Their approach is “an eye for an eye”. No wonder so many people are spiritually blind. We have plucked one another’s eyes out to the point of spiritual blindness. God has a supernatural way to deal with offenses, hurts, and sin. It’s what His Son demonstrated on the cross when He said “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do”.

As Christians, our character should be one of forgiveness. The bible tells us that “freely you have received, freely give”. Yet we see in Christian believers so many times the struggle in the area of forgiving others. Years ago when Brian first told me he was writing a book about forgiveness, I remember asking him, “Why would you write a book on forgiveness? Everyone knows you have to forgive.” Little did I realize how ignorant I was to make such a statement. As months past after the publication of his book, The Power of Forgiveness, calls came in day after day. I overheard time and time again people that had been Christians for years that didn’t know how or even if they could ever forgive people that had hurt them or done them wrong. Watching the power of God come and set people free just by releasing and forgiving others that have hurt or sinned against them was life changing. The circumstances each caller found themselves in was all different but the common denominator was one thing – unforgiveness.

I love the fact that even as I am typing right now on my computer the “red squiggly line” underlines the word unforgiveness. The word unforgiveness is not recognized as a word. When I go back to see why the computer gives me this alert, I see that it also gives me options to correct the problem. I can choose to ignore the word, add it to my dictionary or replace it with another word. If I ignore it, the word unforgiveness remains. If I add it to my dictionary, I now can use the word over and over again in any sentence that I type and it will not correct me again. That’s what many do. We know that as Christians we are not supposed to walk in unforgiveness but we keep it in our heart and carry on with life. After a period of time our hearts add the unforgiveness to the dictionary of our hearts. So we continue in unforgiveness allowing the enemy access to our souls. What if we would chose to replace the word unforgiveness with what even a computer that has no heart suggests? Forgiveness. The computer will not make the correction for me. I have to choose to forgive.

Make the choice today. CHOSE TO FORGIVE. Forgiveness cannot change your past and events that have happened in your life but it can sure change your future.

One Step at a Time

By Pastor Karen Adams

Psalm 37:23 says “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and He delights in his way”. God orders the steps of a good man. It’s amazing to me that it doesn’t say “God orders the LIFE or even the DAY of a good man, but it says he orders the STEPS of a good man.” He is concerned about every little detail and every little step of your day”. He wants to take the lead in your life.

Romans 8:14 says “For as many are LED by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”. We must recognize that the Spirit of God’s role is to LEAD. We pray for the Lord to guide us every day but many times only to the places we want to go. It’s like dancing. If a woman tries to take the lead, she ends up stepping all over the man’s feet. If we allow the Holy Spirit to take the lead, whether you are in a season of the waltz or the foxtrot you can enjoy the dance, because He is leading.

The definition of the word step in the dictionary is simple. “a movement made by lifting your foot and putting it down in a different place.” It refers to small movements. There are steps in life that we can’t skip. You never started in 7th grade skipping grades 4, 5, and 6. You are promoted one grade level at a time. In our spiritual lives, we often want to skip steps that God is ordering for us. So many times the Lord has to speak to us and say, “Hey, you skipped a step. You need to go back and do that again”. Shortcuts often cause us to end at destinations we never intended to be. We miss what the Lord had for us- new experiences, new skillsets, and new revelations of Him.

Steps and order are mentioned in another verse. Psalm 119:133 says “Order my steps in Your Word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” What a heart! Order my steps in Your Word! Order in our lives according to the Word of God must consist of first, seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Order in our lives must follow biblical patterns of putting the spirit first, soul (our mind, will and emotions)second, and the body to follow. To get our steps right we have to allow the Holy Spirit to establish order! Things are never in order when you put soul first, body second and spirit last.

I challenge you today. Give the Holy Spirit permission to LEAD. When He leads He establishes order, and once we have His orders we can begin to take ONE STEP AT A TIME to be all that we can be in Him!