| Poster | Thread | allensmith
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Joined: 2009/3/13
Posts: 55
| |  2010/4/3 15:42 | Profile | Giggles
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Joined: 2009/12/12
Posts: 592
| | Re: Topic:Revival? | | I have a free moment, so I'll bite.
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My Question is: Why Revival?
Why not?
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If you check history, No Revival ever lasted, they all lost the fire at some point...
True that's why every generation should seek them. Much like Old Testament Israel, each generation needed to seek the manifestation of the Lord's presence and ways or else they usually fell away. Sometimes they would seek the Lord after a period of backsliding and the Lord restored them; other times they just slipped farther away.
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No where in Scripture does it directly address revival...
Nor does it the Trinity.
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~ Aren't we suppose to live in a revived condition all the time and not lose it every now and again? ~
Indeed we are, but in fact we do not.
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~ Did Christ really intend that we should have this miserable struggle when He went to that cross, to reconcile man with God? ~
Not sure what you mean here.
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~ Haven't Christ given us all things that pertain to life and Godliness? ~
The Scriptures indeed say He has! Let us receive and walk in all He has for us :)
Final Question:
Do we need Revival or do we need Christ?
Do we have to set up some sort of either/or type scenario? Can't it be both? If we seek Christ, truly, we may end up with revival on our hands; or in seeking revival, we may just end up finding Christ afresh. Like happiness and holiness, revival and Christ are not irreconciliable opposites but rather things that can go very hand in hand together. I am happiness when walking in holiness and history shows the church is most alive in Christ when in revival.
Of course let us put Christ first, but in doing so doesn't mean we cannot have or seek revival. Consider a struggling marriage: should the two seek Christ or the fruits of the Spirit, sacrificial love, and full relational restoration in the biblical model of what a marriage should be? Well, both. So with a struggling church, let us seek both without getting tripped up over semantics.
_________________
Paul
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| | 2010/4/3 17:11 | Profile | poet
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Joined: 2007/2/16
Posts: 231
Longview WA
| | Re: | | Hey this is fun.
Quote:
My Question is: Why Revival?
Because without the reviving of His church, that needs to be pruned, watered, fertelized, it will probably not bear the fruit He has intended, or worse yet perish.
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If you check history, No Revival ever lasted, they all lost the fire at some point...
Revivals are like times and seasons, High tides, low tides, with each movement it brings life, like the rainy season which causes the Nile to overflow into the other niles and bring new life into the flat lands, which then brings fruitfullness. It's God's way not ours.
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No where in Scripture does it directly address revival...
The term revival is not in the bible, its a new word we have created, but if you were to describe a revival in other terms, acts chapter 2 would fit the description quite well.
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~ Aren't we suppose to live in a revived condition all the time and not lose it every now and again? ~
No I don't believe so, each and everyone of us go through times of desert places, where we feel that the Lord has left us and we cry out to Him and ask, "where are you"
We don't feel revived in those times until after our time in the desert and then He ministers to us.
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~ Did Christ really intend that we should have this miserable struggle when He went to that cross, to reconcile man with God? ~
The cross is a stumbling block to many, and we are to carry a cross aswell, it's miserable, its painfull, it's not pleasant, but if we embrace the cross that Jesus asks us to carry, we will be transformed into his immage, and in the end be given a crown of life, we must be like Him and no one is above his master, we do get His benefits from His suffering, yet we must also learn obedience like he did through suffering. "The Cross"
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~ Haven't Christ given us all things that pertain to life and Godliness? ~
Yes, notice the scripture doesnt say life and happiness, but Godliness.
Christianity is not meant for the faint of heart, we all must play the man. Polycarp. he was given all things to life and godliness.
Revival is only an aspect of what God is doing in a grander scale of His plan for His garden as it were.
Final Question:
Do we need Revival or do we need Christ?
We need Christ. God give revival as a gift to himself.
But those who God has called in revivals are more apt to feel its was a gift to themselves, depends on how you want to look at it, but I think God does everything for His glory and pleasure.
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howard
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| | 2010/4/3 19:11 | Profile | InTheLight
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Joined: 2003/7/31
Posts: 2850
Phoenix, Arizona USA
| | Re: Topic:Revival? | | Quote:
If you check history, No Revival ever lasted, they all lost the fire at some point...
Your post reminded me of something that I have posted here before, something I read from DeVern Fromke...
"...and we read of the darkest hour in Israel's history during the period of the Judges. They cried out to the Lord, and with each new judge that He raised up there was a bit of revival, but I believe that this would teach us that mere reviving is not the real answer. God must awaken His people to be alive to [i]His larger purpose[/i], not merely awakenings and revivings for themselves."
Mr Fromke wrote about 'His larger purpose'...
Oh how we need to be awakened and freed from our earth bound limits-always looking up to see how things relate to us. Jesus must lift us up to His perspective so that we see all things as they relate to Him. We desperately need the reality of these verses...
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
(Col 3:2-3 ESV)
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
(Eph 2:5-6 ESV)
Lord save us from mere revivalism and bring us beyond our natural ability to understand You and Your purposes for these days.
In Christ,
Ron
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Ron Halverson
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| | 2010/4/3 20:12 | Profile |
| | Re: | | by InTheLight on 2010/4/3 16:12:49
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If you check history, No Revival ever lasted, they all lost the fire at some point...
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The issue should not be one of revival so much as guarding our hearts with all dilligence for out of it flows the issues of life (prov. ?:?). As stated in Ron's post setting our mind's on things above.
You are seated in Him in heavenly places, so remain in this perspective.
It's not about experiencing God or His power. It's all about a living breathing walking talking relationship 24/7. No we are not perfected yet, but if you keep on getting up when you get knocked down and will not let go, you have got the right perspective. He will not let you go if you are truly found in Him (Eph. 5:1 ESV) |
| | 2010/4/3 22:02 | |
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