In my last blog, I shared ingredients of revivals. My hope is that these elements stirred up greater desire to seek the Lord for His Will on the matter of revival. This Part Two is on the negative side of humanity and what we should avoid as we seek revival. Personally, I don’t think it is that easy to grieve God because He seems to tolerate a lot of immature stuff as we grow in grace and truth, but when God’s people act ugly, it does not please Him. God has shown us the path of love and we know the faith pleases Him. So when leaders of revival don’t take the love walk, you can be sure that faith is nowhere to be found and the outpouring of the Spirit will stop. How can the Spirit move freely when sin is in the camp?
Things that Hinder or Stop Revival
RANKLING
How many people do you know who are so annoying, you determine that at best, you will love them from a distance? My dad used to say that there are some people whose sole purpose on earth is to aggravate you. It was his way of lowering the blood pressure that wants to blow up. What if you had to work closely with such a person in stewarding a revival? Luke 6:31-33 says, “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.” Instead of rankling with one another, we need to stay focused on advancing the Kingdom. God’s Word gives ample advice on how to deal with factious people while maintaining a heart of love, compassion, deference, and acceptance. This is absolutely essential in the midst of revival when things can get messy.
RANCOR
Lack of love among leaders is a death knell for revival. When a leader holds bitterness, unforgiveness, or resentment toward another, the leader brings that darkness to the table. It is very difficult to see the best in a person when looking through the lens of bitterness. It prevents the person from appreciating the gift in that person and even more so, prevents the person from wholeheartedly partnering in the stewardship of revival. If there be an unforgiveness of past injustices or betrayals, they must be released for the perpetrator, and even more so for the victim’s sake so that both can walk in liberty.
RESENTMENT
Lack of respect among leaders is a huge issue in the hindrance of revival. It seems that every revival that was halted had some of these elements: wanting to control who does what, wanting to control the eventual “messiness” of manifestations, dealing with abuses in an unloving manner, wrangling over extra-biblical doctrines, mudslinging in public venues. If leaders want to steward revivals to last as long as the Spirit desires, then they need to walk in the love that is described in Scripture—deferring to one another, praying for one another, valuing the gifts in each other to the edifying of the Church as a whole, exhorting one another to good works, bringing correction in a redemptive manner, exemplifying the love of God.
RETREAT
Retreating from the Church universal into one’s own little circle does not sustain revival. The kind of parochialism that says, “Us four and no more,” consigns the move of God to the few instead of the whole body. That never lasts.
RESISTANCE
The skepticism that only looks to find fault in the unusual is both a lack of faith and a hand grenade to revival. Of course that does not mean we blindly accept anything. This points to the need to be strongly grounded in good theology. We can point to some unusual occurrences in every major revival—shaking, weeping, shouting, leaping, rolling, swooning, and more. When something happens that is outside of the usual paradigm and does not violate God’s Word, we should seek God’s wisdom first instead of slamming it simply because it’s not how we like things or how we usually do things.
RESIGNATION
Pride wears different suits. It may want to present a front of concern for uprightness but with a motive of pushing one’s own agenda. Pride also can look like resignation—leaving without a fuss, but still bearing a heart of resentment. It can also look like strained cooperation—just going along with things but interior unexpressed disagreement–also known as passive resistance. These attitudes can be masked for a while, but the truth always comes out. If revival is properly stewarded, transparency among its leaders must be a high priority. How can two walk together lest they agree (Amos 3:3)?
RAPACITY
As numbers grow, the accountability for monetary stewardship also grows, and it requires people of character and integrity to maintain a pure heart to manage resources. It may seem obvious, but the rapacity for personal gain in money or in numbers of people can never be the motivation for revival or for any other ministry for that matter. That always leads to scandal and never ends well.
These hindrances are in our control. We choose to either walk in the love of God or not, and the consequences of our choices are either blessings or not (Deut. 28). The last of this three part series is about preparation—what we do to position ourselves for God’s outpouring.