Christian Living
THE “PRIVATE THINGS” OF PERSONAL REVIVAL
By Mary Lindow
www.marylindow.com
I invite you to step out from the familiar comfort zone in which you now
are and take a risk.
In the body of Christ today there are many different kinds of comfort
zones. Step out from your comfort zone that leaves you in the place of
being a “Fallow ground- Christian.” What I mean by that statement is –
“being currently inactive but with the possibility of activity or use in the
future.”
THINK HONESTLY
Are you living as unto yourself, basking in self-approval, or are you self-
consciously living for God’s glory and for the encouragement of others?
Is there joy in your life, and a deeply developing love for God, in the
“routine” you have carved for yourself?
We need the discipline of doing something that goes beyond our comfort
zone. Some of us need to risk being at an event whose only purpose is to
pray instead of going to get something or hear something that will feed
our own need for more attention and self focus.
How many times have your heard the line, “If I won the Publisher’s
Clearing House Sweepstakes, I would do sooooo much to help others who
are poor or are going through difficult times?!” Or, maybe you have said,
“When I close this business deal, get my family inheritance, sell that piece
of property (uh…brings to mind a certain Anninias and Sapphirah) then I
will obey the prompting of the Lord to “Do something to help.”
If we are truly going have a move of God’s Heart not just His Hand in the
form of a “Harvest” we need to start living the lifestyle that sets a
precedence for such a move! Meaning? Prying our fingers away from what
we will not share with others until “we” are first satisfied and justified in
our own “Self preservation.”
If folks can’t share during their good times and seasons of abundance,
they will not fully obey the Lord in caring for their brothers and sisters
when times are difficult.
SHARE WHAT?
Time, resources, wisdom, counsel, and how about a focused
“Listening ear” instead of a benevolent sort of “tolerant dead-pan stare"
as someone pours out their deeply bruised soul, looking for a handhold
or foothold that will assist them in grappling with the overwhelming
“mountain” of life.
…For the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive
behind the thoughts. If you seek him, you will find him; but if you forsake
him, he will reject you forever.
1 Chronicles 28:9
Woe to those who think they are fooling themselves when they say that
they “need to be careful” when they give so people don’t “depend on
them or expect more from them!
Imagine Jesus saying that!
He would never withhold from us in order to protect “His” investments or
hard earned, "worked to the bone" assets! He gave ALL with no guarantee
that we would ever appreciate or value it.
Invite another family to your home. Don’t wait to be invited. Take the
initiative. Eat together around the table in your dining room or kitchen.
Talk together. Pray together. Start a plan of blessing someone in need
that you know of - together.
DO YOU HEAR VOICES?
Stop the mindless chattering that is allowed in most of our self talking
heads that allows the flesh to push aside the promptings of the Lord
when He nudges us to sacrificially and intentionally “rescue” faithful
people we know, from the harshness of situations they had no control
over, and which have broken them to the point of anguish. Jesus had the
same “voices” taunting and attempting to stroke his ego and self-
preservation in the wilderness. He shut it all down with a simple
statement that caused fleshly and demonic pressures to go “dead silent”
and flee. It is written!
Times are getting tough, and those who have been reluctant to share
when the times were not nearly where they are heading now, will be
called up for service again, and asked by the Lord to assist those who
are perhaps weaker, lesser, and much “leaner” in their provisions.
Start with something small, something useful. Keep it going. And
whatever you do. DON’T KEEP TABS on what you have given and tell
others allllllll about it. Keep it between you and the Lord, where your
reward is given weight in the heavenlies for eternity, not just for a few
fleeting strokes of the ego here on earth.
THE “PRIVATE THINGS” OF PERSONAL REVIVAL EXPOSED!
Begin a private life of private devotion.
Rediscover your prayer closet.
Mark 1:35
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up,
left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
Gut it out with God. Confess your dissatisfaction with the stale places
where you have allowed “moss” to grow over in your devotion to the
discipline of Reading the words of Jesus, Heeding the words of Jesus, and
then Feeding the Words of Jesus to the hungry, lost, and scared people
around you in your daily “Missionary calling” as a follower of the Great
Reviver of your soul.
Isaiah 57:15
For this is what the high and lofty One says— He who lives forever, whose
name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is
contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive
the heart of the contrite.
Personal revival is usually needed when something in our walk with the
Savior has gone into a “Flat line” and needs to be shocked back into a
proper heartbeat.
The closer we become devoted to and more intimate with The King, the
Comforter and Savior, the more near He is to us and, will reveal His daily
“Divine Appointments” for our lives and for His Glory.
If Jesus did it to survive- so must we!
Luke 5:16
But Jesus would often go to some place where he could be alone and pray.
We NEED to be alone. Why? In order to not have the distraction of leaning
on someone else to “do the praying or talking” for us for one! We gain
perspective, and refreshing after repenting, and a “reality check”
regarding how we are to live the lifestyle of a Christian in an ever-
darkening world where morals and values are crumbling at an
uncontrollable speed.
LET US SEE AND HEAR AND ACT!
As we face the fallow ground left unfruitful (through intentional denial
that we allowed this) in our lives and allow the Father to create a clean
heart in us, and renew or “Revive” a right spirit (godly attitude) within it,
the soil can be a host for seed and harvest.
He gladly does this! WE are His faith seeds in the soil of Earth!
Psalm 126:6
He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of
joy, carrying sheaves with him.
Psalm 23:3
He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his
name's sake.
WISDOM FROM THE SPIRIT
If you want present day revelation, you must have a level of solid
Christian Maturity to not only discern it, but to apply it. There are more
and more “Muddy” approaches regarding how to be wise or savvy in "living
your life", being sold in bookstores and every media venue out there!
If you want to drink or eat re-cycled food…well, be my guest. BUT! If you
truly desire depth and a secure anchor for surviving and flourishing in any
circumstance that you surely will have attempt to sidetrack and
undermine your Godly Destiny, you and I will have to go to THE SOURCE
of Wisdom and stay there until we “Get it.”
1 Corinthians 2:6
We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not
the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to
nothing.
Hebrews 5:14
But solid food is for the mature, which by constant use have trained
themselves to distinguish good from evil.
GIVE JESUS JOY
Romans 12:12
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
These are the attributes of the faithful and true follower of Christ. And as
Jesus watches over our coming and our going, every moment of every
day, His joy is made complete when He sees the evidence of a restored
life being fruitful and steadfast, no matter what the condition of their
circumstance or surroundings.
Believer. Let us press on into the walk of maturity in Christ where nothing
shakes or shatters us anymore, because we live in the light of His
Glorious
Grace.
Ephesians 1:6 (New Living Translation)
So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who
belong to his dear Son.
Copyright © 2008 " THE MESSENGER " ~ Mary Lindow
www.marylindow.com
“Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser, Mentor a righteous man, and he will increase his learning.” Proverbs 9:9
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