What a week! I must admit to you that coming into revival this week I had a keen sense that the church at 853 Liberty was already in the early stages of revival. We had seen such wonderful response in our FAITH ministry and particularly to the Prayer walking and packet distribution over the last few weeks, the spirit in our worship for the past few weeks had been anticipatory in nature and the First Family Ministers had done a dynamite job in getting their families together for prayer. I knew that God was up to something good; I just did not know how good it would really be.

We had not had a revival in several years. The last one we had was discouraging to me for a number of reasons although it was shortly after that time that God began to move in a mighty way in the church. Whether God used that revival to trigger that move or not, I do not know. That is one of those secret things that belongs to the Lord. So, coming into this week; although I could sense something going on that was good, I was still a little leary.  What is going to happen really?Boy, was I blown away. Praise God.

I have been a participant in many revivals over the years. I have been preaching since 1970 and for many years have been in churches that scheduled one or two per year. That is a lot of meetings. Over those years I can say based on what I understand revivals to be:I have been a part of only two real revivals. This week was the second time. Prior to that I was a part of revival that got to the end and we would not stop; we kept going. I was the pastor of the church and the preacher for the revival. We went in one week having 60 in Sunday School to having 140. We had no room to meet for Sunday School. We literally had a Sunday School Class meeting in the gazebo in the cemetery (it was the oldest bunch in the church so that if anything happened to them during Sunday School, they didn’t have far to go–just kidding), but we did have a class meeting there. It was wild and wonderful. And this was the second one.

What is our response to what has happened?Let me suggest a few things:first, don’t seek to capture and control God; it is like seeking to capture and control the wind.  Peter made that mistake at the Transfiguration. Praise God and move on. Give Him glory and go toward where He is wanting to take us. Second, move forward in faith. This revival is all about God and what He wants to do in us and through us. What is that?Let’s launch toward it. Third, do not forget that when the emotional elements are eliminated, the real results of revival are what remains behind. If nothing happened but emotion (and I do not believe that; something very real and very much “God” happened to me and in me this week and it was emotional!) then that needs to fade and be forsaken, but if the emotional expressions were the outward manifestations of inward changes then those changes will not only remain, they will grow.

It was a great week for me. I loved every minute of it. Magnificent music. Rich worship. Good, sound preaching. To God be the glory.

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