Everyone is anticipating the end-time revival where there will be unimaginable miracles, signs, and wonders. Many people will be filled with the Holy Ghost and with fire. But we must not forget that revival begins with the individual. Revival starts with me and you. When you have a personal revival, it becomes a catalyst for the Holy Ghost to flow into the lives of others that surround you. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost fell in one room and filled about 120 people. Flowing from that, about 3,000 souls were added to the church as the Holy Ghost began to spread to the entire world.
We can all agree that:
• Our homes need revival.
• Our churches need revival.
• This nation and this world need revival.
However much one agrees that we need revival, no military power can bring it. There is no economic upturn or election that can bring revival. Revival comes from God, plain and simple.
Isaiah 6:5 says, “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Each generation cannot depend on the preceding generation to do their work. Each must experience God for themselves. Like Isaiah, if you are truly going to experience God and have revival, the first words you should speak is, “Woe is me!” However, that woefulness must not be directed to others, or to the church. When we focus on everyone else’s faults, our woe turns into complaining. This type of complaining tries to use the righteousness of God to God to hide the complaint. This complaining is not a true visitation from the Lord.
A true visitation from the Lord will always happen as it is written in Isaiah 6:5, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips . . .” Isaiah dwelt in the midst of an unclean people, but when he confessed his condition, the Word says, “Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged” (Isaiah 6:6-7). You need a hot coal on your spirit to change you into the person that God has called you to be.
People usually enjoy pointing out what brothers and sisters should be doing, but according to the Word, a true prophet that is filled and touched with the power of God says, “ . . . Here am I; send me” (Isaiah 6:8). It is not about everyone else’s responsibility; it is about accepting your own. That is the difference between a real move of God and just hiding complaints. God is interested in putting us in a place where we understand that revival always starts with me. This happens every time. Revival has only ever started with you.
Lord, let me feel that coal from the altar in my own spirit. I want a revival in my own heart! But where do I start? In Isaiah 64, the prophet lamented because God’s people had been carried away into captivity and God’s work was in disrepair. Today the modern church is dispirited like God’s people were. Too many are discouraged because they see no future possibilities; they have no hope for revival. Some don’t even believe revival can happen. What is revival? Revival is when God manifests His Shekinah glory with the express purpose of fulfilling His divine will. “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence” (Isaiah 64:1). That is what revival is. It is an appointment and an audience with Almighty God.
We should never adopt the idea that the church must change before we can have revival. We must be intentional about accepting responsibility for our own salvation and motivation to do God’s will. In Isaiah 64, the presence that produced revival was God Himself melting, shaking, and changing lives for His glory. God will remove all opposition that stands in His way. First of all, mountains will melt. Looking again at Isaiah 64:1 (AV), “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.” But what happens next is telling; God shook the nations. “As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!” (Isaiah 64:2). God’s fire is going to melt the mountains of pride, bigotry, and indifference. Everything that seems to be an obstacle to God’s work will melt away and nations will also shake, for they will tremble at His presence. Isaiah 64:3 declares, “When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.”
Notice that the Bible says that “the nations will tremble.” God is going to do things we can’t explain. He is going to do wonders in the midst of great trouble and turmoil, and all the nations ruled by the gods of this world are going to tremble under the influence of God manifesting His glory to fulfill His will. The opposition will melt, the nations will tremble, but the righteous will rejoice when we have revival. “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved” (Isaiah 64:4-5). God wants to meet with you. When He does, you will rejoice. I want God to meet with His people and for you to know this incredible joy. However, sin has corrupted even the saints because of their self-righteousness. In Isaiah 64:6 the prophet says, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” He says that our righteousness is like a filthy rag in His sight. Some believe this filthy rag refers to the infectious garments of a leper. They cover themselves with the very thing that infects them and makes them unclean. So is our self-righteousness.
Unfortunately, corruption leads to complacency. It is one thing to live in sin and know you are a sinner, but it is another thing entirely to live in sin and not care. Isaiah 64:7 says, “And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.” Stir yourself to take hold of God and have a personal revival. Your heart needs to yearn, burn, and long for God’s presence. If we will take this seriously and take hold of the horns of the altar, God will send us a revival and empower us to move into the world and become salt and light in the earth. For revival starts with me!
