SEEKING the WRONG REVIVAL - Tozer
Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>
by A.W. Tozer
We appear to conceive of revival as a kind of benign miracle, a
feverish renaissance of religious activity which will come upon us,
leaving us morally just as we are now, except that we will be a lot
happier and there will be a great many more of us. It´s a good
talking point and it has an aura of superior godliness about it; but
the trouble is that it is just not true.
Our mistake is that we want God to send revival on our terms.
We want to get the power of God into our hands, to call it to us
that it may work for us in promoting and furthering our kind of
Christianity. We want still to be in charge, guiding the chariot
through the religious sky in the direction we want it to go,
shouting "Glory to God," it is true, but modestly accepting a
share of the glory for ourselves in a nice inoffensive sort of way.
We are calling on God to send fire on our altars, completely
ignoring the fact that they are our altars and not God´s. And like
the prophets of Baal we are working ourselves into a frenzy as
if we could by violence command the arm of the Almighty.
Of this we may be certain: We cannot continue to ignore God´s
will as expressed in the Scriptures and expect to secure the aid
of God´s Spirit... Today we have the strange phenomenon of a
company of Christians solemnly protesting to heaven and earth
the purity of their Bible creed, and at the same time following
the unregenerate world in their methods and managing only with
difficulty to keep their moral standards from sinking out of sight.
Coldness, worldliness, pride, boasting, lying, misrepresenting,
love of money, exhibitionism - all these things are practiced by
professedly orthodox Christians, not in secret but in plain sight
and often as a necessary part of the whole religious show.
It will take more than talk and prayer to bring revival. There must
be a return to the Lord in practice before our prayers will be heard
in heaven. We dare not continue to trouble God´s way if we want
Him to bless ours. Joshua sent his army up to conquer Ai, only
to see them hurled back with bloody losses. He threw himself to
the ground on his face before the Ark and complained to the Lord.
The LORD said to Joshua, "Stand up! What are you doing down
on your face? Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant.
That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies
because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be
with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is
devoted to destruction." (Joshua 7:10-12)
If we are foolish enough to do it, we may spend our future vainly
begging God to send revival, while we blindly overlook His requirements...