Lately, I've been talking about how revival has gone from a simmer to a boil in my soul. Like I've stated before, it's time for a revolution. A revolution of the soul that can only come through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
What would it take to see a worldwide awakening?
Why aren’t we seeing it today?
How could we be a part of a global revival that ushered in the return of Jesus?
These questions and more have stuck in my head ever since the early days of my walk with Jesus. I think the hidden keys to a future awakening lie in the ancient book of Acts. Here you find some unsexy, unpretentious un’s that show us the path to a sweeping movement of God. In Acts, you'll find countless un's that launched the biggest revival ever.
At first I thought about putting all of these "un’s" into one post. But I soon came to the conclusion that it would be way too long. A short book rather than a blog post. With that realized, I figured that I would start off my second blog series (New to the blog? Feel free to check out my Truth or Tradition series from this past Spring). I'm calling this one the un-series.
So let's begin. What's the first "un" that we see in the book of Acts that launched the biggest revival ever?
Un #1: Unthinkable Goals
Before Jesus ascended, he gave his disciples some unthinkable goals. "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem" (Dangerous) "Judea" (Dangerous and Hard) "Samaria" (Dangerous, Hard and did I say Dangerous?") "and the uttermost parts of the world" (huh? Did he say "uttermost"?)
Basically Jesus is commanding his disciples to go global without e-mail, without cellphones, without planes, trains, automobiles or scooters. Walk it out and shout it out. And you know what’s truly awesome? That's exactly what they did. It took quite some years, but they took the gospel all the way from Jerusalem to Rome.
I think we as believers today are taking the world wide advancement of the gospel more lightly than those believers who lived a generation ago. We seem increasingly enamored with building houses, stopping AIDs, curbing poverty and bringing justice to the world. Don't get me wrong, all of these are excellent and noble acts. But they aren't the final mandate of our Lord Jesus Christ. He told us to make disciples of all nations and be witnesses of the gospel until everyone, everywhere is in the fold. Helping the hurting is something we do along the way to global evangelization. I totally believe in feeding the poor and ministering to those in need. But I think that if we do these acts of goodness without sharing the message of good news we do a HUGE disservice to those we minister to. We are making their world a better place to go to hell from. We’ve brought them temporary comfort as they march toward a cliff toward eternal separation from God in, yes, fire and brimstone.
If we truly want to minister to the poor then let’s minister to the whole person: body, soul and spirit. Let’s be like Jesus: give them real bread for their bodies and then the best bread, the Bread of Life, for their souls. Let’s give them real water to quench their physical thirst and then the Living Water to quench the deepest longings of their spirit.
Do you want revival? It starts with unthinkable goals. Taking the gospel to everyone in our campuses, neighborhoods, cities, states, nations and world is pretty unthinkable. But it can be done. So go for it!
Why not make your unthinkable goal right now? How about this one? To share the gospel with everyone you know in God’s timing, in God’s power and with God’s love. I am doing my best to do that dare myself. And it's leading to some great, awkward and transformational conversations.
So, in light of the unthinkable goal that Jesus gave his disciples, what’s your unthinkable goal?
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