Thursday, March 09, 2006

Revival (Dr. Tom Hermiz)


No youth group last night. Our church was in a 4-day revival with Dr. Tom Hermiz (excellent preacher of God’s Word!). So, I thought I would share a little on that this week. Feel free to share your thoughts on it too.

Psalm 80:18b reads, “revive us, and we will call on your name.” Our church tasted revival this week. It was a magnificent time! It was a very sweet tasting meal for me personally. God brought me to my knees in a full surrender to Him. What a wonderful scary moment that was!

Revival is a much-needed event for the soul and Body of Christ (Church). In the words of one of our former evangelist, “It’s the nature of a fire to go out.” I notice this happens often after revival ends and the nitty gritty of life smacks us in the face. Our blazing fires dwindle down to a flicker (if it doesn’t go out completely) amongst the world. But, what if something is different this time? What if the fire doesn’t dwindle or go out but grows bigger?

PARENTAL ADVISROY
THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH CONTAINS GRAPHIC TRUTH
THAT MAY BE FRIGHTENING TO SOME.

What if in our search for God, we have actually discovered Him? We’ve discovered the God of the universe, the Divine Being who created everything, stars, planets, space, time, animals, oxygen, humans, and life. Is He not big enough to keep your fire burning? Before you answer skeptically consider our sun. Its been burning for at least 5,000 years (sustained by God). I believe God loves us more than that gigantic fireball in the sky. So much more that He would give us a helper (the Holy Spirit) to guide us, empower us, and help us to love God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and, to love our neighbor as ourselves. He (this is scary) lives within us as the Person of the Holy Spirit.

Below are some practical tips I’ve received over the years and things I believe the Holy Spirit has taught me to help the revival fire continue to burn in my heart. Take them for what they’re worth. If you have any others be sure to let everyone else know about them.

Post-revival advice:


- Stay involved in Church. Make attending Church a priority in your life. No matter the cost, be there. Maybe you need to make some adjustments in your work schedule, don’t hesitate but do what needs to be done to ensure you can attend. I think there’s a direct connection between fires dwindling in our hearts and how involved we are with Church. Look at what happened because you attended church for revival. Maybe you only made it 1-2 nights, but evaluate how it made you feel and the change that took place because you were there.

- Stay involved in God’s Word. Do not let your Bible collect dust. Open it up and read it. Even if you don’t understand fully what you are reading…read it! I believe things happen when we read God’s Word with a desire to know Him better. Things I can’t explain logically. Things like, the Word entering our lives and sticking to our hearts, sticking in our minds, reminding us of our hope in Jesus Christ, and giving us a godly zeal for holiness. Remember what Jesus said about the Word of God? “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

- Stay involved with the Truth. Just because you don’t feel like you did when revival was happening doesn’t mean the fire has gone out. A lot of us base faith on our feelings. So, naturally we’re up and down and all over the map spiritually. Why? Because that’s what our feelings do. But, I challenge you to trust in the facts. Trust in God’s Word. Base faith on the Rock. And I’m talking about Jesus Christ! What does He tell you? Does He suggest that because you don’t feel like a Christian that you aren’t? No! Does He suggest that because you don’t feel happy that you aren’t in love and sold out to Him? No! Does He suggest that because you don’t fully understand terminology like sanctification, progressive sanctification, and entire sanctification that it hasn’t occurred or is occurring in your life? No! He does say, “Whoever believes in me will not perish but have eternal life.” That’s Truth!
(Read 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 for another dose of absolute Truth!)

Once again I don’t claim this list to be comprehensive and I know there are a million more ways and things to do to keep the revival fire burning in our hearts. Maybe some of you would testify to your revival experience(s). Thanks for reading and I encourage you to support your local church with your time, talents, and money.

3 comments:

eric said...

Good post Tim. Thanks for the encouragement. Its so easy to let our fire dwindle if we are not careful (but at the same time realizing that our faith is not solely based on the emotion of the moment).
The one time that Shelly and I did get to hear Dr. H speak, he was very good. Take er easy.

-E

SlimDuck said...

God spoke to me differently through Dr H this week.

The truth be known, I feel mas if the fire in me has been growing in the past few months. Not becuase I'm anybody special, or went to a revival meeting. But because I've made a choice to to surrender my self as a servant unto God's Will. It wasn't until this week that I realised that is called sanctification.

I think the revival meeting this week was awesome, but the truth is, why should the fire dwindle? We should have come to a point this week that have submitted our selves to God. That is God just lighting a match in our hearts. God lit our hearts and now it is OUR call to become a BONFIRE. We need to start becoming so on fire that those around us start feeling the heat.

Thanks for the post Tim.

Duck

Tim Sheets said...

Thank you all for your input! I appreciate it. Revival is such a wonderful time! I'm glad you all feel the same way.

In case you haven't checked it out, go to:

www.Tomhermiz.com

and take a look at his webpage. He has a ton of professionaly written articles that will inspire and help you learn.

Until next time, Grace and peace to you all!

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