His Life In Us

"That is His promise, that we never lose the life He has put in us."

WHAT IS revival? What do we want revived? Our mood? Yet another temporary fix for a spiritual problem that will wane in time, leaving us the same old asphalt. The kingdom of God is joy and peace and righteousness. Two of those are feelings. Yet, it goes deeper than that. Not simply feelings that rise and fall dependent on the flesh and the mind. Joy and peace come from the Spirit. They are eternal qualities. In heaven, they have joy and peace without the earthly body being involved or any earthly things.

Reformation is another word being kicked around and it is more accurate, broader in reach, yet not really the fullness of what God desires, and in this is the key. To be revived is to rise from a place of death, to be returned to life. To be reformed is cities, nations, being filled with God’s presence. People groups being changed by Christ.

But nothing done in Christ is fleeting. He only does things in forevers. What we lose, we lose because we turn loose of it in favor of something else. We are revived, having fallen asleep. When Sunday becomes Monday and the pew no different than the drive to work, we’ve lost the majesty of Him, we’ve reduced Him to a stop sign on the boulevard. A religious icon. Only then do we need revival.

Our God who died and rose again and lives forever will return, and the entire earth will weep (Revelation 1:7). Those that sit outside of salvation, in that moment, seeing their darkness that much clearer. This is the power of Him. We cannot stand in His presence with our current bodies without His Spirit allowing it, and He allows it, seeks it, because He adores us. We are His love, and He should be ours. But to go into heavenly places and stand in Revelation’s throne room, we would fall on our faces.

“Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou? And he [Jonah] said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.” (Jonah 1:8-10)

Foreign gods were manmade and held man’s opinions and reactions. They lusted and warred, loved and hated, as filled with venom and pride as those who’d created them. Worship required the humiliation of the worshiper. Israel’s God crossed borders and caused miracles. From death came life and the increase of the nation, the abundance of the people. From their midst came the prophesied Messiah and King, who now holds the nations in His palm. Not as rabble to be tossed to and fro, but as grapes become the finest vintage wine.

Our God, from water, became wine which the Master of the feast declared of higher quality than what came before. Served amongst those in celebration, His sweetness coats the tongue and fills the belly so that we need never run dry. He is the fountain that ever-flows. Continual. Each moment as excellent as the one which preceded it.

We must seek the larger picture. Not take the temporary, a flicker within walls built for worship, one week or two that becomes a whisper in history. But seal within us God’s eternity and never look back.

He revives the broken, the wounded, cleansing the mind and the heart. He reforms. Us, them, even the ones we’ve given up on. He rescues multitudes, healing all who come to Him. Then full of His presence, we never flag again. We blossom instead and the fragrance of Him spreads from one man to the next, turning what was a single stem into an entire garden.

That is His promise. That we never lose the life He has put in us, but instead, it grows and abounds, overflowing from us into those around us. We seek not revival nor even reformation but the glory of the one whose life sustains the earth. Seek ye my face, He says in the psalm. Not for this particular week alone but for always. And one day, these sorrows which surround us will become one with the ocean and the brightness of a sunrise which will never fade.

"And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." (John 10:28)

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com