Reading about revival, before all this started at Asbury, I came across a definition that a revival was where nothing else mattered but Jesus. This was a mark in the Welsh revival where bars turned into prayer halls. In America in the early 1800s when revival was spreading, there are stories of men coming to church for a prayer meeting in the evening dressed for work for the next day with their lunch packed.
One way to think about living in a revived state is “All Jesus All the Time.” He’s your all and everything. That’s how you can (and should!) live now and always. You don’t have to wait for something to happen. You can give your life to Jesus today and let go of everything that is keeping you from living in His constant loving, full-of-joy presence.
The world today talks about living in the present. That’s not the key. It’s living in His Presence. That’s the goal, knowing Jesus is with you always, just like He said! It’s keeping your eyes on Jesus, just like the Bible says. It’s setting Him always before you, just like the Bible says. It’s abiding in His love, just like the Bible says.
You were created in God’s image. You were created to love and be loved. To enter into revival you just need to receive and give His love, let it flow in and out of you. How can you do that? First, you can let go of every other love. He needs to be your one and only. The greatest commandments are to love God and love others. All of God’s laws are summed up in those commands to love. Jesus was the fulfillment of the law because He is love. We are able to be forgiven because of Jesus’ love sacrifice to take our punishment for our sins, but we continue in that blameless state before Him as we receive that law fulfillment, the love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit and let Christ live that love out through us.
You can be revived by giving up all other loves so that your life is consumed with the only love that matters. Yes, there will still be work to do, but you do it with God’s love present in you and loving through you. I fellowship with Jesus when I wash the dishes. It’s a sweet time instead of a chore.
Ask the Lord to shine His light on your life and reveal where you’ve given yourself to other loves. Give them up. If you feel like you can’t or don’t want to, then ask God for help. Ask Him to change your heart so that you love Him alone. Walk in His light, as 1 John 1:7 says, and you will have love for others and He will be removing all that’s not from Him. It’s a continual state, not of perfection, but of blamelessness because you are ever giving yourself over to His purifying process, walking in the light of His love.
Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.” (Eph. 5:14 NKJV)