All throughout the Bible and in our experience also we see that the people of God have a deep desire to be revived, to have a revival.
Ever since the fall of man, since Adam’s fall which brought in corruption, slavery, and death, there has been an aspiration in the whole creation for revival (see Rom. 8:19-23).
In Habakkuk 3:2 we see the prophet’s prayer which resounds throughout the ages, O Jehovah, revive Your work in the midst of the years; in the midst of the years make it known… This is our prayer also today, Lord, revive us!
Revive Your work in us and in Your church! Bring in a new revival, in which we are being filled with life, we are vitalized, and we have a living fully in resurrection!
Revival: the Kernel Within the Shell
We have previously seen that the kernel within the shell in the minor prophets is the divine history within the human history, but now we need to see that for us to live in the divine history we need to be revived every morning and live a vital living every day!
If we want to live in the divine history we need to live in the revival! When the Lord revives us, when we live in the revival, we accomplish God’s economy and the divine history is developing within the human history!
God came to us in incarnation to embrace us as sinners so that we as men would cling to Him and love Him that we may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead – this is the meaning of Habakkuk. Why not tell the Lord right now,
Lord, embrace me! I want to cling to You! Revive me that I may call on Your name! Restore me, Lord, and I will be saved! Cause Your face to shine on us, and we will live a God-man life on earth today!
The Need and Aspiration for Revival
In the whole universe there is a need for revival and restoration, and this need is met only by Christ and in Christ. Christ is the reality of resurrection (John 11:25) and He is the renewing power – He is new, He is living, and He can revive us!
Man and all creation alike aspires for a revival, and Christ is the element of revival. All our darkness, corruption, desolation, fallen being, and everything of the old creation can be swallowed up by Christ’s resurrection, and when we touch Christ, we are being revived!
The way for us to experience revival is to contact Christ by repenting and confessing our sins, failures, and darkness, so that we may enter into Him as the resurrection!
All the genuine believers in Christ have an aspiration in them every day – whether consciously or unconsciously – to be revived. We daily aspire and pray within us, O Lord, Revive Me!
Habakkuk’s prayer is our prayer and the Psalmist’s prayer in Psa. 80:17-19 is also our desire, Lord, revive us, and we will call upon Your name! O Lord Jesus, restore us; cause Your face to shine, and we will be saved!
Paul also aspired unto this in Phil. 3:12-14 where he said something like, Forgetting all the things which are behind, I stretch forward to pursue Christ, to lay hold of that for which I have been laid hold of by Christ Jesus!
Paul used to persecute (in a negative way) the believers in Christ, but after he was saved, he persecuted (in a positive sense) Christ by pursuing Him, laying hold of Him, enjoying Him, and embracing Him.
Christ seized us, grasped us, laid hold of us, took possession of us, so that we may also seize Him, lay hold of Him, and take possession of Him!
Every morning we can simply FORGET what is behind, forget the past day and the past week, and just seize Christ! Lay hold of Christ! Pursue Christ, as the element and reality of the revival!
Being Revived Every Morning
In order for us to practice the God-ordained way revealed in the Bible to meet and to serve, we need to be revived every morning!
How can we preach the gospel and get others to know the Lord if we ourselves are not revived and not living in revival?
We are saved by the Lord and we are still here because God wants to enlarge Christ through us unto the uttermost parts of the earth (see Acts 1:8). We live not for our family, career, marriage, a nice house or anything else vain and outward – we are here for Christ to spread, increase, grow, mature in the believers, and eventually to bring Him back!
For us to practice this, we need to be revived every morning! What a privilege – we have a new beginning with every sunrise! Every morning we can have a new revival! Follow the sun rising every morning to be revived!
We, believers, should follow the sun rising to be revived and to have a new beginning every morning – every day we need Christ as the Sun to rise in our being and this sunrise is a revival (see Mal. 4:2; Prov. 4:18; Judg. 5:31; Matt. 13:43).
Lord, I want to love You to the uttermost! Make me like the sun who rises in its might! I want You to shine in me every morning! Have the freedom to fly and shine in me, around me, within me and everywhere in my being every morning and every day that I may experience Your healing, Your saving, and Your reviving!
Keep the Fire Burning Every Day!
The first duty of the priests was that they would not allow the fire of the burnt offering to go out (see Lev. 6:12-13).
God Himself put the fire on the burnt offering altar (God brought the divine fire in our being) but the priests need to keep the fire burning (we need to keep the divine fire of the divine life burning).
This means that every morning we need to take Christ as our burnt offering for our consecration and as the peace offering for our fellowship with Him. Our first duty early in the morning is not to brush our teeth, take a shower, or wash our face – it is to have a morning revival every morning!
Just call on the name of the Lord to be revived! Take the Word of God in by means of all prayers and petitions to be renewed in the Word! We need to personalize the Word of God, use the word to pray and talk to the Lord with, so that the Lord may speak to us in His word!
Lord, we consecrate our whole being to You! We want to have intimate fellowship with You! Lord, keep the fire burning in us! May the divine fire of the divine life in our being never go out! Lord, revive us every morning! May we never skip a morning revival!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother Ed Marks’ speaking in this message and portions in life-study of Malachi (msg. 4), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of the Minor Prophets, week 12 (entitled, The Revival Revealed in the Minor Prophets).
- Hymns on this topic:
# We’re renewed and revived by the Lord day by day; / He is grace upon grace and refreshing as dew. / Shining brighter and brighter, our path’s a clear way, / As morning by morning His mercies are new.
# Revive Thy work, O Lord! / Now to Thy saints appear! / Oh, speak with power to every soul, / And let Thy people hear!
# “Keep the incense burning” / On the altar fire; / Let thy heart’s petition, / Let thy deep desire, / Be a cloud of incense / Wreathing God’s own throne, / Till His will among us / Shall be fully done.
About aGodMan
In his prayer for revival, Habakkuk represents all God’s elect throughout the generations [Hab. 3:2]. Among God’s elect there has always been an aspiration to be revived. Moreover, since the fall of man there has been in all creation an aspiration for revival (Rom. 8:19-23). Adam’s fall brought corruption, slavery, and death into the whole creation (Rom. 5:12); everything is decaying and is under the slavery of corruption. All the things that are under this slavery aspire to be revived.
The universal need for revival, for restoration, can be met only by Christ and in Christ. Only Christ, who was resurrected on the third day (1 Cor. 15:4), is the renewing power. For the whole universe and for all mankind, Christ is the reality of the third day (John 11:25). The reality of the third day is the person of the resurrected Christ with the reality of revival. Christ, therefore, is the element of the revival for which all creation aspires. The corruption and desolation can be swallowed up only by Christ’s resurrection. The way to experience revival is to contact Christ by repenting and confessing our sins, failures, and darkness, thereby entering into Him as the resurrection. (Hab. 3:2, footnote 1)
Lord I open my heart to you everyday, revive me moment by moment, Lord Jesus I love you,
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The practice of morning revival is not another religious practice, it is an organic and scriptural practice by which the Lord's people are revived so as to take the God-ordained and scriptural way to meet and serve!
Keep reviving us, O Lord, for the sake of Your eternal purpose on the earth!
Hi,
Just stumble upon your site, and find your articles so refreshing. It's a new direction for me and I wonder if you can point me to the direction how to start this spiritual journey. The Lord had set me recently on the refreshing discipline to keep the weekly Sabbath by coming to Him meditating on Him as Creator, revealing His inifinite wisdom and magnificence in all creation and enjoying His care and provision and it totally refreshes me to take in His love as Creator and loving Father. I feel He would want me to go deeper into the new life in Christ in keeping the Sabbath principle too. Your website is so packed with such a mountain of goodies I need a bit of help to navigate through this treasure mine.
Thank you for the kind comment, Lynda. You can subscribe to the blog by entering your email in the box saying "Subscribe". The purpose of this blog is to present daily some spiritual nourishment for all God's people, something pure and deep from the word of God. Enjoy the goodies, and please come back + comment! Much grace to you 🙂