Looking for revival?

"Anybody here looking for revival?"

This is the question that starts off the title song of Third Day's new album, "Revival".

I heard this song for the first time the other day while playing the radio in my car.  It's catchy, and it's a throwback to good-old Southern rock gospel.  


Anybody here looking for revival
In our own hearts and across the land?
Anybody looking for a revival
Lift up your voice and say Amen
Lift up your voice and say Amen
If I were at a Third Day concert and heard that song, I'd be clapping along, tapping my feet, and at the end of the verse, I'd be lifting up my voice and saying, "Amen!" along with the rest of the crowd.  I mean, I'm a Christian.  What Christian doesn't want "revival", especially in this day and age, where it seems like wrong has become right and right has become wrong?
But then Mac Powell's voice continues to sing out:

Ain't gonna find it in a politician
Not from the government or any law
Can't get it going by your own religion
Only by the Spirit and the Word of God
Only by the Spirit and the Word of God
Come with me
Come on with me, yeah!

I think we are all guilty of looking for a human "savior".  We want rescue, and we'd prefer someone to do the rescuing.  And there are times we need rescuing.  I needed rescue from sin.

Since the 2008 election, I think we've been guilty of looking for "revival" in a politician. People voted for Barack Obama because they wanted hope and change and thought he'd give it to them.  Only history will show whether or not he was a great, average, or poor president.

In 2016, the pendulum flipped, and people put their hopes for "revival" on the shoulders of Donald Trump.  To borrow Dr. Phil's catchphrase, "How's that working for you?"

Government and politics will NOT give us revival.  A "Christian nation" is not going to give us revival.  We can have all the prayer in school we want, we can put up the Ten Commandments on every courthouse lawn/wall in the nation, but this is NOT going to give us revival.

You can work all you want but you might not see it
Give all you got but it can't be bought
Try everything but you best believe it's
Only by the Spirit and the Word of God
Only by the Spirit and the Word of God
Come with me
Come on with me, yeah!

Church programs, as good as they are, are not going to give us revival.  Simply having more people darkening the doors of a church isn't going to give us revival.  And I hate to disappoint my Church of Christ brethren and sisteren, but a strict adherence to a cobbled-together "pattern of worship" isn't going to give us revival, either.  Neither will adding an instrumental service. :-) 

So, Tina, what's going to bring revival?

Notice the refrain?

Only by the Spirit and the Word of God.

I think we can look for and pray for revival.  But God's going to move when God's going to move, and we cannot force his hand or manipulate him.  I think there's a difference between saying to God, I want revival, and doing things so that we can say to God, "Hey! Look what we're doing!  Now are you going to send us a revival?"

Where does revival start?

If we want Christian revival, if we want a "move of God" across the land, if we really want people to know God, confess their sins, receive the Holy Spirit, and follow God . . . what do we do?

Well, I think it starts with me.

I'm not called to be a minster or preacher in the pulpit.  I'm a writer and proofreader, mother and wife. :-)  But I am called to love God with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength, and I can only do that through the Spirit of God.  I can't conjure up "revival".  I can only ask God for the help I need desperately. 

Anybody here looking for revival?
I am.  And it starts with me.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

Give me a revelation!

Sometimes you just need an exclamation point!
At least, that's how I feel about the song "Revelation" by Third Day.

I heard this song one morning and it just seemed to crystallize how I felt right at that moment--I just didn't have a clue as to where I was going.

This song is not a casual prayer request.

This is not the song of someone just sitting at a desk with their hands folded, running down their daily prayer list, asking God to, "please bless . . . please take care of . . . please be with . . . "

Rather, this is the song of someone begging, pleading, with hands upraised, stretched out to heaven, screaming, crying, "Give me a revelation!"

It fits very well with what my "word" for this year is, which is "dissatisfaction".

I don't know if Third Day intended for these lyrics to be written with an exclamation point, but as far as I'm concerned, they need it!

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

My life
Has led me down the road that's so uncertain

Now I am left alone 

And I am broken

Trying to find my way

Trying to find the faith that's gone

This time
I know that you are holding all the answers
I'm tired of losing hope
And taking chances
On roads that never seem
To be the ones that bring me home


Give me a revelation!
Show me what to do!
'Cause I've been trying to find my way
I haven't got a clue!
Tell me should I stay here?
Or do I need to move?
Give me a revelation!
I've got nothing without you
I've got nothing without you!


My life
Has led me down this path that's ever winding
Through every twist and turn
I'm always finding
That I am lost again
Tell me when this road will ever end?


Give me a revelation!
Show me what to do!
'Cause I've been trying to find my way
I haven't got a clue!
Tell me should I stay here?
Or do I need to move?
Give me a revelation!
I've got nothing without you
I've got nothing without you!


I don't know where I can turn
Tell me
When will I learn?
Won't you show me where I need to go?
Let me follow your lead
I know that it's the only way
That I can get back home


Give me a revelation!
Show me what to do!
'Cause I've been trying to find my way
I haven't got a clue!
Tell me should I stay here?
Or do I need to move?
Give me a revelation!
I've got nothing without you
I've got nothing without you!