ave you ever seen a resurrection plant? It is not
found very commonly except in certain parts of the world. I remember seeing it first as a
child when we visited what was known as the Matopas area in Rhodesia. It was the burial
place of the legendary Cecil Rhodes who founded that country and his remains were enclosed
on part of the rocky outcrop that make up the Matopas. I remember, as we climbed up some
of the rocky hills in the area, seeing what appeared to be a lot of plants that had once
lived but had now died as a result of not having had any water. They were dried and
shriveled up and brown, trying to grow in the little patches of soil that existed between
the rocks.
But these plants had an amazing power. If you took a sample and placed them to soak in
a container of water, they would come back to life again. Within minutes of placing a
stalk of the plant in water you would see the brown dried up leaves start to turn green
and come back to life. If you left it long enough, the whole plant would 'return' to life.
It was a fascinating sight and one that really made me curious. How could something that
was quite clearly dead, come back to life again just because it was given water?
As I look back on this now I realize what a clear picture it is of how God can take a
person that has dried up spiritually and bring them back to life. The amazing thing is
that you did not have to place the plant in soil or feed it fertilizer. You didn't have to
create a greenhouse condition for it to come back to life. All you needed was water. And
the very same thing applies to our spiritual lives. It does not take a lot of complicated
procedures to bring a person back to life spiritually. It only takes the water of the Holy
Spirit to be poured out upon them and in a very short space of time the life starts to
return.
Perhaps you are like that resurrection plant. You once knew what life was. You can
remember a time when the presence of God was very real in your life. You were excited
about serving the Lord and couldn't wait to get together with other believers for worship
and praise. You couldn't help speaking to others about the Lord. You sensed the presence
of the Lord with you every day, and you knew what it was to be led by His Spirit. But now
those things are only a memory. You are like the Israelites who settled in their Canaan
land, and heard from their parents about all the wonderful things that God had done to
their ancestors, but they saw very little of it themselves.
There is much talk these days about revival and many are either seeking it or
experiencing it in the Body of Christ. But what is revival and how can it be accomplished?
Are there specific principles involved that cause it? Do we need to fast and pray for it?
Is it given only when God sovereignly chooses to give it? Does it only come when people
begin to turn from sin and make their lives right with God? Does it require a special man
of God to make it happen?
Many of the passages quoted on revival are taken from the Old Testament. That is
because revival is not a New Testament term. The apostles and the early church did not
teach it. In fact there are two terms that preachers seem to have taken from the Old
Testament and love to major on, and these are Revival and Backsliding. The New Testament
does not find these things important enough to make them a central teaching. They are not
part of God's economy for the New Testament church. So why do preachers always major on
that which God does not consider significant?
Actually it takes very little to cause the life to return. There are many that think
that revival is a long complicated process. They think that we have to go through a series
of changes before we can come to a place of returning to the blessing of God in our lives.
They teach that we have to examine our lives and get rid of all the sin and bad habits
before we can return to the blessing of the Lord. They imply that we have to spend weeks
and months in prayer and fasting, crying out to the Lord for a fresh touch from Him.
Those who do these things eventually stumble onto the one thing that it takes to bring
back spiritual life - the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. It is the water of life
that causes us to be revived and nothing else. Those who think that we have to first deal
with the sin in our lives are people who could not approach God because they thought they
were unworthy. They did not tap the power that was in them all along, because they thought
that they had no right to it. But that is never the case with a child of God. We always
have access to His Spirit, not because of anything that we can do, but because of what
Jesus has done and is continually doing for us at the right hand of the Father.
We have been seeing in the past few days how to draw from the underground stream of
God's power that is within us. Those who think that it takes long periods of fasting and
prayer have just never learnt how to keep 'pumping' until the water comes. They are
waiting for the Lord to come and crank the pump for them. They feel unworthy to enter the
holy of holies on their own. They see the blessing of the Lord as being something way out
of their reach. They see God as being way up in heaven somewhere. They don't realize
that
He is 'closer than breathing.'
How foolish it would be for me to bow in front of a water pump and cry out for water
when all I need to do is put my hand to the handle and start to pump the water. But many
are staying there, drying up with thirst and waiting for someone else to come and pump the
water for them. Others are going about trying to find someone who has learned how to draw
water from their underground stream so that they can share in their water. But they have
to keep coming back for more. They become dependent upon a particular ministry to keep
them going. If the other ministry becomes unavailable then they begin to stagnate and
cannot survive.
Others look for a place where the water is gushing out, like a fountain and they flock
there to get water. God has moved and often moves in the midst of a group of people and a
flow begins that causes a spontaneous burst of revival to take place. It is exciting and
wonderful and God's power is manifested in a powerful way, just like a gushing natural
fountain. And just as in a natural wonder, the crowds are drawn to it. Some come to get
water, others come just to take a look and watch it gush.
And as they do this, some come back to life like the resurrection plant and leave only
to find that they start to dry up again. Others come back to life and then learn how to
draw from the power within them. Often what happens is that people who attend revival
meetings go back and begin to pour forth in ministry to others. And as they do this they
start to draw from the resources in their own spirits and a flow begins. Sometimes all it
takes is for someone's pump to receive priming at a revival meeting and they begin to pour
forth water themselves. So revival meetings have a powerful effect on those that attend
them with the purpose of receiving in order to give out more.
So if you have dried up like that resurrection plant then I would suggest that the
first thing you do is get access to some water. You need to be exposed to the Spirit of
God if you want to come to life. The best place to start is to draw from the underground
stream that God has given you. But if you are finding this difficult and you would like to
start off by getting a good soak in a bucket of water, then go where the Spirit of God is
moving. Find a place that is experiencing the move of God and where the blessing of God is
flowing in the meetings. Or find a person that you know has learned to flow in the
blessing of God and ask them for some of their 'water.' It does not take much to make the
resurrection plant come back to life. It doesn't take much to cause you to experience a
fresh touch from the Lord.
But once you have experienced that fresh touch, you must learn how to draw for
yourself. And especially you must learn how to give out to others. For the whole purpose
of receiving the water of life is not only that you might drink and live, but that you
might cause the streams of living water that the Lord has placed within you to flow out to
meet the needs of others. There are a lot of thirsty people out there. There are a lot of
dried up resurrection plants out there. You too could become a water source for others to
draw from. You can help them to come to life and then show them how they too can continue
to draw on the power of God and pour it forth to others.
How does revival come?
