Revival is a time when the masks come off and everyone gets totally honest about sin and who they are in Christ. Let me ask you, is your ministry equipped to handle true Holy Spirit revival? How can you ever know? Are you already responding to divorce, drug addiction, sexual addiction, grief recovery, etc. prior to the scheduled "revival" event? Are you ready for an outpouring of honesty from the congregants?
When a sinner notices that a church is already meeting those needs of the downtrodden, they will most likely feel much more apt to trust Christ. We know that Jesus cares about this, for his words from Isaiah 61 are the very passage in which he revealed his identity to the teachers of the law in declaring, "I who speak to you am He --" meaning the one who has come to heal the brokenhearted, set the captive free, etc.
Furthermore, it was Jesus who looked straight into the eyes of the prostitute Mary Magdalene and had mercy on her very soul. "Go and sin no more." He was future-focused rather than past-focused. Once Jesus came into Mary Magdalene's life, she stood forgiven in the midst of a culture pregnant with judgement.
So may we be ever-mindful of any sole demand that the broken man find revival without finding ourselves fully ready to provide rescue and recovery to the sickness from which he may be suffering. Moreover, if every mask was to fall, we don't want to stand there dumbfounded if true Holy Spirit revival were to take place. Let's have the feet of readiness.
To the broken man I would say, "Arise, beloved. You're God is a God who sees. His church is alive and well. It is a church emerging. A community of true, new-testament believers who believe in the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let not your heart be troubled."
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