Generosity and Fake Revival {Day 15)

J.I. Packer once said, “Love and generosity, unity and joy, assurance and boldness, a spirit of praise and prayer, and a passion to reach out to win others are recurring marks of a people experiencing revival.”

There was something about giving that unspokenly flowed during revival at our church.  People constantly would be seen slipping money to other people.  Envelopes, cash, gift cards, and gas cards constantly flowed throughout the service to the needy.

It was not uncommon for a person to hear God whisper, “So and so needs such and such amount of money.”  After service wealth would be handed indistinctly, through the hands of an anonymous person…so the one receiving couldn’t give credit to the one who gave.  Only Jesus got the glory.

And often times when people gave, the amount given was exactly what people needed.  For God knows our needs even before we ask.  And He longs to meet them, when we seek God with all of our hearts.

What people had materially didn’t matter in the heat of our revival.  All that mattered was the substance of what we had internally, and eternally….Jesus.

I am humbled as I think back and how I witnessed “people selling property and possessions to give to anyone who had needed”.

I had been reading about it in Acts before even coming to this church.  And now, here it was, right before my eyes.  No one forcing people to give.  No one dictated what people do or don’t do with their income.  People just gave, naturally, led by the Spirit.

People sold properties, people gave freely everywhere you looked.

For once in my life, I didn’t feel like I needed to keep, hold, count, possess worldly goods.  I started to live simply, truly not caring what I possessed in this life.

All that mattered was that I was storing up heavenly possessions by reading scripture, praying for, and witnessing Christ’s love to people who were suffering.

Still, I think, too often, people try to manufacture revival.

People try to lay out the structure, and manipulate the acts of a people in order for it to look like a true move of God.

But often, until there is that willingly giving of all we have, repentance, ceaseless prayer, hunger for scripture, and a going out to evangelize naturally flowing from inside them….revival is manufactured.

I have been in places that try manipulate people to give.  They promise innocent victims….the more they give, the more money, more blessings, even healing will come as a result of it.  But, that is a false doctrine. 

We freely receive because Jesus freely gave His life.  We offer our lives, not to give, but because of the joy we find, in laying barren at the feet of Christ.

And revival can’t be bought, paid for, taught, manipulated, or orchestrated….True revival comes from an overwhelming move resulting in repentance.

Revival is always and only a complete act of the grace of God…

And revival, from my experience, always produces genuine, not man exalting, and an overwhelming willingness….

To give.