The Day I Threw Boxes of Psychology Books Away

Charles Finney once said, “A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God.” 

Every ending has a beginning.  Every pruning has a new sprout reaching out for light.  Every weary cloud has a sun waiting, a silver lining, hidden somewhere inside.

And just like anything else, revival can carry us far from where God intended, if we are not bent on listening, waiting, hearing, and obeying all God has asked and said.

After all, I often wondered if there is nothing that quenched revival more, than unholiness or disobedience.

And I know I have done my share over the years since experiencing this Great Move of God that I have been sharing this past month.

But to be honest, I still burn like I did back then….when my faith was fresh, my awakening crisp..for that re-birthing of the truth of who Jesus really is.  

In fact, revival can wreck us for anything ordinary.  It can taint anything else, less-full of the heart of God.  

Yet, the neat thing is…once revival is in you…once you have tasted and seen and experienced the overflow of the abundance grace of God….you want nothing else.  You yearn only for what He has.  

I think back to that worship service on the hills of Guatemala. Poor mountain people belting out words I couldn’t recognize.  They bellowed out, unadultered, to a God they were desperate for.

That is revival.

I remember how I dug into scripture.  My fingers flipping through pages, my eyes reading…unable to keep up with the longing inside of me….just to know God more.

How I longed for the truth, and the more I did….the more dissatisfied with empty religion I was.  The more I read, the more I had an insatiable thirst for the truth of scripture.  

That is revival.

I recollect those first steps into that building.  That veil lifting from my eyes when I didn’t even realize it. Where prior I couldn’t even recognize all that God has done for me.

Those tears. That moment I realized…I was a sinner and I needed a Savior.

That is revival.

And today, I have a testimony.  God has set me free!  He has healed, delivered, and picked me out of the muck and mire. He has set my feet upon the rock.  He has called me for His glorious purposes.

No longer do I see my ashes to beauty, a result of my works, my doing.  All those psychology books I studied….I literally packed up in boxes and threw them away.

For I knew my hope was no longer in psychology, dissecting, or picking apart the broken parts of me.  My only hope was Christ.  And when God, by grace, chooses to touch you, you can’t help but be changed in an instant.

I urge you today friends, as I conclude this series, and you read the previous stories of how God can transform a person in an instant…

• Would you hear the heart behind what God is capable of?
• Would you seek to find God wherever He might be calling you? 
• Would you be willing to courageously tare down walls separating you from what He has.  
• Would you ruthlessly pursue God in a way that all of eternity rejoices at your devotion?  
• Would you not settle for fearful, legalistic, stifling representation of a God who is not the fullness of the gospels.

God is alive.  He is so much greater than what any of us have even imagined or experienced.  

• He is seeking us, whispering, calling to each of us to, “Come nearer”.  Will you listen?  
• He is confirming, “I am the way, the truth and the life”.  Will you head Him speaking?  
• He is asking, “Come follow me”.  Will you follow His beckoning friends, today?  

(Linking with Barbie)