David:     Here’s an interesting term: “first readers.” A prolific writer like you, Karen, knows what first readers are. Define for us what that term means.

Karen:     Well, generally when we finish a manuscript in its first round, we’re too close to it to really see the flaws in it. So, you give your manuscript to trusted people who we call first readers, and they give you feedback on it. They say, “I didn’t understand this or this I really liked or maybe this needs to be changed here.” It’s invaluable help. You don’t always take all of their advice, but it gives you good feeling for what you’ve done and how much more you really still have to do in the rewriting.

David:     Scares you too, doesn’t it?

Karen:     Not really. It doesn’t scare you. I have first readers.

Intro:      Welcome to the Before We Go Podcast featuring Dr. David Mains and his wife noted author Karen Mains. Here’s David and Karen Mains.

David:     Well, the reason I brought it up, Karen, is that I sent out a number of packages of my manuscript.

Karen:     I seem to do first reading. Okay.

David:     Well, yeah, I kind of wonder what people are going to think about it.

Karen:     Well, first of all, it’s just wonderful that they’ll even take the time to read a manuscript.

David:     That’s well said.

Karen:     It’s a gift. It’s such a gift. And I think you do this in a lot of ways when you’re in school. You have a paper or something like that and you’ll often ask a friend, another student, “Read this through and see if it makes any sense,” something like that. But a manuscript, a book manuscript is an undertaking for anyone to do so. Those are friends who step into that role.

David:     All of the people I sent my manuscript as first readers, they’re going to be kind.

Karen:     You made sure you’re going to have a stinker in the bunch.

David:     I’m going to share some of the book in this podcast.

Karen:     I’m really interested to hear what you do.

David:     These are not areas you have heard.

Karen:     No.

David:     So, these are cautionary paragraphs and sections of the book. Sometimes you do something about revival, and it sounds so wonderful. And this is just saying, “Ok, be careful. You don’t make it more than what it should be.”

Karen:     You are supposed to be realistic here. So, this is the book you’re writing now.

David:     This is on, yes, prayer vigilantes.

Karen:     Prayer Vigilantes. OK.

David:     I will stop after… this is a longer section. And then give you an opportunity to comment. Ok? It’s not a first reader, but as my gentle and loving wife.

Karen:     But I haven’t heard this before. So, yeah, no, it is the kind of first reader.

David:     What author would write a book with the strange title, “The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat?” The answer is Oliver Sacks, Professor of Clinical Neurology. In his book, Sacks describes the bizarre behavior of his patients. One man suffering from a neurological disorder actually did repeatedly mistake his wife for a hat.

Some people’s thoughts on revival are warped in a similar way.  They might not mistake it for a hat, but they do post signs all over town advertising, “Two weeks of revival coming. Don’t miss out!”

To them, revival is a spiritual high, a time packed with excitement. They certainly wouldn’t want to miss the event, or they could be spiritually out of luck for another year.

There may be a touch of reality in this prevalent expectation, albeit only a small one. Pastimes of spiritual awakening have had more than their share of the extraordinary. People have fainted, twitched, barked, danced, shook, hollered, jerk, hooped, you name it, but respected writers who describe revivals treat these manifestations as fringe issues, as irregularities to be handled in footnotes or ancillary chapters.

By contrast, key revival characteristics such as worship, holiness, love, evangelism and like have marked all spiritual awakenings in a profound way. Even so, it’s going to take a while for the thinking to die out that revival can’t be any good without any emotional jolt. It’s much better to train yourself to think of revival as a way of life rather than a mountain top experience.

In other words, true revival is basically learning to live with an ever-increasing awareness of the presence of the Lord. Paul’s words convey this concept when he writes to the Thessalonians, “We instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you and the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.”

This view helps believers avoid the rollercoaster experience in which their lows more or less match their highs. One of the most discouraging books in the Bible has to be judges. To be sure it’s a book about revival, but the reason the subject emerges so often is that time after time God’s people desperately needed it because of serious problems they made for themselves.

Another of Oliver Sack’s books, “Awakenings”, was adapted into a motion picture. In this movie, Robin Williams played a doctor who fights to use an experimental drug on a group of catatonic patients or individuals in a stupor. He believes there are real people trapped in those bodies, and he wants to help them.

In this reenactment of a true story, Robert De Niro plays the first patient given Eldopa. Neurons are deeply moved as the drug works and the patient’s true personality begins to come forth. The same miracle drug is administered to other patients. Some frightening side effects begin to appear, however, and eventually the treatments are stopped. There’s no choice. The experiment has gone sour. Tragically, the patients return to their former condition.

Some might think it would be wonderful if there were a spiritual drug with no side effects. Wouldn’t it be terrific to be in a continual spiritual orbit rather than plummeting to earth again? Some people think that this particular spiritual gift or that anointing will do the trick. This great revival rally will give them the marvelous experience they need. All too often, like those patients taken off the drug, those who keep seeking the highs soon return to the lows.

If this has been a pattern of your life, it’s time to retrain your mind to view revival as living daily in the presence of the Lord. Honoring Him at home, in the workplace, at church, and in community relations. Be sure to also think big enough to envision Him showing His love through His people in your own nation and also other nations of the world. The key is not how high you can get, but how high the Lord is. And as Paul writes, how you can please Him more and more.

You still with me, sweetheart?

Karen:     Yeah, I’m following this thinking because it’s excellent.

David:     Okay. Two miracle sons were born to previously barren women. Both were uniquely blessed with an unusual sense of the Lord’s presence. Their lifespans possibly overlapped, and each provided leadership for Israel during tumultuous times.

One boy, Samson, grew up to be everyone’s idol. Like a modern-day superhero, he possessed legendary strength because the spirit of the Lord would come upon him with power. But his repeated backsliding cost him dearly.

At the end of his days, he was only a shadow of the magnificent man he had once been. Taunted by his fullsting captors to play the fool, blind Samson begged the Lord to know the experience of his powerful presence one final time. In great mercy, God honored Samson’s pitiful last request, and his life ended in a great victory for Israel.

The other boy, Samuel, lived a long life and commanded everyone’s respect. From his childhood on, he too experienced a special awareness of the presence of the Lord. He walked in God’s ways during all the years he served Israel as priest, prophet, and judge. The qualities that mark all times of revival characterize Samuel’s life as well. His spiritual stability was a great gift to the nation, and when he died, all Israel mourned.

A popular saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This describes Samuel’s spiritual life. But when someone has wandered from God, there is hope that he or she will one day return. Samson finally came back to God, even if it was just in the nick of time.

It’s important to understand the relationship between experiencing revival and growing spiritually. Both have to do with life the way God intended it, delighting in its presence on an ongoing basis. One way to accomplish this is through consistent spiritual growth, like a tree that gradually grows stronger and more beautiful through the seasons of life.

The other way is to witness a similar kind of growth, but in a greatly reduced time frame. This kind of experience is traditionally called revival, and although much more dramatic, it can be equally effective. Hopefully the tree can withstand the shock of growing so quickly in such a short amount of time. Praise the Lord when it does work, because he’s the only one who could pull off such a miracle. But as quickly as possible, the tree needs to begin functioning normally and bearing fruit for God.

When the Spirit of God initially enters a person, that event for many marks the end of a long search. But in another sense, conversion is just the beginning of a new way of life.

So, it is with revival. The experience should not be seen as an end in itself. To be genuine, revival should lead to consistent spiritual growth. Experiencing significant spiritual growth without ever having known revival is entirely possible but experiencing revival without subsequent spiritual growth is asking for trouble. It’s like getting hooked on spiritual steroids and ending up worse off than when you started.

The lives of many Samson’s and Samuel’s still overlap. We hope and pray that the Samson’s will return to the Lord earlier in life than their predecessor did. Even so, it’s a time for rejoicing whenever God grants forgiveness, the fullness of His spirit and a new lease on life. And it’s also wonderful when year in and year out His presence marks a Samuel.

Whoever you are, what’s important is that you walk each day in God’s ways and know a lively sense of His presence.

I’ll stop there.

Karen:     Okay.

David:     I have some more that I want to read, but let me just give you a chance to react, okay?

Karen:     Have you looked back on my life? There have been heightened moments when I had an unusual visitation of the Holy Spirit and it can be kind of like a drug you want that. The temptation is to want that experience over and over and over again. And I think some people do get caught in that. You know, they go from one revivalist preacher’s meetings to another.

David:     Another huge conference…

Karen:     …another… yeah.

David:     …another huge conference yet.

Karen:     Whereas I really did learn that I want to say to him, every day revive me today. And often I pray, “Lord, give me a hunger for yourself that cannot be satisfied by any other living thing.”

I mean, he almost asked to give us that hunger for him. It’s nothing we can construe on our own. But the daily walk of faith is the goal. And in that daily walk of faith, we need to not be humdrum. You know, “I’m doing my scripture reading again,” and then you do it. You don’t remember what you read, but it’s formulaic. I write in a prayer journal every day. But I want to experience his presence in the reality of that knowledge every day so that I meet with him. I feel this rush of love again for him.

David:     That’s a good term.

Karen:     Yeah. I want to walk in his ways and know that I’m giving him pleasure by making the choices that are Christlike choices. So that’s the consistency that has to happen in our daily lives.

Now, do we denigrate those heightened moments? Never! And ever since I’ve been married to you, you’ve done a lifelong study of revival and revival movements in reading the people who have written about it and recorded it, the history of revival.

So, it is a passion for you. But the normalizing of it here, not the denigration of it, but the normalizing of it here, I think is…

David:     … a counterbalance.

Karen:     It’s a counterbalance, but it is a sign of the true spiritual maturity. When we can say, “Today was as fresh in my walk with the Lord as yesterday was, and I’m praying that tomorrow will be the same.” And that means we have to set that time aside—to long for him. And then God visits us in these sweet ways, not so much the extraordinary ways.

Look, that happens. I mean, there are very many times when we say, “Oh my goodness, look what God has done.” But it’s almost better to have the daily sweetness that comes because we are savoring him, tasting and seeing that the Lord is good.

David:     It’s important to know the balance.

Karen:     Right.

David:     Because the balance is what gives life its great meaning.

Karen:     Yeah.

David:     And it’s not like, “Got to take another pill today.”

Karen:     Yeah, got to take another pill. No, I think these are really words of counsel and wisdom that come from years of walking with the Lord and studying revival movements.

David:     Here’s a little bit, the same feel, but coming at it from a different direction.

Karen:     Okay, this is back to your manuscript.

David:     Yeah, it’s from a different chapter.

Karen:     Okay.

David:     Sometimes the best of times can also include a touch of the worst of times. So, it is with revival. While incredibly good, it is still not heaven on earth. To expect that it is, is to set ourselves up for disillusionment.

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing is how Acts 6 begins, “However, at the very time the early church was doing amazingly well, the Greeks and Jews were complaining that in the daily distribution of food, there are widows weren’t being treated as well as those who were Hebraic.”

The problem was addressed in a mature and responsible manner, but the point remains that human nature was still manifesting its imperfections even during those marvelous days of the Spirit’s presence.

A similar incident is found in 1 Samuel 7, which describes a time of revival in Israel. The people responded positively to Samuel’s challenge to quote, “Rid yourself of the foreign gods and the astros and commit yourself to the Lord and serve Him only.”

God then protected His people by literally thundering against the Philistines and throwing their troops into panic. Yet in the very next chapter, Israel greatly disappointed both Samuel and the Lord by demanding a king and history proved what a horrendous choice this was to be.

The overall pattern of Israelite history is the same what many nations have followed from a beginning high point. There is a definite downward slide interrupted occasionally by a revival peak that is seldom as high as the one before and eventually the nation bottoms out. If this sounds discouraging, be reminded that revival characteristically saves a generation from sliding further and faster toward judgment.

Any of us who have children or grandchildren should find comfort in this general truth. False expectations set people up for disappointments. This kind of thinking only pushes people into a fantasy world. Revival isn’t make-believe. It’s happened before and there’s every reason to believe it can happen again. It’s magical thinking about personal revival or about revival in the home, the church, the community or the nation. It puts it out of reach.

Realistic expectations can prevent us from falsely idealizing revival. Be aware that revival books often highlight the good and gloss over the bad. Report the spectacular and leave out the embarrassing and make the unique appear normative. How wonderful that scripture reports the situation exactly as it is, warts and all.

Following is a list of five false expectations, both negative and positive, about revival. Maybe you can add others.

Not a single soul will leave the church unmoved or unchanged.

No one will be proud and claim responsibility for what’s happening.

The services will be perfectly balanced. Emotions will never get out of control.

Every church in town will be enthusiastically supportive.

Our city will be one for Jesus.

Those are things to be aware that that’s not going to happen. Fair enough?

Karen:     Yeah. Extremely helpful, honey.

David:     Well, I’m just trying to give cautions, because when you begin to talk about the movements of the Holy Spirit, whether it’s from scripture or from history, it kind of sweeps you along and you think, “Oh my goodness.”

Karen:     Well, we’re all longing for that. I mean, I think there is a deep innate longing in our heart to live in an environment, in a community where God’s presence is recognized in unusual ways. But we’re saying, work for that to become the norm. Maybe it won’t be as spectacular as you read about in history, but it will be as real.

David:     It will be a decided difference from what we have known, say, in America over our lifetimes. There will be a phenomenal movement of the Holy Spirit. There will also be incredible opposition that I write about, the spiritual warfare that will go on once the revival begins.

Just trying to give a balance. The book is about prayer vigilantes. I haven’t explained that term today, but I have in the book. And the question, I guess, is how long does it take for those first readers to get through the book and back to you? I will be able to tell you if I don’t get any response at all. I know I’ve written a dud.

Karen:     Don’t think it’s a dud, Dave.

David:     Thank you for listening.

Karen:     Thank you for sharing. Lovely. Thank you for doing that.

Outro:     You’ve been listening to the Before We Go podcast. And if you would like to write to us, please send us an email at the following address, hosts@beforewego.show. That’s all-lower-case letters, hosts@beforewego.show.

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