David: Karen, the two of us have a big day coming up very quickly now.

Karen: We certainly do. Can you believe it? It is going to be our 60th wedding anniversary.

David: That’s a lot of years.

Karen: Right, it is a lot.

David: It’s been good to us.

Karen: And we’ve learned a lot of lessons.

David: I think that’s true and we will start to talk about them, not this time, but next time and probably more exhaust our ideas as of one podcast, but we’ll kind of continue those through the days.

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: Meanwhile, we haven’t seen each other that much lately because I’ve had my head buried. I’m working on this book and I’m making really good progress.

Karen: We’ve hardly seen one another at all. You hit your desk in the morning, your head is buried in it. I’ll come in and say something to you and you sort of do that “Uhuh.”

David: That’s not totally true.

Karen: It’s not nasty. It’s just that you’re totally absorbed in getting this project. I well understand what that’s about.

David: It’s maybe nine, 10 chapters and I have actually completed seven. So I’m kind of in the final run here.

Karen: What would you say your draft topic is just for our listeners?

David: It’s prayer vigilantes. Someone was here last night and he said, “What are you writing?” I said, “prayer vigilantes.” He kind of looked blank and then he kind of said, that’s kind of neat.

Karen: Kind of interesting. Yeah.

David: A self-appointed but critically important role. Anyway, I will share a part of the last chapter that I’ve been working on. Okay. The deputy had already announced that it looked like around eight or 10 vigilantes would be needed. All of them would be issued badges and even guns, if necessary.

Now he was compiling a quick list with the sheriff back in the law office. Since this wasn’t all that big a town, their pool of volunteers were limited. Some of the better choices hadn’t yet been seen in the downtown that given morning and there wasn’t time to send somebody looking for them. Obviously, nobody had anticipated that this was the day their bank would be robbed. It was like your classic western scene, witness countless times in movie theaters and on television screens. Hand ringers concerned about their savings tried to find the sympathetic ear to hear their sad tale about years of hard work and living frugally and now all that sacrifice for this.

A few dozen men already gathered on the main street, several had come from the saloon and one appeared slightly tipsy. Off to the side, wives could be seen crying and slowly nodding their heads negatively as they listened to what their husbands were attempting to explain. In one case, the family group included four children. For the most part, these were good, hardworking folk who just needed to be assured of the rightness of this unanticipated action and of its efficacy or power to produce the intended outcome. Apparently, the two-person conference was now ended because the lawmen were coming outside with determined looks on their faces. Time was obviously now on the essence. Names would be read from their hastily prepared list as soon as ten “yes” responses were reached, the posse would settle up. It was hardly a foolproof system, but for certain past times and places it was probably the best option available.

Given its definition, revival was never God’s first option for mankind. The word assumes a rather sad drifting away from the good life the Lord intended. Let’s break it down. V.I .V. words are life related. Biven means full of life. A vivacious person is someone who’s energetic and lively. So with V.I .V. at the heart of revival, we know its meaning is life related. The prefix re adds again to the mix. If a person faints, we hope he or she can quickly be revived or brought to conscious life one more time. The same is true when someone’s spiritual life is faint. We want that individual to return to robust spiritual health. The suffix A.L. means that which pertains to, so the word revival is literally that which pertains to life coming back again.

When I first became a Christian, my relationship with the Lord was exciting. I’m not sure what happened, but now my faith is more of an obligation. I promise God I’d serve him and I’ll keep my word, but it’s not like it used to be. Do you identify? A lot of people are at this point in their spiritual walk. Well, don’t give up hope. God delights in reviving your soul. You need that for which David appealed to God in Psalm 51:12, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation.”

That’s different, you respond. David committed some terrible sins. Adultery and murder. I haven’t done anything like that. Maybe not, but using David as an illustration underscores the fact that revival is possible regardless of how far you have drifted. Revival is just what David is asking for in Psalm 51. After a tragic spiritual fall, he longs for his former closeness to the Lord. “Have mercy on me, oh God,” he pleads. That’s verse one. In God, the life giver responds graciously. Picture the king, eventually getting up from his knees. He’s somber, yes, but now there’s a hint, an appreciative smile on his tear-stained face.

He truly believes God has heard his prayer, and it’s almost as though David could raise his fist and exclaim, Viva! Another V.I .V. word, life. A proper understanding of revival makes it attainable for every individual. With a basic grasp of the concept, personal revival is not something all that strange and mysterious. If you want to return to a first love relationship with the Lord, you’ll be thrilled to discover that God has desired that for you all along.

What David knew, you too can know. The freshness of your spiritual life can be restored. Of course, the process of revival relates to churches and nations as well as individuals. God wants life in its fullness to be experienced on a grand scale. He encourages his people to believe in the possibility of community restoration, even in the worst of local or national situations. For instance, in Ezekiel 37, the Lord tries to open his prophet’s mind to the passion he has for revival among his people, the Israelites. To do this, God takes Ezekiel to a most unlikely place, a valley of dry bones. “He asks me, ‘Son of Man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘O sovereign Lord, you alone know.’ Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the world of the Lord, I will make breath enter you and you will come to life.’” You know the story.

The thigh bone connected to the hip bone, and so on. The point is that God did want to see revival in Israel, just as he desires it for your church, your community, your whole country. The Lord doesn’t need you or me to convince him that this is something good. Although as an individual, you don’t exercise control over your local church, your community, or your nation, you are accountable for the freshness of your own relationship with Jesus Christ. How encouraging to know that you can experience life coming back again, even when those around you are far from it. You can be a revived person in the middle of a dead church or a decadent culture.

And from that crucial beginning, God can challenge you as he did Ezekiel with his larger vision. However, maybe the word revival turned you off. For many people, it has a negative connotation. They’ve been burned by past experiences. “I was trapped in this highly emotional meeting with a sweaty-faced preacher who was trying to manipulate everybody into walking down the aisle.” Others see revival as a one or two week series of services during which they’re booked on a guilt trip if they don’t get their non-Christian friends to attend. It comes as a surprise to many to discover that some of the most famous revivals happened in the most unlikely places. Remember the noonday prayer meetings attended by business people crowded into YMCA’s and theaters, even army camps. The Lord repeatedly defies preconceptions when he renews the spiritual life of his people. Preaching is frequently a major part of revival. However, many accounts tell of ministers who never got to preach their sermons. The moving of the Lord began while someone was ministering through music or when a person under deep conviction confessed a sin and people lined up to follow suit. In the Old Testament, God’s people in the southern kingdom of Judah experienced a marvelous national revival under King Hezekiah. The King urges people, “Serve the Lord your God so that his fierce anger will turn away from you. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him.” The monarch sounds a bit like a sweaty-faced preacher, Dasni. 2 Chronicles 29:31 describes the people’s repentance from sin, the purification of the temple, the great celebration of worship, and the nation’s return to the Lord. This description probably conforms to your traditional picture of revival.

Genesis 35, however, is not so typical. This is the story of a man who knows he’s at a critical juncture in his life. Returning to the land of his spiritual heritage, he comes back to the exact geographic spot at which he had first experienced an unusual encounter with God. This man was Jacob.

Many years earlier he had fled for his life from his brother Esau’s anger. As Jacob stopped to rest that evening, he saw a stairway that reached to heaven with angels ascending and descending. “How awesome is this place,” he said. And he struck a bargain. “If God will be with me on this journey, so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the Lord you will be my God.” The Lord had kept his part of the bargain. Jacob had indeed returned safely and had been blessed with great wealth as well.

Now it was Jacob’s turn to keep his part. So he summoned all who were traveling with him. “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you,” he told them. And he buried those idols under the oak tree at Shechem. Here was a time of spiritual revival for God’s man, and he wanted to include everyone in his family.

So it’s spiritual garbage buried under a great oak tree. That’s not what most people would initially think of as a revival illustration, but it’s a good one. In order to recognize the many ways God renews the spiritual life of his people, we need to set aside revival stereotypes. God’s work to revive his church in China or India will no doubt be different from his revival work in Australia or the United States. The way he touched his people in the 1700s may vary from the manner in which he chooses to work in this century. Ultimately what’s important is that spiritual life returns to the people of God and that he is allowed to work in the way he knows best.

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 briefly 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 fullisting 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 time and commanded everyone’s respect. From his childhood, 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 wrote, don’t fix it.” This describes Samuel’s spiritual life. But when someone has wondered 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.

Now it’s important to understand the relationship between experiencing revival and growing spiritually. Both have to do with life the way God intended. Delighting in his 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. And 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. It’s also wonderful when you’re in and you’re 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.

Well, I’m going to stop there and I haven’t yet pulled back the introduction in terms of the vigilantes to where this chapter is going but it gives you a feel of what I’m working on.

Karen: It was interesting your sister read some of your material and had not ever heard those stories on revival. She’s a godly woman, lovely lovely woman and she was so thrilled by it. I think it’s something we’ve lived with to a certain extent because of your feeling and passion for this. But many many people haven’t heard the history of revival, the definition of revival. So, this is rich and deep. I’m glad that we can offer this to our listeners.

David: I’m going to stick with it. Now the job is to pull all the pieces together. So, all this is understood and the whole concept of being a prayer vigilante becomes personalized.

Karen: You will stick your head out of your office for our 60th wedding anniversary.

Outgo: 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. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please remember to rate, review and share on whatever platform you listen. This podcast is copyright 2021 by Mainstay Ministries, Post Office Box 30, Wheaton, Illinois 60187.