Cultivating a Culture of Revival

A lot of churches are propagating a revival movement, but very few cultivate one. There is a distinct difference between the two. From a natural perspective with plants, propagation is the process of increasing the population or number of plants whereas cultivation is improving the land for agricultural purposes. One lasts and one doesn't. Yes, propagation may look good at first, but if the soil cannot maintain it, the propagated plants will wither and die. Whereas cultivation is preparing the land for the plants so they can feed off of each other for generations to come

We must, as a Church, stop propagating revival and start cultivating one by preparing the soil for the move so that when the seeds are planted, they will grow and blossom into something beautiful instead of withering and dying. So, the question is, how do we, as a church, cultivate revival?

I believe, the only way to cultivate a culture of revival is when we begin to experience continual personal revival. And perpetual personal revival only happens when you begin to understand the depths of the father's love for you and allow him to pour out his love onto you while you pour out your love for Him in return. It is not the fact that he loves you more or less one day or another, it's that we become so tender to His affinity towards us that every day we begin to more deeply understand how deep and great the father's love is for us.

Steadfast Love is New

Lamentations 3:22-23 22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. The word used for mercies is Heced which combines the ideas of love, generosity, and commitment all into one word. And it is not that they are LITERALLY new every morning, but that every morning you have the ability to see and experience a new level and dimension of His pursuing love for you regardless of the mistakes you made the day before. Every day there is a new deeper understanding of His overwhelming love for us that He wants us to experience

Paul says in Romans 8:37-39 NLT 37 "No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." That nothing can separate us from God's love or make Him love us any less! And personal daily revival is when we allow ourselves to be swept away and ravished by His love for us to the point where we are convinced He doesn't just passively love us as a friend but loves us with the same passion and tenacity that He has for Jesus. John 17:23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.

Revival cannot happen withing the church if it has not first happened within the lives of us believers. For how can we congregationally experience something we have not personally experienced yet. We pray and fast for revival to happen in the church but fail to realize that it has not happened in us yet. There is a misconception of what REVIVAL truly is. The church has equated revival to the effects it had on a person, for example, tongues, falling out in the spirit, dancing, and crying. But the heart of revival is being exposed and awakened to a new and deeper dimension of His extravagant love for us.

• The tongues, falling out, dancing, and crying are the direct result of us coming into the realization of His deep love for us. But churches across America pursue the expression of revival and not the heart of it. We have rationalized, "if we have the appearance of revival, surely we are experiencing it."

• So, church culture has cultivated and crafted experiences and songs to stimulate an emotional response from the people so that they can say they've experienced true revival.

  • This is NOT our fault because it was what we were trained, as Christians, to do. We believed that if we speak in tongues, cry, and "feel" moved in a service, surely this is revival.

• But True revival is when we come together and get wrecked by the love of God to the point in which we are changed by the encounter.

The deeper we allow ourselves to go, the more understanding of His love for us becomes perfected IN us to the place where all darkness is expelled in our lives.

• 1 John 4:16-18 NLT 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.

  • Revival isn't achieved by how hard you work for it; whether it is fasting or interceding day or night. It is achieved by surrounding yourself to the measure of Love He has for you day by day.

• This is not to say prayer and fasting are bad, but that you will never achieve through works that which was designed to be achieved through union.

  • I don't have to work to earn God's Love, I have to submit myself to the depths of his love on a daily basis. And that starts by realizing you're not worthless and that he doesn’t HAVE to love you because you said a prayer, but that he actually desires you and wants to love you regardless.

His love for you isn't a response to what you do, it's actually what you were designed for.

• And because His perfect love casts out fear, you have the confidence to look into His eyes and see that they are not flames of fiery judgement, but His eyes are burning with jealous love for you which ignites a fire within you that puts you in the state of perpetual personal revival BASED ON the revelation of His love for you.

  • And where two or three burning ones come together in his name, in one mind and one accord, God's true revival of love descends on the church in a mighty rushing wind in tongues of Fire.

    • Acts 2:1-4 NLT On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

  • When my personal revival comes in contact with your personal revival, a cataclysmic event of Heavenly proportions begins to take place, which transforms the very ground we are standing on into Holy Ground. (Driving away all principalities). And what is birthed in the fires of love can never be quenched.

THAT is how we can go from glory to glory, by experiencing His love for us more deeply today than we did yesterday.

• The meaning of church begins to change into a place where we come in realizing we are loved and begin to pour back on Him what he has been pouring into us ALL week. Not a place where we come to be filled, because we have been empty all week, but a place where we burst open our alabaster jars and pour our love back on Him.

• What would church look like if that began to happen? Oh how that would transform the very definition and purpose of our post-modern church in America and turn it into a place where we long to be so that we can lavish our love on Him to reciprocate what He has done to us.

• This is the shift that needs to take place. This is when true revival will happen!