Revival Past

Father's Day 1995. God chose to pour out His Spirit on a small town in the panhandle of Florida. A modern-day revival that lasted over five years. My children will read about the Pensacola Outpouring in Christian history books, just as I read about the Welsh Revival and Azusa Street.

I was there. I am a product of revival. For two years, I spent countless hours in His Presence. Seeking His face, experiencing His overwhelming love and power. I saw thousands saved, healed, delivered, baptized. I learned from, listened to, and was prayed for by many amazing men and women of God.

Ten years later, reflecting back, I remember what my professors said: revival is not enough. An experience will not sustain you. Only a relationship can sustain you. Relationships take work and time. They have highs and lows. Don't let go of the Father's love. Stay connected to His heart. Seek His heart and His presence on your own.

I nodded in agreement, thinking His manifest presence would always be here. I did not understand the warning they were issuing. Life outside the "revival bubble" was brutal. The Psalmist words, "better is one day in your presence than a thousand elsewhere," took on new meaning.

Not everyone who was there survived the aftermath that is "normal life". Many have fallen away or returned to a mediocre life. I, too, have failed to maintain the stamina of revival. Mediocrity is commonplace, the days of His manifest presence far and few between.

My relationship with Jesus, founded fourteen years before my revival experience, has sustained me. It has lacked perfection and passion, yet the longing has never lacked. His grace, His forever faithfulness, His everlasting love keeps me longing for more of Him. Longing to know Him. Longing to see Him.

..."Please. Let me see your Glory." YHWH (Yahweh) said, "I will make my Goodness pass right in front of you; I'll call out the name, YHWH, right before you...But you may not see my face. No one can see me and live...Look, here is a place right beside me. Put yourself on this rock. When my Glory passes by, I'll put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I've passed by. Then I'll take my hand away and you'll see my back. But you won't see my face." (Ex 33:18-23)

When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.” (Ps 27:8)