Revival is the work of the Holy Spirit, which does just what the name says. It revives us. Welcome to Connections with Rich and Bobbi. Hi, this is Rich, Rich Homeris. And I'm Bobbi, Bobbi Hamlin. We're talking with Pastor Joe Jackiewicz, the president and founder of First Love Ministries and the pastor of Christ Bible Church in Pleasanton, California. Our topic, revival. And during these times of social unrest and uncertainty, aren't we just ripe for revival? Pastor Joe, what are Christians talking about when they say they're praying for revival? What exactly do we mean by revival? Well, Rich and Bobby, we could not be talking about a more important subject and one that is closer to the heart of every believer than revival, because revival is the work of the Holy Spirit, which does just what the name says. It revives us. It refers to a spiritual reawakening. from a state of complacency or stagnation in our lives. And it's the increase of love for God. And our love for Him tends to wane. It tends to ebb and flow, fluctuate. But when the Spirit of God assists us and anoints us or fills us, our love for God is the one noticeable thing right away. that increases. So revival is also an appreciation of God's holiness. We're much more sensitive to His holiness, His justice, His righteousness. Revival renews a passion for God's Word in our hearts. We're more hungry and thirsty for it than ever before. That hunger for God's Word, to read it, to meditate on it, to understand it, returns to us when Previously, in the immediate past, we could leave it or take it. You know, we didn't have as much desire as we used to in reading the word. Revival is revealed through a fresh zeal for the church. Whereas in the past, we would find excuses to miss church. But now when we're revived by the spirit, wild horses can't keep us away from the church, from all the activities and services of the church, because Those activities and those services, especially as they revolve around the teaching of God's word, tend to maintain and sustain the power and life of revival in our hearts. And so revival has many effects. It invigorates and deepens a Christian's faith. It opens his or her eyes to the truth in a fresh and in a powerful way. When we hear the word, when we read the word. and it generally involves something like a fresh start with a clean slate. It marks a new beginning of a life lived in obedience to God and in serving God. Revival also attaches to it a desire for repentance and growth in righteousness. Revival brings by the Spirit of God sorrow for sin and conviction of sin. and gives us a deeper sense of humility that we had before that was blunted by complacency. And so revival breaks all the power and the allurement and the charm that the world had over us as Christians that had blinded us by its temporary attraction. And it generates both the desire, a fresh desire, and provides the power of God to live for Him and not for the world. Now, that's so important for each one of us as believers to experience that. But also a lot of times you hear when people talk about revival, they're talking about how that affects the whole community. Like if there is a revival of the church or more than that, revival of all believers all over the world, maybe. So maybe you could talk a little bit about how, when we have this personal revival, how does the Holy Spirit light up the entire community or world? Well, historically, there have been very, very few times. I can't think of even one time where the entire world, without exception, the entire globe, every region, every country, every continent was in revival. Revival generally comes in pockets and has come in seasons and at different times. For example, for a period of a thousand years, from about 500 AD until the Reformation in the mid or early 16th century, there were no communities that were revived. Very, very rare. It was mostly individuals or just a handful of people every once in a while. who experienced personal revival rather than a corporate or institutional or a regional revival. So it was an individual or a small region. We're visiting with Pastor Joe Jakowicz on this important topic of revival, for God to move in a mighty way in our world, our nation, our communities, our churches, our families, and even in our own hearts. And we'll return to our talk with Pastor Joe in just a moment, so stay with us. You're listening to Connections with Rich and Bobbi, and we'd love to connect with you. Just go to our website at connectionswithrichandbobbi, all one word, and Bobbi is spelled B-O-B-B-I dot com. That's connectionswithrichandbobbi.com. And there you'll find all of our podcasts, along with all of our contact information. Also, you can connect with us on social media by friending us on Facebook, post on Instagram, or tweet us on Twitter. Now let's return to our talk with Pastor Joe, Joe Jakowicz, as he talks about revival and how in the past, God moved mightily in our country here in America. In the United States, for example, the first revival on a large scale that encompassed all of New England and most of New England was called the First Great Awakening. And it produced an upsurge of devotion among Protestants in the 1730s and 1740s. And it really had a powerful impact upon all of New England because it prepared our nation in America, the United States, through the mass conversion of people in every state, all 13 colonies were affected by it. So it set the stage for a very strong moral foundation of our society and our culture in America. So that many, many of our institutions, most of our institutions, such as universities and colleges and social institutions that were, that came out of the revival came out of the convictions that people had to reach out and help people. were rooted in what the Spirit of God did by in mass converting millions and millions of people. And so a permanent mark was made on American Christianity, and it resulted from the authoritative preaching of God's Word that deeply moved church members, the ones who were already church members. Most of them were complacent. The church was like Ichabod, the glory has departed. But suddenly after the revival, There was this convicting awareness of guilt from sin, and the need for people to be saved, the need for the forgiveness of sins, and the need to understand how to be saved. And so these church members, as the Spirit of God awakened them to their need for revival, many of them were saved, but many of them were not saved. They were unconverted church members. They were awakened and they were deeply convicted to break away from their dry rituals and their dead orthodoxy and their rote ceremonialism and experienced true conversion by the power of the Holy Spirit that changed them from the inside out. So the Great Awakening made Christianity intensely personal to the average person that got saved, and they no longer viewed going to church as some kind of religiosity or institutional thing that they had to observe, but it became very personal where they actually came into fellowship and union with the living God by the Holy Spirit creating a relationship with Christ by drawing the person to Christ from their religious deadness or from their, if they were not church members, just from being unconverted in the world. Right, it's like they became alive, like it was real. Yes, and this is like a further expansion of what you're talking about, preaching, but in Romans 10, verse 17, it says, so then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, and so this is an expansion of not just to a congregation, but to a society. Yes, it is an expansion. When revival comes, usually it affects a significant amount of people within the community. It doesn't just take place in one or two people, or even just in one local church. It affects usually the whole community, although there's no guarantee, and there's no way to measure revival, and there's no way to predict revival. There are conditions that God requires for revival to come, as we learn in scripture. For example, Second Chronicles 714, where God says in a great promise, if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land. And so repentance from sin is a condition. Seeking the Lord in diligent prayer with heartfelt, sincere supplication and prayers not letting God go until he answers that prayer, and pours out the Holy Spirit, and breaks up the fallow ground, the hard ground of the people's hearts, and gives them a heart of flesh taking away the heart of stone, and gives them a true rejuvenated spirit as Christians. You see, the Christian must respond to those conditions from the heart, acknowledging his need, and then from the heart believing in Christ to fulfill his promise to revive them. Then, in a powerful way, the Holy Spirit draws back the veil that the world has cast over the truth and temporarily the eyes of the believers, allowing Christians to fully see themselves in comparison to God's majesty and God's holiness. In the light of that, they see themselves as sinners as the Holy Spirit is increasing conviction from sin. And these kinds of workings of the Holy Spirit in their hearts bring about great humility and great sorrow from sin, but also it causes the believers to be in great awe of God that they lost, you know, they lost a vision and a sense of the majesty and the glory and the holiness of God. Well, the Spirit of God bringing revival not only causes deep conviction that they did not have for a long time, but it opens up the heavens and allows them to see all of these glorious attributes of God which cause them great respect and the fear of God and worship and awesome reverence by living holy lives. That's opened up again for them when revival comes. Oh, yes. Revive us again, dear Lord. And we thank Pastor Joe Jakowicz, the president and founder of First Love Ministries, and the pastor of Christ Bible Church in Pleasanton, California, for his encouragement and sharing his thoughts on revival. 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