Revival, revisited

<idle musing>
So, on Monday I posted asking what revival looked like. I intended to follow that up, but the week hasn't quite gone as I planned...

So, what are the "little sins" that are allowed by us? Well, how about complaining? The scripture comes down pretty hard on that one. What about depression? I would think that the commands to rejoice always pretty much rule out depression. How about impatience? Nope, that is circumscribed by scripture as well.

Of course, there is the repeated command to give thanks in everything, which seems a bit hard, but perhaps doable. But, what about this one: "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph. 5:20, KJV). Did you see that? FOR everything! not just in everything! Yikes! When did they put that in there? I chose the KJV so you couldn't accuse it of being some new-fangled translation, but let me assure you that the new ones translate it the same way.

How can God expect us to keep that one? Now, before you retreat into positional/forensic language, deal with the text. Right! You can't. But, you can't do any of the other stuff either, so why not admit it up front? It is only by the moment-by-moment empowerment of the Holy Spirit that anything other than sin is possible.

That being so, why can't God do this, too? Hmmm...God's not powerful enough? He doesn't care enough? Sorry, wrong answers. This all ties back into the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and the death of self. No death, no life. It's that simple. You live equals you don't live. You die equals you really live.

To put it another way, you can't get to Galatians 5 with the fruit of the Spirit without going through Galatians 2:20: I am crucified with Christ, I no longer live. And you certainly have to go through Galatians 3: You foolish Galatians...having begun in the Spirit, are you now ending in the flesh? Spiritual fruit is only possible through the Holy Spirit! After all, it is the fruit of the Spirit!

So, how does this tie to revival? Simple, as long as we live in the flesh, there will be no revival. As long as we are impatient, critical, complaining, selfish, etc., there will be no real move of God. But, we can't eliminate those things; God already has, as long as we walk in Christ by faith and believe him when he says we are saints, not sinners!
</idle musing>