Revival?

Revival, what is it? why do christians seem to long for it as some kind of ultimate outpouring of God?
Lets take a look at what the dictionary has to say about the term:

Main Entry: re·viv·al
1: an act or instance of reviving : the state of being revived: as a: renewed attention to or interest in something b: a new presentation or publication of something old c (1): a period of renewed religious interest (2): an often highly emotional evangelistic meeting or series of meetings
2: restoration of force, validity, or effect (as to a contract)

Ok so that’s revival, the act of reviving, and to clarify “revive” is “to return to consciousness or life.”
Here’s my point, to need revival, you need to be dead.
People always seem to be longing for revival, which is basically saying, we’re dead.

Why as a church are we declaring so loudly that we’re dead, and saying someday we’ll come back to life through some big outpouring. And yet live our lives the same, remaining dead, changing nothing.
In case you don’t understand here’s something to think about, being alive, living, that is base level, that is standard. If something is going wrong, don’t just sit there longing for life, find out what is happening, find the cause, why are you dying? And once you find out the cause, CHANGE.
I’m going to make a statement here that might ruffle some religious feathers:

Revival should not exist.

I am not saying there isn’t a need for revival, I’m saying it shouldn’t exist, there shouldn’t be a need.
As christians we are called to be alive in christ, and to teach others how to live, how to be alive.

Now let me pause for a moment and talk about revival and what makes it happen.
Check out isaiah 57:15

For this is what the high and lofty One says—
he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
"I live in a high and holy place,
but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
and to revive the heart of the contrite.

I want to highlight that last line, to revive the heart of the contrite, I looked up contrite and here’s what it says: “feeling or showing sorrow and remorse for a sin or shortcoming”
Here’s what I’m getting at, revival is not a special location, or a special meeting on a special date. Revival is people coming together and saying, we are messed up, we are so sorry at the root of our being, we need you God.
And God sees that, and He comes and moves in those people, forgiving their screw ups, bringing them back to a place of living in Him. Bringing them back up to that base level of being made new.
Revival should be happening everyday, on a personal one to one level.
And if you’re feeling the need for revival in your life, throw away the idea that this has to happen at a special meeting. Simply come to God with your junk, with your screw ups, your mistakes. God will forgive you, the bible says He casts it into a sea of forgetfulness,(cast: throw something forcefully in a specified direction) as far as the east is from the west, aka infinity away.
This is revival, your slate is wiped clean, you are restored, you are back to base level.

Now you may notice I keep referring to ‘base level.’ Here’s where that is coming from, when you got saved you were made new, everything forgiven, alive in christ. Like a baby coming out screaming with life, that was you. This is base level, the starting place, step 1. To move forward and to grow you have to be nourished at first by others and then yourself as soon as you’re able. If you don’t continue to be nourished in a balanced way you will begin to deteriorate, and if you don’t eat at all, you will die. The only way to continue living is to be revived.

Thankfully if you’re reading this, you eat regularly, and you’re not dead. And if anything starts to go wrong(you get sick) you find out what the problem is and take the steps to fix it.
The same should be happening with your life in christ, you have to get nourishment, learn and grow. If things start to go downhill figure out what’s causing it and make the change to fix it.

So let me restate the statement I made earlier and add a bit to it.
Revival as we see it today, in big sweeping movements every few years, shouldn’t exist.
There shouldn’t be the need because it’s a continual thing on a individual level.

When the church gets to a place where we need a widespread revival, this is a major warning that something is wrong on a fundamental level. This means the church is dead and dying everywhere.
Something is wrong, the leaders, pastors, and teachers should be on their face before God. Asking what are we doing wrong? What needs to change? Why are the people that we’re supposed to be helping dying so regularly that we need a revival every few years?
And the change needs to happen now.
Revival is happening, millions are going to be brought back to base level in the coming months.
The leaders around the world need to find out the problem and fix it, or all these people are going to die. When they should be growing and flourishing.

You need to find this out straight from God. The following are my thoughts.

Something is wrong in the message. Look at Jesus’ ministry, and that of the disciples, they didn’t hold revival meetings, or go on evangelistic crusades. They simply taught the message of forgiveness and love. And the church exploded. Because once you teach one person how to live a life of love they can begin to teach others, and others begin to teach others, and the growth is exponential(:becoming more and more rapid.)
Are we living the message of love? are we teaching others? only the message can change the world. Not ministries of any kind, no matter how big, they will not make the needed change.
Church needs to be completely rethought from the ground up. Whatever version the church is at now(2.0/3.0/4.0?) it’s time to make a fundamental change, question everything. Grab the baby, throw out the bath water, it’s time to start again.