the revival will not be televised.
hello friends,
no need for an elegant introduction or backstory this time, just cutting to the chase!*🧡
*pls pardon any typos/grammar errors. went with obedience over perfection on this one.
i’ve been going through a lot of personal transitions lately…professionally, relationally, geographically, and so on. and because everything happens in the spirit before it manifests in the physical, i’ve also been going through a period of transition in my relationship with God.
throughout the year, God’s been putting so many visions and dreams on my heart and just when i felt like i had gotten to a place where i was ready to run with them, the Holy Spirit hit all the brakes and brought me back to reality: the reality of the state of my heart.
i have plainly said before that i don’t want to write a newsletter about me, but about God, so my hope is that these reflections are not merely a personal account to you, but a divinely inspired word that stirs your heart so you can see yourself through the mirror of the Word of God and be moved towards change.
isaiah 6, being one of the most profound writings in the Bible, provides an underrated framework for what it means to be someone who truly lives for God in their private life, while being used by God in the public eye:
“It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. They were calling out to each other,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!
The whole earth is filled with his glory!”
Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.
Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.”
Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?”
I said, “Here I am. Send me.”
(Isaiah 6:1-9 NLT)
again, there’s so much depth to this passage but i want to highlight just three things that happen here, in reverse actually.
in the last few verses, we see Isaiah saying “yes” to God and being commissioned as a prophet of God (#3), but before he is sent, he is sanctified (#2).
“Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.”
we live in a culture where people chase the *thing* but hardly give any attention to the quality of their preparation before they can have it. even in the church. we gape at the idea of living out our “purpose,” but treat the requirement and responsibility of tending to our inner man as an occasional activity. mercy Lord…
the stone used to purify Isaiah’s lips did not come from his ministry or his platform, it came from the altar.
🔑 teach us Lord not to despise or disregard your Refiner’s fire, but to recognize it as the prerequisite to living out Your assignment.
sanctification is key in the life of any believer who wants to grow, but something has to happen before that idea is even possible. it happened with Isaiah.
“It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord.” He saw the Lord.
He saw God Himself—for exactly who He is.
this brings me to the reality of the state of my heart that God showed me:
while i had been filled with eagerness and excitement over all the God-relevant visions i had imagined throughout the year, the Holy Spirit eventually shook me and woke me up when i realized that i had not actually been seeing *God* in everything.
“God-relevant” is not God-given or even God-inspired.
i’m not saying that i was trying to slap a Jesus label on a personal agenda; what i mean is that I was seeking to serve a god with a different personality and a different identity that i had cooked up in my imagination, not the God who’s very sight and appearance elicits worship and adoration from every heavenly being, all the time.
so i’ve been on a journey of intentionally rediscovering God, for exactly who He is. without the commercialization, without the romanticization, just “Holy, holy, holy.”
the decline of our culture’s spiritual health demonstrates the desperate need for revival, and urgency in our witness. however, if the account of our witness is not one of the TRUE God, it is as good as no witness at all. that’s why the apostle paul is so serious when he tells us that we’re not up against flesh and blood; we’re warring against anything in our imagination that “sets itself up against the [true] KNOWLEDGE of God.” (2 corinthians 10:3-5)
i don’t want to be so familiar with things of God, yet unfamiliar with God Himself. so before revival can come to the cities, it must begin in my heart.
there’s more to be said (otw!), but in the meantime, my prayer for y’all is that your spiritual eyes would be opened to see GOD. not a god in your subconscious that manifests your wishes, or an “ideal” god that accommodates your unholiness, but God for the very holy Being He is, always has been, and always will be.
selah.
🥡 scriptural support + more
isaiah ch. 6
ephesians 1:17-18
malachi 3
an UPPERROOM worship song that’s really a prayer