A revival of the campus, a revival of the heart

What would it look like for there to be spiritual movements everywhere at WSU so that everyone had a chance to know someone who truly followed Jesus? How would these movements start? Erin, a senior and student leader with Cru, has been thinking about questions like that. We asked her to share a little more with us....

"Thinking of what COULD happen comes naturally to me. I was given a vision of what might happen this year on campus--that massive numbers of students would return to the one who created them, with a passion and zeal to follow God and share about him with others. Some might call it "revival" or "spiritual awakening," something that we long for God to start in others through us.  However, there are a few things that need to be true about ourselves before he can use us.

Before revival can start in others, WE need revival. This is why:

1. I don't always believe that God can answer my prayers and I don't pray like I believe
2. I'm not humble
3. There's sin I haven't confessed
4. Even if I confess sin, it's hard for me to agree that God's forgiven me
5. I don't feel any compassion or burden for others
6. I don't move towards people
7. I don't feel like I'm hearing from God when I meditate on his word
8. I'm not willing to surrender

Stop for a minute to ask yourself if any of those things are true of yourself.

If you're ready, God wants to invite you to be his own servant. There is a way, that's beyond any of our small-minded notions of Christianity, beyond just going to church once a week.

Firstly, find out what is hindering you from hearing the Lord's voice. What haven't we surrendered to him? What am I fearful of? I've been finding out that a lot of my fears are caused by not believing in his sovereign authority to have his will done (or rather that I fear that my will won't be done). At the root of our sin, there's a idol. Power, control, pride--all these idols will cripple us from being revived and transformed by him. Think about the weight of these sins--if we continue in these sins, what might happen? Will we fall away? If we really understand how depraved we are, it's easy to feel a sense of hopelessness and grief.

The thread that holds us from really falling apart is the hope of our forgiveness. After agreeing with God that we've sinned, we need to also agree that God is Lord over everything, capable of forgiving even the worst sins. I feel worthless and inadequate, but because God is so good, he gave me the spirit to live in my heart and do his work on his behalf. This is the start of humility--recognizing our lowliness yet our value--because God is good and he lives in us, therefore, we are good.

Can you really believe that God is so good that he would choose to use you to fulfill his greatest plans? Can you believe that God is so big, that he CAN and WILL answer your prayers, that he listens and works for the good of the people he loves? Pray with faith, believing that God will fulfill his perfect and flawless plan, and for the knowledge of his will, so that you can pray what he wants you to pray for so he can accomplish it by his power.

When we truly recognize how good the Lord is and love what he loves, we begin to notice others around us. We notice their lives still enslaved to them, and can begin to have compassion on them. Pray to have compassion, to be broken and burdened for all the harassed and helpless wandering sheep in our midst. Move towards these people that the Lord loves, so much that he would die for them.

This is only a taste of what the Lord could do this year at WSU!

"And it will be said: 'Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.' For this is what the high and lofty one says--he who lives forever, whose name is holy: 'I live in the 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.'" (Isaiah 57:14-15)

I've been marked by Isaiah's vision of the Lord's work in revival, as well as 'Fireseeds of Spiritual Awakening', a short book by Dan Hayes. I'd love for people to develop their own vision for revival, in themselves and in others."