THOUGHTS ON GOING DEEPER

As I indicated when I began this blogging site, when I had something to say, I’d say it and when I don’t you won't find a blog full of ramblings just to fill space.

Over the last several weeks I’ve been contemplating what real revival and the deeper life involve. I have been reading several older books on or related to the subject. It is an area that God is challenging me in personally right now. I am continually amazed at how God opens our eyes about areas that He is impressing on our hearts. You begin to see the subject in everything, or at least God so sensitizes you to what He is teaching that it feels like everything points to that particular area. That has certainly been my experience in the past and present. And this matter is no different.

Do you ever hear or read about someone whose relationship with God makes you realize just how spiritual inept you are? Too often for me unfortunately. Recently I’ve been reading the biography of Duncan Campbell. You may not know that name but he was a powerful Scottish evangelist during the early part of the 20^th century. God used him greatly and the stories of conversions and life change that occurred because of his ministry are absolutely incredible. For example on one early occasion in his life during World War I he lay wounded in a medical infirmary having just arrived from the battle field. As he lay, assuming he was dying, and full of the Spirit of God, he began to recite the 103^rd Psalm in Gaelic. It was doubtful that any of the other patients understood a word of what he was saying and yet within minutes the conviction of sin fell on the hospital room and seven Canadian soldiers trusted Christ. Before he was transferred to a regular hospital, Campbell would hear these men tell of their miraculous moment when the power and conviction of God fell on them and brought about their salvation. And such stories abound.  Why Campbell and so many others? What was it about those who had the obvious favorable hand of God upon them and their work? What made the difference?  It is the same thing that makes the difference today…  it is a life that is completely abandoned to God.  And the Bible tells us that God is looking for people just like that so that He can show who He is through them. In 2 Chronicles 16:9 it says, "For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”

I don’t know about you, but the older I get, the more I desire to see the power of God expressed in my life and through my life. I am less concerned about structure, styles, and traditions and more concerned with the depth of my relationship with God, my sensitivity to His leading and how to help people know His love, forgiveness and salvation. 

D.L. Moody once said, “The world has not yet seen what one man totally committed to God can do.” I heard that as a teenager and never forgot it in my head but have too often forgotten it in my heart. Andrew Woolsey said, “God’s greatest gift to any generation is not a major breakthrough in science or technology which makes life more easy and prosperous; it is a man with the voice of eternity within calling his fellow-men from paths of selfishness to find satisfaction in God.”

That’s what’s on my mind and in my heart,

RJ