I’ve been thinking about revival a lot lately.  I’ve been praying for revival for me and for my family. I’ve also been praying for revival to fall on our church, our city, our nation and the world. As I’ve been worshipping early in the morning I’ve felt an urgency to cry out for life giving and life changing revival.The picture I keep getting is of dry bones coming to life as in Ezekiel 37.

The Spirit of the Lord takes the prophet Ezekiel and shows him a valley of dry dead bones. He commands Ezekiel to prophecy to the bones and to call for the Holy Spirit to come in power to awaken what’s dead. Meditating on this passage has prompted me to study some of the great revivals of the past and some that are happening around the world today. What I’ve discovered is that every revival seems to have four elements:

1. Fresh awakening to our desperate need for God.
2. Renewed commitment to repentance.
3. New dedication to sharing Christ.
4. Transformed desire to move out of our comfort zone.

Over all these four praise seems to be the catalyst. I’ve noticed that as people are worshipping and praising Jesus, the Holy Spirit seems to bring about all these four elements.

In my own spiritual journey, I am crying out for revival and I want to invite you to join me. In fact I’d love to hear from you. If you are doing the praise challenge I’d love to hear how you are changing. If your church is experiencing revival I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment. I will be choosing 2 names of those who leave comments to give away 2 copies of The 30 Day Praise Challenge. If you already have the book – no worries because I happen to know some of you are starting your Christmas shopping. This is a way for you to win a free gift for a friend! So leave a comment. What have you discovered about personal revival?