Love Brings in Revival or It’s Nothing

—Love is the most vulnerable, frightening, and powerful force in the universe. All of Life emanates from Love first and foremost, or it is nothing. And Love is the only force that can bring in change and revival. Unless I am willing to embrace Love, I will have absolutely nothing of Life and revival. Love brings in revival and revival brings in love.

Love Brings in Revival

The fact will always remain that revival is not birthed in doctrine, knowledge, understanding or anything of the mind. Love itself is the only force that can bring forth revival. And why is this? Because God is Love!

Dear friends, we must love each other because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:7-8 GW

I know it would seem safer to rely on prayer to bring in revival. Or our enlightenment in theological study would seem safer. But revival isn’t birthed from my doings or my knowing; Love brings in revival or I have nothing. It’s not that revival isn’t based on the Truth of God, nor that we don’t have to humble ourselves and pray to see our land healed. But unless Love is the center of our revival, it isn’t true revival. We might have a resurgence of study, but that isn’t revival. We might even have a surge of prayer, but this isn’t revival. Love brings in revival! and revival brings in love.

Walking on the Water: Love Brings in Revival

God assures me that I must walk on the waters of Love to see my world changed. I can’t rely on the shore of my efforts or even the boardwalk of my knowledge; it’s in the complete vulnerability of Love that revival comes.

“But Love is risky, Love is messy, Love involves that untrustworthy heart…how can Love bring in revival? Truth and doctrine are fixed and safe! They don’t involve that icky, lovey goopy-goo. Doesn’t God know that Love can be perverted, twisted, and taken to self?”

Love requires faith in His keeping power. It’s impossible to manage Love. Love relies on trusting Him who is Love and who shepherds our hearts. To experience revival, we must leave the safe boat and trust in God’s ability to keep us on top of the waters.

I also pray that love may be the ground into which you sink your roots and on which you have your foundation. This way, with all of God’s people you will be able to understand how wide, long, high, and deep His love is. You will know Christ’s love, which goes far beyond any knowledge. I am praying this so that you may be completely filled with God.
Ephesians 3:17b-19 GW

Jesus said that Love, not knowledge, is the characteristic of a genuine disciple. For the Law and the prophets hang on two commandments: Love the Lord your God and Love your neighbor as yourself. Love is the core of Life and Love brings in revival, which is a renewal of Life. The amazing thing is very, very few of the people quoted about revival even mention Love. Maybe this is why we see so little true revival. No one is willing to be vulnerable enough to love. The great lover Spurgeon was the closest:

Fiery Love Brings in Revival

“Oh! men and brethren, what would this heart feel if I could but believe that there were some among you who would go home and pray for a revival – men whose faith is large enough, and their love fiery enough to lead them from this moment to exercise unceasing intercessions that God would appear among us and do wondrous things here, as in the times of former generations.”
C.H. Spurgeon

Every time I have experienced true-life change, I embraced Love. I opened my heart and cast myself into Love’s grasp. It has always been the most frightening, seemingly reckless action that I could take, but in Love is where I found Life.

The bottom line is that Love brings in revival and revival brings in love. And God orchestrates Love’s expressions because God is Love. I can’t determine who Love will express itself to or how Love will express itself. Simple bystanders might never witness Love’s sacrifice. But Love will be the core of my personal (and national) revival or it isn’t revival.

Only Love Brings in Revival

If I want to see true change and true Life, I must buckle my seat belt and hang on for the ride of my life. Love alone brings in Life. I can maintain my life all the way to the grave, but unless I am willing to cast my heart into the Hands of Love, I will never actually experience Life. Unless Love is the basis of my church, it’s just another business. Unless Love is the core of my revival, it’s just another community service project. And unless Love is the Source of my reformed theology, it is just another Bible study. Quite simply, Love brings in revival or it’s nothing lasting at all.

And so faith, hope, love abide [faith—conviction and belief respecting man’s relation to God and divine things; hope—joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love—true affection for God and man, growing out of God’s love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE.
1 Corinthians 13:13 AMP