Renewal before Revival

There is always renewal before there is revival.

Before God brings transformation through us, He wants to bring transformation in us. Before there is national revival, community revival, or revival in the people around us, there is a moment of personal renewal. We see this clearly in the life of Isaiah.

A couple in our church, Cliff and Izzy, have been married for nearly sixty years. Before their wedding, they decided to take dance lessons because, between the two of them, they had about four left feet. The lessons weren't going particularly well—they were bumping into each other, stepping on toes, and generally making a mess of things.

Finally, the instructor asked Izzy to dance with him. She reluctantly agreed, and something changed. Years later, she described that moment to me by saying, “When I allowed him to take the lead, I finally found my feet and discovered that I could dance after all.”

There is a simple spiritual truth in that story.

We dance toward purpose when we allow God to take the lead.

By the time we reach Isaiah 6, God's people had forgotten how to do that. They were still going through the religious motions, but they were no longer allowing God to lead. Their faith had become religion without righteousness, and relationship had given way to ritual. Intimacy with God had been replaced by activity for God.

Yet God had a purpose for His people, so He intervened. And throughout Scripture, God often intervenes by appointing the one to reach the many. In Isaiah 6, God begins a process of personal renewal in Isaiah that would ultimately prepare him to bring God's message to the nation.

Isaiah could not preach a message of transformation without first being transformed by the message he preached. The same is true for us. We look around our communities and our world and see chaos, confusion, brokenness, and spiritual need. Yet I believe this is an incredibly exciting time for the Church to be alive because the good news of Jesus thrives in moments like these.

But nominal Christianity won't be enough. Cultural Christianity won't be enough. Simply going through religious motions won't transform our world.

Transformed people transform places.

So maybe the question isn't simply, “God, what do You want to do through me?” Maybe we first need to ask, “God, what do You want to do in me?” Is the gospel still transforming you?

A Renewal of the King

Isaiah 6 begins with these words: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.”

Isaiah intentionally places two kings next to each other. There is Uzziah, an earthly king whose reign has ended, and then there is the Lord, still seated on His throne. Isaiah needed to see something before God sent him anywhere: earthly kings may reign for a moment, but there is only one King who rules forever.

In the United Kingdom, we have what is called a constitutional monarchy. King Charles III reigns, but he doesn't actually rule the government. Government rules; the monarch reigns.

But God doesn't merely reign. God rules.

Throughout Scripture, earthly rulers repeatedly discover this truth. Pharaoh thought he held all the power until God delivered His people from Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar looked across Babylon and celebrated everything he had built until God reminded him who was actually sovereign.

Then we come to one of the most extraordinary examples in Scripture: Jesus standing before Pilate.

Pilate looks at a bruised and battered Jesus and says, “Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” From Pilate's perspective, Rome is in control. Yet Jesus responds, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”

For a moment, it looked as though Rome was ruling heaven.

Then came the resurrection.

The resurrection revealed that heaven had been ruling Rome all along.

Psalm 103 says, “The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.” Against the headlines of the world and the headlines of your own life, sometimes we simply need a fresh revelation of who's sitting on the throne.

Fear doesn't rule. Circumstances don't rule. Governments don't rule.

There is a King above every king, president, prime minister, dictator, emperor, institution, circumstance, and power. We can be a confident Church because our confidence isn't rooted in what we see happening around us. Our confidence is rooted in the One who is seated above it all.

Maybe the first renewal you need today is simply a renewed confidence that God is still King.

A Renewal of the Supernatural

Isaiah then sees something extraordinary. Above God's throne are seraphim, calling to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Before God sends Isaiah into the world, He pulls back the curtain and reminds him that there is a supernatural reality surrounding his natural one.

My wife, Judith, and I have four children—quadruplets. They're twenty-one now, which means we've somehow survived twenty-one years of quadruplets. They're the gift that keeps taking.

They were born prematurely at twenty-nine weeks. The day before their delivery, doctors told us they wanted to prepare for a C-section because if Judith suddenly went into labor, they needed everyone and everything ready. I wanted to keep believing for more time, but wisdom is wisdom no matter who says it, so the hospital prepared.

They organized operating theaters, incubators, medical teams, anesthesiologists, nurses, and everything necessary for four premature babies. That night, I went home and paced while Judith somehow slept. Then early the next morning she called me.

She had gone into labor overnight.

And everything was already prepared.

I want to be careful when I tell that story because I haven't seen every prayer answered the way I wanted. I haven't seen every person I've prayed for healed. But I've lived long enough to know that within us and around us there is an ever-present, active, supernatural reality, and from time to time God graciously pulls back the veil and allows us to see it.

Some of us used to live with a greater awareness of that reality. We believed God could speak, move, heal, provide, lead, and intervene. But somewhere along the way, hurt, disappointment, confusion, betrayal, offense, or bitterness put a lid over the well.

Maybe you still believe in God, but you've stopped expecting God to move.

It's time to take the lid off.

You may have a hundred reasons to stop believing. I've been hurt too. I've been offended, disappointed, and confused too. But if God wants to transform our world through His Church, we need the living water of His Spirit flowing in us and through us again.

It's time to believe again.

It's time to pray again.

It's time to reach out again.

It's time to allow the Holy Spirit to lead again.

God has not called us to a faith that simply acknowledges a supernatural God while living as though everything depends on the natural. Before Isaiah was sent, God renewed his awareness that there was another reality surrounding everything he could see.

Maybe God wants to renew that awareness in us too.

A Renewal of Righteousness

Finally, Isaiah sees the holiness of God, and suddenly he becomes painfully aware of himself.

“Woe to me!” he cries. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.”

Isaiah encounters the holiness of God and realizes, I'm not right. The world around me isn't right. And now I've seen the King.

But then something beautiful happens.

Heaven moves toward Isaiah.

One of the seraphim flies to him carrying a coal from the altar. He touches Isaiah's lips and declares, “Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” Isaiah is confronted with his sin, but heaven takes the initiative in his cleansing.

When our quadruplets were seventeen, they all learned to drive at roughly the same time. If you've ever taught one seventeen-year-old to drive, multiply whatever emotion you're currently feeling by four.

One day, one of my daughters, Lucy, took our larger car out with some friends and stopped at a gas station. Well, “stopped” might be generous because she actually drove into the gas pump.

Then, in a moment of tremendous wisdom, she panicked and drove away.

Eventually, I received the phone call no father wants. After making sure Lucy was okay—and realizing the car was considerably less okay—I knew I had to return to the gas station and explain what happened.

The manager was ready for me. He had the security footage, the registration number, the time of the incident, and video evidence of my daughter leaving the scene. There was no arguing her innocence. It was all there in black and white.

Then something happened that I've never forgotten.

The manager turned toward the security footage and hit delete.

Every piece of evidence that could have been used against her disappeared.

Then he looked at me and said, “Tell your daughter never to be afraid to come back into this shop.”

I went home and told Lucy, “You're off the hook.” But because she's a pastor's kid, there was obviously an illustration and application coming.

I told her, “I want you to see how much Jesus loves you.”

Through the intervention of another, the price has been paid on our behalf. The evidence that stood against us has been removed, and we've been restored into relationship with the One we've offended. That's what Jesus has done for us.

When Isaiah encounters God's holiness, he cannot pretend his sin isn't real. But the story doesn't end with Isaiah's guilt because heaven takes the initiative.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…” Heaven took the lead.

Some of us don't need to be convinced that God is King. Others don't need to be convinced that the supernatural is real. What we desperately need is a renewal of our understanding of the righteousness we've received through Jesus.

Maybe you've failed.

Maybe you've wandered.

Maybe you're carrying guilt over something nobody else knows.

Maybe it feels like there's CCTV footage of your worst moments playing over and over again in your mind.

The gospel reminds us that for those who are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation. Through Jesus, our guilt has been dealt with, our sin has been atoned for, and relationship with God has been restored.

Isaiah's confession led to cleansing. And his cleansing opened the door to his calling.

After Isaiah sees the King, encounters the supernatural, and receives cleansing, God asks, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

Now Isaiah is ready.

“Here am I. Send me!”

Transformed to Transform

Look at the order.

• Isaiah encounters the King.

• Isaiah encounters God's supernatural reality.

• Isaiah receives God's righteousness.

Then Isaiah is sent.

God transformed the man before sending the man to transform places.

That's where revival begins.

We can pray for our cities to change. We can pray for our nations to change. We can pray for our churches, neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, and families to change. And we should.

But perhaps our first prayer should be: God, start with me.

Renew my confidence that You are King.

Renew my awareness of Your supernatural presence and power.

Renew my understanding of the righteousness I have received through Jesus.

Because transformed people transform places.

Before revival comes renewal.

And maybe the renewal God wants to bring to our world begins with what He wants to renew in us.