How to Experience Personal Revival — Andrew Strom

Revival as Normal Christianity

My view is this, is that the revival state is normal Christianity, that if we truly hear the true gospel and if we truly obey it to the depths of how it's supposed to be obeyed, we will come into such revival in our lives we won't know what hit us.

My view is that those Christians who have true victory over sin, those Christians who are walking in a place where they are not brought down by temptation, where they are just literally walking before God in a state where they cannot be approached by the evil one in any successful way, that I describe as normal Christianity and I would put it to you that that is a revival state.

And most of the revivals that we read about down the centuries is this, it is Christians coming back into normalcy having been a long way below that most of their lives. What is a revival state? It's the state you are in the first three weeks after you were first saved.

That's a revival state. That's the state you're supposed to live in the rest of your life but most of us don't. We come into church, we take on all kinds of teachings, we we do all kinds of things, we go places and hear people that somehow bring us down into the reality of semi-Christianity.

We come down into a place where we're just stumbling around all the time, we come to a place where sin has victory over us, we don't have victory over sin. We come to a place where there are strongholds in our life that are stronger it seems than God in our life because they're winning.

We no longer live in a place before God where we are in communion with him such as we had in the first few weeks after we were first becoming Christians. What are the weeds that have sprung up and choked that?

Some of them are teachings, some of them are things that we've been involved with. Coming into personal revival is obeying the gospel. The problem is that for the vast vast majority of us in the West we have never heard the gospel once in our lives.

We have heard the facts about Jesus going to the cross and being raised again and we've been told that he died for our sins and wants to take away our sins but my view is that the gospel also involves one other crucial detail that it seems to be always left out and that is the result of all that is an utterly transformed life back to a relationship like Adam had with God in the beginning and if it doesn't result in that what kind of Christianity is it?

Our bodies aren't in an unfallen state sadly but I tell you what in here we can be totally totally in the state that Adam was in where he says he walked in the evening communing with God. It says in the cool of the evening just walking with God communing with him.

Recovering the Fear of God

Now tonight we are going to look at the glory and the holiness of God and the judgments of God. Why are we going to look at that? Because we must know as a first base thing this God whom we are dealing with.

We need to know why it is such a huge thing for that God to send his son to die even more huge than we believe possible. See we don't believe in a God that's lofty enough in our day. We don't we don't believe in the God of the Jews.

The Jews knew to fear God. They did especially the ones that were around in Moses's time of course. They saw on the mountain the thunder and lightnings. In the west of today in the gospel that we preach we present a foreign Jesus.

We present a God who does not demand holiness from us but demands this very token little prayer, little prayer, try and lead a good life, come to church, pay your tithes. This amounts to the Christianity that we believe in.

It's a complete fabrication. It's a deception from beginning to end. It does not result in any kind of transformed life but this is what we settle for. And so many of us when we become Christians we don't know what it is that we have.

In many cases we're not even getting the full deal anyway at the beginning. We might repent and then we wonder why a month later we're starting to fall away. The blossom of the thing is there but it's not understood and it quickly goes.

My view is this, if you're not living in revived Christianity what makes you think you're living in Christianity? Revived Christianity is the normal Christian life. This is the revival I'm going to be preaching this weekend.

I'm going to present to you a revived gospel. I'm going to be presenting to you what I describe as an apostolic gospel. In other words the Apostles wrote about it all the time and we should know it. It should be just plain as day to us all and yet we have to go to a conference like this and some of us have to travel miles and miles and miles just to find out what it is to be revived into a normal state that they would describe as oh yeah that's just normal Christianity in the New Testament.

Totally normal. Everybody gets that. That's what we all have. What's so special about that? Well I'll tell you what's so special about it in the West. So few of us have it. So few of us know what it is.

So few of us know how to walk in it. We're in a shocking state. David was right a little earlier. I mean this is the most profound statement really that you can make about the church. If only the church would get saved things would be different.

If only the church would get saved. Why do people go to pastors with all their problems? Why is their life full of problems? They never seem to get on top of them? Because they're unsaved. We're trying to act towards a whole lot of unsaved people as though they were Christians.

We're doing it all the time. I went back and I've been writing a book recently which is all about the revived life. How to become revived. When I was writing that book it forced me back. It forced me first of all to draw on every bit of knowledge of revival of history.

So I had to pull all of that into my understanding of how we become revived. And I went back in my life back to my earliest days of being a Christian. I started to look through that and say okay so what actual foundations did God lay in my heart?

Because I know that it produced a revival in my life. I know when it happened it was when I was 17 years old. And I can see that I came into a revived life and this is what God taught me of how to walk in it.

I was reading all these revival books at the time. I'd be reading Finney and Wesley and Leonard Ravenhill's books and Azusa Street and all this kind of stuff. So how can I pull all of that and bring it down into a teaching where we can get people revived?

The Gospel and the Restoration of Adamic Communion

But first of all we've got to come to a place where we believe that there is a place in God. We believe that there's a place in God where we can walk with no knowledge of sin in our lives at all. In other words we're walking before God like this.

There's no consciousness of sin. There's no consciousness of sin. How do we walk with no consciousness of sin? What on earth is that? People will tell you that when you preach that kind of stuff you're preaching the impossible.

They will say to you that such a thing cannot be. Surely you're joking. No I say to you Jesus died to take back all that was lost. He is robbed if he doesn't get the full payment. I mean in full of what he died for.

Don't you agree with that? If Adam, the first Adam loses it all and gets us into a fallen state, doesn't Jesus come and buy it all back? The entire earth, the whole of the fallen world, the whole of fallen us.

He buys it all back and he is utterly robbed if he cannot get us into the state we're supposed to walk in. Don't you agree with that? Jesus is robbed if we do not come into a state that is like Adam inside our lives.

If we cannot commune with God in the cool of the evening like Adam did. Let me read out these things to you that I want to cover here because they kind of revolve around repentance and if you go away later in your Bible and look up Hebrews chapter 6 verse 1 and 2 if you want to make it note that down.

These are the foundations of the faith that we're talking about. Hebrews chapter 6 verse 1 and 2. I want to personalize this and I want to make it as practical as I can for tonight. We're going to continue at a deeper level tomorrow night.

Here is what God laid in my heart. Fear of the Lord which we know is the beginning of wisdom. Deep repentance which I'll talk about in a minute. Hatred of sin and total surrender. I went back and I really thought through what were these things that God laid in my heart that really have never gone away.

Have stood me in good stead for all these you know I'm 40 years old now. I got saved when I was 17 years old. Truly a revival conversion if you know what I mean. When I was 17 I began to agonize in prayer like I saw in the revival books.

I went through getting filled with the Holy Spirit and getting a you know just utterly transformed and I know it has stayed with me all these years. So I just had to go back and find out what are the foundations that God laid in me.

The scriptural foundations we find them all the way through scripture. The fear of the Lord, deep repentance, hatred of sin and total surrender. Those are the things I want to basically cover tonight which is pretty ambitious.

Normally you would preach a sermon on each of those things. We do not comprehend. David was here a couple of weeks ago and I preached one of those afternoons. I preached on the glory of God. This is the most difficult topic you can ever preach on because who is sufficient for these things?

Who can ever go to that place and describe something which you cannot see with your eyes but which you know with your heart? How can you describe something where you have been into the throne room of God?

The experiences I started having as a 17 year old where I got a clean heart before God and God showed me how to walk in that. When I would go to pray I would start having these experiences where I literally was sensing myself in the very presence of God.

You get into that place with God where it's almost like every word that comes off your mouth had better be a holy utterance of God. Every word that you speak had better be a holy utterance of God man because you're in a place of prayer.

You've agonized yourself just like those revival guys I used to read about. You've agonized yourself into the very throne room of God and there he is. It's almost like any word you speak will be answered.

Any prayer you pray. What did Jesus say? He said if God hears your prayers he will answer them. So many of our prayers are prayed in this fleshly casual you know and they just bounce off the ceiling and I'm surprised if God hears many of them at all.

It's a miracle if he hears some of the prayers. Many of the prayers that are prayed by Christians today. What happens when you are approaching the Holy God, the judge of all the earth, the God high and lifted up and his train fills the temple you know and and every time they cry out, those angels cry out, it says the smoke fills the room.

The door pillars shake every time they cry out. They're continually crying out about the worthiness and the glory of God. Day and night, day and night there's angels over the throne of God crying out how holy and glorious and worthy is he and you approach that God with this agonizing prayer with a clean hands and a pure heart and you had better be uttering the holy words of God when you pray because otherwise you are utterly undone.

There is no word that can be uttered in the presence of God that is not holy. If you go into that place and you are not in the faith and the glory of God yourself in your own life, number one you just won't make it in there.

The Holiness of God and the Danger of Presumption

I was talking a couple of weeks ago about these guys who think they can visualize their way into the third heaven. Well good luck to you pal if you can visualize your way into the third heaven God will strike you dead the moment you get in there.

How dare you speak such unholy things and yet this is a teaching in Christendom today. In fact it's throughout the prophetic movement. Let's all get around in a circle and visualize our way into the very holy presence of God.

You know we're talking about the God where Moses goes up the mountain and comes back with such glory on his face the people of Israel couldn't even stand to look at Moses's face. They said cover your face with a veil so we don't have to look upon you.

We cannot bear to look upon the glory of God upon your face. Just a minor tiny bit of the glory of God that Moses had been living in for 40 days. You know we don't know the God we serve. We just don't know.

We have an American Jesus. He loves to bless us and prosper us. He demands no cross of us. There doesn't seem to be any dying to self in this American Jesus that we preach. We have an American God also.

God the Father. Our God the Father is a guy that when we die we're all going to go up and shake his hand. We're going to go up and say hi God and we're expecting him to say well done good and faithful servant.

But we've forgotten that he will be sitting upon the great white throne and it says from his face the earth and the heavens have fled away. There is no found no place for them. So from his face the earth and the heavens have fled away and we're going to walk up to him and shake him by the hand and say hi hi Pauly God.

I'm your friend from down in America. You know you remember me? You see we're serving the wrong God. You see we do not pray with the right words to the right person. We have invented a Jesus. We have invented a Christianity.

We have invented a church. We think it's all true. We do not live in anything anything remotely like New Testament Christianity. We don't even know the God they worshiped. Seriously we have no idea. Has God changed?

This is another wonderful theory you know it's the it's the kind of Old Testament God and the New Testament God and and and of course the New Testament God is a whole lot friendlier than the Old Testament God.

The New Testament God is a whole lot friendlier and actually he's quite a nice guy and you ought to get to know him. He's more like Santa Claus really the New Testament God. This is the way we think. Seriously we really do.

But this is why I believe God had had the Apostle John write the book of Revelation because you know what the title of that book is it's actually the revelation of Jesus Christ. The revelation of Jesus Christ.

Remember John was the beloved disciple. If anybody was the friend if anybody had that kind of relationship with God it was John the Apostle John. He was described as the beloved the beloved disciple. So man he was very close to Jesus upon the earth.

What happens to John the Apostle in Revelation chapter 1 is this for the first time he really sees Jesus as he really is and it says he says I fell on my face as though I was dead. I fell on my face as though I was dead because such is the glory such as the bright shining whiteness such as the unapproachable glory of the Jesus that he meets in heaven which is the true Jesus.

I mean he you know what he did when he came to earth he stripped himself of all that glory stripped himself of everything to become a man and dwell for a while amongst us. We know not what God we serve we know not what God we pray for.

The God of thunderings and lightnings presents himself in the book of Revelation. Why? To show that he is not changed. To show that the same God that Moses spent 40 days and nights with he says I'm the same I change not.

Jesus the same yesterday today and forever I am the Lord I change not. Men can change covenants can change. What has changed between the Old and New Testament I'll tell you what's changed our agreement with God has changed.

We have a new agreement that's what the word covenant means. We have a new agreement with God but the God himself has not changed he's the same guy exactly the same. Holy let us turn to Isaiah chapter 6.

Isaiah's Vision of the Holy God

I want to say this to you that all of revived life revolves around this concept that I'm preaching to you now. If we cannot understand God and the holiness of God we will not ever be revived. We cannot ever live a life before him that I would describe as normal normal Christianity.

Isaiah chapter 6. This is one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible. Why? Because it comes as close as we can come to trying to describe this glorious God. None of this is theory to me. None of this is theory to me.

This is the God who revealed himself to me. I didn't see him with my eyes but I've been in this place so many times you know you just you get into the presence of God the tears are streaming down your face you're just in the holy awe of God.

Listen to this. In the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings with two.

He covered his face with two he covered his feet with two. He did fly. One cried to another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Now let's stop there for a second holy holy holy.

Of course these words this is the characteristic of God that is repeated three times. How many times in Scripture. Where can we go to in Scripture to find a characteristic of God repeated three times.

Well this is it. Of course in Revelation it happens again holy holy holy let me put this to you throughout all of eternity in the throne room of God he could have his choice of any words that would be spoken and shouted in that place.

And if he is going to have something shouted and spoken in his throne room for all of eternity repeatedly again again and again holy holy holy this is what he chose to have. This is the description that he chose to have of himself in his own throne room.

Do you understand what I'm saying. If you're a king you can have whatever you want. You can have your servants cry out at the top of their voice whatever they want whatever you want them to say you're the king.

God has chosen that this attribute is repeated three times in Scripture one after the other to show its importance. And in the throne room of God it is never-endingly repeated. Why. Because they cry out holy holy holy.

And suddenly it's revealed to them another aspect of God's holiness. And it's like wow holy holy holy. In other words there's a never-ending revelation going on of the holiness of God. When we get close to that word holy I'm talking about when we can approach it with understanding.

We are approaching close to the glory of God. We are approaching close to the word that means the most to God in the in the entire universe we are starting to get to the understanding of who he is and what most matters to him.

And until we can start to approach this God in this way we understand nothing. We have no understanding at all. If you want to walk in a revived life if you want to walk in permanent revival this thing you must understand.

God is holy. God is holy and without holiness it says in the Bible no man shall see the Lord without holiness no man shall see the Lord. What is the technical meaning of the word holy. It just means set apart.

In God's case of course we say utterly set apart. Very difficult to use a technical definition like that and get any real understanding out of it. The only way I know of apprehending and coping with the holiness of God is to approach him with the holiness that only he can give and spend time in his presence.

And that if we can get the Christian Church to do it will utterly revolutionize everything. Everything. We can't get them to do it nothing else will do. There is no course. There is nothing we can do for a church that does not behold a holy God.

There is no hope without holiness. No man shall see the Lord Hebrews 10. I believe that scripture is okay. So they're crying out holy holy holy. And here's where it says. The posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with smoke.

Then said I woe is me. For I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips. You notice the absolute gut reaction. The initial reaction wham it hits you the holiness of God. And the next thing that hits you is this woe is me.

I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips. And I dwell amongst the people of unclean lips. And what does it say there. For mine eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts. Okay so much of being revived revolves around what we're trying to establish at ground level.

Repentance Anchored in the Fear of the Lord

Here is this. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And we have to preach a gospel that comes from this platform. You know what I'm saying that comes from the basis of this this understanding of God.

This was the God who reached down and sent his most beloved to earth to die also utterly clothed in holiness stripped him completely stripped himself chose to come down stripped himself completely of all the glory that was rightfully his and came down to die.

An incredible death. Why would God do that. Of course God loves the world. For for what reason. How can we how can we come to grips with the fact that God loves his enemies. Now now get a grasp on this this holy God that we've just been talking about high and lifted up holy holy holy.

And his enemies are down on the earth. It says that that we were were his enemies when he died for us. When Jesus died for us we were yet his enemies it says in Scripture. So so here's his enemies. It's like a king and his enemies are over there.

And he sends his own son to die for his enemies so that sin can be taken away and they can come back into relationship with him. Now this has got to be a relationship of holiness. The center of this. You see when we start apprehending God's holiness we starts having to see what our part in this is.

Is that my goodness God. I have no hope with you unless I have holiness. When we start seeing the depths of the glory of God we start to realize that Jesus purchased back for us. Excuse me all. And I mean all of the way back to that throne room experience of God.

This was the holy God that Adam walked with. He wasn't just walking with a buddy. He wasn't just walking down the road. You know with see Jesus had stripped himself of all his glory. It wasn't like walking with a man.

You're talking about walking with the God of all the universe the judge of all the earth the Holy God. That's who Adam walked with every night. Now what. What it's saying really is Jesus died to purchase that back for us.

And unless we have holiness the kind of holiness that God allows into his throne room because he doesn't allow anything else in. Like I say about these guys who think they can visualize their way. And well good luck pal.

Good luck with the lightning bolt. You know the instant you get there. Good luck with that lightning bolt. Seriously go and get your little circle of buddies and visualize your way in and see how quickly you get fried by the holy holy God who cannot stand sick and selfish things to approach his throne.

See how you get on. But you see what happens when we start preaching this God. And our relationship having to be formed with him. Our entire way of thinking starts to change. Our entire way of approach starts to change.

Our entire way of praying starts to change. And this is the God preached in all revivals. Why did Jonathan Edwards. Why is the most famous sermon that's ever preached. The most famous revival sermon ever preached.

Why is it called sinners in the hands of an angry God. Because Jonathan Edwards knew instinctively that this was the God of glory that he needed to exalt in order for those sinners to repent. It says that as as he you know he preached an incredibly a message.

That would you get you literally thrown out of every church in America today sinners in the hands of an angry God for one thing they don't believe God's ever angry. Or they seem not to maybe God. I know God's angry at the Islamic people.

But God loves us. Maybe that's as far as it gets. God really loves us. He's our pal. Don't you know he's our buddy. We pray to him. We pray to him like a buddy all the time. Well you you could pray pray to your buddy.

I'm gonna go into the throne room of God. You go pray to your buddy and see where it gets you on Judgment Day. Because because I tell you what on Judgment Day you're not going to be appearing before your buddy.

You're gonna be appearing before my God. Who is this God. See as I said I saw I saw the king. Woe is unto me. I'm a man of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the king. The Lord of hosts who did Moses visit for 40 days.

Why did he come down out of that place with the with the face glowing like that. We worship the wrong God. We worship him in the wrong way. We approach the wrong God in the wrong way. This is the cause of all our problems.

It's the root of it all. Therefore we have no fear of the Lord. The Bible tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We don't even have the beginning of wisdom. We must anchor. And this is what Jonathan Edwards was doing in that sermon.

We must anchor our repentance preaching in an understanding of this God. How do we know he's still the same. Well we know that Moses visited that God and that's how he was. It was just like this. We know that Isaiah visited this God and he was just like this.

We know that at the very end of Scripture John visited God and he was just like this. So that's how we know. God hasn't changed just because he sent his son down in the form of a man doesn't mean God's changed.

He hasn't changed one bit. He says you change and meet me where I am at. I'm going to send my son down to give you everything you need to make that change to be transformed and to come up to where I am at.

I am NOT going to lower my holiness down to where you are at. I'm going to give you all that you need totally free of charge to come up here to be utterly clothed in my holiness to have my son. It says that those of us who've those of us who are in Christ have clothed ourselves with Christ.

That's what it says in Scripture. We have clothed ourself with Christ. So we can come into this relationship with God a relationship based on holiness. God's favorite topic our least favorite topic in the Western Church is God's favorite topic holiness.

Are we talking about some legalism. No. The holiness starts in here and does its work in here and outworks itself in our life. It's holiness of heart that God wants deep repentance. Okay we've got to the point where we know the God that we're approaching.

We're starting to get an understanding of the fact that we cannot just casually waltz into this guy's place and start making friends with him. We cannot. And so when we come to this God and begin to pray to pray to him our prayers are utterly different.

What. How can you tell the prayers of a revivalist of a truly revived preacher. And some ordinary preacher. I can tell you. You can tell by their apprehension of the nature and character of God. I can tell in an instant if somebody knows God and someone who doesn't.

And the glory of God will be upon the praying of that of that person who knows their God. Was it saying in the Old Testament and Daniel those who do know their God shall be mighty and do exploits. Why.

Because when you know God you are utterly transformed by that knowledge. Nothing is ever the same. Nothing the Holy Spirit comes into you. You are utterly revolutionized from the inside out. So we're praying to a holy God.

And now we come to him knowing that we have sin in our life and therefore our approach to him is hindered. We cannot get directly in front of him in his throne room. He's not just going to take us in.

We have an erroneous impression of God that he just going to take in sinners by the bucket load. No he ain't taking in any sinners. He's killing them all and sending them to hell. He cannot stand sin.

He hates sin as much today as he always did. What he is in the business of is utterly transforming sinners. So they no longer offend him. So he can bear to be around them. Do you understand this. This is the basic understanding of the true God.

He's in the business of transforming sinners into Saints. He's in the business of transforming sinners into Saints. Why did God create hell and put it as far. So he can put sinners as far away from himself as he can.

God hates sin. God hates God hates hates sin. Now I want to just let's jump out of ourselves for a second. I just want to say this to you. We are hearing about a God tonight for many of us for the first time that never gets preached in any church.

Do you know what I'm saying. We don't present God to the people. We don't preach sinners in the hands of an angry God ever. It never gets preached. We don't even approach the preaching of Finney and Wesley and Whitfield.

We have no concept of the God they knew. We cannot even share the platform that they built their sermons upon because our God is utterly different from theirs. All revival preaching. I want to say it again all revival preaching is built on the platform I'm building tonight.

It is this understanding of God. Every error every deception is almost always built around a false understanding of God. You understand what I'm saying. Our repentance. Then we come to deep repentance and we have a different attitude about it.

Deep Repentance and Total Transparency

This is what I noticed. One of the first things God established in me was the fear of the Lord. Then of course we come to deep repentance. What is deep repentance. It is saying to God God holy God I grant to you.

I give fully to you the right to shine the brightest searchlight of your holy gaze into my life and my heart and show me anything that is there that is displeasing to you. I give you full total ownership of the whole inside of me and I want you God to shine the brightest searchlight you have into the depths of me and tell me what the things are there that displease you and I will instantly repent and forsake those things.

That is deep repentance. No other repentance will do. If you want to live a revived life you want to live in a place where you commune with God. You want to get to the depths of God. If you want to know him as he truly is if you want to be able to every day into his throne room.

Truly this is the repentance you go through. Nothing less than that will do to put it in very practical and simple terms. This wasn't just it but this is this is one aspect of it which I want to bring up tonight.

Remember a lady came she was from YWAM. She came to the church I was at. I was at a Baptist Church. This is still I was around 17 years old. I can't remember exactly. She said one of the valuable things that she had learned was literally making a list of things that God showed her and just going through them and repenting and forsaking those things before God.

And she said it made a dramatic dramatic difference overnight. I went home and I tried doing it and she was right. Why do these kind of things make a dramatic difference. Well you're making a list of things which are hindrances.

You know Evan Roberts the great revivalist from Wales used to say is there any cloud between you and God. Is there something which you think. Oh well you know you know I mean God understands. Is there is there that shadow.

That cloud has got to go. That's what he used to preach in the Welsh revival. It's one of his main main things that he preached. We're talking about holiness of heart people. We're talking about getting our hearts right with God.

We are approaching the right God. Now we're approach we are to approach him with awe. You know I don't believe there's a moment at which we we suddenly you know start approaching him flippantly. I don't believe there's any moment like that.

So much of it fills our Christianity is a flippancy about God. All those people are showing me is that they don't understand him. They have no concept of who's going to be judging them at the end of time.

They know no nothing of the mood he will be in. You know you got to go read Matthew 25 and you see that he's literally you know he's cutting people off in mid-sentence. Here they're saying Lord Lord.