Eight Ways to Prepare
for the Changes Coming From
an American CHRIST Awakening
for the Changes Coming From
an American CHRIST Awakening
Fourth of a Four-Part Series
David Bryant
We’ve just entered a national political marathon focused on a heart cry for one thing: CHANGE!
Americans want political leaders who bring change! Change that’s for the better. Change that restores. Change that renews. Change that transforms. Change that secures for everyone more of the “American dream.” Change that lasts. “Change we can believe in” (Obama). Change to “Make America great again” (Trump). Change that reassures us that (as FDR put it in his campaign slogan in 1932 during the Great Depression) “Happy days are here again.”
Too often, however, change illudes us. Too often, the “same old, same old” prevails in the end! Too often, promises made end up becoming promises forgotten.
By contrast, an early Church father, Irenaeus, concluded this about change:
“Christ brought us every newness
by bringing us himself.”
by bringing us himself.”
HIMSELF=JESUS=NEWNESS=CHANGE! That’s why the impending American CHRIST Awakening must be all about HIM!
In other words, unlike professional politicians, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior and Supreme Ruler, offers a steady, eternal stream of resurrection life that’s forever fresh, empowering, and marked by rich promises that God is fulfilling every day.
HIMSELF=JESUS=NEWNESS=CHANGE! That’s why the impending American CHRIST Awakening must be all about HIM!
Who Jesus is on heaven’s throne gives us every reason to expect an unprecedented revival. No political candidate can ever match the unlimited, life-giving change his reign is all about.
HIMSELF=JESUS=NEWNESS=CHANGE! That’s why the impending American CHRIST Awakening must be all about HIM!
It’s a dynamic work of the Holy Spirit that accelerates, intensifies, deepens, and extends incomparable new beginnings in fresh and unexpected ways—as Christ’s saving kingship takes center stage among us.
Therefore, to conclude this four-part series, I want to answer one key question: If this radical “newness” is at hand in the form of an American CHRIST Awakening, then:
How should we get ourselves ready for the
magnificent, transformative CHANGE that’s coming?
magnificent, transformative CHANGE that’s coming?
Let’s briefly review what we discovered in the previous three parts of this series.
- Part 1: Why God-given awakenings to the supremacy of God’s Son are the greatest hope the Father holds out to his own people at any time, including 2024
- Part 2: How the current crises in the Church in America—above all, the crisis of a woefully deficient vision of the greatness of the Lord Jesus—demands nothing less than Christ Awakenings nationwide without delay
- Part 3: The seven major reasons that should increase bold confidence in us as we pray and prepare for such a work of God’s Spirit—doing so without fear of disappointment.
The wise virgins in Jesus’ parable had lamps ready to light and greet their newly wedded Master, doing so though he delayed deep into the night (Matthew 25). How can we, like them, prepare ourselves to welcome the Spirit-activated revelation of our Redeemer Bridegroom? The changes guaranteed to believers will be so radical and unpredictable that it will be like we are meeting Jesus again for the first time.
In other words, how do we get ourselves ready to respond and move forward as more of our Savior’s glory and greatness is revealed to us here and now? What should we do to prepare to follow him more wholeheartedly wherever he intends to take us because of the revolutionary changes he unleashes over us and within us?
Here are eight suggestions.
1. Nurture Great Expectations
Don’t count on future Holy Spirit-infused renewals to look exactly like awakenings witnessed by other generations (such as the First, Second, and Third Great Awakenings in American history). Our Father seeks to glorify his Son in and through his people above and beyond what they’ve known or where they’ve previously gone. With Christ, there is always more than before! He wants to do “exceedingly above and beyond all that we ask or think by the power at work within us” (Ephesians 3).
PREPARE FOR CHANGE by studying the promises and purposes of God in Scripture— especially in the writings of Paul—to grasp a fuller vision of all the possibilities of what God might do with a newly awakened people.
2. Move Past Superficiality
Avoid the temptation of seeking revival experiences rather than seeking the Reviver himself, Jesus. The heart of any true awakening is the manifest presence and power of a person, God’s Son. Instead of being predominantly testimonial-fed or experience-driven, genuine awakening movements should primarily identify as Scripture-fed and Jesus-driven.
PREPARE FOR CHANGE by seeking, even now, to go deeper with Jesus, keeping the focus of your daily walk on God’s Son for who he truly is—as the beginning and end of every genuine God-given spiritual renewal.
3. Avoid Nationalistic Motivations
Sometimes, Christ Awakening movements are pursued as a last-ditch effort to salvage a desperately needy nation, when, in fact, they comprise a work of God promised primarily to and for the Church. Only secondarily do they hold the potential for healing a surrounding community or the larger culture as people, redeemed and changed by the Holy Spirit, bring “salt” and “light” to their families and communities.
Our desire must be for God to get the greatest glory possible through the awakening of his people—first of all, by showing them the wonders of his Son in whole new ways. For a while, the nation at large may reject the evidence and the promise of this gracious work within believers and undergo even more consequential, sobering, divine reckonings. (Consider what happened with the main unconverted population of Jerusalem in AD 70, despite a Christ-focused, Spirit-empowered, Christ-awakened church active in its midst.)
PREPARE FOR CHANGE by focusing on how a Christward revival can and must change the Church first.
4. Welcome Diverse Manifestations
Surprisingly, these gracious spiritual breakthroughs sometimes divide Christians from one another inadvertently because we’re unable to accept the diverse ways that fresh revelations of Jesus’ glory are received, processed, and displayed—by individuals or congregations.
Expect outward demonstrations of an inward reviving work of the Spirit to get shaped by prior conditions within the community during a Christward revolution. Some preconditions include:
- preexisting basic human survival needs
- the ethnic and cultural contexts
- ecclesiastical traditions
- the age or temperament of those being awakened
- one’s previous spiritual encounters with Christ
- the historic theological grids used to interpret what is happening
- or the extent of one’s current spiritual shortfalls and malaise
Even though there are common themes in every God-given revival—including the exaltation of his Son, sincere confession of sin, quickening of the truths of Scripture, increased love and unity among believers, and expanded outreach to the lost—diversity in how all of these manifest must be expected and not resisted.
PREPARE FOR CHANGE by getting to know more about the broader Body of Christ in your community and our nation. Research the beautiful diversity among God’s people before the awakening comes with its mosaic of blessings.
5. Encourage Repentance as a Lifestyle
In every revival, repentance not only marks the beginning phase but must become a way of life throughout. Everything in us and in our congregations that grieves, quenches, resists, or disobeys the Holy Spirit—every sin, activity, or relationship that is incompatible with Christ himself, who is the focus of the awakening—should be confessed to the Father and put away, daily if necessary. This is how we keep drawing near to God, even as he keeps drawing near to us. And he draws us to himself to give individual Christians and whole congregations fresh installments of his riches through splendid reintroductions to him as our reigning Redeemer.
Even now, PREPARE FOR CHANGE by developing a life of Christ-focused repentance to remove every barrier to the outpouring of the Spirit on your life and on those who follow Jesus with you.
6. Press On in Joyful Prayer
Accounts of biblical and historical revivals reveal that often, when God is ready to reawaken his people to the presence and power of his Son, he stirs them to pray—to pray passionately—whether together in small or large groups or by each prayer warrior in their own “prayer closet.” Today, we rejoice in the unprecedented, concerted prayer movement for an American CHRIST Awakening that God has ignited increasingly in churches and communities across our nation—and what’s more, this is a global phenomenon.
PREPARE FOR CHANGE by doing everything possible to strengthen prayer initiatives on every level, seeking God’s face for the spiritual renewal we so desperately need. Press on! The answers to our prayers are not far behind! These are the kinds of prayers the Father longs to fulfill. Furthermore, as the awakening begins grow, God’s people will want to pray even harder—because the more of Christ we experience, the more of him we want.
7. Proclaim the Hope Before Us
Since “faith comes by hearing the message of Christ” (Romans 10), spiritual revolutions must be Word-anchored revolutions. Therefore, to encourage our confidence in God’s promise to revive his people, we should become what I call “messengers of hope” to one another right now. Minister to one another by regularly reinforcing our hope by sharing among ourselves the hundreds of biblical promises God has given us for personal and corporate Christ-exalting new beginnings. In addition, watch for and spread in our Christian communities stories of what God has done in Christ Awakenings in the past, along with reports of where this is already beginning to emerge in the Body of Christ in other parts of the world.
PREPARE FOR CHANGE by helping God’s people deeply yearn for and excitedly anticipate the potential magnitude of such a spiritual uprising in their own generation and within their own lives. To do so, consider forming a CAST—Christ Awakening Servant Team inside your congregation. CHRIST NOW has developed a how-to manual to get your started.
8. Test the Legitimacy of the Claims
Unfortunately, Church history records multiple examples of claims about “revival” that prove to be either false or foolish. Both Satan and our own human nature like to “counterfeit” the works of God.
PREPARE FOR CHANGE by “testing the spirits,” as 1 John tells us to do, to uncover claims that are human initiatives or to expose counterfeit revivals. This way, when the real Christ Awakening comes, we will know it and immediately be open to receive what more God has for us in Jesus.
There are four ways to test the legitimacy of anything claiming to be a Christ Awakening (whether by one person or by one thousand). Let’s consider each briefly—summed up in these four words:
Existential
Does the “revival” exalt Christ in deeply personal ways, revealing more of him more directly and more clearly as the one who has supremacy in everything, especially for believers? Is there evidence that God’s Spirit has unleashed among God’s people deeper levels of care for one another and ministries to one another—springing specifically from our shared, growing affection for and intimacy with the person of God’s Son on his throne? In other words, do we love each other more deeply because the Holy Spirit has drawn us to love Jesus more fully?
Ethical
Does the claimed awakening reproduce measurable evidence of Christlikeness in the daily walk and choices of individual disciples and in congregational life? Are godly compulsions compelling Jesus followers to apply his Kingdom principles of righteousness to the social, moral, and spiritual ills plaguing those right around us and to work for his redeeming and righteous priorities with believers and unbelievers alike? In other words, are those who claim to be revived so alive to the supreme Justifier and Reconciler and Peacemaker himself that they are starting to serve him by how they work in practical ways for his kind of justice and reconciliation and healing within the world around us?
Ecclesiastical
Does the claim of a spiritual transformation sharpen, enrich, and empower the shared life among believers of local congregations—above all, by how much Jesus Christ is exalted among us in all we do as the one who is Lord in everything? Consider specifically how this is exhibited in such areas as worship, teaching Scripture, prayer, spiritual gifts, love for one another, and outreach with the gospel. Does what’s claimed encourage unity among Christians from diverse streams of the Church so that the revived Christians begin to labor together, blending their uniquenesses to better magnify Christ for all he is?
Eschatological
Does the evidence of something being called a “revival” encourage passion for the Final Revival? That is, since all true Christ Awakenings are a foretaste of the Consummation, does a declared “revival” show signs that it is increasing believers’ eagerness for the visible, final culmination of all things under Jesus as Lord? Does it reinvigorate Christians to serve Christ with ambitions and goals in keeping with what will be important on that Great Day? Do believers exhibit a growing passion to extend Jesus’ kingship through compassionate service to the poor, the pursuit of justice, reconciliation, and community transformation, and as we accelerate our outreach to earth’s unreached peoples?
Final Thoughts to Conclude the Four-Part Series
Together, these four blog posts provide a working document to help continue the conversation about the promise of Christ Awakenings in this critical hour. So, share them with others. Start a four-week discussion about them in your Sunday School or Bible study group.
Seen one way, they form a “poor man’s version” of Luther’s 95 Theses, nailed as it were to the wall of the Internet(!)—because they actually do call for a new kind of reformation—urging us to see, seek, and serve God’s Son in the full light of his supremacy.
An American CHRIST Awakening is about REFORMATION, as it brings to God’s people fresh clarity on what theologians might term more formally a “consequential Christology”—a vision of Christ so comprehensive that it necessarily impacts and reforms every aspect of the Christian life.
Well, based on this series, you now know how excited I am that such an unparalleled, incomparable, unsurpassable newness awaits us—a newness in our vision of the greatness of Christ and a newness in our life under the lordship of Christ.
It’s the newness Christ alone embodies, the newness his reign alone can bring, the newness that makes him alone our destiny.
It’s the holy and happy reformation our Father deserves and desires to bring to the Church in America.
Could we see it in 2024? Why not!
What more could we want? Is there anything in this life that could be better?
Are you longing for that kind of newness in your walk with Jesus?
Then, I invite you to join me on the “21-Day Video Journey Into More of Christ,” available as one of our many resources at ChristNow.com.
In fact, ALL the resources there are designed to prepare us for the change that’s coming from the impending American CHRIST Awakening.
Start getting ready today!
About the Author
Over the past 50 years, David Bryant has been defined by many as a “messenger of hope” and a “Christ proclaimer” to the Church throughout the world. Formerly a minister-at-large with the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, president of Concerts of Prayer International (COPI), and chairman of America’s National Prayer Committee, David now provides leadership to ChristNow.com and Proclaim Hope!, whose mission is to foster and serve Christ Awakening movements. Download his widely read ebooks at ChristNow.com. Enjoy hundreds of podcast episodes. Watch his weekly vlogs at David Bryant REPORTS. Meet with David through Zoom or in-person events through David Bryant LIVE!
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