Understanding Revivification
You may have heard the story of three churchmen who were discussing what they would like people to say about them at their funeral? One of the men said, “I want people to say I was a
great humanitarian, who cared about his community.” The other man said I want people to say “I was a great husband, father and family man, an example for many to follow.” The third man said, “I want people to say as they look into the coffin, ‘look, he’s moving,’ because I would rather be seen then be viewed!!”
And so it goes. All of us want to get to Heaven but none of us want to die. And it is as it should be. Death is not a continuation of life as we know it on earth but a restoration of the soul, a rebirth of new life and a resurrection in God. The Book of Luke in the Bible has something to say on this point. Luke was written to strengthen the faith of all believers and to answer the attacks of unbelievers. Luke shows us our place as Gentile Christian in God’s Kingdom. It is in the 20th chapter of Luke that Christ declares His authority over Humankind and tells the parable of the vineyard and answers questions concerning paying taxes. Jesus tells the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection that marriage is an institution created by humanity and in the world to come we who chose to be saved need not worry about our love ones for we all will be revived in God. I heard a man wanted to visit a church on 29 Wesley Avenue located near a cab stand and a train station. He hailed the cab and said “take me to the nearest church in town.” The driver of the cab came out of the car very much annoyed because the taxi was standing at 29 Wesley Avenue. He opened the door and said to the man, “Mr., this is 29 Wesley Avenue! The man Said, “Okay, but next time don’t drive so fast!”
And that’s the way life is, always in the present. Before we know it we are knocking on death’s door. The truth is we only have the present and until we learn that we can only live in this moment, we will continue to sleep in the past and future and miss the essence of God. Why do we keep missing God? We lose God because we do not understand what it means to be truly revived, restored and reborn in Christ. And until we are born in God, our spiritual life will keep passing us by as we focus on the past that’s gone and the future that may never come.
Since I know this is not the way we want to live, especially as Christians, there are two things we need to understand. First, when we are revived in God we start seeing life as death and death as life. Revivification means being restored, reborn and revived by Christ through His resurrection and victory over death. When we are revived spiritually, we have an opportunity for the resurrection that Christ experienced. When we are reborn we are able to look directly into the truth of our salvation. If we don’t have spiritual understanding, we have to think about things in human terms and we can only have spiritual understanding when we have been revived, restored and reborn in the Lord. The Bible says, “And they can no longer die; for they are like the angels.” This does not make sense in human terms! “And they no longer die and are like angels! These are spiritual terms for spiritual understanding! Who is “they” that can never die? It is those of us revived spiritually in Christ! The “they” are those of us who have made a decision to allow God to transform our life! “They” are those of us who have found the Lord in real time! Why do I say, “real time?” Because until we stop dwelling on the past or future we will not and cannot truly find God! And the past and future dominates our mind and keeps us from finding our soul buried deep within ourselves. Our soul exists only in the present and living in the present is hard to do. When we understand the need for true revivification, we become ready to surrender our whole life to God. Not part-time, some of the time or when we feel like it but all of the time. When we become one with God we become who God intended us to be. This cannot happen without revivification. Again the Bible says, “They,” the same they, “Are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection.”
Unless we experience revivification, we are not able to recognize who God is in us and who we are in God. This is what it means to give our life to Christ! This is the meaning of repentance! This is what forgiveness of our sins is all about! God is ready through our surrender, prayer and meditations to revive, resuscitate and save us right here and right now.
