I get very uncomfortable when I hear people talk about "revival." The honest truth is, I don't think I believe in it...at least not the way most people think. I also believe more and more that our mistaken ideas about revival are at least part of the reason we see so little of it.
Most of those who speak of or pray for revival use phrases from the Old Testament such as, "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down." The more clearly I see what Jesus accomplished through His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and pentecostal return, the less that prayer makes sense to me. In my view, God has rent the heavens and come down.
I believe that when believers, in whom, according to Colossians 2:9-10, the fullness of the Godhead lives in bodily form, begin to fully recognize the extent to which God has come to them personally, they will cease to pray for Him to come to us corporately, and will rather ask, "Oh that You would rend my flesh and come out!"
Now, when that happens, it may look like "revival," but it won't be. God will reveal Himself through individuals in daily situations as they acknowledge His power and presence in them. My belief is that if God has to "fall on" us like He has in the past, it will be because once again, another generation has failed to realize He has already "fallen" into us and has never left.
