Day 18: Obstacle 5 – Unwillingness to Believe

In my years of ministry, especially as I’ve marveled at how the interest and prayer for revival have grown, I’ve met Christians who are content to stand back and watch. Something makes them uncomfortable about revival, renewal, a “reset” of society. Their words, body language, or mere absence from spiritual gatherings say, “I just don’t believe.” In my opinion, there are three possible reasons why their unbelief remains an obstacle to their own spiritual awakening.

For some people, unbelief is really a reflection of their desire to “know for sure,” not a rush to judge, discount, or disown something about which they don’t care or want to understand. For others, unbelief is really an unwillingness to change. Why would you want spiritual awakening, an unpredictable and, in some ways, disorderly movement of God’s Spirit to disrupt a comfortable pattern? And for others, unbelief is a response to being convicted of unresolved sin. Finally, we must face the truth.

At one time or another, this person is you and me. Revival means admitting to God and to others that underneath the make-up and cologne, behind our bluff and boast to make others think we have it all together, we are just like Isaiah who said, “Woe to me, I am ruined.”

Over the past few years, as I’ve spoken to churches and parachurch ministries throughout North America, I’ve seen the above obstacles “come to life” in the form of attitudes in fellow believers. Like me, these are people weighed down with the baggage of original sin, who choose to keep walking, to keep following Christ. Like you and I, they know the obstacles that keep them from being open to spiritual awakening and realize our one and only true hope in life rests in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

The question I’ve asked them is the same one I want to ask you: How would you describe your need, your desire, your willingness to experience true spiritual awakening? The way you approach the Lord may be inseparably linked to how you approach the need for awakening in your nation and in your life. The way you approach Him may be described along a continuum, a “Scale of Spiritual Awakening.” Where do you find yourself along this scale?

Antagonistic -> Indifferent -> Acknowledging -> Seeking -> Involved

Where is your heart beating in relationship to God, who is awakening a nation, one life at a time? Will you be one of those people He uses? The obstacles to revival are not insurmountable because the true obstacle is singular. It’s me. And it’s you. God doesn’t want any obstacle to spiritual awakening. He just wants you and me to walk with Him every moment of every day – starting now! As that happens, as the number of footsteps in one, obedient direction increase, we will join this Jesus-Now Awakening.

Psalm 42:1 New King James Version (NKJV)
Yearning for God in the Midst of Distresses
To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation of the sons of Korah.
1 As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.

John 14:12 New King James Version (NKJV)
The Answered Prayer
12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.

1 Corinthians 2:12 New King James Version (NKJV)
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

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Phillips, Tom (2016-11-01). Jesus Now: God Is Up to Something Big (Chapter 7 p. 147-150). BroadStreet Publishing Group LLC.