The Poor Cousin of Kingdom Come

Are you like me and love reading the old stories of revival? You know, the ones when God moves powerful amongst a people. Where people come to Jesus, where miracles abound, where the seemingly impossible happens?

I love these stories and love praying for revival, however sometimes the way we talk about revival is plain wrong. Sometimes, our idea of revival is the poor cousin of Kingdom Come. Let me explain…

In revival we talk about “God coming to us.”
In the Kingdom, “God is already in us.” 

In revival we talk about “People coming to us.”
In the Kingdom, “God sends us out.”

In revival we talk about “God does all the work.”
In the Kingdom, “God invites us to co-labour with Him.”

In revival we talk about “Our congregation growing.”
In the Kingdom, “The Kingdom expands.”

Often we pray for revival and forget God told us to pray for His Kingdom to come.
Often the direction of revival is up-down, and forget the way of the Kingdom is inside-out.
Often revivals run out of steam, but of the increase of the Kingdom there will be no end.

I love praying for revival. I want to see revival! But may we never forget the words of Jesus that we are to, “seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto us.”