Experiencing Personal Revival

If when everything in your world is going wrong, you can get a clear picture of the Almighty, that'll turn a year round. Dr. Tony Evans says once we know God is in control, even the toughest times of life are easier to take. If you want to experience God brand new, you've got to remember our God is sovereign. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans. Author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. We've all had days when everything seems to go wrong. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon to have entire weeks, months, even years like that. Today, Dr. Evans explains not only how we get into those patterns, but how we can get out of them.

Let's join him. In the year that King Uzziah died, we read in verse 1, Isaiah saw the Lord. A lot of the hopes and dreams of Israel was tied up in Uzziah. He was the king that had brought them a long way, and they had made great progress under his leadership, and now the king was gone. Along with his death went many of their dreams. Some of their hopes were dashed, security was shaken, and stability eroded, because the king had died. In other words, it was a bad year. And along with his death, with many of their aspirations, anticipations, it was a bad year.

There are some people here, and this has been a bad year. Not necessarily because the king has died, but perhaps some of your dreams have died. Your hopes have died.

Your desires have been put on hold. Your goals have gone unmet, and it's not a particularly great year. That was the year that Isaiah is living in right now. But in a bad year, he had a great vision, because in a bad year, it says, in the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord.

So let's start off right here. If bad circumstances can give you a fresh view of God, if depressing scenarios can give you a new view of God, if when everything in your world is going wrong, you can get a clear picture of the Almighty, that'll turn a year round. In a bad year, he had a good vision. Now, we're not talking about a pagan here. We're not talking about a non-Christian, to use the New Testament sense of the word.

We're not talking about somebody who doesn't care. We're talking about a prophet of God. I thought a prophet of God had already seen God. He already had the credentials. He had the theological training. He had participation in worship. He had all the accouterments of people who see God. But I guess it's possible to be saved but not see God.

I guess it's possible to have your theology intact and not see God, because it wasn't until the year that King Isaiah died that he had this fresh view—we call it a revival view—that is a fresh manifestation of God. See, one of our problems is that many times we're living on stale bread. When I was growing up, I used to go—my mother would send us—we got day-old bread.

You remember those day-old bread stores? Well, this is the fresh view of God, an awakened view of God, something new that he had never seen before in a bad day, a bad year for that matter, the year that King Isaiah died. I want us to walk through these eight verses, and I want us to see what Isaiah saw, because if we can ever see what he saw, then we'll hear what he heard.

If we can see what he saw, then we'll hear what he heard. He got a revelation that led to an illumination that resulted in a transformation that gave entrance to an invitation. Let's start with the revelation. The word revelation means an unveiling, something that is being put on display for you to observe. God unveils three things.

He reveals three things to Isaiah in this bad year. The first thing he got awakened to was a fresh view of God's sovereignty. He says, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. He saw God sitting on the throne. Last time I checked, kings sit on thrones, but I thought the king had died.

Uh-uh. A king died, not the king. When things die in our lives, it creates opportunity for God to reveal Himself afresh. He sees God sitting on the throne.

In other words, things are not working out on earth, but heaven is still in charge. If you want to experience God brand new, you've got to remember our God is sovereign, and there's no better time to know that God is sovereign than in the year that King Isaiah dies, in a bad year. The second thing he discovers about God afresh—I'm sure he's a prophet, he knows this theologically, but now he sees it—is the holiness of God. Verse 3, And one called out to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. Holiness in the Bible is used in contrast to that which is common and that which is profane.

That which is common and that which is profane. So God is distinct from His creation because He is unique. That's why we don't believe in pantheism, that God is in everything.

We believe that God sits outside of His creation because God is unique and therefore is to be set apart as special and not to be mixed in as part of the group. He is not part of the group because there's nobody like Him. He is unique. He's one of a kind. So he gets this revelation of God's holiness, that God does not treat sin lightly, does not skip over it, nor does He want to be pulled down on the creature level so that He's just another man, only a little bigger. He wants to be treated as unique, special. He gets another revelation from God in this experience.

The whole earth is full of His glory. The Old Testament word for glory is a word that meant heavy or weighty. Heavy or weighty. It had to do with something that was significant and substantive. You remember back in the day, old school, you would say to somebody who was smart or had it going on, that dude is heavy.

Come on, don't act like you don't remember old school. You say that dude is heavy. That man, he was real smart or he was deep when he talked or he was good at what he did. He was weighty. He was substantive.

He had something to offer. Well, the word glory comes from that concept of God being heavy, that is weighty. And of course, it would refer to a God like that since nobody can do what He does. His fingerprints are everywhere. His weightiness, His thickness, God's glory is basically His God on display.

It's His advertisement. Romans 1 says that the creation declares the glory of God. If you're not familiar with God's glory, God says you need to go outside.

You've been inside too long. The whole creation is a display of how great God is. And think about this. God is greater than the stuff He's made. And He's made universes and didn't work that hard. All He did was speak. He creates universes, and He's sovereign and in charge.

Isaiah is going, whoa. He knew it theologically. He's a prophet. But on this occasion, He saw the Lord. See, you can come to church and hear about Him. It's a whole different ballgame when you see Him, when that becomes real in your life.

Now you're talking about a personal revival. When you can talk about the God you learned about, can quote about, read Scripture about, now you saw Him with your own eyes. Moses said to God, he said, now show me Your glory.

He said, look, I didn't heard about all this stuff. Show me. I want to see You with my own eyes. I believe there's somebody here this morning that wants to see God with their own eyes. You like Job.

You didn't heard about him with the hearing of the year. But now Job said, I want to see Him for myself. Moses said, show me Your glory. God came to Moses and said, okay, Moses, because you're a friend of mine, I'm going to show you My glory, but I'm only going to show you the backside of it. He says, I can't show you the front of My glory, because if I show you My face, if I show you the front of My glory, I'm going to kill you. You can't stand the front side of My glory. So I'm going to hide you in the cleft of the rock. I'm going to put you in the cleft of the rock, and I'm going to let My glory pass by. I'm going to let My glory pass by. It's going to just go and I will let you see the back part of My glory.

You can't handle a face to face because your flesh can't contain it. But I'm going to let you see the back, the hinder part of My glory. Here's a picture. Picture a plane that's flown over. You look up. You don't see the plane, but you see the exhaust. So you know a plane just passed by you because you see the exhaust. But you don't see the plane, but you see the backside of the plane.

That is the exhaust it left behind. He says that I'm not going to let you see My face. I'm not going to let you see the plane, but I'm going to let you see what the plane leaves behind.

I'm going to let you see the exhaust of My glory because even that much is going to be hard to handle. So God puts Moses in the cleft of the rock. Moses is now hiding out in the cleft of the rock, blocked from fully seeing God. God passes by. His glory passes by. The rock is uncovered as God passes by, and now Moses sees the exhaust of God's glory.

He sees His hinder parts. Well, after Moses sees the exhaust of God's glory, guess what Moses does? Moses comes down, picks up his pen, and writes, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was out of form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of the Lord grew in it, and God said, Let there be light. And there was light. And God said, Let there be vegetation.

Let the water be separated from the land. He says, I will create man. How did Moses know to write Genesis when Moses wasn't alive when Genesis was written? God let him see his history. See, when you see God and He lets you see what's behind Him, you get stuff you never had before. You get information you never knew before, because God shared God's back part, His history, where He had been with Him. When Dr. Evans continues our message in just a moment, he'll talk about how that new perspective on God can change your outlook and your circumstances. And he's created a brand new resource to help you do that—his brand new book, God Himself. It's a probing look at the many characteristics that make the Lord who He is—His nature, His goodness, His love, and much more. We serve an infinite God, so there's always more to learn. But Tony says the deeper our understanding, the richer our worship.

And since we're made in God's image, knowing who He is defines who we are. We'd like to send you a copy of this just-released book as our thank-you gift when you make a contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station. Along with it, we'll include all 14 full-length messages in his current teaching series, Revive Us Again, packed with advice on how you can rekindle your relationship with the Lord.

Get all the details at tonyevans.org, or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222. Well, Dr. Evans, we'll come back with part two of today's lesson right after this. How have we, the Church, missed the division that has set into our culture? How can you bring unity to every area of where you are? Dr. Evans has written a book called Oneness Embraced. Walk in the footsteps of Dr. Evans as he tells the story of how he had to straddle black urban culture and white mainline evangelicalism. Find out what he endured and learned to bring us a biblical and pastoral guide for unity across racial divides. This call for unity is as timely as ever. Get your copy today of Oneness Embraced.

Find it at tonyevans.org. So when you see God's glory, you get new information. You get information you never had before. You know, he gets this new revelation of God. He sees God in a way he has never seen Him. And one of the reasons why we do not fare well when our desires die is we're still looking at the limited view of God we started with. We don't have this new view of God, this fresh view of God.

And you have to understand, brothers and sisters, that's what's going to make heaven heaven. Heaven will be heaven because it will take eternity to discover God. It will take forever to discover an infinite being, because an infinite being has no end. So if an infinite being has no end, how long will it take you to discover Him? Infinite time. Infinite time equals eternity. So it will take forever to discover that which is infinite, and guess what?

Every day there will be something new to learn. Well, God doesn't want us to wait to heaven to experience that. He wants to revive us now to give us a new view of Him in His sovereignty, in His holiness, and in His glory. That led to an illumination. Illumination means, in common language, turn the light on. Many of us have in our houses places in some rooms with dimmer switches. In the dimmer switch you turn it and the light gets up higher.

We have that in the auditorium. You can turn it down, the lights get lower, the lights get higher. When you turn the light up, that's illuminating. That's bringing more brightness to the room. He gets an illumination now that he's had a revelation. Look at the illumination. Then I said, well, verse 4, the foundations of the threshold trembled at the voice of Him who called out the angels going back and forth while the temple was filling with smoke.

With the sacrifices going on, the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, woe is me. I said, uh-oh. Woe is me means uh-oh. I am ruined. The Hebrew word ruined means unraveling apart at the seams. What's wrong, Isaiah? I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Here it is.

Here it is. When you see God, you get a different view of yourself. When you see God, you look different to you. He was okay till he saw God. He was fine till he saw God. But when he got this exalted view of God, he was reminded of his creatureliness and sinfulness. He says, woe is me.

I am a man of unclean lips. In God's presence, you get to see your creatureliness, how low you are, and your corruption. Verse 6 and 7. Then one of the seraphims flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, behold, this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven. God tears you down so he can build you up. It wasn't until God showed him what he really was that he acknowledged what he really was.

When he acknowledged what he really was, God fixed what was broken. He came down with the tongs from the altar, put it on his lips and said, your sin is forgiven. Now, have you ever had something hot on your lips?

Okay? In other words, the process was painful. These are tongs out of an altar. That means these things have been set on fire and are touching his lips. So that is a painful situation.

So don't let me confuse anybody here, including myself. The process of moving you from illumination to transformation may involve some inconvenience and pain, because that's a painful situation to be lit up on your lips. But the pain is to produce a better you, a better you. God's not trying to hurt, but he knows in order to remodel your life, he's got to tear some stuff up first.

He's got to reveal some rodents in the walls. He's got to show us our inside so that he can repair it. Some of the most precious words you'll ever hear, the word forgiven. When God says, I don't remember, your sin I have cast as far as the east is from the west, never to remember them anymore. There's nothing like feeling forgiven. And there's nothing like granting forgiveness to others because you yourself have received it. That feeling, that weight of guilt, I am forgiven.

But you can't be forgiven unless you've admitted there's something that you've done wrong. That transformation takes place now in his life. And now he moves from transformation, because he's brand new, he's been in God's presence, he's sought God's face in favor, to an invitation.

Verse 8, then, say then. After the revelation, after the illumination, after the transformation, then I heard the voice of the Lord saying. He didn't hear what God had to say to him till he got a new view of God for himself.

Till he experienced God in a fresh way, his personal revival, did he get a personal arimah word, a word with his name on it? Then the Lord said to me, see that's what you want. You want the Lord to talk to you. You don't want me to talk to you.

I don't want you to talk to me. I don't mind if God uses you, but I need to hear from him. I need to know this is the voice of the Lord to me. I heard the Lord say to me, who will go for us?

Who will we send? That's not a rhetorical question. That was a question designed for him to answer. God has a bigger plan for you than just for you to live, go to school, go to work, raise a family, make some money and die. There is supposed to be more to life than that.

There is an eternal purpose for you, but you'll never hear his voice unless you see him brand new, unless there is a personal revival in your life where the sovereign living and true God has the freedom and the right to manifest himself in you and to talk to you by name. Now I can do something with you. Now I can answer your prayer. Now I can show you my power.

Now, in a bad year, he got a great vision. Dr. Evans will come back in a moment with a final illustration about the importance of seeking God, so be sure to stay with us for that. First though, be sure to request your copy of his current 14-message teaching series, Revive Us Again. If you've ever felt like your faith is about to flicker out, this collection of messages will teach you how to rekindle your relationship with the Lord. For a limited time, we're bundling these full-length messages on both CD and digital download, along with Tony's brand new book on the nature and characteristics of the Lord called God Himself. You'll receive these helpful resources as our thank you gift when you make a donation to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station.

Get your copy before the special offer runs out. Visit tonyevans.org or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222. That's 1-800-800-3222. As we've been learning, revival starts when God does something special inside us. But it doesn't stop there. It's contagious. And tomorrow, Dr. Evans will explain how we can help it spread to the people who mean the most to us, our families.

Right now, though, he's here with a final illustration to wrap up today's lesson. When the kids were growing up, one of the things we would do is play hide and go seek. And we've all played that game where you go and you hide, and then I would go searching for the kids, looking for the kids, and they're hiding everywhere.

Every now and then, however, I changed the rules of the game. They would go and hide. The rule says I should go and seek. But instead, I went and turned on the television and sat down in the den because I knew sooner or later, they won't get tired of hiding. Sooner or later, they're going to get tired of running. Sooner or later, they're going to come looking for me wondering why I wasn't looking for them.

So I just stayed where I was until they returned to me. God says, return to me, and I will return to you. He ain't going nowhere. He's high and lifted up. He's in the same place he's always been. But if you're tired of running, tired of going your own way, tired of doing your own thing, it's not that he doesn't want you. It's just that he doesn't want to leave his throne to get you. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.