REVIVAL, THE COMING KINGDOM, AND HIS GLORIOUS REST
We have been through a rough patch as a world, but let’s be honest, since man's fall, the world has been one long, tough patch. Each generation laments that in each era, things are worse than the previous one. After several years of world upheaval, we seem more isolated than ever. Recently I heard someone say, “We used to be family but now we have gone feral.” Webster defines feral as “having escaped from domestication and become wild.” It’s not like we were gentrified to begin with–it's been a struggle since we were exiled from Eden. It’s not like we truly knew how to be family to each other but now we sit, often alone in our houses, feeling our lack. Dear friends, God is pointing this out to us–let us listen. Let our hearts cry out for what we are made for: to be one, joyous, love-filled, unified family under the rulership of the Lord’s Messiah–our dear Lord Jesus. It is the family of God that must invite others to the table God has prepared for us.
The prophet Isaiah sees a most beautiful scene of the Messianic kingdom.
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them [1].
Here we see this splendid imagery of that which was feral laying peaceably with that which is innocent and vulnerable. Imagine a world where all beings are safe and can relate to each other without fear or danger from man or animal. The coming Kingdom is a kingdom that does not just include redeemed men and women, but the entire creation in harmony and at peace with itself. Is that not what our hearts long for?
In the times and seasons of God, He allows us to notice that we are falling farther away from where we are meant to be. A cry arises in our hearts, and we begin to call out for God and return to Him. The heart of revival cries: “Lord, put us straight! We have gone astray! Bring us, as sons and daughters, into a full knowledge of how truly we are ‘accepted in the Beloved.’” Feral animals do not have a strong sense of family. They do not know the sweetness of belonging to others in a safe space where they are loved and cared for. Brothers and sisters, this unified dwelling in safety is our inheritance. This is why creation is groaning!
The recent revival cries of young people come from hearts that realize that we desperately need a deeper attachment to the Father. We are often behaving like wild animals. We bite and devour one another. Isaiah’s vision continues,
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. [2]
Our feral ways have brought suspicion with each other, cold-heartedness, jealousy, fearmongering, resource guarding, snarling, a party spirit, and every self-protecting act that proceeds from the fear that we are alone and must defend ourselves and what we feel is ours. We have gotten our eyes off the prize and onto unworthy things. We have hurt each other and the Lord’s Kingdom.
Youth is often a time of waywardness, but the younger generation has “drunk of the sour grapes of the fathers and now their teeth are set on edge” [3]. Early they have tasted pain and have seen that we are on a collision course with disaster. The young adults of GenZ seem to have a profound call upon them to call us all back to the Father–to model brokenness before God that calls out for safe space, undivided hearts, and family belonging rather than feral waywardness and unbridled individuality. God loves when we are who He created us to be: beloved members of His family, not wayward Individuals who roam the lonely hills alone.
Revival never comes for no reason. Our hearts need healing. We are desperate to know the true expression of what it means to be part of the family of God. Knowing safety and belonging is a great gift that God holds out for us. As Isaiah’s vision unfolds, he sees the root of Jesse standing as an ensign of the people, holding up a messianic banner of peace and tranquility and his rest shall be glorious [4]. The rest of God is the glory of God itself–a rest that is the Presence of God among us. We have longed for this rest every day of our lives whether we recognize it or not.
So let revival come in all its messy glory. Let it be an ensign for the coming kingdom of our Christ. Let our cries rise to the heavens to the ears of our Father who longs to gather us out of our aloneness, our sadness, and cramped estate into the wide-open spaces of His expansive kingdom. Isaiah, and all those watching from the grandstands of heaven, are still waiting for the complete fullness of this, just as we are. We are still here to call out and echo what they have called out before us:
Let Your Kingdom come, let Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven! [5]
We are waiting for the glorious rest that flows from the throne of the Messiah to radiate throughout the earth and unite us under His Kingship. How glorious will this be? Yet may I remind you that it is ours to be small colonies and signposts of that coming, restful Kingdom?
Our call as pilgrims and sojourners, our call as the little flock of God, is to be family to each other so that we might then be family to a lost and dying world that knows only the feral wastelands.
The Maranatha cry is about celebrating together the Lord who was, and is, and is to come–the One in whom we live and move and have our being. We are family, beloved ones, and we must live like it in this hour. Do not hold yourself back from the task of love and let lesser concerns fall quickly to the ground. We are in the last hour. Pace yourself for the journey and posture yourself in your true calling of love, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Be a shelter in a time of great storms.
Rose-Marie Slosek came to know the Lord in the early seventies and has a passion for organic church and the maturing of the Body of Christ. She serves on the Emmaus Online Lead Team, leads Maranatha Northeast, and a local home fellowship. She can be reached at rmslosek@comcast.net.
[1] Isaiah 11:6
[2] Isaiah 11:9
[3] Jeremiah 31:30
[4] Isaiah 11:10
[5] Matthew 6:10
