Dwight Edwards - Revolution Within: A Fresh Look at Supernatural Living

R EVOLUTION W ITHIN
P UBLISHED BY W ATERBROOK P RESS
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Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked ( NIV ) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked ( NASB ) are taken from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Italics in Scripture quotations reflect the authors added emphasis.

Copyright 2002 by Dwight Edwards

Published in association with Yates & Yates, LLP, Literary Agent, Orange, California

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Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, New York, a Penguin Random House Company.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Edwards, Dwight, 1954
Revolution within : a fresh look at supernatural living / by Dwight Edwards.1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
eISBN: 978-0-8041-5057-6
I. Christian life. I. Title.

BV4501.3 .E39 2001
248.4dc21 2001017536

v3.1_r1

To my beloved wife, Sandy, whose vibrant, grace-soaked life has taught me so much about the New Covenant

Is it really possible that before Christ returns His Spirit may once again move in revival power? Might there be another Great Awakening that stirs the church to first tremble before God and then pant after Him?

It would take deep brokenness, something weve trivialized into merely facing the wounds from our past. And it would require repentance, which to many moderns means little more than admitting we need help and going for counseling.

If we faced how shallow and powerless our lives have become, how self-absorbed and ruled by a spirit of entitlement we actually are, perhaps we would be transformed from a community of the comfortable (or at least trying to be) into the community of the broken. And if that happened, maybe the Spirit would continue His work by turning us into a community of hope, men and women praying fervently for another time of refreshing from the Lord.

Our weighty God is right now sitting lightly on His church. To the watching world, He must seem more a shiny veneer decorating our lives than our sure foundation. Good things, of course, are happeningthe Spirit is faithfully building Christs churchbut as one pastor recently put it to me: Somethings missing. I see obvious blessing and I know its Gods hand. But sometimes I envision what the Spirit must long to do in Gods people and I wonder if anything real is happening at all. I know it is, but there could be so much more.

I wonder if any of us look at Christ and, in the middle of terrible trial, say He is enough, and mean it? Or watch cherished dreams shatter and with renewed vigor pursue the greater dream of knowing Him better, and do so with gratitude for the privilege? Do any of us know what it is to suffer betrayal and rejection and count it all joy, not only that were deemed worthy to suffer for the name but also that now we have unique opportunity to reveal what Christ is like to our abusers? Do we value knowing God and glorifying Himno matter whats happening in our livesmore than depending on God and using Him to make our lives more fulfilling?

I worry that weve twisted the message of the Cross into a promise that God will provide us enough creature comforts on earth, whether material or spiritual, to keep the journey to heaven reasonably pleasant till we get there. We think its His job to see to it that we feel pretty good here till we feel forever good there. Modern Christianity, in dramatic reversal of its biblical form, is now all about us.

God hasnt checked with me on this (nor on anything else), but I sense that He may be setting the stage for another reformation that, coupled with true revival, could spark a revolution in the church.

The first reformation recovered with liberating clarity the truth of how were made right with God, how we receive Gods life and the guarantee of enjoying it forever. I suggest that the reformation needed in the church today would focus on why God gives us life, on the real reason that Jesus died. It is not for your sake that I am going to do these things, God said, but for the sake of my holy name.

The Spirit would cut through our narcissistic nuttiness to make clear that God saved us in order for Him to receive glory, not to help us feel good about ourselves and lead exciting lives. We would see that Christs blood was shed so that, as forgiven disciples, we might trust God when life falls apart rather than expecting Him to keep it together. Light would dispel the fog that prevents us from seeing anything beyond our own longings, and we would realize that lifeour relationships, our health, our bank accounts, our timeis not all about us. Its all about God. Hes the star of the show. We would see that were bit players, and wed be thrilled that were part of the drama. No suffering would be viewed as unfair for us to endure if it helped keep the spotlight on Christ. That would be a turnabout, a reformation in our understanding of what God is up to in the gospel.

Revival would follow. The Spirit would convince us that under the terms of Gods new arrangement with peoplethe New Covenant brought in at Pentecost that replaced the old one begun at SinaiGod has done more than we think. Weve not only been forgiven so completely that the Father now sings over us with delight at every moment from conversion on, but He has also changed us, deeply, profoundly, permanently. Under the new arrangement were not merely ordered to glorify God, we now want to. And were equipped to do it. It becomes actually possible, we see it as our highest privilege and joy, to revolve our lives around God.

We discover an appetite within us that prefers the pleasures of holiness to the pleasures of sin. With Augustine, we actually experience the joy of knowing Gods love as greater than the very real fun of sexual releaseand so we overcome our addictions and express our sexuality within moral boundaries. We experience the pleasure of His company and the privilege of being in His service as far surpassing all lesser pleasures and privileges. And so we mature; we become more like Christ. We lead changed (though still imperfect) lives that reveal a new power in our makeup that puzzles people who watch.

We were saved to glorify God. Realizing that one truth is the heart of the reformation that the modern church must experience. And our salvation provides us with all the resources we need to pull it off. That realization and learning how to draw on those resources will begin the revival. Our lives can actually be all about God and not about us. Thats the coming revolution.