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what is revival?

And the LORD said to Moses, "This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name."
  
Moses said, "Please show me your glory."
  
And he said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name 'The LORD.' And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.  But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live."  

 And the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen." 

 (Exodus 33:17-23 ESV)

 "What is revival? It is just a glimpse of God’s 'back parts.' It is just a sight of the glory of the eternal God. It is a glimpse of what awaits us all in the glory everlasting. And God, as he does this, pronounces his name, and he pronounces himself to be the sovereign Lord who says, '[I] will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.' When revival comes, it humbles us. That is always the first thing. 

 "I believe our greatest need is to be humbled. We are much too healthy, much too confident, much too assured, much too bright and breezy. We need to be humbled to the dust and to be amazed at the power and the glory of God as we just see his back parts, as it were, passing by.

 "And that is always the effect of revival. Its first effect is to humble us. We stop arguing, stop asking our questions, stop our self-justification, stop all our cleverness, and we are humbled and made to see that we are nothing. And then God pronounces the glorious truth and raises us up and sends us out."

 ~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones, "The Highway to Revival", from Setting Our Affections upon Glory: Nine Sermons on the Gospel and the Church.


Jan Domela's matte painting of Mount Sinai used in the movie, The Ten Commandments (1956). From nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.com
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