Revelation 3:20-22 – “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.  21′ He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.  22′ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'”  NASB

Notice the words “He that has an ear, let him hear…”  If you are familiar with Chapters 2 & 3 you will quickly realize that this expression is the Common Denominator!  All the churches are addressed in the same fashion – “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches…”  This suggests that the Common Denominator of these churches was a Danger!  A danger that they would ‘forget’ or become ‘too busy’ to Hear what the Spirit said or was saying!  They all had the same root problem and today is really no different.

The apostle John, through the revelation of the Spirit, was saying: “All of you CAN hear.”  You can hear IF your heart has been renewed by the Spirit of God.  You can hear IF you have a spiritual ear.  Jesus said: “This is the characteristic of My sheep – they HEAR My Voice!”  Therefore, the warning came because they were in grave danger of Not Hearing! 

That has been the ‘danger’ and ‘fault’ of every set of Christians since the beginning of the church.  In fact, if you examine church history you will discover something quite disconcerting.  You will discover that church history teaches us that church history teaches us nothing because we continually repeat the same mistakes!

An incredible fact is that if you examine history you will find that each revival had a life span of approximately forty years.  By the time forty years transpired, those who were in the revival had gotten old and their children were taking over, but the children had only ‘heard it’ from their parents rather than experiencing it.  Then by the time eighty years transpire the revival becomes a monument.  Everybody has forgotten why it was there, to begin with, but it is still there!  That is why all through church history we have the Great Mausoleums! 

Simply, we are left with denominations that celebrate a revival that everybody has now forgotten what happened, but we still have the name and revel in the past!  That raises the question – “Why is it that they and we continually miss it?” 

For almost 2,000 years we see revivals come and go and last about forty years and then it is gone.  Why?  Because, in virtually every case, the revival began when people Heard God and God’s words became alive in their hearts!  It became the Living Word and they responded to it making the revival one to one relationship with God.  God has spoken and they knew it!  Then, gradually it became a philosophy. 

What had been a ‘Living Dynamic’ with God speaking and interacting with the people was now a form and ceremony.  God had been put in a box and reduced to a set of rules, regulations, formulas, patterns of action, and ritual.  The idea became that IF you’ve been in the revival you don’t do this/that/the other.  Forgotten was the truth that the reason we did not do this/that/the other was because of LIFE springing up within not manmade regulation.

God help us to return to the altar of life and drink from the fountain of God’s Life again!  God help us to move from the man-made to the God-breathed!  God brings us revival again! It is relationship not theory that produces the Life of God in the Spirit!

Blessings as you go through your day!