Reviving Our Spiritual Life

"Reviving Our Spiritual Life" – 2 Timothy 1:6 “I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you.” The Holy Spirit, being God, does not need to be revived: He never loses His power nor grows weak. What needs reviving is our spiritual life, our faith and our willingness to respond to His work. To revive is to rekindle what is going out, as one blows on the embers: you used to pray and now you do not, you used to read the Word and be moved, you used to love your own. Paul does not ask Timothy for a new gift, but to use and strengthen the one he already received. The study walks through 2 Timothy 1:6-7 — God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power, love and discipline; Ephesians 5:18 and the continuous command to keep on being filled with the Spirit; Psalm 8:6 and the stewardship God delegated to mankind; and Habakkuk 3:2: “revive Your work in the midst of the years; in wrath remember mercy.”

I. The Holy Spirit does not need to be revived.

A. Being God, He never loses His power nor grows weak.

1. What needs reviving is our spiritual life, our faith and our willingness.

B. Before long, religion turns into vanity: who is the leader, who is the strong one.

1. We forget God chose us to be spiritual people, and that is what we let die.

2. 99.9% of everything in life declines; the question is whether we are brave enough to lift it.

II. What it means to revive.

A. We revive what has fallen asleep, not what has died.

1. It slackened, other things became the priority, the passion and the surrender are gone.

B. To rekindle is to light again, with greater intensity, what is going out.

1. You used to pray, to sing, to read the Bible, to do good to others, to love your own.

C. The spiritual fire comes only through the Holy Spirit.

1. To grieve the Holy Spirit is the one thing on earth that is not forgiven.

2. He teaches us, reveals the Scriptures and puts in us both the willing and the doing.

3. He withdraws where there is strife and where we begin to look for others' faults.

III. Kindle afresh the gift of God (2 Timothy 1:6).

A. It is Paul's exhortation to Timothy, his spiritual son.

1. “Kindle afresh” is to revive a dying flame, as one blows on embers.

2. Paul does not ask for a new gift: he asks him to use and strengthen the one he received.

B. The gift may refer to the calling and capacities God gave him to pastor and to teach.

1. Timothy was loved, gentle and tender, and he was always present.

2. The greatest thing for a pastor is to see the spiritual growth of his own.

C. Every believer has received gifts to serve God and others (1 Peter 4).

1. We have let go of what God gave us because we bargain with the world.

2. Each one has a book where what he gained is written.

IV. How the fire is revived.

A. By meditating on and obeying the word of God.

B. By keeping a constant life of prayer, not now and then.

C. By serving faithfully with the gifts God has given.

1. Service is innate, something God puts in the heart, and it comes out when it is needed.

D. By remaining in fellowship with one another.

1. No one is self-sufficient: sometimes you need the person you least expected.

E. By trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit and not in our own strength.

V. God has not given us a spirit of timidity (2 Timothy 1:7).

A. “But of power and love and discipline.”

1. Cowardice comes in the messages the mind sends, and the mind is deceitful.

2. Timothy was not to let fear put out his ministry.

B. We can all know weariness, discouragement and fear.

1. Fear makes you see the negative; it ties you and binds you.

C. God wants us to keep the passion alive.

1. The death and surrender of Christ on the cross is called the Passion.

2. If Christ had passion, why should we not? That passion went as far as sacrifice.

3. Reviving is not producing something by our own strength, but responding faithfully to grace.

VI. Be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).

A. A contrast between two influences: controlled by wine or led by the Spirit.

1. Where it says wine, place every vice and pleasure against the body, where the Holy Spirit lives.

2. Losing self-control leads to the licentiousness of condemnation.

B. In the Greek the expression is continuous: keep on being filled with the Spirit.

1. It is not a single experience, but living daily under His direction.

2. If the Holy Spirit is not there, the enemy enters: it depends on where you lean.

C. Being filled with the Spirit produces His fruit (Galatians 5:22-23).

1. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

2. It gives strength to obey God and serve Him faithfully.

VII. You made him to rule (Psalm 8:6).

A. David contemplates God's greatness and the dignity He gave to mankind.

1. God created man and woman in His image and gave them creation to administer (Genesis 1:26-28).

2. That dominion is not to exploit or destroy, but to care for it as stewards.

B. “You have put all things under his feet”: delegated authority.

1. All human authority comes from God and must be exercised according to His will.

2. Let us learn to respect others.

VIII. Revive Your work (Habakkuk 3:2).

A. “I have heard the report about You and I feared”: he acknowledges God's holiness and power.

1. This fear is not panic, but deep respect and awe.

2. God fulfills His purposes and judges sin with justice.

B. “Revive Your work in the midst of the years”: that God make His power evident in hard times.

1. To revive is to give new life, renew, awaken, cause to flourish again.

2. If we stop, the work stops and the people perish.

C. “In the midst of the years make it known”: that God's works be visible.

1. True revival directs attention to God and produces glory for His name.

D. “In wrath remember mercy”: Habakkuk appeals to the Lord's most precious attribute.