OtherWise Not

Revival is a topic that many people talk about, yet many people don’t experience.  
I have said time and time again that revival is a personal choice.  God’s word is no 
different than the many times when a prophecy is given in church that instructs us 
to respond to Him, yet many sit idle or politely clap and yet there is no change in 
their life.  God’s word is full of promises, that many people recite yet don’t live.  

Today, there is many different translations of the Word of God, there is for you 
Elizabethans the King James Version, the version our Lord and Savior used.  
There is the New International Version which is Now Inspired Version, there is 
the Message, the New American Standard, the Living Bible, the Amplified 
Version, and the New Living Translation.  These are some of the many versions 
that people today read.  Unfortunately, these are not the versions that people live 
by.  

Recently, I have discovered the version that people are living by today.  You may 
have not read it or even heard of it, yet most of you have experienced people who 
either use it or you yourself may dabble in it.  It is the HWL Translation.  That 
stands for How WE Live Translation.

In II Chronicles 7:14 we read in the NIV, 
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray 
and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from 
heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  

That same verse in the HWL translation reads,
“If my people, who call themselves Christians, will do nothing, after all you will 
only get in God’s way, take pride in who you are, after all, you are a King’s Kid, 
stay in your seat during prayer, it’s all emotional anyway, seek after what others 
are doing so you can criticize them, realize that you have no wicked ways because 
you have been a Christian longer than anyone else, besides you are still a good 
person, then will I hear from heaven and will pour out a mystical experience and 
then you will have revival.”

Now, I am sure that most of you find this version absurd, silly, far fetched.  Yet 
many people in the body of Christ not only can recite this version but live by it, 
and many don’t even realize that they are!

There are many people just like Sampson, who rise and don’t realize that the 
Presence of God is no longer with them.

There are many decaffeinated Churches across the country.  They look like the 
real thing, smell like the real thing, and even taste like the real thing, but there is 
nothing in them to keep anyone awake.  Likewise, there are many decaffeinated 
Christians who have fallen asleep, and it is time to wake up.

The Holy Ghost alarm clock is going off all over the world, and saying wake up, 
come back into the presence of God.  Experience me, fresh and new.  This is what 
the purpose of revival is.  To wake up the sleeping Giant known as the church.
You see revival is for the church, not for the world.  When the church experiences 
revival and again becomes the church, then our world will be impacted.  Revival is 
not even for our new converts, they haven’t had the opportunity to learn from us 
how to be dead yet.  I don’t get many phone calls from people on their honeymoon 
that say, “I need to have the spark put back into our marriage”.  What people need 
today is more of God, more of His presence, more of His Word.

Have you ever wondered why so many people pray for revival?  Is it truly their 
hearts cry, or has it just become the thing to pray for?  What is revival after all?  It 
is when people repent, confess their sins and return to their first love.  Praying for 
revival is more glamorized though, it sounds better.  Perhaps people really just 
don’t understand what they are praying for.  They just know that they should.

When talking about revival, many are perplexed with the question of balancing 
between how much is God’s responsibility and how much is our responsibility.  
God knows how much is His responsibility, so we need to know how much is our 
responsibility.  Can we force revival?  Can we imitate revival?  Can any man draw 
a soul to Christ?  If we read the right books, learn all the wonderful prayer 
precepts will we then have revival?  What if we sing all the right songs?  What if 
we pray really really really hard, will we then experience revival?   Do we need to 
create an atmosphere in which revival would only seem natural to follow?   To all 
of these questions I say, unequivocally, definitately without a shadow of doubt..... 
 MAYBE!

Here is where I find the biggest problem that we as Christians make concerning 
revival or any other scriptural principle:




God is so infinite, so awesome, his knowledge and power and wisdom are 
limitless.  He takes the principle of the foundation of the world and how we should 
live as spiritual people and in His vast knowledge brings it down to a level that we 
can understand and apply to our life.

We on the other hand are so limited in our understanding, that we have a hard time 
remembering where we parked the car when we grocery shop for 25 minutes, take 
the scripture that was put on a level that even we can understand and say “Wow” I 
know that seems simple, there has to be a deeper meaning.  I bet when God says 
that we should pray, let’s see,
the word “that” means “which is”
“We” is the prefix of the word Weeble’s which wobble but don’t fall down, 
“should” suggests things that are optional... you should eat your veggies, but you 
can live without them if you take a vitamin supplement.
The word “pray” is a descriptive term like... birds of Prey, which probably means 
that they are different or something.

So now lets put it all together.
That we should pray is an act:
Which is done by people also know as Weebles who wobble but don’t fall down, 
after all I always was skeptical about people who get slain, now I have the 
scripture to back my view, and it is an optional activity that I can live without, 
after all who wants to be different anyway.

Folks, when God says that we should pray, what He is trying to say, is “THAT 
WE SHOULD PRAY!!!”

We need to try to stop trying to figure out God, and start experiencing God.

So again, when talking about Revival, where do we come in and what part do we 
play in it?  Good question, I am so glad you asked.

Write this down... If you don’t hear anything else that I say today, don’t forget 
this:
REVIVAL equals RESPONSIBILITY!

Revival doesn’t come cheap.
Revival doesn’t come easy.
Revival doesn’t come by gimmicks.
Revival comes by people who accept the responsibility.

Why is it that some people can go to a place like Brownsville and some leave with 
a heightened awareness of God in their life, and some walk away with the attitude, 
“It didn’t do anything for me”?

The reason why is that some have not been willing to accept the responsibility of 
Revival.  Many people are thinking that it is easier to get on a Grey Hound Bus 
and ride to revival, then it is to get on their knees and pray to revival.  I am not 
saying that everyone who goes to Brownsville is going for the wrong reasons, in 
fact I believe that the reason many people are experiencing revival in their lives in 
such a powerful way is that they want the responsibility.  They are willing to pray 
the price.  They don’t have a haughty attitude.  

If I was to say that if you want revival in your life, you need to go to the phone 
booth across from Carroll County Times.  I believe that if you were to go sincerely 
and desire to meet God, you would.   Now please don’t start an exodus to the 
phone, If a phone would bring revival, our teenagers would have already 
experienced it.

Again, REVIVAL equals RESPONSIBILITY.

That responsibility rests on the balance of God’s responsibility and our 
responsibility.

That is why many people never receive that which God desires to pour out on in 
their life.  They are spiritually lazy.  They think that revival means no work in 
reality it means more work.  They think that it is a totally mystical experience that 
just seizes a church and a people.

I was in a service once in which the speaker instructed one of the ushers to go to 
the back door.  He then told the entire church, people the Holy Spirit is here in a 
special way, in fact he desires to come in, in a powerful way.  I had no problem 
with any of it up until he went on with the next part.  He said, “Church I am so 
excited about this, the Holy Spirit wants to come in, Brother open the back door 
and let HIM in!”

Now I know that the scripture says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock” but I 
am sure this is not what that scripture meant.  

People are looking for an experience that would take the responsibility off of our 
self and place it back on God.  

Have you ever heard people make statements like:
“If God wants to bring revival He will”
“Oh, God send in the souls”
       
You see, statements like that say, God, I don’t want to have any responsibility in 
what needs to be done, you do it all.

Turn with me to II Kings 2:1-10 in which I desire to tie all of this together in. 
Most times when I preach I read the text first and then build my thoughts on it.
Today, I built my thoughts and now will tie them together.
READ the ABOVE TEXT!!!!

In this passage, we see a powerful lesson of a man who did not shirk away from 
his responsibility.  We can spend years dissecting the life of Elisha and apply it to 
our own life.   In a very basic summary we can categorize his life in:
1) His Calling
2) His Serving
3) His Receiving
4) His Leading

Let us realize from his life though, that none of these categories can stand alone.  
In fact all of them are interwoven throughout his greatest category.... His 
PURPOSE!

Let us follow Elisha’s life.  

1) His Calling   In I Kings 19:19-21, we find the calling of Elisha.  He 
immediately followed after his calling.  He didn’t wait for convenience.  He didn’t 
wait for anything.  He began pursuing his purpose instantly.

2) His Serving   In II Kings 2:2, we see that Elisha was a committed servant.  He 
layed his own will down for the purpose of him which he served.


3) His Receiving In II Kings 2:9, a verse in which most of us know, Elisha asks 
for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit.  Now most people miss this point.  It was 
customary for the leader to bless and pray that his spirit would be manifested upon 
his servants.  In fact, Elijah prayed that for his other servants.  But when it came 
time for Elisha to be prayed for Elijah asked him, what can I do for you?  Of all 
the people that Elijah would want to bless, his faithful servant Elisha was at the 
top of the list.  Elisha’s request for a double portion was because he DESERVED a 
double portion.  In other words, what ever you gave them, give me twice as much.

This is where the balance that I talked about earlier comes in.  Was it selfish for 
Elisha to expect a double portion?  No.  Why?  He accepted his responsibility.  
How would he receive the double portion?  By, accepting the responsibility of 
seeing when Elijah was to be taken.  The task of finishing.  How many times do 
we come up short in this area.  The task of finishing!

4) His Leading Elisha’s life goes on and he becomes a great leader.  In fact, I 
have heard it said that Elisha had exactly twice as much happen in his life then 
happened in Elijah’s life.  But, that isn’t the important lesson that we can learn 
from him.  We can see that Accepting Responsibility allows us to Receive our 
Portion.
How many of you know that God has a portion for you?

Normally I give the title of my sermon at the beginning, let me give it to you 
at the end.  The title of my message today is found in the last two words of our 
text today “OTHERWISE NOT”

Powerful words Otherwise not.
Now we can try to figure out what these words mean, but we saw where that got 
us.  Basically, what it means is Otherwise NOT!

Again REVIVAL equals RESPONSIBILITY
Accept Responsibility and experience Revival, otherwise NOT!        

Altar Call/ Response

Rev. Larry E. Shrodes
Senior Pastor 
North Carroll Assembly of God

Please E-mail me and let me know if this sermon was a blessing to you.
LnDShrodes@aol.com