Pastor to Pastor
Revival as a Lifestyle: Sustaining Spiritual Awakening Through Everyday Faith
Can revival transform your life beyond the confines of extended church services? Join us as we sit down with the insightful Pastor Jason Watson, who illuminates the profound concept of revival as a lifestyle, not just an event. Drawing on the analogy of a lighter needing the right ingredients to sustain its flame, Pastor Jason underscores the necessity of elements like the Holy Spirit, passion, repentance, availability, and humility for a lasting spiritual awakening. Reflecting on our personal journeys, we reveal how our perceptions of revival have evolved from traditional, marathon church sessions to a continuous, deepening relationship with God that reshapes our daily lives.
Leadership is pivotal in sparking and maintaining this spirit of revival. In our discussions, we stress how leaders must live out the principles they preach, fostering a vision of discipleship and engaging actively in community outreach. Consistency in spiritual practices and community engagement emerges as a cornerstone for sustained revival and church growth. We also challenge the notion of religious labels, advocating for a faith journey marked by excitement and fervor. To conclude, we offer a heartfelt invocation of the priestly blessing from Numbers 6:24-26, wishing our listeners God's peace and favor. Don't miss this enriching episode—like, share, and subscribe to walk with us on this faith-filled journey!
Can revival transform your life beyond the confines of extended church services? Join us as we sit down with the insightful Pastor Jason Watson, who illuminates the profound concept of revival as a lifestyle, not just an event. Drawing on the analogy of a lighter needing the right ingredients to sustain its flame, Pastor Jason underscores the necessity of elements like the Holy Spirit, passion, repentance, availability, and humility for a lasting spiritual awakening. Reflecting on our personal journeys, we reveal how our perceptions of revival have evolved from traditional, marathon church sessions to a continuous, deepening relationship with God that reshapes our daily lives.
Leadership is pivotal in sparking and maintaining this spirit of revival. In our discussions, we stress how leaders must live out the principles they preach, fostering a vision of discipleship and engaging actively in community outreach. Consistency in spiritual practices and community engagement emerges as a cornerstone for sustained revival and church growth. We also challenge the notion of religious labels, advocating for a faith journey marked by excitement and fervor. To conclude, we offer a heartfelt invocation of the priestly blessing from Numbers 6:24-26, wishing our listeners God's peace and favor. Don't miss this enriching episode—like, share, and subscribe to walk with us on this faith-filled journey!
hey, what's up, family, welcome back to another episode of pastor the pastor. I got the one and only pastor jason watson in the house as always, this is seth, and we're so excited that you guys are taking time to listen. Go ahead, do us a favor and share this with somebody and uh afterwards hey, if you enjoy the content, uh, give it a like, give it a comment, do whatever we can to help us get this word out, and we're excited about the day, jay. How about you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course, man Always always love sitting here with you putting some information out and look, today we got a great topic, Like we have been so many. So I've seen God moving in so many different ways over the nation really, especially even in this particular area, but around the nation actually, where God is just doing something in the atmosphere. So it really kind of brought to us the topic of revival, yeah, and so that's kind of what we're going to talk about today?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I think that, honestly, our church this past Sunday. I think we've got a taste of what we're going to talk about today. I've already told them to buckle up because this is going to be more common Right that God has given us fuel. He's given us the resources, the opportunities to be a light in a dark world and he is lighting a fire in us right now.
Speaker 2:Well, hey, when the pastor finally gets saved and he's able to preach the gospel. I mean, hey, you know, anything can happen. You never know what's going to happen, son, you never know. It's been 84 years. It's been 84 years.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you not talking about me, but yourself. Hey, you know, whatever, use yourself as an example.
Speaker 2:Whatever makes you feel better.
Speaker 1:I don't know why we're friends.
Speaker 2:Hey look, today we're going to talk about revival, and so really, pastor, what do you think when we say revival? What is that to you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think revival, even just by definition, is a spiritual awakening. When I think about revival, I think about a lighter. You know one of those little lighters you use to light your grill up, get the charcoal in. Look, I'm getting you hungry now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1:You know that lighter, it requires some ingredients for that fire to stay lit Right. And I think sometimes when we think about revival, we think it's a one-time thing or it's just a moment. But actually revival should be a lifestyle that we live in. So when I think about revival, I think about that lighter. And what does it take to keep that thing going? And it takes some ingredients. You've got to have the fluid, you've got to have the Holy Spirit, but you've also got to have the passion and the will to keep it pressed in, stay close to the Father. What do you think when you think revival? What are some of the ingredients that it takes to keep it sustained? Um, I'll, I'll. I'll quote a few of them. I think it's one is repentance. I think revival starts with repentance. It's hard for us to get on fire for God when we're still covering up some sin. That's right.
Speaker 2:That's right, Absolutely. Um, you know, you talk about the fire in itself, like, like, absolutely the ingredients. As I was sitting here, I was kept thinking about that song. You provide the fire.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, I'll provide the sacrifice. It takes fuel, like, in order for a fire to be ignited. There has to be something there for the fire to catch on to. And so, yeah, absolutely. And so those ingredients you're talking about repentance man is huge, like there's got to be. I think scripture says if we would humble ourselves and turn right, yep, the important thing is, people, I'm not going to preach real quick, I'm not going to preach but we've got to turn from our wicked ways and we have to repent. And God says he'll heal us, he'll heal our land, and so yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Repentance is absolutely one of those big ingredients that you have to have for revival fire. Yeah, and what I was thinking too when you're saying that is, availability is a really important ingredient. You can't say that you want to be a part of revival and be revival, but yet you're not even available for the father. You spend no time with him, you spend no moments in his word. Availability is a key ingredient for revival to be ignited in each and every one of our lives. Aside from that, I think it takes some humility coming to the Father. I think the perfect place for imperfect people is the foot of the cross.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:And if we can humble ourselves before him and really come and repent and be available and let the Lord use us, we are ripe for revival, that spiritual awakening that we're talking about. Let's talk really quick. We've been in church for quite a while. I've grew up in church my whole life. Did you grow up in church?
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I was in church my whole life. I've been in there, man. I was in church from birth until I was probably 13, 14 years old and then off and on from then until I was 30 really, and then after that man just just non-stop after jesus.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so growing up, all that I've known revival to be was these long drawn out services that were six weeks, 11 weeks. I remember growing up you know it was like, yeah, revival happened. It was a two-week service that got turned into 12 weeks and I'm like, okay, why are we all still the same?
Speaker 1:right you know, growing up, that's what revival was. Revival was long services and it was singing and it was preaching, and that's been what my experience was in the past. Now that I'm maturing in my faith, my walk with god, I'm actually seeing what revival truly is right. Uh, even more so to understand things. You know this to be true. To understand what something is, you really need to know what it's not and what it is not. Revival is not just a service. It's not just a time we come and we sing our favorite songs and shout and dance and have Pentecost and all these things and think that when we leave we've just had revival. It's far more than that. Revival is not a service. It's a changed life. It's a fire that is ignited. And if our revival is only when we come together in a worship service, we're not being the light in a dark world. That's what revival is. We are actually just being lights that blend in because we're with every other light in the room yeah, revival should produce fruit yeah uh, it should.
Speaker 2:It shouldn't just be something that occurs one time, but it should really like. To live in a perpetual state of revival is to constantly be growing, and, and, and being more and more made into the image of christ yeah we made.
Speaker 2:I made we're coming back from peru. This past year, man I, I made this like right now, on Wednesday nights we're doing discipleship and we've talked about these different gifts, these spiritual gifts, Like my plan is all throughout the summer and early fall with our people is to prepare them for doing door-to-door ministry in the fall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's it bro.
Speaker 2:That's what we're going to do, like it means nothing for you to come in here, we can, and if all you do is carry what you got here back home and put a lid on it, that's not revival, no, no, no. In the book of Acts, when they're going through well, when the Holy Spirit comes, the mighty Russian wind, did they stay up there? Did they stay in the room and just let it die out? No, they took what they received in that moment. They took that revival, they took that Holy Spirit that was given to them, and then they took it out into the streets and they began to preach. And then it said 3,000 the first day, 3,000. Paul went out, or Peter went out, and they preached and 3,000 were added to them in the first day.
Speaker 1:But they weren't satisfied.
Speaker 2:Jay.
Speaker 1:As you continue to read, you see where it says they were added daily to the kingdom. People's lives were changed. They didn't just go get a service and get themselves happy and excited and satisfied. They said I'm not satisfied until I go find all the lost people, all the people who do not know Christ, and share the good news with them. That is revival. Now I'm not saying services aren't powerful and services aren't great. You need those. That's discipleship, that's iron sharpening iron. That's us growing. But true revival is when I see someone lost or someone broken or in someone in need of healing. What do I do with what I've been spending time with the Father in? What am I doing with what he's given me? I tell our people this way don't waste your salvation. If God has saved you, do something with it. Go share the good news, go lay hands on the sick, go bless and serve the widows. That's what revival is is when the people of God take what they have and share it with the lost world. Absolutely, that's what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it can be frustrating. Back, I think, early, early in pastor, and you know I would look and be like man. They're just, they just have service after service, after service and and we have camp meetings. But what do we do with them? Yeah, like, and then it's like us, we haven't. I think we scheduled one, um like, a like a camp meeting style, revival style, um event here for for our church and for some other churches it hurricane was coming through so we had to cancel it. But what is the? Where's the plan after the revival? Are we just getting together to to go home and be extinguished again, or are we planning to take what? To take the fire that's being stoked and and that life, that breath is being, um, oxygen is being given to it, uh, to to make it bigger? Are we carrying that out to then expand the kingdom and to spread that fire?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's why one of the reasons revival in today is so short-lived. I remember growing up and going to youth conferences and even as I got into ministry I actually encouraged some ministries to stop sending your kids to youth conferences. Wow, because what happens? They get on fire at youth conference. They come back and in two to three weeks they're back to where they were before they left.
Speaker 1:And it's like, okay, just what you talk about. Like, put the top on it these kids. They come back on fire, but what do they do? Because the church is so complacent to where they are, they don't really know what. They know how to do services. They don't know how to sustain revival. How does it be consistent in our life? And one thing we got to understand is that revival truly starts with us. But let's answer this question before we move on Is revival for the believer or the unbeliever?
Speaker 2:I think it's got to be both.
Speaker 1:Amen, I agree.
Speaker 2:So it's got to be both, because you need those who believe to get on fire and to go out and share that fire. And then at now, here's where revival is not wasted is where you have these services and the lost are being saved, where you have these services and people are going out and getting new people to come into church and they're taking these, and people are getting saved in Walmart and people are getting saved at work.
Speaker 1:Clean up on aisle five.
Speaker 2:Right, come get these crutches off. No, but I mean there's people being saved because of what's happening in services, like they're being caught on fire, so they're going out and spreading the fire.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so.
Speaker 2:I definitely think it takes both. Man, look, we all live busy lives. We wake up every day, a lot of us go to work every single day. A lot of us are trying to balance family and ministry and a lot of other things, and there are times where we kind of have to. We need that fire stoked, and stoking that fire is great, it's important, but we can't just put like we said, we can't just put the lid on it. We have to allow that fire that's been stoked, that's been breathed upon, to grow and we have to carry that out. Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1:I mean, even when we started this podcast, we talked about it being a spiritual awakening Right, and I believe that that happens in two ways. One is with the believer that those who have been dormant and just complacent with just really making Sunday a habit and not really this Christian faith a lifestyle, now revival awakens them and says there's more than just Sunday services and Wednesday night discipleship. I need to do something with what I've been given and I need to go share the gospel. But on the other side, revival can also draw the unbeliever who those scripture would say are asleep, who do not know the Father, and revive them from death into life. And I think it's so important.
Speaker 1:When you look at revival, what we've got to do is start creating just what you talked about. We've got to start creating services that deploy people. It's not let's just come together Okay, let's come together, get equipped and let's send. I always say this, jay, is that the true test of a successful church is not how many people they retain, but how many people are they sending. How many people are we sending as leaders, from a Sunday service to go to the Walmart, go to the Target, go to the Starbucks and actually have equipped them enough to say hey, this is how you engage with the unbelievers and share the gospel, and this is how you win the loss, and this is how you let the gospel go forth and heaven come here on earth. Where are we at, in the state of the church today? To where we are just complacent with having services? Well, it starts with leadership.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, the leader has to have a plan and Scripture gives us that plan, like we have to have a plan to carry. Again, I come back from Peru and it's like man, we're having these services and we're having these trainings, but people are just going home. Look, at the end of the day. We go out every single Saturday and we pray for people. Sometimes we'll have man, a good crowd show up to help pray. Sometimes it's just a handful. I've been out there by myself. But you have to have leaders.
Speaker 2:In the rain, but you're walking uphill both ways with your shoes on Right. But no, it has to start with leadership. Yeah, absolutely. Leadership has to have a passion and we have to have a plan that says, if nobody else goes, I'll go. That's right. Like we have to have that heart.
Speaker 1:We've got to be like Isaiah Send me, lord, here I am Send me, yeah, yeah, and you can't expect your people to do what you're not.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I mean, if I cancel it because nobody else ever goes out there with me, or if I don't show up because nobody else is showing up, or all these different things, how can I hold somebody else to a standard I don't hold myself to? Ooh, we could stay right here all day. So I mean we've got to man, we've got to have a burning in our heart to grow closer to God in our heart. To grow closer to God, to be consistent, to carry it out and to then employ and lead others. We lead by example.
Speaker 2:I remember seeing this. It was a GIF or a little photo or something that showed the boss behind the desk pointing and it said this is what a boss is. But then a leader was out there with people behind him. He was leading the way, he was spearheading the direction that the company was headed, and so that's what a pastor is. That that's what we should be doing. We should be taking the heart of the father and then teaching people and then deploying people, like you said out, to like. Here's the vision.
Speaker 2:The problem is we problem is we don't have the vision for discipleship and we don't have the division or the vision for expanding the kingdom. It's almost, in a way, we've gotten to a place where and it's not everybody, it's not everybody, but many, I think many churches are where, if they don't come to church, they won't get saved. Yeah, if we don't come to a service, then we can't reach them. Yeah, no, you can reach them. You just have to have the vision to be able to go out to where, to where god wants you to go to, to the place to preach to the poor, to preach to every living creature, preach the gospel. You've got to have that drive and that vision to be able to do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love what you said. You mentioned consistency. I think a lot of churches, even in leadership, we lack consistency. But in order for revival to be sustained in our heart and continue to grow, is that we've got to be consistent. When you think of a little a fire, what do you do? When it starts fizzling out, you start being consistent adding the same fuel to it adding adding, adding, adding.
Speaker 1:You get more in the word, you get more in your prayer, you get more equipped and I think we with the lack of consistency that is in the church across America. This is why we're seeing numbers plummet with people who are following Christ and running from the Lord and all these things.
Speaker 1:And you're right, jay, it starts with leadership. Man, when will we start to raise the standard for leadership but yet complain about people who aren't doing what we want to do? I know some members. I know some members who can out-serve me and I'm like man I wish if I wasn't a pastor. I wonder, would I serve that hard If I wasn't called in the ministry? Would I serve that hard? Would I be that faithful? I've questioned myself Because, man, I'm like.
Speaker 2:If you weren't preaching on Sunday, would you still study that hard? That's right, absolutely. I've been there, bro, I get it, and this is something that I've experienced being in law enforcement and something that I've experienced even in Anna doing CINCI. Consistency is key, like I remember. You know you talk on the radio so much when you're law enforcement. I remember going to people's houses and they're being like, oh, you're this car number. And I'm like, how do you know that? Because they consistently listen to the radio and they consistently hear my voice, so they start matching. You know, know, like you are this person, right? So here's the thing too. I've noticed that man, this has been awesome, uh, watching anna grow her sensi business and it's not a plug for sensi, but yeah no, I know what you're doing.
Speaker 2:You ain't slick but here's the thing, man. I've watched people send her messages and say you're the sensi queen around here, like if anybody buys sensi or if anybody does this, they, they should, because, dude, she's consistently posting. And then, out of nowhere, people decide to join her team because they're like look, I see the consistency. You take this seriously, you really believe in these products? How many of us, as Christians, truly believe in Jesus? How many of us truly believe and are willing to share consistently the lifestyle that Christ has called us to live and to consistently share the gospel? Like, if you keep preaching family, eventually those who are looking for a family are going to know where to go. Yeah, absolutely. But I'm sorry, man, it's just the consistency is important.
Speaker 1:Could we say this, jay? I just thought about this. Could we say that true revival starts with self-evaluation? Absolutely, find out where you are, be real honest with yourself, that humility we talked about. Where am I at with the Father? Why am I not encouraged or excited about sharing? Why am I giving excuses that I'm an introvert? Why am I creating excuses that I don't have time? Can I just say this? We've shared this before.
Speaker 1:But no matter where you are, your life is a mission field. Where you're at job, you're in a cubicle, you're in an office, you're shopping, those are mission field opportunities for you to ignite revival, a spiritual awakening in someone in the streets, and that's what it is. Go to the hedges and the highways, go to the ends of the earth. Go to the hedges and the highways. Go to the ends of the earth. Go to where your world is, go to where you're already at and share the gospel.
Speaker 1:It really starts with self-evaluation. Why am I at the place that I am right now? Why am I not on fire with the things that I should be on fire with and here's a good one why am I not doing what Scripture says to do? Because this is the truth if we really want to be accountable. Scripture says to know what to do but not do it is sinning. And if he says to go share the gospel into the ends of the earth and go share the gospel with people that you know, but you don't do it, it's not the great suggestion, it's the great commission. That's how you birth revival, sparking and igniting the love of jesus in the hearts of many man oftentimes you read these stories on revivals and things it's one person.
Speaker 2:It's one person obeying the Father. It's one person at a schoolhouse, one student who knows about Jesus, starting to tell other people about Jesus. There have been so many fires and so many actual awakenings and revivals birthed out of people just being obedient and self-evaluating and saying man, I'm going to do what God tells me to do. And you get up that morning and you say all right, god, okay, god, just lead me where you want me to go. And it's saying yes to Jesus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and so we're talking about things here that really make revival stick. Consistency is one of them. Another one that we talked about was not checking off boxes. You put it this way. You said it's not a religious duty, it's about becoming right. It's not about doing, but it's about becoming. And how do you want to make revival stick in you is just become who you already been called to be. It's not about this work, it's not about this labor. It's not about this labor. It's not about checking off boxes and just doing all the mundane things, and it's actually about becoming everything that god has called you to do, and this is one that I love too.
Speaker 1:That we said was in order to make it stick is look for continuous growth, consistently, try to be growing in your walk with god. I'm gonna just tell you you're not gonna grow, but very limited amount, if the only time you spend with God is on a Sunday during service. Right, because here's the truth, and I tell our people I'm sure you tell people Sunday. I shouldn't have to pump and prime you. I shouldn't get you excited about the world. You should be so full of God. Right, because you've already spent so much spiritual revival in yourself, awakening in yourself that when you get to Sunday, you're just adding fuel to what God is already doing Right. And so when you're personally growing, that's when you can start contributing to the revival that God wants to do here on earth. That's why James 4 says draw near to God and God will draw near unto you. And here's the thing If you're both drawing near to each other, at one point you're going to collide.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, you know, I can't hear that scripture without.
Speaker 1:India. I shared that story today at lunch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just can't hear that verse and not think about the time that the Holy Spirit showed up in India and we thought the building was on fire.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was crazy.
Speaker 2:Talk about revival, talk about revival fire. Oh man, man.
Speaker 1:A beautiful, beautiful moment that we had with the Lord, and I think revival is key. I think we, I think it's, I think people think that it's overrated because it's been misrepresented in the churches today, but when you really truly understand what revival is, you will long for it. The true Christian will long for revival, yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, it's just that it's coming together and these services are beautiful. I love to see God move in people's hearts and minds. I love to see what God's doing in people's lives. But when we get together and we just have a service and then we go home and we put a lid on it, I don't know that we've done much. I don't know that we've. Certainly we've stoked a fire in ourselves, just to put it out again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I was telling my little boy he's seven, he was with us during lunch where we were talking about this India stuff. There's a guy that wants to go to India and we were talking about it and I was telling him about stories of where we laid hands on people and bones began to pop and we would walk through the villages and we'd pray for someone and you turn around, there's 20 people.
Speaker 1:Then you keep going and pray for some more people and the miracles began to keep happening and you look and there's like 100 people behind you and I said you know, when I started talking about the miracles, my little boy was like oh my goodness, you can do that.
Speaker 1:And I was like through Christ, like through the Holy Spirit. Listen, son, it's not us, it's what God has given us, and if he's given it to me, he's given it to you. Even at seven, you can go to school. You can go into Walmart. When you see someone who's limping, god's highlighting that thing for you to do something about. That's what revival is. It's about simply being used by the Holy Spirit and the opportunities that he creates. It's not about coming together with a bunch of people who are just having fun at church. It's about winning the lost and letting people experience the power of the Holy Spirit. Man, and I can't wait for my son. I know your boys are really growing. I know you're super proud of them. One's still in Peru right now. The other one is just really growing and I know you can't wait just like I can't for them to just put their hands on people and people's bodies be changed and lives be, changed forever and we want to be examples.
Speaker 2:And here's the thing Once you start, if you never try, it'll never happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's about the best advice I can give. It takes you believing what you're reading. It takes you believing what God has said you can do, and you putting it into practice and watching god move through you. But you have to carry those things out and when you start seeing things like that happen, dude, it does something to you and he wants to.
Speaker 1:He wants to do it, he wants to do it right. Where's the willing vessels at? Where are the people who say send me and I'll go?
Speaker 2:yeah, and then once you start seeing them, I mean you'll talk. Fire man, you want to talk about something? Start staring up inside of you, Throw this microphone. Man, you want to talk? I'm telling you, there's nothing. You see a bone pop back in place. Come on, bro. You see these types of miracles. You see people just and I say just like the and you just see God moving in people's lives and you start seeing man, you want to talk about fire man?
Speaker 1:I'm telling you, man, you see where they've tried everything but Jesus and when Jesus shows up, everything in their life changes. That is revival, absolutely. That is where you create an opportunity for Christ to be exalted and glorified through us. But you've got to be obedient. You've got to be obedient, you got to be consistent, you got to humble yourself and let the Lord use you in a mighty, mighty way.
Speaker 2:That's it, brother.
Speaker 1:It ain't Pentecostalism, it ain't charismatic, it ain't anything that you think it is. It's nothing but a son and a daughter walking by faith, carrying what God has given them.
Speaker 2:That's it.
Speaker 1:Man, imagine if we did that every day. I done stirred myself up. Louis, you didn't start, you ain't get all fired up again.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, I'm excited. All right. Well, brother, if you're good man, we're gonna send him out with the priestly blessing, blessing, blessing, blessing all right, hey, thanks again for you guys listening to us today.
Speaker 2:Look, we encourage you to like, share, subscribe all that stuff. Send it to somebody who needs it. Let us bless you before we send you on your way. Numbers 6, 24 through 26 says the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. God bless you. We thank you so much for checking us out here to Pastor to Pastor, and we look forward to seeing you next time all right, we'll see you blessing on blessing on blessing.