Recently, the Holy Spirit has been speaking to us corporately at Passion Church UCLA about pursuing God and not revival.

No doubt, the Spirit of God has been moving these past two years on campus in extraordinary ways. At the same time, I've realized that as exciting as revival can be, it is not the end goal.

Many have joined the movement because of a vision for revival, but this motivation can be very dangerous if Christ is not at the center of all that we seek and do.

It is easy to want to give up on pursuing revival, because if it doesn't happen, we become disillusioned and discouraged. We feel like failures because we have not produced something for God. The enemy would want to deceive us by having us become distracted in pursuing some kind of end destination called revival, or a prophetic word/vision, a expected outcome, when in reality, revival is simply knowing God. Revival is when a single heart is turned back completely to God. When this happens, the abundance of God's love flows from Him, to us, and from us to one another. Ultimately, our reward is not revival, our reward and end goal is God's presence. The chief end of man is to glorify God by "enjoying" His presence forever! (Ps. 16:11) It is out of intimate relationship with Jesus and one another that revival is birthed and flows.

Below is a message I wrote to our Passion Church family at UCLA, we are going on a 7 day Daniel fast this week to get our hearts back, to find intimacy with him again, to grow in love for one another, but I think this message is relevant for all of you out there pursuing God's purposes on your campuses.

Remember this, revival is birthed out of knowing God's love for you, daily, intimately and consistently meditating upon His great grace and mercy towards us. We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). By studying and daily experiencing His passion for us, we develop a supernatural passion for Him.

"May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!" Psalm 67:1-2

What is God saying to Passion Church?

To me it is simple and clear.

Pursue God not revival.

Revival is an outcome of knowing God. Evangelism is overflow. God in His love for us, is speaking to us and sending us a message to recognize that we are not trying to achieve something for Him, no one can produce revival, a church planting movement, neither you nor I. Revival flows out of a passionate love relationship with Jesus Christ. The more we know Him and encounter Him at the heart level, we become revived. And when we are revived, our light shines ever more brighter in the darkness. If we pursue revival, we are bound to burn out. Revival may come now, or it may come later. But revival is not our reward, GOD IS OUR GREAT REWARD. When we pursue God and we meditate on the revelation that "He loves me and I love Him therefore I am successful" whether or not revival comes it doesn't matter because God is our "reward" not the outward circumstances. Revival can not be produced from without, it can only be produced from within.

Lovers Always Outwork Workers

We are not workers first. If we see "revival or transformation" as some kind of end vision we must work for, then we have already been deceived by the Devil. We can receive prophecies all day long and chase them for the rest of our lives and not get one step closer to God. The goal is not to get to the prophetic destination, the goal is to enjoy God and one another along the journey to that destination. We must daily learn to rejoice in the here and now, to remember daily the JOY of our salvation by meditating on JESUS LOVE FOR US, by always going back to the simple Gospel.

We are lovers first and workers second. Intimacy is the birthplace of miracles. We must pursue LOVE, God is love, we are not to pursue REVIVAL or prophetic revelations. When we pursue Christ and live to walk in Christ, revival will automatically flow and be evident to all. We can't fulfill the Great Commission, unless we first fulfill the Great Commandment, that is to love God by enjoying Him forever!

7 Day Daniel Fast for Personal Revival

To me, this 7 day Daniel fast is not about "fasting to get revival" or God to move at UCLA, no, no, and no. This Daniel fast is a invitation from heaven to grow in intimacy with Christ. It is a deliberate choice to say no to the pleasures of this world in exchange for the pleasures of knowing and enjoying God. We want to go deeper in our walk with Christ, we are desiring God to restore our first love. Whether we feel or don't feel, whether we get an encounter or no personal encounter, that is not the point. We are not fasting to "get something" from God, we already are everything in Christ. We are simply fasting to grow in our dependency and mature in our intimacy with our loving Savior Jesus. It is an act of humility and spiritual hunger for God's presence, knowing that as we fast, pray and spend time meditating upon His Word and being wasted in His presence, being obedient to His voice, He is doing something deep in us, more than words can explain. Whether we feel or don't feel, change is happening in our inner man through the invisible work of the Holy Spirit.

In His presence there is fullness of joy, for in His presence we are SATISFIED IN JESUS. Passion Church family, let us press on to the upward calling in Christ Jesus. Let us never forget the SIMPLICITY OF DEVOTION TO CHRIST and the purity of the GOSPEL we know and preach.

Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Meditate this moment on how much God loves you. He really does. He doesn't just love you, HE LIKES YOU and enjoys being with you at this very moment, The work is finished, we no longer have to strive, work or labor for love or acceptance. We are dearly loved and forever accepted, we are forgiven and made new creations in Christ. This is the Good News we share, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and by knowing Him we have eternal life!

I love you all deeply family, forgive me for pursuing a vision for revival, more than knowing Him. May our lives be forever wrecked by His great love for us. I can't wait to get to know Him more in the morning and throughout the day :) amen.

Pursuing Him,

Jaeson

The video above is a collage of our passion church zero family, one of the simple churches on campus that I'm a part of. They really are my family, they are in essence my revival, and together we are all praying to get our hearts back :) From there, "Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!" (Ps.67)