“What we need is a revival!” Maybe you’ve heard people say that, or maybe you’ve asked God for such an outpouring of the Holy Spirit for yourself or your community. But have you ever thought about what the Holy Spirit would do if the Lord were to answer your prayers?

For what did an anointing of the Holy Spirit mean for Jesus? Instead of the comfort and peace we crave, the Spirit drove Him out into the desert. Instead of a joyful, ecstatic experience of closeness to God, the Spirit directed him to spend forty days of fasting and being threatened by wild beasts. And even though angels were ministering to Him, the Spirit still allowed Him to be tempted by Satan.

And why did the Holy Spirit do all of those things? Because His main job is to not to make us happy, but to do what He does in verse 10: to bear witness to the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. For it was in the baptism of Jesus that we learn so much about Him: the Father speaks from Heaven, testifying to the fact that Jesus is His Son. But at the same time, the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus, thus clearly illustrating the fact that, although there are three Persons in the Holy Trinity, there is still only one God.

And that means that the Holy Spirit would never do anything that would go against the clear Word of God. So, if we expect a revival somehow to sweep away the difficult teachings of Christ, we are kidding ourselves. Moreover, we shouldn’t imagine that an infilling of the Holy Spirit would remove our need to do the hard work of repentance and faith, of devotion and discipleship, of evangelism and mission to which all Christians are called.

No, it is much more likely that a genuine encounter with the Holy Spirit will move us to a greater closeness to Christ, a more sincere belief in His Word, and a more fervent desire to live and love only in the way that He modeled for us. And just as in the days of His earthly ministry, saying what He says and doing what He does may very well bring us into opposition with all the forces of sin around us.

So, do you really want a revival? Do you really want to follow Jesus more consistently – no matter what?

Mark 1:9-13 (NASB)

9 And it came about in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
10 And immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him;
11 and a voice came out of the heavens: “Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well-pleased.”
12 And immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness.
13 And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.