Jesus Revolution By Greg Laurie And Ellen VaughnSample

Day One

Hungry for Jesus

Scripture: Isaiah 64:5

The Jesus Revolution of the 1960s awakened many dead souls. Most of them had at least one thing in common: they were desperate. They’d sought peace, love, and community in the utopian visions of the day. They’d thought drugs would bring spiritual enlightenment, or sex would bring love, or music would bring community, or all those things would bring freedom. They had been disappointed by the counterfeits and were hungry for what was real. It was no casual thing when they discovered in Jesus the reality they’d been looking for.

Over time, what started as a spontaneous movement of the Holy Spirit among these flower children became more mainstream. The spiritual awakening among the unsaved became a revival among the saved. It wasn’t just an alteration in the trimmings of many churches and parachurch gatherings, like adopting casual dress or contemporary music, though those changes did happen. It was a deep hunger for the Bible itself, for prayer, fellowship, evangelism, and discipleship. 

God grants revival. He grants it to those who are humble enough to know they need it, those who have a certain desperate hunger for Him. Revival, after all, is not about human plans, programs, campaigns, or particular denominational movements. It comes from the real revolution that only God can bring.

Revolution means a sudden, radical, complete change in a structure in favor of a new system. Jesus touches our lives and radically transforms them from the inside out. The past is finished and gone, the new has come. We belong to Jesus and will see Him in Heaven when we die.

Revolution also means the act of revolving in a circle. It’s like the rolling of a wheel, revolving, returning to the same place, yet moving forward. So the Jesus Revolution, really, is not just a one-time, dramatic upheaval. It is also the process of an ongoing relationship with God. 

But in that continuing journey, we can grow cold, distant, and apathetic. We can lose the fire. Whether you’re a pastor or a person on the street, that’s the challenge. We all know so many, whether celebrated religious leaders or our friends or ourselves, who’ve lost that first love of Christ and drifted away. 

How do we keep it fresh?

Does your faith feel remote, like you’re going through the motions? What do you need to be restored or refreshed in your relationship with God? What are you spiritually hungry for?