Salvation is Personal. REVIVAL IS FAMILY.

What if the key to revival was something so much simpler than we thought and can be discovered in Scripture from beginning to end? Family. Creation started with a family, the disciples changed the world by operating as a family, and the future revival we so desperately need will only come as we step into our identity as the family of God.

It all started with family. In the beginning, there was the Father and His Son, and with Their Spirit, they created all things. The Father deeply loved His creation who were made in His image. His family was perfect and complete, yet He desired to grow a family who would reflect His beauty, express His worth, magnify His glory, and, most importantly, love Him back. But creation chose selfish rebellion over the Father’s leadership and pushed Him away with their sin. So in the extravagance of His love, the Father gave His only begotten Son as a sacrifice so that creation could be forgiven and redeemed as sons and daughters! These adopted ones were to be brothers and sisters in His Son, co-heirs of His inheritance, and eventually fathers and mothers who could grow the family until the knowledge of the Father’s glory filled the earth. And at the end of the story, the Father’s ambition is for a family mature in love and united to His heart who He could give as a pure and spotless bride for His Son!

Salvation is personal. For each of us, our place in the family has little to do with our spiritual gifting, ministry accolades, or life achievements. Rather, our place in the family has much more to do with our willingness to surrender our will and our ambitions to our Father’s leadership and be yielded, emptied vessels that are fully His. To know that we are fully loved, fully received, and fully delighted in as beloved sons and daughters from our first day in Christ to our last day on Earth is the foundation of our faith. But the realities of intimacy with our Father, fruitfulness in His purposes, and impact with our lives does not just merely happen by being His children. We must set our hearts day-after-day to die to self and seek our Father’s face, year-after-year to love Him above all else, and decade-after-decade to not grow weary in pursuing righteousness nor drawing back from wholehearted pursuit. Our salvation must be so personal, and no one else — no matter how well-meaning, anointed, or generous — can impart to us their intimacy, knowledge, or history with God. We must be intentional to pursue our life in Him as our highest priority in the sweetest or most bitter of seasons. Only then will our lives produce lasting fruit that we can share with others, and only then will we be able to reflect His beauty, express His worth, and magnify His glory. (If there are areas of deficiency, compromise, or sin in your life that the Spirit is putting His finger on, I encourage you take a moment now to humble yourself, repent, and turn to our Father who delights in us even in our weaknesses.)

Revival is family. In the beginning, the Father declares, “It is not good that man should be alone” (Gen 2:18a NKJV). In His perfect design, we were made to experience being extravagantly loved by our Father, and in response, we would love Him back with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Yet, even in that greatest of love relationships, we are not complete — we were made for family. We are designed to have an all-consuming relationship with our Father in heaven that satisfies the depth of longing in our hearts. The overflow of this vertical union is meant to awaken and fuel longing for a horizontal union with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus summarizes all of the Law and the Prophets into two commandments: first, to love the Lord our God with all that we are, and secondly, to “love our neighbor as ourselves” (Matt 22:37-38). We are called to radically love those the Lord has put in our lives to the same degree of care and affection that we have for ourselves and for our closest loved ones. We are called to move from high-five acquaintances with those around us to deep, committed relationships — where our neighbor becomes our family.

In Acts 1, Jesus’ last instruction to His disciples was to wait together for the Promise of the Father to send His Holy Spirit to empower them to be His witnesses (Acts 1:4,8). They were to remain in Jerusalem, in proximity to those who conspired Jesus’ death, to tarry in expectant prayer until they received this promised baptism of the Holy Spirit. They had never experienced or led prayer without Jesus in the flesh. Nor had they any assurance whether they would be waiting 10 days or 10 years for the promised answer to their prayers. How disorienting this must have been! Jesus was calling them to move in together and to a lifestyle of fervent prayer together until they saw the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in their generation. Jesus’ earthly legacy was going to be this upper-room, praying family!

In their 10-day journey to Pentecost, the disciples had to learn how to seek the Lord together, how to do life together, and how to be united in heart and faith for this Promise of the Father. Acts 1 tells us how these 11 men who, not too long before, were quarreling and jockeying for position with Jesus and falling asleep at His late-night prayer meetings were now “with one mind continually devoting themselves to prayer” (Acts 1:14 NASB)! What a testimony! The Greek word here for “with one mind” is ὁμοθυμαδόν [homothymadon]. It is also translated “together” or “in one accord” and only appears 11 times in the New Testament, ten of which are in the book of Acts. Homothymadon describes the power of deep, unanimous agreement and how the Lord moves when there is unity and oneness in prayer (Acts 1:14), fellowship (Acts 2:46), worship (Acts 4:24), ministry (Acts 5:12), teaching (Acts 8:6), and leadership (Acts 15:25). Almost as significant as the revival and outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 was the disciples’ journey to becoming a family of one heart and one mind in Acts 1.

How did they get there? How did this ragamuffin band of diverse misfits achieve this level of deep unity and oneness? In Psalms 133, the psalmist describes, “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! ... For there the LORD bestows His blessing, even life forevermore” (Psalms 133:1,3 NIV). There is a Kingdom reality of brothers and sisters journeying together in homothymadon family that the Father sees and calls “good and pleasant,” and in response, He bestows a special blessing that the psalmist would compare to “life forevermore.” Wow! We need to learn how to recognize and practice what heaven delights in as good and pleasant.

I see three key elements of homothymadon family: (1) the consecrated life together, (2) the shared life together, and (3) the poured-out life together. The disciples learned how to die to self to seek and pursue the Lord together; they learned how to enjoy each other, be vulnerable, and struggle together; and they learned how to give themselves sacrificially in prayer, in service, and in ministry together. The 10 days in the upper room leading up to Pentecost was Jesus’ internship for His disciples to learn how to grow in homothymadon unity as a family in faith, in life, and in mission. The Father is truly “not hindered to save by many or by few” (1 Samuel 14:6). He is looking for those that would stand together in oneness in who He is, in who they are before Him, and in what He wants to do through them. He is looking for those who would persevere in prayer together without growing weary or drawing back until they witness the fullness of all that He desires to do in their day. The Father found faithful ones in these disciples whose hearts were fully His and upon whom He could pour out His Spirit and send forth as His witnesses.

Today, we too are called to this same reality of the early church: to be an upper-room, praying family bound to each other in the Spirit of God contending for another great awakening in our generation. Jesus’ prayer for us is that we “all may be one” even as the Father is in Jesus and Jesus in the Father, that we also may be in Them, so that the world may believe that the Father sent His Son (John 17:21). What an audacious possibility! That there is an ancient longing in our Father’s heart for His growing family in the earth, amidst all of our diversity and divisions, to be able to achieve the same homothymadon oneness as the Father and the Son! The fruit of this unity will be the testimony of Jesus going forth, and many coming to know His beauty, worth, and glory.

Unity is not the same as uniformity. The Father and Son are one but not the same. We do not need to be uniform in order to be united. In the famed words of Rupertus Meldenius, German Lutheran theologian of the early seventeenth century: “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity.” So often times, we settle for doing life and being family only with those who are most like us and who most agree with us. This mentality is the narrowest expression of family that does not cost us very much. The apostle Paul exhorts us to “let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor” (Romans 12:9-10 ESV). We are called to genuinely love those who may be least like us as brothers or sisters. And we are called to surpassingly honor and celebrate those who may greatly disagree with us as family. How do we do this? We need to be able to see our brothers and sisters in Christ — especially the ones that have different backgrounds, practices, traditions, and non-essential theology — through the eyes of heaven to be able to recognize and celebrate the treasures in earthen vessels. Our aim is the “unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). We need to grow past agreeing to disagree to the place of genuine love and honor for every part of the family of God. Only then can we come together as a united, upper-room, praying family in our city, in our nation, or in our generation. And only then can we, with one voice, call upon the name of the Lord together to rend the heavens and pour out His Spirit in our generation.

“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:1-4 NKJV)

Awakening is generational. On the 10th day, the Promise came! The disciples were once again together with one accord in expectant prayer, as had become their practice. Without warning, they experienced what must have sounded like a tornado in the midst of their upper room. Suddenly, flames of fire penetrated their thatched roof without destroying it and then proceeded to rest gracefully upon each of their heads. A large crowd of locals and visitors who were in Jerusalem for Pentecost began gathering around the upper room at the sound of this mighty, rushing wind. Bewildered and astonished, these visitors from around the world each heard their own native languages being spoken by these Galileans! Empowered by the Holy Spirit, Peter stepped out and boldly preached the Gospel of Jesus crucified and resurrected, and 3,000 people repented of sin and received the gift of the Holy Spirit! The long-awaited Promise of the Father for power to be witnesses of Jesus had finally arrived! This outpouring of the Holy Spirit was going to change everything. And these disciples would never be the same again.

“They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:42-47 NASB)

This upper-room family that started with 11 apostles moving in together and 120 disciples gathering daily in expectant prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit grew overnight into a megachurch of over 3,000 new believers as a spiritual awakening broke out! They developed a corporate lifestyle of devotion together in the Word, in prayer, in worship, and in fellowship. Awe and fear of the Lord marked this family as they saw the Lord move powerfully in their midst. Radical generosity became the family norm as those who were blessed with plenty sold their property and possessions in order to help provide for others who were in need! Day by day, thousands of these believers gathered together in homothymadonworship in the temple and then in homothymadon fellowship in each other’s homes. Imagine the number of people that filled these houses and the amount of food that was prepared to facilitate this daily fellowship! The sign and wonder of their homothymadonfamily practically living out the consecrated life, the shared life, and the poured-out life together in John 17 oneness resulted in many more witnessing the testimony of Jesus and being added to the family of God every day!

How was this inexperienced band of disciples able to overnight become effective leaders of a megachurch? The secret was family. What they practically learned from doing family and ministry with Jesus over three and a half years and what they practiced over 50 days between Passover and Pentecost, 40 with the resurrected Jesus and 10 in the upper room, were the scalable foundations for family that could endure rapid growth. The disciples had witnessed how Jesus spent the majority of His time and focus investing in twelve disciples rather than the multitudes. He had select moments of ministry to the crowds of four and five thousand, but He had a lifestyle of one-on-one, one-on-three, and one-on-twelve discipleship. When you survey the Gospels, you can find 242 instances of the Greek word μαθητής [mathetes] for disciple whereas you can only find 124 instances of ὄχλος [ochlos] for crowd or multitude — nearly twice as many! Jesus spent disproportionally more time investing in His core family of twelve rather than pursuing the seemingly strategic opportunities of gathering the large crowds.

Small is the new big. When revival broke out in Acts 2, the disciples led as they had witnessed and practiced: day-by-day gathering house-to-house for worship, prayer, fellowship, and discipleship. They had larger public moments together in the temple, but most of the ministry was happening subsequently in homes in the context of family. I can imagine the disciples beginning their days in the temple courtyard worshipping in unity and proclaiming the Good News of Jesus to any who had ears to hear. As they encountered individuals who were hungry and open to the Gospel, they would crowd into various homes together and continue the conversations around food. Daily, people were coming to faith in Jesus as they were witnessing the Gospel being lived out in these house-to-house family moments. And this pattern of house-to-house ministry only continued as the early church grew: “house to house” (Acts 2:46), “house to house” (Acts 5:42), “house after house” (Acts 8:3), Cornelius’ house (Acts 10:2), Mary’s house (Acts 12:12), jailer’s house (Acts 16:32), Lydia’s house (Acts 16:40), Titius Justus’ house (Acts 18:7), “house to house” (Acts 20:20), Aquila and Prisca’s house (Romans 16:5, 1 Corinthians 16:19), Nympha’s house (Colossians 4:15), and Philemon’s house (Philemon 1:2). The Greek word here for house οἶκος [oikos] can also be translated as “household” or “family.” The primary avenue for the Gospel to go forth with exponential growth in the early church was this family-based, home-group ministry model that the disciples had experienced with Jesus and were now replicating.

Family is the vehicle. If revival were to break out today and 10% of our cities were to come to Jesus, would the church infrastructures of our cities be able to handle an influx of hundreds of thousands of new believers? In a city of 1 million people, if the Holy Spirit moved and 100,000 people came to faith, what would the churches of the city do? Would churches double or triple their Sunday services en masse? Would they attempt to gather in arenas and stadium venues? Would they employ online discipleship strategies? Though all potentially viable, one Biblical approach would be guaranteed: mothers and fathers of our churches opening up their homes to disciple these new sons and daughters and to bring them into family. Though we have limited seating capacity in our sanctuaries and finite bandwidth for weekend services, we have an army of lay believers who have mostly attended church services and primarily volunteered in secondary ministry needs. We have yet to activate these treasures in our congregations and empower them to the core ministry of being fathers and mothers to the next generation. In Ephesians 4, Paul exhorts the leaders of the church:

“To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God… speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:12-13,15-16 ESV)

In most churches, 10% core of the congregation — primarily the pastors, staff, elders, and super volunteers — work really hard to make church happen. And 90% mostly spectate. What if it were flipped? What if the 10% mostly focused on equipping and empowering the 90% for the work of ministry to build up the body? What if the onus for pastoring, mentoring, praying for, and doing family with the new believers the Lord was adding to the church was carried by the 90%? How would that change our churches and ministries? And how would that prepare us for coming revivals? In order for our churches to prepare for rapid growth, we need to invite and give permission to the unactivated, lay congregants who have been spectating from the crowd to carry greater ownership for the congregation, to be fathers and mothers in the community, and to become a part of the core of the church who are equipping the saints for the work of ministry. In doing so, our churches and ministries will be better positioned to steward the exponential fruit of the coming spiritual awakenings of our day.

This is for us today. From local expressions of church life to broader expressions of ministry networks and movements, the invitation to rediscover this Acts 2:42-47 culture of family and lifestyle of prayer of the early church is as relevant and needed today as it was 2,000 years ago. Acts 2 is not merely a historic reality that is irreproducible. We must recover the Biblical wisdom of the homothymadon family doing the consecrated life together, the shared life together, and the poured-out life together. We must behold and reach for what heaven calls “good and pleasant” from the Biblical narrative of the Book of Acts and believe that the oneness Jesus prayed for is still possible and for us today. We need to put less emphasis on polished, attractional Sunday services and large, conference gatherings with big names and professional worship. Rather, we need to focus our efforts on slowing down and shifting our ministry cultures to build from the context of family — instead of ministry models that look more like hospitals, armies, or businesses. We need to learn to stop for the one and not be in a hurry. We need to learn to love well with no agenda and with nothing to gain. We must learn to not run when things get hard but to choose humility and work out conflicts. We need to grow in assuming the best, dying to self, and loving our neighbor as family. Only then will we be able to see the fullness of all that the Father desires to do through us as His family in the earth so that together we “may with one mind [homothymadon ] and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:6). May the Lamb receive the reward for His suffering in our generation as the Father prepares us to be a pure and spotless bride made ready for the coming marriage of the Lamb.