The cost of revival [in a great depression].

I am no prophet, but I think I know when to quote one. Now is such a time. Joel was prophesying a famine, a time of economic hardship. Such a time is on us now: we are in the middle of a great depression that started with the implosion of the mortgage market in the USA about eight years ago and has not yet resolved itself.

Some countries have managed to weather the storm so far: NZ is one of them. But NZ is but a chip in the ocean, and as China moves into a property bubble and economic collapse we are finding the prices for the agricultural products we make are falling, and our economy is contracting.

And heaven help those who make electronic goods, or toys. The rich can (and will) afford them: but you cannot eat an iphone or a camera lens.

Joel tells us what the duty of the church is at this time, and it has nothing to do with saying things are nice or right, or increasing our self esteem.

It is about revival: you know this has happened when the local men, with power, are weeping and confessing their sins. In public.

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God?

Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.

Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, “Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

Then the LORD became jealous for his land and had pity on his people. The LORD answered and said to his people, “Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.

(Joel 2:12-19 ESV)

Revival begins with horror. With shame. With a deep awareness of how far we have fallen, and a recollection of where we once were. It is a fruit of the spirit: Joel could preach as much as he could, but it took the rulers of the nation to proclaim a fast, to rend not their garments as a form of political theatre, but their souls.

To confess their wrongdoing and plead for God’s mercy. To see this economic troubles as just and fair: we exploited the poor with an encouragement they mortgage their lives for a cheap house and cheaper education, and now we are shocked that these people, under a great burden of debt, choose not to pay for they would rather their families are fed.

Now, I see the collapse of the next bubble coming, and that will be one of federal and local debt: the US is mightily in debt, but so is the EU, and China is trying to hide the collapse of a property market right now. I look in my inbox and the spam has increased, as has the number of sales from companies I have used previously. They are getting louder: they are finding it harder to shift inventory. I am seeing shops close and not reopen.

What should we do in this time? Get our debt as low as possible, yes. Keep our jobs as long as possible, yes. But we should be praying and reforming ourselves, in the hope that there will be revival, and the West will reform itself, as it has done previously.

But we should not delude ourselves. Revival never feels nice, because we have surrounded ourselves with so many pretty lies, and the Spirit strips them away. And what we see then should repel us, and drive us to our knees.