When God puts things back in order, revival does not begin with better intentions or familiar church habits. It begins when His people place themselves under the authority of His Word again. In the closing message of a three-week series on revival, Pastor Léveillé turned to King Josiah and the rediscovery of the Book of the Law. Jacob had to bury what he could not carry to Bethel. Hezekiah had to reopen the temple doors that his father had shut. Josiah had to bring an entire nation back under the book that had been lost in the house of the Lord.
The temple was being repaired because it had fallen into disrepair. During the work, Hilkiah the priest found “a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses” (2 Chronicles 34:14). For years the people had kept the outward forms of religion while the voice that was meant to govern those forms had gone silent. God’s Word had not changed. The people had. The same is true today. Scripture remains settled. Lives drift. Revival requires that we measure ourselves by what God has actually said rather than by what we have grown accustomed to.
Put God’s Word Back Where You Can Hear It
Josiah had already begun to seek the Lord and to purge idols from the land. He had even started the temple repairs. Those were good steps. They were not enough. The people still needed to hear the book itself. Shaphan the scribe carried it to the king and “read it before the king” (2 Chronicles 34:18). Only then did the distance between God’s standard and the nation’s practice become unmistakable.
It is possible to keep the structure of worship while losing the voice that is supposed to govern it. A building can still say “church” on the sign. Priests, kings, and festivals can continue. None of that guarantees that the Word of God is being heard and obeyed. Pastor Léveillé recalled a church in the northeastern United States whose front steps had crumbled and whose door was marked with yellow tape that read “Danger, Do Not Cross.” Appliances sat unused on the lawn. Worshippers simply walked around to the back, crossed the basement, and climbed a rear staircase. Years later nothing had been repaired. Kind people had grown used to the brokenness.
The same thing happens spiritually. Relationships stay fractured. Habits stay unchallenged. Time in Scripture grows scarce. People say, “This is just how I am,” or “This is how we have always done it.” The measuring stick cannot be a pastor’s preference, a congregation’s customs, or personal sincerity. God has already told His people how to treat a spouse, how to raise children, how to live toward the church, and how to seek the lost. That standard is found in the Bible.
Access to Scripture is easier now than it was for Josiah. Many carry a Bible in a pocket or on a phone. Yet the book can still sit unopened on a shelf or unused among apps. Listening to a favourite preacher or podcast is not the same as hearing God speak from His own Word. John Wycliffe and his helpers copied the Scriptures into English so ordinary people could encounter them. A woman from the Congo once received her first Bible as a teenager in Kinshasa and later wept when she was given an identical copy to pass to her son. She had attended church for years without reading the Word for herself. Put the book where it can be heard. Read it daily. Bring it to church. Ask what God is saying, what promise is to be claimed, and what warning is to be heeded. Parents must make Scripture part of the home rather than a tool used only to settle arguments.
Let God’s Word Correct What You Have Accepted
When Josiah heard the words of the law, “he rent his clothes” (2 Chronicles 34:19). The gesture expressed intense grief. The nation’s worship, its treatment of the poor, its festivals, and its daily life did not match what was written. He did not excuse the past by saying the fathers had meant well. He sent men to inquire of the Lord. Through Huldah the prophetess the Lord confirmed coming judgment, yet He also spoke mercy to Josiah because “thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God” (2 Chronicles 34:27).
A tender heart is indispensable. When Scripture exposes a temper that has been excused for decades, a habit that has been tolerated, or a way of treating family that falls short of God’s command, the response must not be, “This is just who I am.” Josiah could not rewrite Judah’s history, but he could respond rightly to what he had heard. John Bunyan, as a young man, once heard a sermon on keeping the Lord’s Day. Conviction rose, then faded as he returned to his usual pleasures. Later that same day, while playing a game called Cat, the weight of God’s Word stopped him mid-turn until he yielded his heart. Living out of line with Scripture should never feel comfortable to a believer.
The first songs many children learn include the plea, “Saviour, while my heart is tender, I would give Thee every part.” That prayer remains necessary. Activity alone is not faithfulness. Faithfulness is measured by whether life lines up with the Word.
Bring Your Life Into Line With God’s Word
Josiah did not keep the discovery private. He gathered the elders and the people, read the book of the covenant in their hearing, and “stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and with all his soul” (2 Chronicles 34:31). He then caused those present to stand to the same covenant and removed the abominations from the land. “All his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers” (2 Chronicles 34:33).
True response does not remain hidden. A person who decides to live differently usually makes it known at home, at work, or among friends. Speech changes. Priorities change. Neglected relationships receive a concrete step of obedience. James warns against the person who looks in the mirror of the Word and then walks away unchanged. Jesus compared the one who hears His words and does them to a man who built on the rock; the one who hears and does not do them built on sand, and the house fell (Matthew 7:24-27).
The order in Josiah’s story is clear. The Word was read. The king humbled himself. Then he acted. Transformation occurs in the application. One practical step taken the same day God speaks is better than a vague intention left for later.
None of this is the way to heaven. Right living does not earn salvation. “The way to heaven is simply by confessing that you have sinned and placing your confidence in Jesus Christ alone as your Saviour.” Once a person receives Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells within and supplies the power to bring life into line with Scripture. Without that new birth, attempts at moral alignment offer no biblical hope.
Revival still requires the same three movements. Put God’s Word back where it can be heard. Let it correct what has been accepted. Bring life into line with what it says. The book has not changed. The invitation is to come back under it.
