昨天，我們提到教會迫切需要復興，是因為它看重活動過於禱告，而今天我們會思考另一個問題，就是不自覺的專靠自己。我說「不自覺」是因為大部分基督徒都不知道自己有這種態度──可是他們確實是如此。

這種態度是來自，我們發現了為神工作能夠令自己感覺良好。剛開始的時候，我們看重的不是自己的感覺，而是所參與的事工的意義。然而逐漸的，我們就變得更專注於行動所帶來的良好感覺，事情的意義反而成為次要。你看到嗎，這就已經是本末倒置了；我們由倚靠神找到自己的意義，轉而倚靠自己、從所做的事情中來取得良好的感覺。你看到這當中的危險嗎？我們倚靠的東西與我們的生命連結起來，使它們發揮功用──那就成為我們的神。所以當人在專靠自己的時候，自己便成了神。

復興會改變這一切。在屬靈大覺醒的時期，不自覺的動機會被帶進意識中，人們會看到自己的本相。驕傲的人變得謙卑，自大的人變得謙遜，靠自己的人變為倚靠神。基督徒輔導員其中一個最艱難的任務，是幫助人們意識到自己是躲藏在「否認」的防衛機制背後，並使他們能夠從裡面走出來。有時這需要幾個月甚至幾年的時間，才能夠讓他們明白其中的道理；但是在復興的時候，神只需要一出手就能達成這目的。

Another issue in today's Church which makes the need for revival urgent is unconscious self-dependence. I say "unconscious" because most Christians do not know they have this attitude - but they do, nevertheless.

This is how it develops: we learn ways of doing things for God that make us feel good. At first, the more important thing is not the feelings we get but the significance of the task in which we are engaged. Gradually, however, we become preoccupied with the good feelings that our actions give us and the significance of what we are doing takes second place. Subtly the tables have been turned - we have moved from depending on God for our significance to depending on the good feelings we get from what we are doing. Can you see the danger in this? And whatever we depend upon to hold our lives together and make them work - that is our god. So it can be said that when self-dependence rules our hearts then we become god.

Revival would change all this. In times of great spiritual awakening unconscious motives are brought into consciousness and men and women see themselves as they really are. The proud become humble, the arrogant become unassuming, and the self-dependent become God-dependent. One of the most difficult tasks of a Christian counsellor is to help people realise how they are hiding behind the defence mechanism of denial and come out from behind it. It sometimes takes months, even years, to get that point across. In revival God does it in one fell swoop.