A wicked king writing his own testimony

Pastor Devon Ortiz preached on Revive Us Again Sunday from Daniel 4, opening with the strange fact of who is actually narrating the chapter. Verse 1 is written by Nebuchadnezzar himself, king of Babylon, one of the most wicked rulers in scripture and a figure the pastor compared directly to the antichrist. Yet this is the same man declaring how great and mighty God's signs and wonders are, and that His kingdom is everlasting. The pastor's question set up the whole message: how does a man like that end up sounding like someone who has actually met God? The answer, he said, is personal revival.

The pastor briefly tied this back to an earlier message from Brother Mark Pareo on John 21, where the disciples' fruitless night of fishing became a picture of trying to feed on the wrong spiritual diet. Personal revival, the pastor said, starts with recognizing exactly that: what is actually strengthening you.

Pride refused to bend, so judgment came

The pastor summarized the chapter's earlier events: Nebuchadnezzar's dream, Daniel's reluctance to interpret it because it was bad news, a warning of seven years of lost sanity, and Daniel's plea in verse 27 for the king to break off his sins through righteousness and mercy to the poor so his tranquility might be extended. Twelve months passed. In verse 30, Nebuchadnezzar walks his palace and says aloud, is not this great Babylon that I have built for the honor of my majesty. Before the sentence finishes, a voice from heaven strips his kingdom from him, and he lives like a beast in the field eating grass for seven years, exactly as warned.

The pastor did not let the application stay in ancient Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar's downfall was pointing every achievement back to himself, building monuments in his own image, refusing to acknowledge God's sovereignty. The modern version, he said, looks like crediting a career, a degree, or a family entirely to personal effort while forgetting who actually gave the ability and mercy behind it. It looks like checking how a social media post performed, subtly steering conversations to be noticed, caring more about visibility than the actual relationship, until ministry quietly becomes performance. And it looks like a bad attitude the moment circumstances refuse to cooperate, since a consistently sour attitude is usually a sign of someone trying to control what was never theirs to control.

Three marks of personal revival

Lift your eyes to God first. Verse 34 says at the end of the days Nebuchadnezzar lifted up his eyes to heaven, and the pastor noted he had spent seven full years looking down at the ground before that happened. Revival starts the moment a person stops obsessing over themselves and starts magnifying God, which the pastor tied to Psalm 121's I will lift mine eyes unto the hills and Hebrews 12:2's looking unto Jesus. He was specific that this means actually opening scripture to let God work in the heart, not to collect a quotable line for a post.

Recognize and submit to God's sovereign control. Nebuchadnezzar's understanding returns in verse 34 the moment he blesses the Most High and acknowledges His everlasting dominion. The pastor pressed the congregation with a direct question: if God told you to change something today, would you actually do it? Most people would say yes out loud and mean no in practice, which is exactly why revival stays out of reach. He connected this straight to Romans 11:36, of him and through him and to him are all things, which he noted has been the stated theme of the church this year.

Humble yourself and respond immediately. Verse 37 has Nebuchadnezzar finally praising and extolling the King of heaven, a position that requires him to accept he is no longer the king of everything. The pastor connected this to James 4:10, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up, and added a hard test for real change: admitting fault is not enough without a concrete plan for what will actually be different, otherwise it is an empty promise. He also pushed against delay, citing Hebrews 3:15's today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, and asked the congregation to recall the last time conviction actually moved them to change something rather than just feel something.

Revival that has to be seen, not just felt

The pastor's final point returned to the opening verse: Nebuchadnezzar was not restored to stay quiet about it, he was restored to give God glory. He challenged the church's reluctance to talk about faith outside its own walls, from struggling to pray audibly in a restaurant to avoiding real spiritual conversation out of embarrassment or social anxiety. He illustrated the point with a long, playful picture of a favorite home-cooked meal, the kind whose aroma fills a house the moment it's ready, and asked why something as good as God gets left to sit quietly in the pot instead of filling the room.

He closed by distinguishing a real, lasting personal revival from a passing emotional high that fades within the hour, and drew a hard line between nominal Christians who fill a pew and leave unchanged and genuine Christ followers. Whatever a person walked in with that morning, distraction, obligation, or an actual hunger for God, the invitation was the same: leave different than you came in, because churchwide revival never happens without it first happening individually, one person at a time.