How to Do a Powerful Spiritual Reset in 2 Steps
Starting in late February 2020, during Lent, our church embarked on a sermon series called “Reset: Next Generation.” We sought God through congregational fasting about if and how the Holy Spirit wants our church to change. We found out later that many prophetic voices across Christendom in that same time period received similar words. Reset.
Then covid-19 hit. Talk about a reset! It is pretty much resetting the whole world, which is not necessarily a bad thing, although it’s certainly painful.
I am in no way playing down the seriousness of covid-19, or the tragedy that has played out all around the world, from China to South Korea to Iran to Italy to Spain to France to New York. Nor am I downplaying the longer-term danger of this hour, where dark forces in our government are testing using this opportunity to steer America toward socialism. If history is any teacher, surrendering “rights” for “security” is a good way to lose both.
But, except for our indirect voice in voting, those decisions are way above our paygrade for most of us. So while, yes, all of that is in play, I think God is doing something else on a grass roots level, where each of us lives as individuals. God is offering every church, and more importantly each of us individually, own personal “reset” during this season.
If we, the people of God, correctly discern this season and reset accordingly to the opportunity God is affording us now, then everything else will fall into place. Because all those “bigger” things are just made up of people. So if people will reset, the churches will reset in intimacy. The government will reset in righteousness. Corporations will reset in integrity. Society will reset in godliness. Resets in all the “big” things above our paygrade start with resets in us.
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land. – 2 Chronicles 7:14
The best thing about 2 Chronicles 7:14 is it doesn’t matter what the pagans do. It matters what God’s people do. If we take this opportunity to hear the Holy Spirit and reset our lives, God will take care of the rest and heal our land. I think God is inviting us to partner with him in ushering in the Third Great Awakening.
So how do we reset? We perform resets on our devices every day. I think we can learn a lot for this season by the way computers reset. In particular, here are two ways we can perform a godly reset during this golden opportunity.
1) What Memory Do You Need to Power Off?
We’ve all had the experience of working on a computer when either the power goes out or our laptop battery dies. Doh! I just lost all that work I didn’t save! In the computer industry, we have a saying: “There are two types of computer users: Those who have lost critical data, and those who are about to. Save often.”
When the power bounces and a computer resets, the first thing that happens is volatile memory is lost. Everything on the hard drive is still there, but whatever was actually inside the working memory of the computer is gone.
When God performed resets in the Bible, there is often something that needs to be forgotten. Not “forgotten” in the sense of “not remembered anymore”—it’s important to remember where we’ve come from and what God’s done for us so far. But “forgotten” in the sense of “not lived out anymore.”
For example, look at some of God’s resets in the Bible:
- Israel’s Deliverance from Egypt through Moses. The people of Israel needed to forget how to live under oppression as slaves. Their inability to forget that lifestyle caused a lot of problems.
- The Captivity in Babylon. God’s people needed to forget their godless, pagan practices and lifestyles.
- The Cross. The greatest reset in human history so far, we could now forget legalism.
- Jesus’ Return. Still to come, we will be able to forget injustice as he sets everything right.
What do you need to forget in your life? What godless lifestyle and/or practice do you need to leave behind? Going deeper, what pain is that thing medicating? What sin against you by someone else, what oppression, what injustice, does God want to heal?
2) Reset Your BIOS
When a computer boots up, the first program to execute is the BIOS, the Basic Input/Output System. Most computers display a splash screen while this is happening. A computer’s BIOS sets up the basic stuff it needs to operate—all the input/output devices, like the hard drive, the keyboard, the monitor, the mouse, the USB ports. A computer can’t do much without input or output. Neither can you.
In fact, all of a computer’s output, everything it does, is a function of the input it’s given. That’s why we say in the computer industry “GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out.” As humans, we work the same way.
Use this period of God’s reset to refresh your BIOS. What inputs are you allowing into your spirit? What media do you watch? What media do you listen to? The input you consume directly affects the output of your life, even if you don’t see it.
Often, tragically, we hold ourselves back from the fullness God has for us by the media we consume. Because we don’t experience that closeness to God, we don’t know what we’re missing. We think we’re fine but in reality we’re only living a shadow of what we could be.
Use this opportunity to re-evaluate all the media you consume, from video games to TV to movies to music. Don’t take anything for granted, but ask the Holy Spirit what that media looks like through God’s eyes.
One real simple litmus test for godly media: Does it contain or promote sex outside of marriage (between one man and one woman)?
If your favorite TV show has people sleeping together who aren’t married—or homosexual or transsexual characters where that lifestyle is portrayed as acceptable—watching that show is harming you. It doesn’t matter if the rest of the world is watching it. It’s moving you further away from God.
Does the music you’re listening to degrade women by reducing them to sex objects? Modern rap is notorious for this; although, there’s good rap out there too. Every generation has its unredeemed music. There’s a reason you’ve probably never heard the words to Glenn Miller’s 1940s hit “In the Mood.” You’ve probably only heard big bands play the instrumental version. Although the music is awesome, the words are straight lust.
Now I’m a musician, and I love secular music. There’s a lot of good stuff out there. So no legalism here, just fact. I’m just saying as the people of God, we need to be discerning about the media we allow ourselves to consume. Not to win brownie points on some legalistic checklist, but because it’s taking us further away from our lover-God.
The Question before Us
I believe, in this season of God’s reset upon the earth, he is wanting to launch the Third Great Awakening by drawing us back to himself. Will you turn off the TV, put down the headphones, silence your phone, and spend time with the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the God who loves you? Will you unplug for a moment and reset your life centered on Jesus? What an exciting time to be alive!
Hey Dave, thank you so much for your post. It is extremely insightful on its face but coupled with the Computer analogy, it is relatable to almost all Americans at this point. To some of us there was new information concerning the computer. The explanation of the computer processes made the analogy to the Christian life even more poignant.
The insights you routinely provide us with on this website are both informative and transformative!
God and you are helping with my reset.
Thanks my brother.
Thank you so much, Dan! I look forward to seeing what God does this season of reset.
I’m in middle of this experience in a BIG way. Just two weeks ago, I upgraded my computer’s OS because a software subscription I had no longer communicated with the OS I was on. After the upgrade, my computer worked fine … for 3 days. Then it shut down and couldn’t be rebooted fully. Turns out I didn’t have enough space on my hard drive for the new operating system. I ended up having to take it to Apple, and they completely wiped out my entire hard drive and all my memory, and set me up with a brand new OS that’s far superior to the one I was trying to install. Fortunately, I keep all my necessary files on the cloud, so those were safe. And anything that was on my computer were files I couldn’t even remember (so they must not be important), or they were a bunch of messages (emails) and files I meant to clean out and never did (’cause there was so much). There are SO many analogies here of God cleaning out my own “hard drive” and “memories” to make room for His new Operating System in my life, and how I couldn’t do it on my own.
But it gets better. Keeping my old computer with a new OS apparently wasn’t good enough. He wanted to take it a step further. A BIG step. Just a couple days after I was up and running again, I went to a coffee shop to work and decided to treat myself to a tall glass of ice coffee, something I never drink, but I decided to treat myself. No sooner had I sat down, ready to work, than I knocked the ice coffee and the ENTIRE thing spilled on my laptop. My computer was drenched! I immediately yanked it up, and cleaned it off, then cleaned off the table with rags I got from the front. I then did the worst thing I could do — turn it on while it was wet. It came on, slowly, stayed on for a bit with the spinning rainbow, then blipped out. Long story short, it died, but God is AMAZING! He made a way for me to get a brand new computer for an incredible price, with the Apple Care warranty. AND because of another blip that happened (my old router wouldn’t connect to the new technology), I got a new, killer router again at a crazy rate. All this speaks VOLUMES for what God is doing in my life! Not only a new operating system, but He’s giving ME (my soul) a whole new “computer” free of the old memories, patterns, and old “technology” that doesn’t work anymore. He’s also giving me a new “router” — improved, quicker, sharper way of connecting to HIM. It’s amazing. Not easy, by any stretch. I’m in the process still of Him doing the transformative RESET in me. But I can see what He’s doing, and I know it’s SAFE and GOOD. He’s SOOO INCREDIBLE!!
I love that, Michele, so great to hear from you! Wow, that is really taking this analogy to the next level. Thank you so much for your insight!
RESET love that word, that visual
Thank you Gloria!
The level of genius in your writings should not be underestimated, nor does it go unnoticed, Dave. There is an elegant balance between power and grace in this piece. I admire how artfully you draw in your readers to these inevitable, spiritually redemptive conclusions. May the Lord continue to bless you with keen wisdom and then multiply the distribution and impact of your ministry.
Thank you so much Eric! It’s great to hear from you.
Eric, yes! Exactly!! Powerful words Dave!
Thank you Anne!
Great Insightful and inspiring comments. They certainly resonate with me.
Thank you Dan! Great to hear from you.
Another good word Davideo. I can concur with God setting the stage within the church. Our church has been on the same thought. Thanks for sharing what God’s gives you.
Thank you Bruce! Ha ha, and you remember that old nick-name! It’s so encouraging to hear God’s saying the same thing across the country to other believers.
Thanks Dave, This is great material! Blessings to you both
<
Gillian
Thank you Gillian! Great to hear from you!