Preparing for Revival - Message 3: The Priority of Prayer
On February 18th of this year, the Lord spoke to me and said:
“Revival comes when My people finally get sick and tired of self and are willing to let go of all selfish desires and die, that my life might flow in them. Revival comes when there is a cry and a calling that leads to brokenness, repentance and absolute willingness to do what I require. Revival comes when my people turn away from all things temporal and become only satisfied with My Presence and My very Being. Revival is coming. Revival is on the way – prepare now for the coming of revival. Challenge your people to cry out and to call upon My Name. Seek Me above all else. I will bring the winds of renewal that create a revival of righteousness, healing, signs and wonders, increased faith and the outpouring of My miraculous nature. You will see this, cry out to me.”
As your pastor and friend am seeking to provide a spiritual framework that will enable you to experience revival in your walk with Christ.
Personally, I’ve never heard more clearly from God than I am in this season of my life. I’ve never felt more empowered to live as a member of God’s Kingdom than I do right now, and I’ve never hungered to fellowship with other believers who want the same thing like I do right now.
Praise God, I am having revival. But, I won’t be satisfied until you are too.
What does revival look like – and where does it lead to?
• Revival looks like brokenness – but it leads to healing!
• Revival looks like tears – but it leads to joy!
• Revival looks like sleepless nights of prayer – but it leads to peace and rest!
• Revival looks like anguish and sorrow – but it leads to comfort and rejoicing!
• Revival looks like a searchlight shining revealing every sin – but it leads to the righteousness of God!
• Revival looks like death – but it leads to abundant life!
When revival is happening…
• People weep over their sin.
• People grieve over their families.
• People hunger for the Word of God and the Hope it contains.
• People put aside lesser things and pursue that which is truly invaluable.
• People abandon selfish pride in pursuit of the humility that leads back to Christ.
When revival is breaking out…
• Sin is being freely confessed.
• Forgiveness is flowing like a river of mercy.
• Wounds are healing.
• Old bitterness peals away in favor of a new covering of the blood of Christ.
• Men turn away from lusts and return to their brides.
• Wives let go of the need to control and willingly follow their husbands towards Christ.
• Children find the security of two parents in love with one another and with Christ.
• Single people find that Christ is their mate!
• The church becomes a dynamic, living, flowing people where even the most mundane preaching is receiving with joy!
• The world is drawn to people in revival – and come to know Jesus as their Savior and Lord!
• Christ is exalted to the Highest place.
• The enemy is tied up and cast out.
Revival sounds good to me. How about you?
I’ve never experienced this kind of revival with a group of people – but I’d sure like to. How about you?
I’ve never been amongst a church that is more primed for revival than this one. So, what do you say? Shall we have a revival? Shall we enter into the flow? Shall we let go of the old in favor of the new life that Christ offers?
God has always used the people of Israel to accomplish His purposes. As you know, they – like us – frequently walked away from the Lord to serve lesser gods – but, He, being faithful, kept drawing them back to Himself. When David’s son Solomon became King of Israel, God gave Solomon the assignment to build the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. And build it he did.
After years of preparation, the day finally arrived when the Temple of the Lord would be dedicated. And at that dedication service – the Lord spoke through Solomon these instructions:
“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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
This is a recipe for revival. This is God’s way to insure that we will have His favor in our lives.
“My people – called by my name” – that’s us.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6:16:
“For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 2 Corinthians 6:16
That’s us. We have been called into a special relationship with the Creator of the Universe – and given that we are now the people of God – we ought to live like it!
God says - “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways…”
• Revival comes with the people of God get humble before Him.
• Revival comes when the people of God pray.
• Revival comes when the people of God seek His face.
• Revival comes when the people of God turn from their wicked ways.
There has never been a revival of God without a spirit of prayer from His people.
Famed evangelist R.A. Torrey said…
“Every real revival in the Church has been the child of prayer. There have been revivals without much preaching; there have been revivals with absolutely no organization; but there has never been a mighty revival without mighty praying. What we need more than anything else today in our own land and in all lands, is a real, mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God. The most fundamental trouble with most of our present-day so-called revivals is, that they are man-made and not God-sent. They are worked up by man's cunningly devised machinery-not prayed down. Oh, for an old-time revival, a revival that is really and not spuriously of the Pentecostal pattern, for that revival was born of a fourteen days' prayer-meeting. But let us not merely sigh for it. Let us cry for it, cry to God, cry long and cry loud if need be, and then it will surely come!...” R.A Torrey
If we are going to experience revival – personally and as a church family – it will be the result of our crying out to God in fervent prayer.
Listen to the Word of the Lord:
“But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 4:29
“Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” James 4:8-10
“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” Isaiah 55:6, 7
“He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Proverbs 28:13
What is God saying to us?
He is saying that He responds positively to people who cry out to Him with their need!
“This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.”
Isaiah 66:2
In fact, look again at 2 Chronicles 7:14
“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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
When we humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our sin – He responds.
He hears our prayers and our cries. Every parent knows the unique voice of their child. When you hear YOUR child call out “Mom” – or “Dad” – you instantly recognize their voice. And you respond. How much more will God respond to us? There is nothing more pleasant to Him that when our voices cry out to Him in humility, repentance and hunger!
And do you see what His response is? “I will forgive their sin and will heal their land…”
Forgive – to pardon. Pardon is defined: “To pronounce the official release of somebody who has committed a crime or other wrongdoing from punishment, or the official forgiving of a crime or wrongdoing.”
God says – “I forgive. I will not hold your wrongdoing against you. You are free from the punishment that is due you.”
What right does God have to forgive? The right was established when His Son died for the very purpose of forgiveness of sin. Sin is punishable by death, and death has been paid.
God says – “Forgiveness is yours by faith in my Son. Trust Him and what He did on the Cross. And you’ll have forgiveness.”
But, God doesn’t just forgive – 2Chronicles 7:14 also says…
“I will heal their land…”
God not only forgives, He heals. He comes back and does restorative work. He heals the land that has been ravaged by sin.
Many of your lives have been ravaged by sin – your relationships, your families, your health, your finances – have all been negatively impacted by your sin choices. And God says: “I will heal that land.”
That’s what revival does. It heals the land of our lives. God will heal your marriage. He will heal your family. He will heal your finances. He will heal your health.
I say that with confidence because it is God’s Will to Heal!
“Therefore this is what the LORD says: “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me…” Jeremiah 15:19
This is His nature. He restores what is broken back to original condition!
Revival comes when GOD’S PEOPLE PRAY.
Do you want revival? Do you want God’s restorative powers to work on your behalf? Doesn’t your family need this? Doesn’t your marriage need this? Doesn’t your soul need this?
Instinctively you know that I am right. Instinctively there is something welling up within you right now as I speak these words – you are saying: “Yes! This is exactly what I long for!”
That’s the Holy Spirit within speaking to your innermost spirit.
Listen to the Word of the Lord in Galatians 4:6…
“Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”” Galatians 4:6
God put His Spirit in your spirit to enable you to call out to God! You don’t have to know how to pray – you don’t have to know what to say – you don’t have to be able to string lovely sentences together – just pray and trust the Holy Spirit to pray for you!
Romans 8:26 says…
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” Romans 8:26
Right now – trust God that His indwelling Holy Spirit will help you to pray properly! Trust God that His indwelling Holy Spirit will enable you to pray effectively! Trust God that His indwelling Holy Spirit will empower you to pray in such a way that revival will occur in your life!
Close your eyes – get quiet before God – SILENCE – do you want revival? Do you want to move in close to God? Do you want to live differently? To live right with Him? Is the answer to my questions “Yes!”
Now – simply open your mouth and begin to pray aloud – it doesn’t have loud – but begin to cry out verbally to God.
God says to you in this moment: “I am the LORD your God... Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.” Psalms 81:10
Now, cry out to God in faith. Cry out to God in repentance. Cry out to God for revival.
Revival is coming. Revival is happening. Revival is mine. Revival is yours. Now, let’s continue to cry out to Him – individually and as a church family.
Praise the Lord!
“Revival comes when My people finally get sick and tired of self and are willing to let go of all selfish desires and die, that my life might flow in them. Revival comes when there is a cry and a calling that leads to brokenness, repentance and absolute willingness to do what I require. Revival comes when my people turn away from all things temporal and become only satisfied with My Presence and My very Being. Revival is coming. Revival is on the way – prepare now for the coming of revival. Challenge your people to cry out and to call upon My Name. Seek Me above all else. I will bring the winds of renewal that create a revival of righteousness, healing, signs and wonders, increased faith and the outpouring of My miraculous nature. You will see this, cry out to me.”
As your pastor and friend am seeking to provide a spiritual framework that will enable you to experience revival in your walk with Christ.
Personally, I’ve never heard more clearly from God than I am in this season of my life. I’ve never felt more empowered to live as a member of God’s Kingdom than I do right now, and I’ve never hungered to fellowship with other believers who want the same thing like I do right now.
Praise God, I am having revival. But, I won’t be satisfied until you are too.
What does revival look like – and where does it lead to?
• Revival looks like brokenness – but it leads to healing!
• Revival looks like tears – but it leads to joy!
• Revival looks like sleepless nights of prayer – but it leads to peace and rest!
• Revival looks like anguish and sorrow – but it leads to comfort and rejoicing!
• Revival looks like a searchlight shining revealing every sin – but it leads to the righteousness of God!
• Revival looks like death – but it leads to abundant life!
When revival is happening…
• People weep over their sin.
• People grieve over their families.
• People hunger for the Word of God and the Hope it contains.
• People put aside lesser things and pursue that which is truly invaluable.
• People abandon selfish pride in pursuit of the humility that leads back to Christ.
When revival is breaking out…
• Sin is being freely confessed.
• Forgiveness is flowing like a river of mercy.
• Wounds are healing.
• Old bitterness peals away in favor of a new covering of the blood of Christ.
• Men turn away from lusts and return to their brides.
• Wives let go of the need to control and willingly follow their husbands towards Christ.
• Children find the security of two parents in love with one another and with Christ.
• Single people find that Christ is their mate!
• The church becomes a dynamic, living, flowing people where even the most mundane preaching is receiving with joy!
• The world is drawn to people in revival – and come to know Jesus as their Savior and Lord!
• Christ is exalted to the Highest place.
• The enemy is tied up and cast out.
Revival sounds good to me. How about you?
I’ve never experienced this kind of revival with a group of people – but I’d sure like to. How about you?
I’ve never been amongst a church that is more primed for revival than this one. So, what do you say? Shall we have a revival? Shall we enter into the flow? Shall we let go of the old in favor of the new life that Christ offers?
God has always used the people of Israel to accomplish His purposes. As you know, they – like us – frequently walked away from the Lord to serve lesser gods – but, He, being faithful, kept drawing them back to Himself. When David’s son Solomon became King of Israel, God gave Solomon the assignment to build the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. And build it he did.
After years of preparation, the day finally arrived when the Temple of the Lord would be dedicated. And at that dedication service – the Lord spoke through Solomon these instructions:
“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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
This is a recipe for revival. This is God’s way to insure that we will have His favor in our lives.
“My people – called by my name” – that’s us.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6:16:
“For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 2 Corinthians 6:16
That’s us. We have been called into a special relationship with the Creator of the Universe – and given that we are now the people of God – we ought to live like it!
God says - “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways…”
• Revival comes with the people of God get humble before Him.
• Revival comes when the people of God pray.
• Revival comes when the people of God seek His face.
• Revival comes when the people of God turn from their wicked ways.
There has never been a revival of God without a spirit of prayer from His people.
Famed evangelist R.A. Torrey said…
“Every real revival in the Church has been the child of prayer. There have been revivals without much preaching; there have been revivals with absolutely no organization; but there has never been a mighty revival without mighty praying. What we need more than anything else today in our own land and in all lands, is a real, mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God. The most fundamental trouble with most of our present-day so-called revivals is, that they are man-made and not God-sent. They are worked up by man's cunningly devised machinery-not prayed down. Oh, for an old-time revival, a revival that is really and not spuriously of the Pentecostal pattern, for that revival was born of a fourteen days' prayer-meeting. But let us not merely sigh for it. Let us cry for it, cry to God, cry long and cry loud if need be, and then it will surely come!...” R.A Torrey
If we are going to experience revival – personally and as a church family – it will be the result of our crying out to God in fervent prayer.
Listen to the Word of the Lord:
“But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 4:29
“Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” James 4:8-10
“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” Isaiah 55:6, 7
“He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Proverbs 28:13
What is God saying to us?
He is saying that He responds positively to people who cry out to Him with their need!
“This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.”
Isaiah 66:2
In fact, look again at 2 Chronicles 7:14
“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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
When we humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our sin – He responds.
He hears our prayers and our cries. Every parent knows the unique voice of their child. When you hear YOUR child call out “Mom” – or “Dad” – you instantly recognize their voice. And you respond. How much more will God respond to us? There is nothing more pleasant to Him that when our voices cry out to Him in humility, repentance and hunger!
And do you see what His response is? “I will forgive their sin and will heal their land…”
Forgive – to pardon. Pardon is defined: “To pronounce the official release of somebody who has committed a crime or other wrongdoing from punishment, or the official forgiving of a crime or wrongdoing.”
God says – “I forgive. I will not hold your wrongdoing against you. You are free from the punishment that is due you.”
What right does God have to forgive? The right was established when His Son died for the very purpose of forgiveness of sin. Sin is punishable by death, and death has been paid.
God says – “Forgiveness is yours by faith in my Son. Trust Him and what He did on the Cross. And you’ll have forgiveness.”
But, God doesn’t just forgive – 2Chronicles 7:14 also says…
“I will heal their land…”
God not only forgives, He heals. He comes back and does restorative work. He heals the land that has been ravaged by sin.
Many of your lives have been ravaged by sin – your relationships, your families, your health, your finances – have all been negatively impacted by your sin choices. And God says: “I will heal that land.”
That’s what revival does. It heals the land of our lives. God will heal your marriage. He will heal your family. He will heal your finances. He will heal your health.
I say that with confidence because it is God’s Will to Heal!
“Therefore this is what the LORD says: “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me…” Jeremiah 15:19
This is His nature. He restores what is broken back to original condition!
Revival comes when GOD’S PEOPLE PRAY.
Do you want revival? Do you want God’s restorative powers to work on your behalf? Doesn’t your family need this? Doesn’t your marriage need this? Doesn’t your soul need this?
Instinctively you know that I am right. Instinctively there is something welling up within you right now as I speak these words – you are saying: “Yes! This is exactly what I long for!”
That’s the Holy Spirit within speaking to your innermost spirit.
Listen to the Word of the Lord in Galatians 4:6…
“Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”” Galatians 4:6
God put His Spirit in your spirit to enable you to call out to God! You don’t have to know how to pray – you don’t have to know what to say – you don’t have to be able to string lovely sentences together – just pray and trust the Holy Spirit to pray for you!
Romans 8:26 says…
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” Romans 8:26
Right now – trust God that His indwelling Holy Spirit will help you to pray properly! Trust God that His indwelling Holy Spirit will enable you to pray effectively! Trust God that His indwelling Holy Spirit will empower you to pray in such a way that revival will occur in your life!
Close your eyes – get quiet before God – SILENCE – do you want revival? Do you want to move in close to God? Do you want to live differently? To live right with Him? Is the answer to my questions “Yes!”
Now – simply open your mouth and begin to pray aloud – it doesn’t have loud – but begin to cry out verbally to God.
God says to you in this moment: “I am the LORD your God... Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.” Psalms 81:10
Now, cry out to God in faith. Cry out to God in repentance. Cry out to God for revival.
Revival is coming. Revival is happening. Revival is mine. Revival is yours. Now, let’s continue to cry out to Him – individually and as a church family.
Praise the Lord!
posted by Doug Love at 11:02 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home