"If my people, which are called by my name, shall 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 "
Have you seen empty Churches? Empty pews? Where are Gods people? Missing youngsters and children?
with so much pain and heart break in the world, we definitely need a revival - a return to God, His churches and to Jesus. And God knows it too.
God has designed revival to begin with his own people who are called by his name a people like you and me who have called on the name of Jesus.
What does God want? Here is where God lays down four demands.
His first call for his people is to humble ourselves. That's a much bandied word and few if any really know or do. So, how?
By recognizing and confessing our need to seek God in all things.
We need humility because we need to constantly guard against spiritual pride because spiritual pride results in self-centredness according to Hawkins.
In order to be truly humble à we need to bring a broken spirit before God. Secondly, we are to pray call out to God earnestly.
You know people prayer is warfare and that is why God is constantly looking for prayer warriors.
If we are to see true revival we need earnest and fervent prayer. Every true revival has been the result of fervent and earnest prayer.
I remember a time in India, a new Church had been founded and there were but 10 people coming. Every Sunday morning, much before the worship service, the Pastor used to go to the church and pray over the empty seats - asking God to fill them. In a few months the membership grew to over a 100 and today is about 900!
In last Sunday’s message we saw what happened when the early church prayed and when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the holy spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
For any revival to take place we must be filled with the Holy Spirit who will give us the courage to speak the word of God with boldness.
Thirdly God demands that we seek his face.
Hawkins holds that if we spent as much time in our prayers seeking god’s face as we do his hand to help us we would be much nearer to our own personal revival.
And finally we must turn from our wicked ways.
Unconfessed sin is unforgiven sin and this is the greatest obstacle to revival. Just confessing our sins and feeling sorry for them is not enough. We need to forsake them altogether because that is true repentance.
The final step in God’s recipe for revival is God’s delight.
God’s delight is forgiving the sins of his people if they are truly repentant and turn from their wicked ways.
His promise is he will hear from heaven and He will forgive our sin and He will heal our land.
God delights in healing our hearts and healing our homes and lives because it appropriates his sacrifice on the cross and does not render his death in vain.
He is willing He is waiting He is longing for us to call on his name in prayer and seek his face through his word and turn from our wicked ways so that he can fulfill his promise.
You know people prayer and revival go hand in hand.
There can be no revival without fervent and earnest prayer.
