Revival has been
on my heart, and I believe revival is what the church in America needs desperately. Not only do we need revival, but the
world needs to see us come alive and be the Church…to be salt and light.
When is the last
time our presence, speech and behavior made someone thirsty for more of Jesus
Christ? That’s what it means to be salt. Can they see Jesus more clearly by being with
us? That is being light. Our commission is to share the gospel with
the world and show them it has made a difference in us. They need to see real Christianity in
action! Where is our passion for Christ? Not for programs, personalities or
activities, but for the Person of Jesus?
Where is our compassion for lost souls?
Where is our sense of awe and wonder of God’s majesty?
We need
revival! When you think ‘revival’, don’t
think of a series of meetings with a dynamic evangelist. Instead, picture a cold, dead body suddenly
having warmth flow back into it and life returning to every part, causing it to
rise up and live again! That’s what the
word ‘revive’ means - to return to life; to be renewed or refreshed; to
reawaken. We need a fresh wind of God’s
Spirit to blow through us and cause us to return to life.
Most churchgoers
are content to carry out the routine performances expected of them on a weekly
basis. But the expectations of God are MUCH, MUCH more than that. If the Bible is not our guide for living, we
are following another gospel. If we are
not following the leading of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis, we are not a
follower of Jesus Christ. Jesus sent the
Holy Spirit to guide us, teach us and enable us, just as He had done for His
disciples while He was on earth. To
follow His Spirit is to follow Jesus.
The book of
Nehemiah provides numerous insights on revival that bring about a permanent
change, not just for a season. God used
Nehemiah to lead the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem. It didn’t just automatically happen. Before the people of God rose up to do it,
some things had to change. Jerusalem had
no walls, and a city without walls was vulnerable to their enemies, wild animals
and the ridicule of those around them.
When we are not actively walking in the Spirit, we are vulnerable to the
wiles of the devil. We won’t have the
power to stand against him.
The first thing
this group in Jerusalem needed was to acknowledge how critical and urgent their
situation actually was. They were
existing, but not really living. They
weren’t looking or acting like God’s people.
Meanwhile, back
in Babylon, Nehemiah was carrying out his duties as the cupbearer to the king,
but being a Jew from Jerusalem, his heart remained in Jerusalem. So when his relative Hanani and some other
men came from Jerusalem to visit him, he asked how the Jews in Jerusalem were
doing.
He didn’t get
the old standard: “We’re fine” or “We’re doing alright.” Nehemiah got the unvarnished truth from
them. In Nehemiah 1:3, they told him, “The remnant that are left of the captivity
there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of
Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with
fire.”
They explained
the situation just like it was. They could have covered up what was wrong by bringing
up only the things that were right, but they didn’t. A city’s wall was its symbol of strength…or,
in this case, its weakness. Jerusalem
was not the glorious city she had been even though the Temple had been
rebuilt. That’s just how it was. We have to face things as they are before we
can correct them. We can’t make excuses
or polish it up.
When we admit
our need for change it’s like taking the first step in a series of steps
leading to freedom…ours and others’. Step #1 is to see things as they are
and admit we are far from God’s design.
We may be living in God’s design in some areas, but we need to face the
areas where we are lacking and set ourselves up for change.
Charles
Grandison Finney was the leader of the Second Great Awakening in the United
States in the 1800’s. He knew what it
took to bring about true revival and lasting change. Not just a stirring of emotions, but a deep
inner change bringing spiritual maturity.
He said, “A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to
God.”
Obedience. That first requires knowing what is
expected. It requires reading the Word
of God and accepting it just as it is written, not the way we have rewritten it
over the years to accommodate our culture. As we read God’s Word, we should
compare it to our personal beliefs and behavior to see any changes we need to
make. We can ask, “Does that describe
me?” If not, we need to change…Because
God’s Word will never change!! If we
have fallen away in any area, we need to be honest enough to admit it, repent
and return to what God says about it.
When we do that, we have taken the first step. As long as we believe what we have is enough,
that it’s okay, we will not have a new beginning.
Sometimes it
seems the American church is so far from the teachings of Jesus and the example
of the early church that it’s discouraging, and we can feel there is nothing we
can do about it. But we can begin to
change it by experiencing revival one heart at a time, beginning with our own. After all, the church is made up of
individual members. When one member sees
the need for change and acts on it, one fire begins to burn. That fire can light another, then another,
until there are fires everywhere. That’s
how revival is. It spreads from one
person to another.
So now Nehemiah
knew the truth about Jerusalem and the people he loved. What was his response to the sad news? He didn’t say, “It can’t be THAT bad!” or
“Well, I‘m just one man and I live too far away to make any difference.”? He would never have accomplished anything
that way. Neither do we. As long as we excuse ourselves and wait for
somebody else to do it, we will not see revival. Why wait for someone else when we can start
now?
Nehemiah began to pray.
In Nehemiah 1:4, it says “And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that
I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before
the God of heaven”. You may want to read his prayer. It is recorded in the first chapter of
Nehemiah, verses 5-11. It is filled with repentance, sorrow, reminders to
God of His covenant with His people, confessions of their failure to keep
covenant with God, and asking for forgiveness, for renewal, for revival…for a new beginning of obedience to God.
Step #2 is prevailing in prayer. The recorded revivals in history began
with and were sustained by prayer. Often
they started with just two or three people praying…usually in obscurity at first. But once the fire begins to fall, it cannot
be hidden! Jesus said in Matthew
18:19-20 – “Again I say unto you, That if
two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it
shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together
in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Here is Charles
Finney’s perspective of the connection between prayer and revival: “A
revival may be expected when Christians have a spirit of prayer for a revival.
That is, when they pray as if their hearts were set upon it. When Christians
have the spirit of prayer for a revival. When they go about groaning out their
hearts desire. When they have real travail of soul.”
We spend ourselves, our time, our money, our thoughts and our
energy on whatever is important to us. My question is this: Do we want revival? Is that the desire of our hearts? Some may pay the price and pray, but few will
follow that course because prayer requires more than a little time and a few
words. It requires our hearts. It requires our persistence, our energy. It requires laying aside the things of this
world to lay hold on the purpose of God.
We say we want to see a revival. If we really
want to see it, we will act on it.
We can be the catalyst if we are serious about taking these first steps.
James 5:16-18 mentions steps 1 and 2 and the results. “Confess your faults one to another, and
pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much. Elias was a
man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might
not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six
months. And he prayed again, and the
heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”
Prevailing,
effectual, fervent prayer brings results.
Prevailing prayer is prayer
that won’t let go until we hear from God, until He blesses us. Remember when Jacob wrestled with God and
said, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.”? God blessed him. He gave him the same promise He had given to
Abraham and Isaac. He changed his name
from Jacob (supplanter, schemer, trickster) to Israel (Prince with God,
Contender with God). That was through
prevailing prayer…prayer that overcomes!
Jacob overcame who he had been and rose to a new live and a new covenant
with God.
Effectual prayer is prayer that has power to get
results…there are effects from it. It’s
active and sees the answer come to pass.
Fervent prayer –is “white hot prayer”, a prayer
that is zealous for God and for His will to be done in this earth as it is in
heaven. It removes ‘self’ from the
equation and comes into conformity to the mind of God.
In those hours
of prayer, God will change our hearts and desires. He will change who we are and our
priorities. AND He will direct us. He will give us a vision – His vision. Then
we simply obey Him.
When Nehemiah
prayed, God obviously gave him a plan to approach the king, because he came
through those days of prayer with a plan in his mind. Once he had the plan, Nehemiah obeyed
God. When he saw results, he didn’t say,
“look what I have accomplished!” He
declared that it came about because “The good hand of my God was upon me.”
Prevailing,
effective, fervent praying leaves no room for pride, because when we enter into
God presence, we see how weak we are and how strong God is. So we pray until we conform to God’s will, He
shows us His plan, and we see the next step.
Then we take it.
Step #3 is to obey Him. We must believe from the first moment of
prayer, God is working, but we are not to step out until we have heard from
God. Long before we see the breakthrough
with our physical eyes, God may show it to us in the Spirit.
Mark Batterson
likens the Old Testament watchmen to those who prevail in prayer. Those watchmen had a place on the wall where
they could see farther than others and they could see people approaching
(whether friend or foe) before others could.
Those who pray often have this same insight from the Holy Spirit. Never doubt that God is doing the work. Our prayers can even change the heart of
kings!
As Nehemiah
prayed and stepped out, there was an amazing turn of events, a miraculous turn
of events. Not only was the king
allowing Nehemiah to leave his position in Babylon for an extended period of
time, he was sending him to Jerusalem with an entourage and providing the
materials to rebuild the walls!
Step #4 is to expect the provision of God, then
accept it when it comes, and operate in it. Only through continued prayer and the guidance
of the Holy Spirit can we do that. Accomplishing
what God calls us to do can overwhelm us if we try to do it in our own
strength. We need to stay closely
connected to Jesus, listening to the voice of His Spirit every step of the way
and following through the power He gives.
Nehemiah
continued to be a man of prayer, not only when he first heard the news, but
through every step of building the wall.
We never stop doing any of the steps as we go along, we just keep adding
on. To awareness and confession, add
prayer, obedience and operating in the Holy Spirit.
Step #5 is a rather unpleasant part of revival,
but it is necessary to recognize it. We
must be aware of adversaries. Any time
the church rises up and returns to life, there will be adversaries just as
Nehemiah had adversaries who came against him.
We have to be aware of them and guard against them, but never stop
“building on the wall”!
Can you imagine
the apostles calling a meeting and saying “This persecution is getting out of
hand. We are going to have to stop the
work of the Kingdom of God long enough to get rid of this persecution, then we
can start back with God’s work.” Not
hardly! They never even let it slow them
down. When they were put in prison, they
had a worship service in there! We don’t
need to stop working in God’s kingdom so we can march against a cause. We need to be aware of the enemy’s devices,
but we need to keep our focus on Jesus, not the propaganda of man or the enemy.
Revival…real
revival….is within our grasp, but we have to reach out for it with a firm
hand. It takes the whole body of Christ
raising the torch of the gospel for the world to see. Remember, even Hanani played a part in the
whole when he brought the bad news to Nehemiah.
If he had covered up the bad news, Nehemiah would probably have never
gone to Jerusalem to raise the walls.
Hanani’s part was the catalyst for revival in Jerusalem!
God wants His
people to rise up above mediocrity and seek Him. He wants us to care about the lost and those
in need. He is waiting to hear from
us. If your heart burns with a desire
for God’s Spirit and you see the great need for revival, begin to pray.
I challenge you
to join yourself with a few people who have a vision for revival and begin to
pray together…really pray! Pray those
prevailing, effectual, fervent prayers.
The ones that bring results and overcome. It’s time to stop talking about it and do
something. Can you imagine reaching the
end of our lives and seeing all the things we could have had and could have
accomplished if we had only prayed…but we didn’t?
Are we ready to
do what it takes to see revival in the Church in America? It can begin with us
today and spread to our community, our state, our nation, the world.
It can begin
today…with you!
