How many times have you heard the word "revival" in the church over the past 30 years? Churches pray for revival while other churches plan a four-day revival. America needs a Revival or the Third Great Awakening to come soon. So many people ask me how the church of America, the church of today can have a great visitation for the Holy Spirit. I always simply reply that the recipe for revival is in the Bible!
2 Chronicles 7:14 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, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
Through this
very familiar Scripture, I want to point out two parts.
First, the
Lord says if you will 1) humble yourself, 2) pray, 3) seek my face and 4) turn
from your wicked ways, then He will do three things: 1) hear from heaven, 2)
forgive your sin and 3) heal your land.
The first
thing the Lord asks us to do is humble ourselves. Now in America there is so
much pride and arrogance that this would be a miracle in itself for this to
happen. Let's be honest, we have the brightest of Harvard, Yale etc. running
our country, and we are in a mess.
The second
thing is to simply pray. The prayer service is the most important service of
the week and the most negated in the church of today. The third thing is to
seek His face; most people seek the Lord for His hand of blessing but forget to
have a close personal relationship with Him. Repentance is almost a lost part
of the church today and this is the fourth thing. Turn from our wicked ways. If
we can do these four things, God said he would do the next three.
In the
second part of this passage, the Lord states that He would hear from heaven. So
many Christians honestly believe that God is so far away that He doesn't even
hear our prayers. Many people are still dealing with illegitimacy and have such
a father wound in their life that they carry that over to their relationship
and walk with God.
The second
thing the Lord said he would do is forgive their sin. Hallelujah! The third and
final part is that he would heal their/our land! There is hope for America and
that hope is Jesus Christ, the hope of America is found in a praying and
fasting church!
Physically
most of us need to be revived at least three times a day. Hunger and weakness
soon overtake us and we feel the need of food to renew our strength.
Spiritually it is not less so,
Matthew.
4:4-”For man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out
of the mouth of God.”
Sad to say,
however, we are by nature prone to neglect our spiritual welfare and lapse into
carelessness and sin, so that repeatedly the need for spiritual revival and
restoration becomes acute
2 Timothy.
1:13- “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith
and love which is in Christ Jesus.”
The Word of
God, then, is of supreme importance to the spiritual awakening of every
believer; not merely as a collection of beautiful and heart-warming thoughts,
but as food for the soul.
Jeremiah
15:16- “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the
joy and rejoicing of mine heart..."
As food and medicine must be wisely
administered to the weak and ill, so must the Word be “rightly divided” to
provide the necessary benefit to those who need spiritual revival.
The
understanding of God’s Word always revives His people spiritually. Hear the two
at Emmaus from whom our Lord had just departed from their hearts(Video)
https://youtu.be/8YlzWPPiH4A
Luke 24:32
“Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and
while He opened to us the Scriptures?”
1.. Spiritual
Awakening -The Epistle-Edrick-2003
2. The Coming Great Awakening- National
and Religion International Report- 1992 pp 2-3
3. The Ultimate Guide to Spiritual
Awakening- San Francisco CA -no date
4. The Bible-NKJV