Revival begins with prayer, and right now I am just learning what immense needs this world has. We often feel the need to go out and have our lobster, and sandwiches and sit on the beach and celebrate July the Fourth with our families and there is nothing wrong with that. Yes we should celebrate, but when you go back to the heart of Jesus, Jesus is not with the 99 that are righteous, but He is with that 1 that is the Lost Sheep. So we need to start praying for those people who are the Lost Sheep in this world. We need to as the bride of Christ, lay down our selfish desires and forms of entertainment and seek after God’s heart, and petition God to help people across the world, and in our own communities to pour out His Spirit, we need to pray for Protection, Restoration, Deliverance, Healing, Provision, for all the people across the world, and in our communities. We need to not only pray but show acts of love, and make it a point to show love all across the world. This is a lost and dying world, and people’s needs need to be met, and for the seeds that cannot be sown, by prayer God can send the right Laborer into the Harvest. We need to Pray to the Lord of the Harvest and request Him to send laborers out into the harvest. There are many people. There is an increase in violence in the surrounding communities and we need to send our prayers to God to send His angels of protection all across the world. There are so many needs – sick people who cannot afford to pay medical bills that are thinking of committing suicide, there are teenagers who are so depressed and locked into isolation where their computer is the best friend that they have and they have limited access to an outside world. There are people that are being affected by the media industry and being seduced by darkness which then leads them to aggression, violence, and suicidal tendencies. There are so many victims of crimes and injustices all across the world. God is moved with compassion for them and there are over 7 billion people in the world today that are dying everyday without knowing Christ, and we are just idly standing by. How much time do we spend in prayer? I am learning that myself, but we need to start now. We need to pursue God diligently and put aside our selfishness. – There was a sermon I put up a while back, – Understanding God’s Purpose and there was one question on there – “What keeps you up at night?” There was another question – “Is your burden God’s burden?” These are just a few of the questions on the video. I can probably repost it. When you pray what do you pray? Ask God to open your heart to the needs of the world. That there are many needs and many people that are suffering across the world, and God is looking for a person who will pray, and it is not about us and our celebrations and our parties. Yes Freedom is good and it needs to be honored. But God has greater purpose and visions for His Kingdom, and how many of them are we meeting. It’s time to wake up and start looking for ways to bless people. If you cannot show the heart of God to many people start with just one- it may be that Old man in the grocery store who is looking for a bag of dried beans, maybe you can take time out of your shopping trip leave your cart behind and go looking for him. He may not know that you are from Christ, but you are blessing someone. This is more than just being a blessing. This is about a radical pursuit of the Lost people with which we the body of Christ fulfill out the purpose of God – see What is the purpose of God post –
Luke 4
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,[j]
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”[k]
I believe there is a two part process of Revival.
There is an inward process of Revival – which begins in the Church or the Bride of Christ, which comes by coming to a place of brokenness and repentance of sin, and realizing that Jesus was actually crucified for our sins – the sins of all man were placed upon Him so that the whole world – yes the whole world – and if you sit down and ponder it for awhile, you’ll only come up with a little bit of amazement of How Great is Our God, and that when we sin we are actually putting Jesus if it were actually possible in more pain through that very sin, but, then there is the outward part of a Revival, where the community around us is reached.
There is also the characteristics of the revival – there is the signs, wonders, and miracles, and then there is the nature, and the characteristics of Christ, which must be developed in a person’s life through the fruit of the Holy Spirit,
We can have all these healings, and signs, and miracles, and wonders, but it won’t mean a thing unless we take on the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, meekness, and self-control.
There is a third part of Revival, it usually takes some kind of fasting – yes I know ugly word, right? But it can be done, with the grace and the help of the Holy Spirit, and God will lead you in what kind of fast for you to do and how long to do it, and there will be times when the smells of the foods you are not supposed to eat will be coming into your nostrils and at that point you have to just put the flesh under subjection. Your pastor may even ask you to eat something, and you will have to subjugate the flesh, and may be for quite awhile. You may be asked – are you sure you don’t want this, are you sure you don’t want that up to 4 or more times each day and as much as you want it, you have to tell yourself no. You will be tempted by smells in the grocery stores of the food that you cannot have, and maybe celebrations where everyone is having food, and you have to just limit yourself to what God has allowed you to eat.
Someday I may tell of my fasting experiences as well, but after you have disciplined your body to fasting, and consistently pursued God in prayer with daily repentance to keep your conscience clear and free from condemnation, then you must ask God to keep the fire alive and burning everyday. For the last thing we want to be doing is be praying for a revival for the world, and be dead ourselves. This usually takes baptism of the Holy Spirit and daily seeking and pursing God by praying and interceding for others, which is God’s heart. You must put others needs instead of yourself – it’s ok, to start off with asking God to give you the grace for the day, but then after that, praying for others is a vital key for intimacy and revival and growth in the Holy Spirit. When you pray for others, God takes care of your needs. Persistance is the key as we have been learning in these past few posts – stay tuned for When You Pray, part two.
singingsinglev4 