Wednesday, May 16
Revival Is Here!
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 heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)
Lord, help me to humble myself, to pray and seek Your face and to turn from my wicked ways.
People have been brought up in Charismatic churches, but are still praying week in and week out, year in and year out: "Lord, send the old-time power." Send it? He already has! That is what Pentecost means - the Holy Spirit has come. The Lord rent the Heavens - Jesus came and tore them open again like the veil of the Temple when He soared back to God. When Stephen, the first Christian martyr, had a vision moments before they stoned him, he said: "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" Praise God: the veil is rent ... and no devil in Hell has a needle and thread big enough to stitch it up again!
An often-quoted passage of Scripture comes to mind: "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 heal their land." The sequence is important; it gives us directions to "getting revival." First, we who call ourselves Christian must humble ourselves. This means that we must recognize that without God, we can do nothing. Second, we must pray and seek His face. This means that we do not yell at God to "send a revival," but simply worship and adore Him, seeing Him for who He is, not what He does.
The third point - turn from their wicked ways - is perhaps the most difficult of all. It goes to where our priorities should lie: in making Him first in our lives. Then we read, "I will hear from heaven"; which means that there has been a conversation between us and God. Finally, God answers: "I will forgive their sin and heal their land" - which is His outpouring on both the long-time Christian and the brand-new seeker. Revival should never be bottled up inside the walls of our churches.
Take it to the people who need it!