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 You hear a lot about revival and you see churches saying they are having a revival meeting every year but what is a revival really? There have been revivals throughout history that turned nations and even the world around. Great men of God came out of these revivals and their preaching has turned nations to Christ. Men like John Wesley, Ira Sankey, DL Moody, Mordecai Ham, Billy Sunday, Billy Graham and others too many to mention had their very souls set on fire in revivals.
Usually these great preachers were the result of revival, not the bringing of it. Revivals are born in the hearts of God’s children being broken to their sin and sin around them. Revivals come when people see no hope around them and they turn to God with their whole heart broken on the altar of repentance.
When people stop pointing the finger at others and fall on their face before God and say “it’s me oh Lord, it’s me”. I am the reason we do not honor you with tithes and offerings. I am the reason for the lack of God in our home and our marriage. I am the reason we are not having devotions in our home even though it is falling apart around us. I am the one that failed in my Christian walk. I am the one who does not witness and tell those around me about you. I am the one who is ashamed to lift my voice or my hands in church in praise. I am the one who is ashamed to go to the alter and confess my sins. I am the one who sits in church and
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Revival is surrendering our will to God’s will, our ambitions to God’s direction and our walk to God’s word.
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looks around at others instead of looking to Jesus. I am the one who looks for reasons to not get involved in church activities. I am the one who has let dust gather on my Bible. I am the one who has went so long without getting on my knees I feel ashamed to do so. I am the one who has let anger or lust or other sins come between my fellowship and worship of you.
When we quit blaming the preacher for the reason our numbers are down (How many have you invited to church and told about Jesus?). When we quit being a busy body and gossip and instead find something good to talk about or start a prayer (Not a gossip) group. When we mean it in our hearts “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go unto the house of the Lord”.
You see, the cord of revival will strike in our own heart and it is contagious. It is impossible to draw close to God and others not see it. That brother or sister in Christ will see your enthusiasm and the glow of you walking in fellowship with your Savior and they too will start to remember.
God’s Spirit will begin using you as a vessel to speak to others. This spark will reach the preacher and all of a sudden his messages are not dry anymore. All of a sudden there is fire in what he is saying.
Before you know it, there will be tissue boxes around the altar. Heaviness of heart and soul will give way to praise and song. You will find yourself excited about the Gospel again. You will find that when you read God’s word, it jumps off of the pages at you once more like when you first got saved. It is the living Word of God to you personally again.
Revivals are not three or five day protracted meetings but these meetings can lead to revival. Revival is a re-stirring of the knowledge and presence of God in our lives. It is a revitalizing of our spiritual lives. Revival is a reaffirming of our commitment to Christ from our heart. Revival is surrendering our will to God’s will, our ambitions to God’s direction and our walk to God’s word.
We need revival in our once great land. We need in these last days to surrender to God our everything and not be the luke warm church we are warned of in the book of Revelation. The Bible tells us there will be a great falling away before the day of the Lord and I believe we are seeing the first fruits of the falling away in America like it has happened all over Europe.
I want to see our children saved. I want to see the evil held off of our land as long as it can be held off. If we have reached the turning point in America where we cease to be a Christian nation then I lift my voice in prayer, “Come quickly Lord Jesus, come quickly”.
God has been merciful and let me win a few souls to Christ. I get frustrated at the ungodliness so many in our nation are embracing, not just for themselves (because we all have sinned) but they want to push it off on everybody else. That is the way of sin. It is like leaven. It is not content with being solitary. By it’s very nature, it must infect everybody around it.
This world holds nothing for me. The older I get the more like a stranger I feel. My heart soars with longing when I think of that city, the one Abraham looked for, a city built by God with a very real foundation. My very soul is humbled with adoration that God has seen fit to allow me to partake in such a costly and holy salvation.
I praise the name of Jesus, the Christ, my Savior. I am ready to go home but I will continue to tell others about Jesus as long as my Lord sees fit to let me. I mean it with all of my heart when I say, God bless America with revival.
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