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What is Needed for Revival!
Joshua Williamson
27/06/2005
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. - 2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)
Why the lack of revival in the lands today? If we look around at staggering statistics, we see there are now more Christians in the world today, than at any other time in history. Yet we still do not see a move of God in the land.
We look at the early church, the New Testament church. They just had a massive out pouring of the Holy Ghost, and those present shook the whole of the known world. On the first day alone, over 3000 people got saved.
But why dont we see that today? Why the lack of power within those that claim to be the church?
I think this can been seen clearly but studying the lifestyle of the church then and now. For instance, alot of Christians say "I wish we were in the Acts church".
Well lets have a look at the Acts church to see if you really want to be in it.
And a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession.
And he kept back part of the price, his wife also knowing, and brought a certain
part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan
filled your heart for you to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the
price of the land? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold,
was it not in your own authority? Why have you conceived this thing in your
heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. And hearing these words, Ananias
fell down and expired. And great fear came on all those
who heard these things. And the younger ones arose, wound him up, and
carrying him out, they buried him. And it was about the space of three hours
afterward, when his wife (not knowing what was done) came in. And Peter
answered her, Tell me whether you sold the land for so much? And she said, Yes,
for so much. Then Peter said to her, How is it that you have agreed together to
tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your
husband are at the door and they will carry you out. Then at once she fell down
at his feet and expired. And the younger ones found her dead, and, carrying her out, buried her beside her husband. And great fear came on all the church and on as many as heard these things. - Acts 5:1-11 (MKJV)
Dont you wish you lived in the Acts church? Where when you lied people got struck dead, because they didnt just sin against man, but also against a Holy God.
How many people within the church today would be having funerals, if the Acts church was still going today? It would probably be a safe bet to say church numbers wouldnt be anywhere near as big as they are today.
The thing is, the Acts church had revival, they saw such a move of God that thousands, if not millions got saved. Why cant we see that today?
I think the key is found in the opening scripture:
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. - 2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)
Here is the key.
1. If my people which are called by my name;
At time this scripture was written, it was addressed to the nation of Israel. But if we apply it today, we can apply it to the church. As the church is called by the name of God. There is no one in the church that God has not called to salvation, or granted repentance to. So we can apply this to today.
2. shall humble themselves
Just like the nation of Israel the church today, is a proud and arrogant church. It has moved away from the teachings of Christ and has compromised to a new standard, that would have to make God sick. The church is called the bride of Christ. We are the one that will be married to the Lamb that was slain.
Yet we are a dirty and filthy bride. Pride is the biggest stain of all on the bride Christ. Its from this sin, that God resists us.
God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. - James 4:6
We need to be humbled, unless we are humble God will resist us. What a fearful place to be in, a place where God will resist you. Think about it.
I am afraid that much of the church today is the same as a Pharisee. We are full of pride, and are full of our own righteousness, instead of the righteousness that flows from God.
3. pray, and seek my face
The next step is to pray and seek the face of the Almighty God. How there is a lack of this in the church of today. We would rather spend a few minutes talking on the telephone rather than talking to the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. This should not be so!
Leonard Ravenhill said: "If we spent as much time in prayer, as we did in Choir practice, we would see a revival that would shake the world"
We need to seek the face of God, we need to cry out to Him with everything in us. There has never been a revival that has not been birthed out of prayer.
Prayer is a vital element to seeing a move of God.
4. turn from their wicked ways
This is the part that people in the church dont like. As it is dealing with a issue that is close to their heart, and the issue it deals with is sin.
Someone once said "I went looking for the church, and found it in the world. I went looking for the world, and found it in the church"
Sin is rampant today within the church. Oh! How sin has lost it sinfulness today. Instead of being convicted of sin, we theologise it so it doesnt sound so bad, or we twist the scripture and say things like "It was a different time then" or "Look at the scripture for the culture".
GOD HAS NOT CHANGED! NEITHER HAS HIS STANDARD! Sin is still sin, not matter what way you look at it. You can try and justify it all you want, but at the end of the road, when you stand before the Lord God on Judgement day, your sin will catch up to you.
When the book are opened up, and all your secret sins are revealed, God will give you justice. He will reveal all your lies, all the times you stolen, all the times you have looked with lust, all the times you hated, all the times you took His holy name in vain.
For all these things God will give you justice!
That is why God is serving the church a warning, and that warning is "turn from your wicked ways"
The church need to repent, it needs to fall on its knees and cry out "God have mercy!"
I believe those in the church will be judged a whole lot harder than those that were in Sodom, as the church has the life saving, life changing Gospel of Jesus Christ, yet they do nothing with it. They sit on it, and become proud that they have it.
I see alot of the church today as not even being Christian. Alot of the churches today will stand before God on judgement day and cry out "LORD, LORD!" and He will say "Depart from me, I know you not!".
How that must break the heart of Father God. He is calling out to the church today "Come home, repent, and be saved".
5. then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
The next part of the verse shows what will happen if we humble ourselves, seek His face, and turn from sin.
God says He will hear from heaven, forgive our sin. Then heal the land. Before revival comes to the land, the church first must repent. The church needs to be a holy church before God will move His hand and send revival.
...holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord; - Hebrews 12:14
Without Holiness, no man will see God. This goes for the church as well.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He
that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; - Psalm 24:3-4
So do you have clean hands, and a pure heart? Ask God, the Holy Spirit will point it out
to you. Right now, stop what your doing, and ask God "Are my hands clean, is my heart
pure?"
What ever He shows you is wrong in your life, repent of it. Turn from sin.
Today the biggest threat to the nation isnt drugs, it isnt even crime. Its not even
terrorism. The biggest threat to the nation today is God!
God is the biggest threat to the nation, as He will not hold off His wrath forever. How
many more chances do we need? How many times do we need to rebel against God
before His judgement is poured out.
I am afraid as a church we have offended God, and thus angered Him.
Its a scary place to be in.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. - Hebrews 10:31
It will be a dark and horrible day when we all stand before God, and we realise that we
have angered God by our sins.
We need Holiness in the church, we need as a church to fall on our knees and cry out for God to forgive us.
The church of Jesus Christ is sleeping, it has fallen asleep in the lap of sin. REPENT!
For there is coming a day when God will judge the world in Righteousness. How will you go on that day?
WAKE UP, WAKE UP!
We need to be like John the Baptist, crying out "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand!".
Look around. Each day 155 000 people die, but what as a church are we doing about it? Look in our own pews, how many of those people will spend eternity in hell?
We will not see change in the lives of people, or the fate of the nation til we first repent as a church, then start preaching Holiness.
The Holiness that demands that we put off sin, the holiness that says "Go sin no more!"
This is what is pleasing to God. Lets kill the flesh. We need to die to self.
We need to be like it says in Romans 6:7:
For he that is dead is freed from sin. - Romans 6:7 (KJV)
We need to die to our old sinful natures. We need to put off the old man and put on the new. Die to self, we need to attend our own funerals.
I think we need to cry out the same prayer as King David in Psalm 51:
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. - Psalm 51:10
Cry out today! Cry out for mercy! If you call out, He will hear you.
Today the church is in trouble, it is a sick and dying church. We need to partake in the Healing power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God have mercy!
Joshua Williamson
27/06/2005
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. - 2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)
Why the lack of revival in the lands today? If we look around at staggering statistics, we see there are now more Christians in the world today, than at any other time in history. Yet we still do not see a move of God in the land.
We look at the early church, the New Testament church. They just had a massive out pouring of the Holy Ghost, and those present shook the whole of the known world. On the first day alone, over 3000 people got saved.
But why dont we see that today? Why the lack of power within those that claim to be the church?
I think this can been seen clearly but studying the lifestyle of the church then and now. For instance, alot of Christians say "I wish we were in the Acts church".
Well lets have a look at the Acts church to see if you really want to be in it.
And a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession.
And he kept back part of the price, his wife also knowing, and brought a certain
part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan
filled your heart for you to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the
price of the land? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold,
was it not in your own authority? Why have you conceived this thing in your
heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. And hearing these words, Ananias
fell down and expired. And great fear came on all those
who heard these things. And the younger ones arose, wound him up, and
carrying him out, they buried him. And it was about the space of three hours
afterward, when his wife (not knowing what was done) came in. And Peter
answered her, Tell me whether you sold the land for so much? And she said, Yes,
for so much. Then Peter said to her, How is it that you have agreed together to
tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your
husband are at the door and they will carry you out. Then at once she fell down
at his feet and expired. And the younger ones found her dead, and, carrying her out, buried her beside her husband. And great fear came on all the church and on as many as heard these things. - Acts 5:1-11 (MKJV)
Dont you wish you lived in the Acts church? Where when you lied people got struck dead, because they didnt just sin against man, but also against a Holy God.
How many people within the church today would be having funerals, if the Acts church was still going today? It would probably be a safe bet to say church numbers wouldnt be anywhere near as big as they are today.
The thing is, the Acts church had revival, they saw such a move of God that thousands, if not millions got saved. Why cant we see that today?
I think the key is found in the opening scripture:
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. - 2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)
Here is the key.
1. If my people which are called by my name;
At time this scripture was written, it was addressed to the nation of Israel. But if we apply it today, we can apply it to the church. As the church is called by the name of God. There is no one in the church that God has not called to salvation, or granted repentance to. So we can apply this to today.
2. shall humble themselves
Just like the nation of Israel the church today, is a proud and arrogant church. It has moved away from the teachings of Christ and has compromised to a new standard, that would have to make God sick. The church is called the bride of Christ. We are the one that will be married to the Lamb that was slain.
Yet we are a dirty and filthy bride. Pride is the biggest stain of all on the bride Christ. Its from this sin, that God resists us.
God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. - James 4:6
We need to be humbled, unless we are humble God will resist us. What a fearful place to be in, a place where God will resist you. Think about it.
I am afraid that much of the church today is the same as a Pharisee. We are full of pride, and are full of our own righteousness, instead of the righteousness that flows from God.
3. pray, and seek my face
The next step is to pray and seek the face of the Almighty God. How there is a lack of this in the church of today. We would rather spend a few minutes talking on the telephone rather than talking to the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. This should not be so!
Leonard Ravenhill said: "If we spent as much time in prayer, as we did in Choir practice, we would see a revival that would shake the world"
We need to seek the face of God, we need to cry out to Him with everything in us. There has never been a revival that has not been birthed out of prayer.
Prayer is a vital element to seeing a move of God.
4. turn from their wicked ways
This is the part that people in the church dont like. As it is dealing with a issue that is close to their heart, and the issue it deals with is sin.
Someone once said "I went looking for the church, and found it in the world. I went looking for the world, and found it in the church"
Sin is rampant today within the church. Oh! How sin has lost it sinfulness today. Instead of being convicted of sin, we theologise it so it doesnt sound so bad, or we twist the scripture and say things like "It was a different time then" or "Look at the scripture for the culture".
GOD HAS NOT CHANGED! NEITHER HAS HIS STANDARD! Sin is still sin, not matter what way you look at it. You can try and justify it all you want, but at the end of the road, when you stand before the Lord God on Judgement day, your sin will catch up to you.
When the book are opened up, and all your secret sins are revealed, God will give you justice. He will reveal all your lies, all the times you stolen, all the times you have looked with lust, all the times you hated, all the times you took His holy name in vain.
For all these things God will give you justice!
That is why God is serving the church a warning, and that warning is "turn from your wicked ways"
The church need to repent, it needs to fall on its knees and cry out "God have mercy!"
I believe those in the church will be judged a whole lot harder than those that were in Sodom, as the church has the life saving, life changing Gospel of Jesus Christ, yet they do nothing with it. They sit on it, and become proud that they have it.
I see alot of the church today as not even being Christian. Alot of the churches today will stand before God on judgement day and cry out "LORD, LORD!" and He will say "Depart from me, I know you not!".
How that must break the heart of Father God. He is calling out to the church today "Come home, repent, and be saved".
5. then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
The next part of the verse shows what will happen if we humble ourselves, seek His face, and turn from sin.
God says He will hear from heaven, forgive our sin. Then heal the land. Before revival comes to the land, the church first must repent. The church needs to be a holy church before God will move His hand and send revival.
...holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord; - Hebrews 12:14
Without Holiness, no man will see God. This goes for the church as well.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He
that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; - Psalm 24:3-4
So do you have clean hands, and a pure heart? Ask God, the Holy Spirit will point it out
to you. Right now, stop what your doing, and ask God "Are my hands clean, is my heart
pure?"
What ever He shows you is wrong in your life, repent of it. Turn from sin.
Today the biggest threat to the nation isnt drugs, it isnt even crime. Its not even
terrorism. The biggest threat to the nation today is God!
God is the biggest threat to the nation, as He will not hold off His wrath forever. How
many more chances do we need? How many times do we need to rebel against God
before His judgement is poured out.
I am afraid as a church we have offended God, and thus angered Him.
Its a scary place to be in.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. - Hebrews 10:31
It will be a dark and horrible day when we all stand before God, and we realise that we
have angered God by our sins.
We need Holiness in the church, we need as a church to fall on our knees and cry out for God to forgive us.
The church of Jesus Christ is sleeping, it has fallen asleep in the lap of sin. REPENT!
For there is coming a day when God will judge the world in Righteousness. How will you go on that day?
WAKE UP, WAKE UP!
We need to be like John the Baptist, crying out "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand!".
Look around. Each day 155 000 people die, but what as a church are we doing about it? Look in our own pews, how many of those people will spend eternity in hell?
We will not see change in the lives of people, or the fate of the nation til we first repent as a church, then start preaching Holiness.
The Holiness that demands that we put off sin, the holiness that says "Go sin no more!"
This is what is pleasing to God. Lets kill the flesh. We need to die to self.
We need to be like it says in Romans 6:7:
For he that is dead is freed from sin. - Romans 6:7 (KJV)
We need to die to our old sinful natures. We need to put off the old man and put on the new. Die to self, we need to attend our own funerals.
I think we need to cry out the same prayer as King David in Psalm 51:
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. - Psalm 51:10
Cry out today! Cry out for mercy! If you call out, He will hear you.
Today the church is in trouble, it is a sick and dying church. We need to partake in the Healing power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God have mercy!
