God’s Call To Revival - Book Of Ezra

After ten years, God called me out of pastoring the church in Las Vegas, a church I helped start some 50 years ago, a church that had been my home and where I grew up spiritually. He placed a stirring in my heart to leave telling me that I could go back and still pastor the church, but His Spirit wouldn’t be there for me any longer, and that once I put my hand to the plow and looked back, I would never draw a straight line for Him again.

The Holy Spirit was preparing both Michaela and myself to move from our familiar ground of Las Vegas and Hallelujah Christian Fellowship to Mesquite and a whole new calling.

What we need to do is ask God to stir up our spirits and arouse our sleepy lethargic hearts to do what He has called for us to do, which just may be to leave the familiar behind and join in with the Holy Spirit and experience the ride of our lives as He takes us places we’ve never been before, and shows us things we’ve never seen before.

The second thing we see in God’s call to revival is

2. A Call to Identify Our Priorities

“And when the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem. Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brethren, arose and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God.” (Ezra 3:1-2 NKJV)

This was in the time of the fall feasts of Israel, the very feasts that we are in right now, with the Feast of Trumpets, last Saturday, the Day of Atonement this Monday, and then the Feast of Tabernacles this coming Saturday. And at this time God had called the people to gather together.

Like the children of Israel, we need to start identifying and setting priorities to follow God’s will and way for our lives. Most of us, however, wonder how we’ll even know what is the will and way of God. But this is something that Ezra knew well, and that’s because as a scribe, he knew God’s law. Look at what Ezra said, “as it is written in the Law of Moses.”

Donald Whitney in his book, “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,” said,

“No spiritual discipline is more important than the intake of God’s word. Nothing can substitute for it. There is simply no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of milk and meat of Scriptures.” (Donald Whitney)

To determine what’s important and to see if we’re doing God’s will, we need to go to and get into God’s word, and let God’s word get into us.

For those returning to Jerusalem the priority was to build an altar. The altar was where they offered their sacrifices to God. This was the place where their sins were forgiven and where they got themselves right with God.

Today, the altar is that place within our hearts that’s built through confession and repentance. We see this in David’s cry after his sin with Bathsheba.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10 NKJV)