Last time we considered the first requirement for revival among God’s people mentioned in 2 Chronicles 7:14. God’s people must “humble themselves” before God. Now today, we will turn our attention to the second requirement for revival - prayer. (READ TEXT)
Perhaps no subject is preached on more but practiced less than prayer.
“In the matter of New Testament, Spirit-inspired, hell-shaking, world-breaking prayer, never has so much been left by so many to so few.” - Leonard Ravenhill
But when revival comes, that changes.In his book, The Awakening That Must Come, Lewis Drummond shares the following:
Revival is always born in prevailing prayer. This is the one, basic, unalterable, central principle of awakenings. Prayer opens the door to the fullness of time. Illustrations of this central
significant fact are endless.
Dig deep enough in any revival, and you will always find a praying group. Let one example among thousands point up this prime principle. On the island of Lewis in 1949 prior to the Hebrides awakening, the tide had ebbed far. Few went to church. Little wonder, the churches were apathetic and spiritually inept. Secularism, materialism, and worldliness was the general life-style of the island. Then God laid the burden of prayer on two different small groups.
A few men began praying in a barn outside their village. They prayed two, three, four nights a week into the small hours of the morning. The burden of their agonizing sacrificial prayer was for an awakening. This little group, as one author expressed it, “entered into a covenant with God that they would give Him no rest until He had made Jerusalem a praise in the earth,” - Isaiah 62:7.
At the same time, two old, godly sisters began praying. They also prayed night after night. Impressed by the Holy Spirit, the praying sisters asked their pastor to contact Duncan Campbell in England to lead their church in a preaching mission. The pastor discerned that the request was of God and invited Campbell to Lewis.
The evangelist replied that he was completely booked for a year, but if any opening occurred he promised to come. In a matter of days virtually all of his engagements were cancelled. The whole affair clearly being directed by the Holy Spirit, Campbell traveled to the Hebrides and became God’s prophet in the awakening. The point of it all is that God always lifts up small praying groups when the fullness of time comes.
The application to our need is obvious. If revival comes today, there must be praying people who take their intercession for an awakening with deadly seriousness. But where are they? We seemingly will do anything, make any sacrifice, go anywhere, except pray, Oh, where are the prayer warriors of times past? Will God raise up such groups in our day?
Revival will only come in response to prayer. I believe God is searching today for those among His people who will be willing to enter into prayer for revival and spiritual awakening.
But what kind of praying results in God moving afresh in the lives of His people? Let’s think about what characterizes revival praying. Prayer that results in revival among God’s people will be:
1. Submissive prayer.
We must be willing to submit to God’s revealing to us our wickedness and waywardness, so that we might walk in His will and His way.
“Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” - Psalm 139:23-24 (Amplified)
If we are to experience revival, we must return to the Lord. That, of course, involves forsaking wickedness, waywardness, and willfulness and returning to holiness. To do this, we must ask God to turn His searchlight upon us, for we cannot trust ourselves to recognize that which we must confess and turn from. It is impossible for man to know his own heart - we must have God reveal its true nature to us.
“The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be.” - Jeremiah 17:9-10 (The Message)
“[Man never achieves] a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God’s face, and then descends from contemplating Him to scrutinize himself. For we always seem to ourselves righteous and upright and wise and holy – this pride is innate in all of us – unless by clear proofs we stand convinced of our own unrighteousness, foulness, folly, and impurity. Moreover, we are not thus convinced if we look merely to ourselves and not also to the Lord, who is the sole standard by which this judgment must be measured.” - John Calvin
We need someone greater than us, wiser than us, to tell us what wickedness, waywardness, or willfulness may reside within our hearts so that we might be led in His will and way!
“God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.” - 1 John 3:20 (NIV)
2. Believing prayer.
Prayer is to be God-centered; not self-centered. Prayer is not getting things we want from God; it is getting in on things God wants for us!
“And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.” - 1 John 5:14-15 (NLT)
When we are sure that something is within His will, we can pray believingly, assured that nothing lies outside the realm of prayer except that which is outside the will of God.
“A revived church is full of the life, joy and power of the Holy Spirit. With the Spirit’s coming, fellowship with Christ is brought right to the center of our worship and devotion; the glorified Christ is shown, known, loved, served, and exalted. Love and generosity, unity and joy, assurance and boldness, a spirit of praise and prayer, and a passion to reach out to win others are recurring marks of a people experiencing revival.” - J.I. Packer
Doesn’t that sound like God’s will? Since revival is the will of God for His people, we can pray believing, prevailing until we receive it!
3. Earnest prayer.
Three preachers sat discussing the best positions for prayer while a telephone repairman worked nearby. “Kneeling is definitely best,” claimed one. “No,” another contended, “I get the best results standing.” “You’re both wrong,” the third insisted, “The most effective position is lying prostrate on the floor.” The repairman could contain himself no longer: “Hey, fellas, he interrupted, “the best prayin’ I ever did was hangin’ upside down from a telephone pole.” The point of the story is that serious situations call for serious solutions.
Again the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, say to the land, ‘You are a land that has had no rain or showers in the day of wrath.’ There is a conspiracy of her princes within her like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they devour people, take treasures and precious things and make many widows within her. Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain. Her prophets whitewash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations. They say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says’ - when the LORD has not spoken. The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the alien, denying them justice. “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD.” - Ezekiel 22:23-31 (NIV)
Does Israel in Ezekiel’s day sound anything like our day? What’s the solution? Revival! How will it come? Note again verse 30!
Does it grieve you my friends, that the name of God is being taken in vain and desecrated? Does it grieve you that we are living in a godless age? The main reason we should be praying about revival is that we are anxious to see God’s name vindicated and His glory manifested. We should be anxious to see something happening that will arrest the nations, all the peoples, and cause them to stop and to think again.” - David Martin Lloyd-Jones
