We have been looking to 2 Chronicles 7:14 (READ TEXT). In this promise about revival, we learn about four requirements for revival.
We have thought about what it means to humble ourselves before God and pray for revival.
Now, let’s consider requirement three. As we reflect on this business of seeking the face of God, two thoughts come to mind. To seek the face of God as His people means that ...
1. God alone is the source of our wisdom.
When it comes to the wisdom we need to live life to the fullest, we are determined to look to God alone. When it comes to the wisdom we need in life, not to mention everything else - peace, joy, help, provision, strength, etc. - we must look to God alone. When we do,
God promises to provide all we need in order to live life to the full.
"Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Fear the LORD, you his saints.for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing." - Psalm 34:8-10 (NJV)
Yet, too often, God’s people go astray when they mistake the provision for the provider! Looking to people, experiences, or things to give them fulfillment and direction in life, they stray away from God and eventually find themselves unfulfilled and unhappy! They have done
what the prophet Jeremiah described:
"Has any nation ever traded its gods for new ones, even though they are not gods at all? Yet my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols! The heavens are shocked at such a thing and shrink back in horror and dismay," says the LORD. "For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me - the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!" - Jeremiah 2: 11-13 (NL T)
One morning the young new president of a bank made an appointment with his predecessor to seek some advice. He began, "Sir, as you well know, I lack a great deal of the qualifications you already have for this job. You have been very successful as president of this bank, and I wondered if you would be kind enough to share with me some of the insights you have gained from your years here that have been the keys to your success. "
The older man looked at him with a stare and replied: "Young man, two words: good decisions." The young man responded, "Thank you very much, sir, but how does one come to know which is the good decision?" "One word, young man: experience." "But how does one get experience?" "Two words, young man: bad decisions."
How many bad decisions will you have to make before you gain enough experience to tell you that looking to God alone as the source of your wisdom is a good decision? Revival comes when God’s people come to the same realization and make the same decisions as did God’s people in Jehosophat’s day:
"We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. " - 2 Chronicles 20:12 (NIV)
Seeking God’s face not only means God alone is the source of our wisdom, but ...
2. God alone is the center of our worship.
"Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. Look to the LORD and his strength;
seek his face always." - Psalm 105:1-4 (NIV)
Jesus taught us to pray, "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." What will occupy our attention in heaven?
"They will see his face ... " - Revelation 22:4 (NIV)
The key to a heavenly worship experience isn’t found in clapping or not clapping; having a greeting time or not having a greeting time; singing traditional hymns or singing contemporary worship songs; having a preacher who stomps, spits, and shouts or having a preacher who speaks in conversational tones - the key to a heavenly worship experience is our coming together with one purpose in mind - to seek His face! Lord, we want You to reveal more of Yourself to us! The fact is that if God is the source of our wisdom, then He will also be the
center of our worship.
"Nothing makes God more supreme and more central in worship than when a people are utterly persuaded that nothing - not money or prestige or leisure or family or job or health or sports or toys or friends - nothing is going to bring satisfaction to their sinful, guilty, aching hearts besides God. " - John Piper
When revival occurs, it always brings a freshness to our public worship because seeking God has become the priority of our lives! As each of us, individually and personally, determines to pursue God as our everything; then when we gather together, corporately and publically, we will proclaim Him as the center of our everything.
One of the chief indications of a need for revival among God’s people is when we confuse worship with pleasing ourselves as opposed to pleasing God.
"The danger is that worship becomes simply a performance, an exhibition thatfocuses on us instead of God. It may give people the false impression that the chief purpose of God is to glorify humans rather than vice versa." - David Garland
A little boy attended church with his family one Sunday morning. His parents, who often complained about the song selection and the pastor’s sermon, on this Sunday, spoke of how everything went to their liking. That night, as the little boy said his prayers with his parents before bedtime, he prayed, "Dear God. We had a great time at church today. The songs were great, the sermon was great, everything was great. Oh, God, You should have been there!"
We say we want revivaL.but on our terms. Sadly, we pray:
1. "Come Holy Spirit ... but only if You promise in advance to do things the way we have always done them in our church."
2. "Come Holy Spirit ... but only if I have some sort of prior guarantee that when You show up you won’t embarrass me."
3. "Come Holy Spirit ... but only if Your work of revival is one that I can still control, one that preserves intact the traditions with which I am comfortable."
4. "Come Holy Spirit ... but only if Your work of revival is neat and tidy and dignified and understandable and above all else socially acceptable."
5. "Come Holy Spirit ... but only if You plan to change others; only if You make them to be like me; only if You convict their hearts so they will live and dress and talk like I do."
6. "Come Holy Spirit ... but only if You let us preserve our distinctives and retain our differences from others whom we find offensive." - Sam Storms
When God’s people return to the Lord and seek Him as the source of their wisdom, it will be evidenced by His also being the center of their worship.
Conclusion:
"When I pray for revival I pray first for the most radical thing: The utter devotion and allegiance of your hearts to Christ. That you would love Him so deeply and long for Him so passionately that His coming would be your great hope, and death would be gain, and life would be for Christ and His kingdom. " - John Piper
Remember how we spoke about how in heaven we will "see His face?" One day, we will see Christ in all His glory. Paul says:
"Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall seeface to face." - 1 Corinthians 13:12 (NIV)
Beholding Christ in the fullness of His glory is what will make the ultimate transformation in His followers possible.
"Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." - 1 John 3:2 (NIV)
Until that day arrives when we are transformed in His presence as we see His face, we must seek His face so that we might know His presence and be transformed. That is revival.
"Revival is just the life of the Lord Jesus poured into human hearts. Jesus is always victorious. In heaven they are praising Him all the time for His victory. Whatever may be our experience of failure and barrenness, He is never defeated. His power is boundless. And we, on our part, have only to get into a right relationship with Him, and we shall see His power being demonstrated in our hearts and lives and service, and victorious life will fill us and overflow through us to others. And that is Revival in its essence. " - Roy Hession
