Four Triggers for a Spiritual Awakening
Four Messages that we Must Heed to be a Part of any Great Awakening!
Sunday, August 278, 2017
By Rev. James May
There are too many scriptures today for me to put them in the bulletin so you’ll need to get your Bible out and turn to the Book of Haggai in the Old Testament. For those who may not be too familiar with the order of Books in the Old Testament, Haggai is the 3rd to last book, followed only by Zechariah and Malachi. It’s easy to miss when searching because its only 2 or 3 pages long with 2 chapters and only 38 verses total, but it packs some powerful messages that we need to hear.
In the Book of Haggai we will find some powerful words that God spoke through the prophet to Israel in a time when Israel was facing some similar circumstances that the church is facing, especially here in America, but I believe in many areas of the world.
There can be no doubt that the church has been under the attack of the powers of hell. Satan has pulled out all stops and has commissioned his greatest forces to attempt to destroy the testimony of Jesus Christ in the earth because he desires to place himself at the pinnacle of worship of all men. As we said last week, principalities, powers of darkness and every evil spirit under his command are posted in places where they will influence and control the minds of men to do Satan’s bidding.
Sadly, some of those evil spirits have been very successful in influencing and weakening the church. It’s very evident that this is true because there are many churches, and many pastors today who no longer preach a true gospel message. They don’t preach the cross of Christ, or they refuse to talk about the power of the blood of Jesus alone to cleanse from sin. They don’t even mention repentance for sin because they don’t want to offend the guilty and unrepentant hearts of men fearing that they might lose a member, and with them will go their tithes and offerings, and the numbers of people that they can brag about as though numbers is what the main focus is.
As we have said many times, we would love to see the church filled to capacity, and to have to start a building program, expanding the borders of our church ministry. But expansion and building just for the sake of having bragging rights isn’t the main goal.
The main goal of this church is to do our best to make sure that everyone who attends here, whether it’s a big crowd or a small congregation, is ready to go when the rapture comes, so that not one of us is left behind. The salvation of a single soul is more important than pandering to a huge crowd of people who refuse to serve the Lord and have no personal experience with Jesus and don’t seem to want him in their lives.
The church needs a revival, a stirring of the heart and soul, and a renewal of the Holy Ghost and Fire! I believe that’s already happening here at Victory Temple. I can see and sense God moving in every service. We are doing everything we can to keep our focus on Jesus and his soon return, and nothing else. Everything we say and do is designed as best we can to reach the lost, to strengthen and encourage the church, and to prepare as many as possible for our departure from this earth when that great trumpet sounds and we all go to be with the Lord.
There are many encouraging signs around the world that a Great Spiritual Awakening and a Revival is already happening. People are coming to Christ in record numbers, even in countries where they know that becoming a Christian means certain death!
We can see signs of it right here in America too. Revivals breaking out in places like West Virginia and Florida are but the tip of the iceberg of what the Holy Spirit is wanting to do in America! I believe we are on the leading edge of a great Outpouring of the Holy Ghost and a return of the church to the true gospel message! The heart and plan of God for this hour is to save as many as will hear and heed the call to come to Him!
Every time we come together our prayer is that God will send that great outpouring, and give us a great Spiritual Awakening, and for that to happen in us as well as everywhere else.
God doesn’t want his church to be a weakling church, hiding underground, trying to escape persecution from the powers of the devil. NO SIR, the true church is receiving a new boldness to stand up and resist the devil, forcing him to flee!
The true church is making the devil tremble and demons to fear because we have the awesome power of Almighty God in our hands to defeat him at every turn. We have the weapons of spiritual warfare that are powerful and able to take down any stronghold and defeat any attack that hell can muster against us.
The church that is empowered, anointed, called and chosen, and full of the Holy Ghost and Fire is a force that is irresistible and no power on earth, and no powers of hell can stop us from doing what God has called us to do! We must stand and fight, not through protesting and violence, but stand in the mighty power of God, stand in faith that God never fails; stand in prayer overcoming all things through faith in the shed blood of Jesus and the presence of the Holy Ghost within. We have been all power in heaven and in the earth through the power of the name of Jesus!
Through obedience to the Word of God, when the church began to repent and cry out to God, God heard that prayer and gave us a great deliverance from what would surely have been a great time of persecution of Christians in our own nation.
If God had not intervened, the church would have suffered greatly because of taxation, and many churches could have been closed because of having to pay taxes on offerings and tithes. There would surely have been tremendous pressure to accept an ungodly agenda, and persecution for standing up for the truths of God’s Word.
That day will still come, but for now we have been given a window of opportunity that won’t last forever. The time will come when the political pressure will increase in an attempt to force the church to accept man’s law above God’s Law, and preachers will be persecuted if we preach against sin in any form.
And so, like the Jews in the days of Haggai, we saw what it was like to come under the thumb of a ruthless leader. No, ours wasn’t a king, but it was an elected congress who only cared for themselves and for their personal agenda.
While Israel was taken captive for 70 years under Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, the church has by-in-large succumbed to its own form of spiritual captivity by heeding the voices of political correctness and trying to be men-pleasers instead of God-pleasers. Many congregations in America no longer experience the presence of the Holy Ghost because He is not allowed to move in their midst. The Spirit departed for a time, but he never gives up.
Through a sovereign move of God, many believe that we have seen and experienced the rise of a modern day Cyrus to give the church the same chance that the first Cyrus of Persia did for the Jews. Whether you believe in a modern Cyrus or not is not important.
The fact is that God intervened and we have been given a time and space in our nation to do the work of the Lord and see a great Spiritual Awakening.
• God wants to send revival on a scale that has never been seen before!
• God wants the church to be a powerhouse of his presence and to move in great faith to overcome the devil.
• God wants to manifest his presence, his Shekinah Glory, in the midst of his people so that we can be endued with the power of the Holy Ghost and fire to do a great work for him right where we are.
In Haggai’s time King Cyrus had given his permission, and sent the Jews back to Israel to rebuild Jerusalem and their temple. Cyrus did not worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He was an idolater, worshipping himself mostly. But God moved upon his heart and raised Cyrus up to be the King of Persia at the right time so that the Jews could be free to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple.
You can imagine the excitement of that first group of Jews as they left the captivity of Babylon and headed home for Jerusalem after 70 years as slaves in Babylon. They were ready for the work, ready to fight the devil and build the wall at the same time, and God was with them.
They started strong under Nehemiah’s leadership and the wall of separation was built very quickly. Then they started on the temple with a sincere desire to see true worship begin again and to have the Presence of God in the midst of the nation upon the Mercy Seat. The Temple of Solomon had been destroyed and all of the sacred vessels taken to Babylon.
(The Babylonian King Belshazzar died while drinking from the golden cups of the temple and mocking the God of Israel on the night that the Persians conquered the Babylonians. Belshazzar saw the hand writing of God against him, but he saw it too late to stop the judgment against him and his kingdom.)
The Jews were excited and ready to work! They wanted a revival of true worship. They wanted a great spiritual awakening in Israel. They began in earnest to rebuild the temple, to prepare the way for the presence of the Lord, but then something happened.
The unrelenting attacks of those opposed to the work, and the constant fight to keep building, wore them down. They began to be distracted by the desire to take time off to rest and enjoy the blessing of being back in Jerusalem. They ceased working on the temple and became satisfied with life the way it was. Their homes were comfortable and the walls were up, and they were just tired, so they lapsed into their own little comfort zone.
You would think that after 70 years, the Jews could stay focused on rebuilding their freedom, their nation, their temple and their worship, but it just wasn’t so. You would think that not having the presence of God in their midst would be enough to push them onward, but that wasn’t enough. They wanted God, but they didn’t want him bad enough to keep doing what they had to do in order to bring His presence back into the temple.
Let me ask you, “What good are city walls when there’s no temple where the Spirit of the Lord can dwell in the midst of the people? What good was all the work when there wasn’t enough concern to have a spiritual awakening of the power of the God of Israel in their midst? What good were all the prayers while they were still in Babylon, when now, when the time was right, and they had the chance, they just sat down and stopped building and preparing for the presence of the Lord to return into their midst?”
• If they stopped now, there would be no spiritual awakening in Israel!
• If they stopped now, they would likely be captives of Babylon once again in just a short time!
• If they stopped now, how long would it be before they would ever have another chance to build the temple and experience God’s presence?
All of the work of the Lord in raising up Cyrus, and in making a decree to set the Jews Free, and in bringing them home to experience being a free nation to worship the Lord God of Israel, would produce no fruit unless they kept on building! This was no time to get comfortable and stop building!
Its at this point that the Prophet Haggai steps in and begins his ministry in Israel. Haggai only ministered for 4 months. That’s not a long time working in the office of a prophet, but his prophetic words were enough! When God is in it, just a little time and effort can create tremendous results.
Four months, and four messages was all it took to stir up the hearts of the Jews again and get them to working to rebuilding the temple in obedience to their destiny as God’s chosen nation.
I think we need to hear those four messages right now. The church can’t afford to get comfortable now! We have to be about the Lord’s business building the Kingdom of God in the hearts of men as much as we can. We can’t waste the time we have been given to build because we may never see a time such as this again!
1st message – Haggai 1:1-7 Consider Your Ways!
Haggai 1:2 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built.
There’s always some who will think that we are being overzealous. They don’t want to work and they don’t want anyone else to work either because it only shows that those who don’t work are either lazy or don’t care if God moves or not.
Some will not believe that God wants to send revival. Others won’t accept God’s word, or any visions or dreams, or any messages proclaiming the coming of a great outpouring of the Holy Ghost, just because it didn’t come from the man or woman of God that they know.
Some won’t accept the move of God simply because it’s beginning outside of their denomination, or outside of their little circle of friends.
When will we ever learn not to put God in a box and declare that he cannot move in any other way than what we say he can! God will use any willing vessel. Whether you like who is speaking or not is not the issue. The issue is, “What is God really saying? Are we going to refuse to listen and to act on God’s word just because we don’t like who is saying it or how it is being said?”
God help us not to be so self-centered that we can’t believe God just because of who says it. The messenger is not important, but the message is and we better get on board with it or we will be left behind! If God is in it, why in the world are we fighting against it and refusing to hear it!
Those who didn’t want to work were a discouragement and a great hindrance to those who believed God and desired to finish the work quickly!
Haggai 1:3 Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,
Haggai 1:4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?
You foolish Jews, you have been given the time, the blessings of God, the provisions, the power and the strength to finish the work. It’s not time to get comfortable! It’s not the time to being to doubt and fear again! It’s time to step out by faith and do the work before you! Just get it done, and get it done quickly!
Your life might be comfortable right now. And yes you are tired and worn down! But arise in the strength of the Lord and get to work because the House of the Lord still lies unfinished. What’s more important, that you are comfortable, or that you have the temple finished so that the presence of the Lord may dwell in you?
Haggai 1:5 Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
Haggai 1:6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.
Haggai 1:7 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
Haggai 1:8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD.
Here’s what the Lord would say to the church today. “You are satisfied with your own house but what about the house of God? What about my presence in your heart and in the midst of the church? Consider your ways. Pay attention to what’s really going on!
• You work and labor, but what does it all really accomplish if you don’t have that revival of God’s presence in your heart?
• You plan, you build, you sell, you buy, and you enjoy your freedom in life, but what about the condition of your heart before God?
• Is God pleased with the labor of your hands, or is he calling you to draw closer to him?
• Are you satisfied, or more importantly, is God satisfied with us right where we are?
• Is God not calling us deeper still into his Love?
• Is he not calling, beckoning us to step out deeper into the water and walk by faith to do a mighty work for him?
• Do we not sense the Holy Ghost wanting to move in us to allow the Gifts of the Spirit and the Fruits of the Spirit to be manifest in the church through us?
• Does not God desire to bring miracles, signs and wonders into the church so that we can become a great spiritual powerhouse to preach the gospel and bring souls to the Cross of Christ?
We can’t afford to get lazy! We can’t allow ourselves to become distracted and cease the work of prayer, of praise, of fasting and of reaching out to a lost world for Jesus!
Until we act in obedience to the Holy Ghost, there can be no spiritual awakening! The Fear of the Lord must return to the midst of the church.
2nd message – Haggai 2:2-9 Prepare to receive the Lord Your God.
Haggai 2:2 Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying,
Haggai 2:3 Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?
None of those in that day had seen the glory of the first Temple of Solomon. 70 years had passed and the former generation was nearly all gone. But God wanted to remind them of the glory of his presence in that temple and what it meant to Israel to have God in their midst!
I know that most of you do not know and have never experienced the mighty outpouring of the Holy Ghost of the old days! It was wonderful to see people run to the altars, crying out to God as the Holy Ghost fell! It was wonderful to see people slain in the Spirit, lying in the altar area, speaking in tongues! It was wonderful to see people shedding tears of sorrow for sin, and then seeing those turn into tears of joy for being forgiven! It was wonderful to see the miracles that God did in the church! But God is still God, and we don’t see that much anymore in most churches. I’m glad we see some of it here, but I want to see it so much more!
Haggai 2:4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the LORD; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the LORD, and work: for I am with you, saith the LORD of hosts:
Haggai 2:5 According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.
There’s the Word of the Lord for the church! Be Strong! Get to Work! God is with us! He is the Lord who fights our battles and the victory is won! Don’t be afraid to step out in faith believing God for great things! God is with us and we cannot fail!
Haggai 2:6 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;
Haggai 2:7 And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.
Can we deny that there’s a shaking going on? Can’t we see that the shaking in only beginning and that there’s an ever greater shaking coming? Everything that can be shaken, will be shaken, so that only that which is of God, founded upon his word, will stand!
Haggai 2:8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.
Haggai 2:9 The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.
God was telling Israel that the glory of this new temple, the one that would be called Herod’s Temple, or the Second Temple, would carry a far greater glory than that of Solomon!
Jesus would walk in this second temple; the very Son of God, the Messiah of Israel. Why do you linger? Do you want his presence?
But God will shake everything that can be shaken until everything that hinders us will be removed and all that’s left is for us to desire Him and His glory in our midst. God wants to fill his house, his church and his people with his glory! He desires that the church in these last days will be a greater church than in the old days, with a greater anointing, a stronger faith, a greater trust in Him and that we can rest in his peace and still be filled with his presence to finish the work set before us.
What is the true glory of the temple? Is it the gold, silver, brass, and all of the rich materials that were lost in Solomon’s temple? No – it was very presence of the Son of God that was to be the true glory! Nothing of this world can compare to him!
Message 3 – Haggai 2:10-12 A message of Affirmation that God will Bless if we meet his conditions!
Haggai 2:10 In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,
Haggai 2:11 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying,
Haggai 2:12 If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No.
That which is holy is not transferable. Each of us must have it for ourselves. One church, or one Christian that is on Fire for God won’t make the whole church fired up! We all need our own portion of that fire of the Holy Ghost burning within!
But let me tell you that when there’s only one among us who is living in unrepentant sin, who lives in disobedience to what you know that you should; who doubts, fears and does not put his shoulder to the wheel in faith, and then worship God in spirit and in truth; then that one person can hinder whatever move that God is wanting make in us.
We must be in one mind and one accord! Consider your thoughts and consider your desires. Get in tune with the Holy Spirit and let’s see God move! He’s waiting on us, so don’t grieve the Holy Ghost by being irreverent and uncaring! Your salvation is not of this world; it’s of God alone so hear him! Your neighbor on Facebook, or on Twitter, or your friend on Snapchat or Instagram, or any other social media; or whether you win that little senseless computer game on your Ipad or Iphone is not who you need to be seeing and hearing, or that’s going to make a difference in the condition of your heart and soul. We must focus on things eternal! It’s the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit of God that’s trying to get your attention! Hear HIM!
Haggai 2:13 Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.
Haggai 2:14 Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.
You can’t give God your second best and expect him to bless it. God wants all of you, all of the time! Anything less is not enough!
Haggai 2:19 Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless you.
What are we doing when we try to offer that which is unclean and not holy before the Lord? When every work of our hands is tainted by the sin of selfishness, pride, arrogance and irreverence, how can God accept it? God refuses to bless disobedience.
God plants the seed of revival in us, but if we allow it remain inside and we don’t press in to bring forth fruit, that seed will die! Press on, pray and work, let that seed multiply and God will bless!
Message 4 – Anticipate and Expect God to do Great Things.
Haggai 2:20 And again the word of the LORD came unto Haggai in the four and twentieth day of the month, saying,
Haggai 2:21 Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth;
Haggai 2:22 And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.
Haggai 2:23 In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the LORD, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the LORD of hosts.
God is shaking heaven and earth. We can sense that the shaking is coming and coming fast! God will bring down nations, kings and presidents and destroy the power of Satan and his heathen followers. No power on earth can stop God from doing what he wills.
But God is going to make his people, those who obey him, and his chosen nation, a sign that we are his chosen in the earth. The Lord of hosts will fight that battle and he will bring a spiritual awakening if we will only heed the messages.
A signet ring is used by its owner to sign and seal official documents. It is a mark of honor and authority.
As the church steps up and stirs up the gift of the Holy Ghost within, the glory and the presence of God will come in, and we will preach and pray, march on and defeat the devil with the authority and power of the Blood Jesus and the power of his name!
WE are here to represent God’s presence and power to a lost and dying world, and to a church that is becoming more apostate every day.
The glory and power of God is our answer and his name is our authority to overcome the enemy and gain victory and win the lost to Jesus!
Let us heed the messages of Haggai and stay working in serving the Lord with all that is within us. Don’t get satisfied where you are, but ever draw closer to the Lord. Don’t get discouraged but just trust God and have faith! Revival is here! The Holy Ghost is pouring out around the world! Let’s get under that spout where the glory pours out! Let’s be full of the Holy Ghost and Fire through a deeper and more dedicated walk with the Lord! Let’s be a church that is a part of the mighty Army of the Lord that pulls down strongholds of the devil and drives back the powers of hell in this hour! We are called to step out in faith for this time in which we are living! God is with us!
