The Requisites for Revival
I’ve been a minister for 46 years and during this time I’ve heard talk about revival or it’s need from folks in the pews and the pulpits all of my adult life. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the church needs revival and real genuine heaven sent revival is the greatest need we have in our churches and that revival is America’s last hope. We are all in agreement about that. But still no real move of God. What is the reason that the church is not experiencing spiritual renewal and revival? Listen to what one preacher said when asked about this subject. His answer is an eye opener…
WHY NO REVIVAL IN AMERICA?
A wise old evangelist was once asked, “Why don’t we see revival happening in the Church in the United States today?”
The old preacher scratched his chin and thought for a moment. Then he said, “The reason why we are not living in revival today……is because we are content to live without it.”
WHO NEEDS REVIVAL?
Do I need revival? Consider this checklist and see how you do:
1) Is your heart crowded? Does Christ get ALL your love, or merely one of many pieces?
2) Is your heart cold or calloused? Is your love for Him & others fervent? Constant?
3) Is your heart corrupt? Do you crave or treasure anything immoral in God’s eyes?
4) Do you serve less today than you have in the past or are capable of today?
5) Is your excitement/commitment to tell others about Jesus any less today than it has been in the past? Are you silent where/when you used to speak?
6) Are you living today in the present power of the Holy Spirit? Or is your spiritual ’tank’ empty?
7) When others observe you, is your Christ-light bright or flickering?
If you can answer ’yes’ to any of these questions, even partially, then you need revival!
From Todd Leupold’s Sermon: The Cry for Renewal
Deuteronomy 4:29-31
29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. 30 When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; 31 (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.
Introduction: The context of our message this morning are the last instructions and admonitions of Moses before the children of Israel enter the promise land. Moses repeats the Ten Commandments and then reminds the children of Israel of the consequences of slipping into idolatry. This must have been a very difficult time for this great man of God. He had led them out of Egypt only to see them fall into idolatry and immorality. The judgment of God was pronounced on an entire generation there in the wilderness. They dug a lot of graves because of their disobedience. God Himself called them a “stiff-necked” people and they paid a high price for their stubbornness and willfulness. Moses also failed to reach the promise land because of an angry reaction to their provocations.
I. The Problem with God’s People
25 When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of anything, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to anger:
26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.
27 And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you.
28 And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
II. The Prescription for God’s People
But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
30 When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;
III. The Promise to God’s People
31 (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.
1. The requisite of prayer
REVIVAL REQUIRES PRAYER!
Thom Rainer tells us in his book Giant Awakenings that "71% of breakout churches report an increased emphasis on prayer over the past several years as compared to only 40% of churches which continued on the plateau." Rainer also tells us that "Earle Cairns notes with profound simplicity that ’prayer ranks first in the coming of revival’." "In his study of prayer and revivals from 1726 to the present, Cairns notes that each renewal began with organized prayer groups. [He says] ’Prayer preceded the Scottish revival of 1742 and 1839. [And also] Moody, Chapman, and other nineteenth-century persons had many organized prayer groups praying for their work." If you want to see God move in this church and in this community, then we have to be praying!
(SOURCE: Damian Phillips, SermonCentral.com, "Praying Through Acts" 6/30/08)
2. The requisite of penance
In the New Testament, revival is a translation of the compound word anazao, which means “to live again”. It is used in the spiritual sense of bringing life to a Christian who has fallen into sin and is living in disobedience to the Word of God.
If all the sleeping folk will wake up,
If all the lukewarm folk will get fired up,
If all the dishonest folk will confess up,
If all the disgruntled folk will cheer up,
If all the depressed folk will cheer up,
If all the estranged folk will make up,
If all the gossipers will shut up,
If all true soldiers will stand up,
If all the dry bones will shake up,
If all the church members will pray up...
Then we can have a revival!
--R. G. Lee
3. The requisite of proclamation
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
Illustration: When my father walked into church that Easter Sunday morning and sat down, God told the pastor of that church, there is your revival. The pastor and another gentleman from the church went over to our home the next week to visit my Dad and to invite him back. 5 weeks after that initial Easter Sunday morning visit, Dad received Christ as his Savior, and today, some 44 years later and 42 years in the ministry it is safe to say that thousands have been added into the kingdom from my father’s ministry.
From Donnie Granberry
The results of real revival are the proclamation of the Gospel and the salvation of souls.
RADICAL REVIVAL
Dr. J. Edwin Orr states, "I am convinced that more work for God could be done in six months of revival than in sixty years of any other kind of effort." If we as a church begin doing the work we are appointed with a touch of the radical, we will see more done in six months of revival than in sixty years of any of our painstaking effort!
(From a sermon by Greg Hocking, "It’s radical methods tthat catch fish" 2/10/2009)
We have a choice. God is not reluctant to help us. He has a listening ear and He waits to hear the cries of His children; Cries of prayer, cries of penance and cries of proclamation. Remember the Lord’s word to Soloman and the people of God in 2 Chronicles 7:14 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.
