Illustration: God revived me when I was working in the Middle East. Until then, I was just a lukewarm and laid-back Christian. I saw the great need for the Gospel of Christ to be proclaimed to the lost souls there. They had no idea that they were perishing and there was only one way out – Jesus. Someone had to give them the word. In complete reluctance, I said I am here; I will go. I had to be Revived!
How does God REVIVE His people?
1. Brings RESTORATION: Job – means the one who is persecuted and hated.
• Job a contemporary of Abraham who was blameless, upright, feared God and rejected evil.
• He was so blessed that he was called the greatest man of the East.
• Everyday he would intercede for his children.
• One day, he lost all his belongings, property, and children.
• In all that he did not blame God or sin against Him.
• He did not even get provoked even though his friends and wife tried to persuade him.
• In everything, he just glorified God and God RESTORED him by blessing his latter days more than his former days.
Illustration: Recent hurricanes in Florida and Texas, fires in Montana, killings in Las Vegas and Texas …
2. Brings FEARLESSNESS: Jehoshaphat the king of Judah’s story.
• When the Ammonites, Moabites and Mount Seir waged war against Judah, Jehoshaphat was badly frightened, and he admitted it — unlike some men who deny their fear. It's too bad that they do, because the first step to overcoming any anxiety is to face it. A man who does not know fear is unsafe and unsound, a menace to himself and to others.
• Fear ought to lead us to do the best thing, what Jehoshaphat did. He inquired of the Lord and sought help from him. That's a reflex unknown to ordinary men, who first search their own minds for the thing to do. Jehoshaphat, an extraordinary man, stood with his people in the house of the Lord and prayed.
• Jahaziel the son of Zechariah articulated: “Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's” (2 Chronicles 20:15). Jehoshaphat brought his nation together and in unity won the battle against the nations that went against Judah.
• Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:7 reminding him … “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Illustration: With nations like Iran and North Korea intimidating us and the fear of homebred terrorists attacking strategic places and soft targets in our nation, it becomes important for us to trust God more than anything else as this battle in the spiritual realm belongs to God alone. Let us trust God for He has given us the spirit of FEARLESSNESS.
3. Brings DELIVERANCE: Jonah’s call to Nineveh.
• God is the one who is taking the initiative to bring the revival. God speaks to Jonah. Jonah runs away. God hunts him down, brought him to repentance, and then gave the command a 2nd time. This wasn’t Jonah’s idea! He himself needed revival. Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh, and in fact, and they all repent. This isn’t the Ninevites idea. The Ninevites didn’t even believe in God.
• God chooses to save the foolish, the weak, the base, and the despised so that no man may boast before God, and that the one who boasts would boast only in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:26-31). It is for His glory alone.
• Whom Did God Use in this Revival? Jonah! He was the instrument of God. It was Jonah that obeyed the voice of God, arose and went to the Ninevites. It was Jonah that cried out from one-quarter of the city to the other, “Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”
• At this point He complains but surly, pouting prophet. He obeys, but His heart is not in his work. He was a proud Israelite who hated Ninevites. He was racist and prejudiced. He was rebellious. He was also angry at God and not afraid to say so, when God saved them. There’s not a whole lot in Jonah to admire, and a lot in him to despise. God didn’t choose the best of the best, the cream of the crop. Jonah’s not the Captain of God’s All-Star Squad. He chose the most ornery, obstinate, rebellious prophet. He had. Why would God do that? Because that eliminates all boasting in man! That’s why God chooses the foolish, weak, base and despised.
• Who did God revive? The Ninevites! “Then the people of Nineveh believed in God.” What do we know about them? 1:2 says “their wickedness has come up before Me.” They were destined to die, but Jonah had the mandate from God to bring life to them. These Ninevites are from an entirely different race, from a different culture, and a completely different religious belief system.
• What means did God use in this revival? Preaching! Jonah’s preaching was very simple. Any child could understand it. Jonah didn’t use bombastic or high-tech words to sound brilliant, educated or better than others. He spoke in a language that was down to earth, and everyone could understand.
• Look at what the Ninevites did. 3:5-9. They believed God, called a fast, and put on sackcloth (rough burlap). Notice who did it? From the greatest to the least of them. Everyone! When the king heard Jonah’s preaching, he did the same thing. Only he made it mandatory for everyone in the city, and all the animals, to fast, cry to God earnestly, and turn from their wicked and violent ways. The results of this revival were faith, earnest prayer, and repentance.
• The greatest miracle in the book of Jonah is not that Jonah was swallowed by a great fish and did not die. It was that the entire population of Nineveh repented and God Delivered them. Now, when you see a whole community of people believing God, crying to Him earnestly, and turning from their wicked ways, you have a real spiritual revival.
• Look at what God did. 3:10. He relented from the calamity. He declared He would bring on them and didn’t do it. In other words, He extended mercy. Mercy is when God “doesn’t give us what we deserve.” What do we deserve? What does Los Angeles deserve? What does Las Vegas deserve? What does San Francisco deserve? We all deserve judgment! If we repent, God will relent of the judgment that we deserve.
• The Ninevites repented, God forgave and delivered them from inevitable death. He gave them life, and life abundant. God is giving us a fresh hunger to intercede for a spiritual revival here in our city.
Application: God is a God of RESTORATION; He has imparted a spirit of FEARLESSNESS and DELIVERED us from imminent death. He has given us the assurance of Life and Life Abundant and Life Eternal. Let us take this opportunity today to come together in unity and take back our cities, states and nation for Jesus.
