Ps 51:10-12 “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.” (KJV)
We’ve been talking about preparing for personal revival. There’s not a one of us that does not need a fresh touch, or a rekindling of God’s Spirit within our lives from time to time.
God wants His fire to burn hot within us, but as I had said before, the very nature of fire is to go out unless it is fed. To keep our hearts burning within us, we must feed the fire. So we must not only prepare our hearts for personal revival, but we need to learn how to stay in a state of revival.
What is personal revival? Personal revival is where we can come to the place where we’re not asking what God can do for us, but we come to the place and say “Lord, what do you want to accomplish through my life today.”
So many times we get so wrapped up in ourselves that our spiritual eyes start looking in the wrong direction.
When we’re sick, we seek healing instead of the healer. A lot of times when people start seeking after the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, they get hung up on tongues instead of seeking the one who Baptizes us.
What personal revival does ultimately is causes us to pursue God and seek after an intimate relationship with Him. You cannot have revival apart from God. You can not experience revival as long as your own selfish interest stay in the forefront.
I want each of you to know tonight, there’s more to your relationship with God than what you have right now. Ask yourself this question, are you really happy with where you are at spiritually. Do you think if you sat down with God and had a heart to heart talk, that He would be pleased with your Christian walk?
You’ve got to make up your mind whether you’re satisfied being mediocre, living off spiritual crumbs, staying on the milk of the word.
Or do you want to go from the court yard of the King and begin to enter into the Holy of Holies.
I. Who can Go?
This is not just for a select few, but the fact is only a few experience a powerful relationship with God because they decide that they would rather live for worldly pleasures than do what it takes to come into God’s presence.
God told me that we only give Him the scraps of our life, the crumbs, the leftovers. Do you believe, that is all the God of all the universe is worthy of? The leftovers, the scraps, the crumbs of our life or do you think the God of all the universe is worthy to have all of us. That His dreams become our dreams. That His will becomes our will. That His desires become our desires.
If you’ll listen to what I share with you tonight, you can begin to take a trip into the presence of God and experience Him like you’ve never experienced Him before.
Matt 5:6 “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”(KJV)
It’s easier to do nothing, but you always will get nowhere!
I’m going to be very candid with you and share with you my heart and the process that God is taking me through. The first question that we need to ask is “Where do we begin?”
First you must realize that each and every one has a purpose that God wants to fulfill in your life. Satan has so many Christians beaten down that they think that their life will never matter when it comes to God. That their opinion never matters, all they will ever be is Spiritual wall flowers, blending into the pew. They’re thankful that they’re going to heaven, but that’s all that God has for them.
You hear me tonight church. You are not an accident, a life without purpose. You didn’t catch God by surprise when you came on the scene. When you asked Christ to be your Lord and Savior, God didn’t ask, where did he or she come from.
Listen to what the Psalmist wrote in Ps 139:14 “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (NIV)
Jeremiah 31:3 “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” (KJV)
God loves you and wants to draw near to you. He wants more for you than what you have right now.
Matt 23:37-39 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” (KJV)
Jesus longs to gather you under His care but so many times we do not go. Which leads me to the second step.
We must see the need to pursue God.
Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish…”
We love to quote that verse. We need to have vision for the city, for the Church and what God wants to do here.
This is all true, but I see another aspect of this verse. If we don’t have a revelation of ourselves as we really are, then we’ll perish.
The hardest people to reach are those who see no need of being reached and we’re so guilty of that in church. When people begin to backslide, they get mad at anyone who begins to question their spirituality. I’m all right, I don’t need to go to church. I’ll be okay.
Those who have been Christians for any length of time thinks all is well with them mainly because of the amount of time they’ve been saved but here’s what we need to understand. When we spend regular time with God, the more time we spend with Him, the more we understand the closer we need to get to Him.
Those who don’t spend time with Him are the ones who thinks that everything is okay. Those who don’t spend time with Him are those without vision.
The Hebrew word for vision means “revelation”. When we spend quality time with God, He will give us a revelation of ourselves.
In Isaiah Chapter 6 we see the prophet Isaiah having an encounter with God. If there ever had been a man of God, he was one. I believe when he walked down the street, the people knew there goes a man of God. But see Isaiah when he was his encounter with God. Hear what He says when He stands in the Holy presence of God.
He didn’t say, God look at how good I am. He said woe is me, for I am undone. You can’t stand in God’s Holy presence and brag about yourself. Because when you’re in His presence, you will see that your righteousness is as filthy rags.
I’ve been saved for 31 years and God still is opening up my heart, and sometimes causes by spirit to scream with conviction about areas that I need to turn over to Him. My flesh says, don’t rock the boat. Keep everything as is. But I realize that I need to pursue God.
I challenge you to get alone with God, and listen to what He says. Then you will see the need.
Thirdly, we must make up our mind that we’re going to allow His purpose to be fulfilled in me.
It’s one thing to see the need, it’s another to allow a change.
Phil 3:8-14
8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
(NIV)
Paul said he pressed for the mark, he’s pressing on toward the goal to win the prize. You’ll never enter into that secret place with God if you’re a quitter. You must have a made up mind that you’re going to pursue God. You must make up your mind that a relationship with Christ is more important than anything in the World!
We’ve seen tonight who can go, how do we begin. I want us to look at how do we enter in.
Once we have a made up mind that we’re going to pursue God we must do what it takes to enter in.
It would be nice if there was some magic formula that if we did step 1,2 and 3 we would magically be in the presence of God. But it doesn’t work that way. It takes Fasting, prayer, the word and commitment.
If you really want to become intimate with God then all four of these must be practiced. Without the commitment to do whatever it takes to experience God, you will never get there. God’s not going to accept a halfhearted attempt.
Commitment is where a lot of people fail first of all. I have come to believe that we will commit to what ever we choose. It’s a choice, you choose to go up every morning or every evening to go to work. Why? Because no worky no payee. If we’re going to have an income to live on, then you must commit to work. If you’re going to have an experience with God, then we must commit to do whatever it takes to experience God in all of His fullness.
Fasting helps us take control over our fleshly appetites and allows us to focus on God. Fasting helps strip away the junk in our life, fasting causes us to depend on God. Fasting helps bring our spiritual senses alive. Fasting causes us to take the focus off of ourselves and become focused on God.
In order for fasting to be effective, it must be combined with prayer. When you enter into a fast it’s essential that you spend time in prayer because that allows us to be in His presence. Fasting without setting aside time in prayer is just going hungry.
You must also allow God to speak you through the Word. God hasn’t quit speaking to His people. If you haven’t heard from God it’s because you haven’t stopped to listen. God will guide, direct, instruct those who will take time to listen to Him.
It’s through the Word, we learn about the character of God, the heart of God, the will of God. It’s through the word, we learn what God expects of us and begin to understand what He wants to do in us.
It’s through the Word, you begin to understand the depth, the width, breadth of God’s love for us. The Word will correct us, guide us, break us, thrill us, humble us and encourage us.
It’s a living Word.
Conclusion:
Do you want to experience God on a higher level? Do you want to grow more intimate with Him? Are you willing to do what it takes?
God desires for you to pursue Him. He won’t run from you, He desires to draw near to Him.
