Revival Begins With Leadership

Revival Begins with Leadership

2 Chronicles 29

Revival is one of the main things we hear and pray for today. If I could, it is the one true desire of the church. Books have been written about revival: books on the history of revivals, the leaders of revivals, the laws and methods of revival, the messages before, during, and after revivals, and about praying for revivals. You name it, a book has been written about it.

Yet, when we read the Scriptures about revivals that happened, there is one truth than cannot be overlooked, and that is, “Revival will not come to the church until its leadership is revived.”

To illustrate, I’d like to look at the reign of King Hezekiah, when a true revival took place at the beginning of his reign. And I am specifically going to be looking at the godly leaders who facilitated such a revival. And what we see are three calls that Hezekiah makes to the leaders, specifically the Levites, and how it started with them, and their own revival or renewal.

Hezekiah’s father, King Ahaz, was wicked and followed in the ways of the kings of Israel, rather than in the ways of King David. He worshiped the gods of these nations surrounding Judea, and not only desecrated the Holy Temple by cutting up all the article s of worship, but literally had the doors of the temple shut. Of Ahaz, the biblical record says that he “became increasingly unfaithful to the Lord” (2 Chronicles 28:22). That is, he not only started off that way, but he became worse as time wore on. And isn’t that the way of all sin?

When Hezekiah took over, he recognized not only his own need, but the need of the leaders as well, to get themselves right before God.

“Hear me, Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place.” (2 Chronicles 29:5 NKJV)

“For our fathers have trespassed and done evil in the eyes of the Lord our God; they have forsaken Him, have turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord, and turned their backs on Him … Therefore the wrath of the Lord fell upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He has given them up to trouble, to desolation, and to jeering, as you see with your eyes.” (2 Chronicles 29:6, 8 NKJV)

The word, “sanctify,” used in verse 5 is the Hebrew word, “gadash,” which is the root word meaning “holy.” The word means to consecrate, to make holy, and hence to purify.

And so, the first call of Hezekiah was for leadership was A Call to Purity.

First to purify themselves, and then the temple.

If revival is ever going to happen in the church, it must first begin in the hearts of its leaders. We need to get down to business with God concerning ourselves before we ever start to criticize or condemn someone else. Jesus brought out this principle saying that we need to take the beam out of our own eye before we try to take the speck out of someone else’s eye.

This is probably why there is so much stagnation in the church and in our own lives and ministries. And so, Hezekiah basically is saying that it’s time to get down to business with our own sins.

And so, Hezekiah is challenging his leadership, and the Holy Spirit is challenging us as leaders today to purify ourselves. And this then begins with our humbling ourselves before God, pray, confess our sins, and then turn away from them and unto the Lord. And God’s promise is that when we do, He’ll hear, forgive, and heal our land.

A Call to Worship

This is seen in verses 20-30, but specifically verses 27-29, which encapsulates this calling.

“Then Hezekiah commanded them to offer the burnt offering on the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord also began, with the trumpets and with the instruments of David king of Israel. So all the assembly worshiped, the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. And when they had finished offering, the king and all who were present with him bowed and worshiped.” (2 Chronicles 29:27-29 NKJV)

To worship in the Hebrew means to bow oneself to the ground to show homage and loyalty. In Hezekiah’s call to worship, what we see is that their worship consisted of their offerings and lifting up praises unto God.

What we find in times of spiritual dryness is that the worship of God falls by the wayside. Now, I’m not talking about singing songs, but rather as it is described within the Scriptures as one’s overall response to God, including our service to the Lord and the giving of the tithe, in other words, we are to worship the Lord in everything we do.