The Requisite For Revival

The Requisite for Revival

2 Chronicles 7:12-14

12 And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice.

13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;

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.

Introduction: In the first 11 verses of this chapter we have the record of the dedication of Solomon’s temple and the prayer of the king. The Lord’s approval is manifest by the Shekinah descending on the mercy seat in the Holy place. That night the Lord appears to Solomon and instructs the king concerning what should be done in the case of the withholding of God’s blessings presumably due to the disobedience and rebellion of the people.

I. Notice the People of Revival

a. The condition of the people

There is a hymn that declares that we are “prone to wander from the God we love,” and if you know yourself you know this to be true. This is the history of God’s people unfortunately.

b. The choice of the people

God makes a gracious offer to His people that is conditional in nature. Basically He declares that if His people respond to His offer of forgiveness He will restore blessings to their lives. They have a choice and that is true for revival.

II. Notice the Prayer of Revival

“There has never been a revival without prayer, never.” The source of every revival in history, both ancient and modern has been prayer. Someone laid hold on the throne of God and the heavens opened and God showered His people with the blessings of revival.”

Pray Christian Pray !

The horror that occurred on September 11th is indelibly imprinted on all our minds. Our nation in response, is in the process of trying to root out terrorism wherever it exists around the world. However, does the body of Christ realize what the Lord expects from us in response to this national tragedy?

The nation received a wakeup call from hell on September 11th. God was not the author of the attack. The attack was demonic. It was authored and inspired from the pits of hell. It was carried out by men choosing with their free will to do evil "in the name of God." What could be more evil than that! Matthew 6:23 says, "If your light is darkness, how deep will the darkness be!"

This country must make a serious and dramatic course correction. Our politicians standing on the steps of congress singing God bless America is not going to cut it. We want God to bless America but we don’t want to change. We want Him to bless our mess. He’s not going to do it! He wants us to clean up our mess. Don’t we realize that on any busy Saturday in the good old USA, we kill as many babies in abortion clinics as the terrorists did on 9/11. Does God see any difference between the deaths of these babies and the deaths of the people in the twin towers? Does not Jesus weep as deeply over the babies whose brains are sucked out of their skulls in partial birth infanticide as he did over the victims in the WTC.

The October 2001 issue of The Catholic World Report comments on the events of 9/11: "The Islamic zealots who rail against the "Great Satan" (us) speak about the moral decadence of Hollywood and MTV... a regime that promotes sodomy and abortion and urges other countries to do the same. It is enormously significant... that before seizing the American embassy in November 1979, the Iranian mob inspired by Ayatollah Khomeini first sacked the offices of Planned Parenthood in Teheran." What we export is part of the reason they hate us so much.

Joe Burke

For about a month after 9/11 churches all over America experienced a surge in attendance and there was talk of a nationwide revival but within just a few short weeks things returned to their pre 9/11 complacency and conduct of worship. Why did this surge of religious ferver and activity fizzle out? I want to suggest a reason for this failure to launch a real revival. Let’s examine our text this morning…

a. The humility of the people – humble themselves

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you" (James 4:10).

Humility is often characterized as genuine gratitude, a lack of arrogance, and a modest view of one’s self. However, the biblical definition of humility goes beyond this. Humility is a critical and continuous emphasis on godliness in the Bible. We are called upon to be humble followers of Christ and trust in the wisdom and salvation of God. True humility is seeing ourselves as we truly are, fallen in sin and helpless without God.