The Wave Of Revival

Sunday AM March 30th 2003

The Wave of Revival

Psalm 85:6

6Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?

2 Chronicles 7:14-16

14If 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.

15Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.

16For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.

Gravity, wind and all the other meteorological stuff that goes into the making of a wave I will leave for another message and another time. But a wave in its most simple definition is a moving ridge or swell on the surface of the ocean. It is a pulse of potential energy traveling vast distances across the water.

Surfing is the sport of riding breaking waves toward shore, especially by the means of a surfboard. Riding the waves or surfing can be traced back to the year 400. In 1771 the explorer, Captain James Cook reported seeing long-board surfers in Tahiti and in other parts of the world. In 1920 the first surfing club was formed in the Hawaiian Islands.

While I am definitely not a surfer, in fact the closest that I have come to surfing has been to watch surfers as I have walked along the beach, but they say that the best conditions occur when large and smooth ocean swells in deep water peak up into steep sets of waves, or breakers. Under ideal conditions surfers can ride the wave for half a mile or more.

The surfer first swims with his board out beyond the crest of breaking waves to the point where the larger rollers peak up. As the wave approaches him he paddles four or five times toward the shore to attain sufficient speed to coast down the face of the wave. Once the surfer has caught the wave he can rise to his feet in a standing position and ride the wave until it dies out near the beach.

Not every wave though is the right wave. You must posses a certain skill in determining which wave is the right wave that will take you the farthest and give you the best ride. You can only catch a wave as it ends its long journey headed to the shore. If the wave is squashed it’s uncatchable or if it is too steep and already falling over you may not want to catch it.

There is a critical moment when it is the right time to catch the right wave. It is when the wave begins to get steep and swell up and just before it begins to fall over into the shape of a C. An experienced surfer knows which wave is the right one and they will wait until it comes along. Surfers will wait for and they will dream about the perfect wave to catch that will give them the ride of their life.

Now to bring all of this surfing talk to a spiritual level and to make an application let me say that there is a wave of the sovereign move of God in revival that is beginning to rise up from the deep and head toward the shore in this day that we live in. In this time period that the Bible calls the last days the breakers of the waves of the move of God are making their way toward the church. We have been placed in the kingdom for such a time as this. We have been placed here to catch the wave of the sovereign move of God in revival for this end time gathering before the coming of the Lord. I’m talking about the wave of revival.

But now the question begs to be asked, “Will we catch this wave of revival and ride it all the way to the end or will we let it pass us on by?” I’m preaching this morning about, “The wave of revival.”

In our scripture text from the book of Psalms, the psalmist asked the question, Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? This was during the time that the children of Israel were beginning to return from Babylonian captivity. It was a desperate time. The land was in utter waste. The temple had been unused for seventy years and had been destroyed. The brush and rubble had piled up around the holy places of God. The psalmist said if not for a move of God in revival then all hope is lost. The condition of the land is just too bad. The condition of people’s hearts is just too corrupt. Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?