The Wave Of Revival

We will receive the healing of our land that we need that comes from revival.

Remaining – “Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever:”

It’s God’s will that we would always be in revival mode. It’s God’s will that we never again get off of this wave of revival.

Reproduction – “and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.”

God wants this to be a thing that is reproduced over and over again.

I’m talking about, “the wave of revival.”

In the time that we have remaining this morning I want to look at the revival that began in the book of Ezra because I think it gives us some further insights into revival.

Ezra 9:8-9

8And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.

9For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.

Ezra said there has been a little space of grace given from the Lord our God that has allowed a remnant to get back to the promised land of our dwelling. He said he gave us a nail in his holy place. That is he has given us a firm and a sure abode. You can always trust in the house of the Lord. Ezra goes on to say that he has given us light for our eyes and a reviving from our bondage. I’m so glad that God did not forsake us during our bondage to the world. I’m so glad that when I left him, he didn’t give up on me. I’m so glad that instead he extended mercy to us that we could have a reviving of our soul and a repairing of the precious things of the Lord that had been broken down and left in ruin. He has also given us a wall of protection around our lives.

I see some interesting things from this revival here in Ezra.

1. A call to leave familiar ground.

We must, if we hope to catch the wave of revival today that God has for us, heed the call of leaving familiar ground. Zerubbabel understood that he had to first leave the land of Babylon and head back to Jerusalem if he wanted revival. It is the step of leaving familiar ground, of leaving the religious, traditional surroundings and moving out into the unknown to accomplish what the Spirit of God might do. The people of God had become satisfied living in Babylon. Not everyone heeded the call to return to Jerusalem. Most of the people stayed behind in Babylon.

Ezra 1:3; 5

3Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem.

5 Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem.