The Wave Of Revival

They hadn’t experienced some of these feasts and special days in over seventy years. One of the feasts they celebrated was for the harvest. Wait a minute – there was no harvest. They had just come back to the land from captivity so they had no harvest to take in that year but they celebrated anyways for the harvest that was to come. Zerubbebal had a vision for the future and an ability to move into it by faith. There were no crops to harvest, no cities to celebrate in, no temple to worship in. They had no evidence that they would ever have any of that. All they had was the vision of what God was going to do in the coming years. I am reminded of the words of the prophet Habakkuk when he said:

Habakkuk 3:17-19

17Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:

18Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

19The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.

If we are to catch the wave of revival we are going to have to get some vision as to what God can do in your life and in your family and in this church and in this city. You need vision to see your whole family saved and living for God. You need vision of a mighty revival sweeping across this church as we catch the wave of the sovereign move of God.

7. A call to warfare.

Ezra 4:1-5

1Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the LORD God of Israel;

2Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither.

3But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the LORD God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us.

4Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building,

5And hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

We must understand that whenever we move out to catch the wave of revival that God has for us there will always be someone to fight against it. There will be attacks against the leader. There will be attacks against the people. The attacks will seek to frustrate the purpose of God and revival. They will seek to blur and dim our vision as to what God can do.

But knowing the attacks are coming we can prepare for them and when the enemy comes against us, like a flood the Lord can raise up a standard against him.

If we hope to catch the wave of revival we need to be prepared to fight.