Time To Engage: "Breaking Up The Fallow Ground”

Time to Engage:

Breaking Up the Fallow Ground

Watch on YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63h6FPTfw5Y

Revival in our land, a revival of our faith to see hearts and lives changed and transformed, is a cry that we’re hearing and starting to experience not only around the world, but in our own country. The request to revive us was actually a prayer for God’s mercy upon the nation of Israel by the sons of Korah.

“Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?” (Psalm 85:6 NIV)

And it is such a prayer that the church has been praying for and is often attached to a prayer for the Holy Spirit to come down much as described in Isaiah’s prayer in chapter 64.

“Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence.” (Isaiah 64:1 NIV)

And then he talks about the awesome things God did, beyond anything they expected and how ear has not heard, nor eye has seen what God will do, and what God has in store for those who wait for Him. But then he talked about how if we continue to sin, and how our righteous acts are like filthy rags, how can we possibly be saved. (Isaiah 64:3-6)

And here’s where I would like to pick up our study, and that is our need to be cleansed and to seek God for His renewal and restoration so a revival can come, so the Holy Spirit can descend in power as He has done so many times in the past.

Now one of the main Scriptures that is often quoted when people pray for revival, especially here in America, is found in 2 Chronicles 7:14.

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV)

What many people miss is that this is a conditional prayer and promise. It is one of the “If/Then” promises. The condition is that if we want God to forgive our sins and heal our land then we must first humble ourselves, pray, seek God’s face and turn from our wicked ways.

What I’d like to do in our time is to cover the last two of these conditions, the first two is what I see as our need to fast and pray. And the reason I say this is because the idea of being humble is attached to prayer and seeking God.

Fasting humbles us before God, making us completely dependent upon Him for His guidance and protection.  We see this in Ezra’s prayer prior to setting out for Jerusalem with the temple implements.

“Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions.” (Ezra 8:21 NKJV)

Further, fasting is attached to repentance and a turning away from our sins, which is that last condition of turning from our wicked ways. It was such a fast the king of Nineveh called upon to spare their city from God’s judgment.

“The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth(which was symbolic of humbling and the affliction of one’s soul) … When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.” (Jonah 3:5, 10 NIV)

Outside of God’s word, which Paul identifies as the sword of the Spirit, prayer and fasting are our two greatest spiritual weapons.

Today in our time together, however, I’d like to look at the last two aspects of God’s condition for revival, and that is to seek God and turn from our wicked ways.

I believe God wants to do some heart changing and soul cleansing as brought out in a beautiful and haunting Scripture. It’s a Scripture that speaks as powerfully as 2 Chronicles 7:14. In fact, I would put this Scripture on par with it. It’s from our signature verse.

"Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you." (Hosea 10:12 NKJV)

Israel was an agricultural society. It was a nation of shepherds and farmers. Therefore, it’s not uncommon to see the Scriptures filled with illustrations from these occupations.

And it was a farming illustration the Lord uses to tell us how we are to prepare for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Now I really don’t believe that the Lord was interested in instructing farmers on to grow a bountiful crop as He is in instructing His people on how to get themselves right with Him so He can do a mighty work on their behalf.