Saturday, December 19, 2015

Praying for Revival

It's surprising and exhilarating to be thinking again of revival.  It's still scary to think of all the counterfeits that are out there that would try to distort it, but I'm refusing to be intimidated.  We need revival desperately, there is absolutely no other hope.  Either God blesses us with revival or America goes down as Europe has pretty much already gone down.  We know it's the last days so watching and praying is our job but that can't preclude doing everything in our power to resist it.  "Oh God isn't going to give us a revival now."  Well maybe He isn't.  Or maybe He would if we approached Him as He wants us to.  Committing ourselves to the last-ditch attempt has to be the right thing to do. 

We're weak and flabby spiritually, at least I am and I know most of the Church is.  I hope those who are spiritually strong have been holding up us weak ones in prayer.  In any case we have to GET strong.  Anyone who even has a glimmer of an inkling of how much we need to do this should set aside more time than usual just to ask God to help us overcome our inertia, focus our thoughts, show us what we need to repent of, in ourselves first, then in the Church at large, learn His will, grow in fervor where now we can barely form an idea about what we should be doing.  I have no doubt He'll supply everything we need for such a task if we ask Him to do it. 

I've begun at least that much.  If just one other person would join me in the effort and pray for me too, and pass on the project to someone else, before long we could have a praying army.   Pray for the Church to be purified first of all, then pray for the nation, pray for Europe too, even they could be revived, why not?  Pray for all Christians on the planet.  With intensity, giving much more time than usual to prayer and seeking the Lord.  Determined to get all sin out of our lives.  Determined to reach God's ear.

For some inspiration, go listen to the sermons at Sermon Audio and Sermon Index on Revival.  I've listened to many at Sermon Audio.  Here's that page at Sermon Audio.

Who are we, Church?  "Terrible as an army with banners?" (Song of Solomon Ch 6) Isn't that what we SHOULD be? If we belong to God shouldn't we be about His business, especially now?  Throw out the TV if you have to, at least turn it off for 80% of the time you normally watch it.  Reorganize your schedule to throw out anything that isn't absolutely essential for the tasks of living.  Go into the prayer closet and prepare to wrestle with a blank mind, a distracted mind, the onslaughts of the devil, beg God to help you pray  ask and keep asking for God's help to overcome it all and give you fervor for revival.  Revival is what we need.  Don't pray for anything else in that prayer sitting, just revival, just God's power in blessing on His people.

Listen to some of those sermons, they really are inspiring.  Ian Paisley is a great preacher of the old fire-and-brimstone thundering style which may be hard to listen to but what he says is very inspiring.  Interestingly two other preachers who are also originally from Northern Ireland are also inspiring on revival:  Alan Cairns and Rev. Cranston in Ontario Canada, Port Hope, who has a series of sermons on revivals in the Bible.  And E. A. Johnston America, Revival or Ruin is also very inspiring.  And of course Leonard Ravenhill. 

Somebody, just one other person.  We can make a difference.  I'm sure others are praying too, but we need to give LOTS of time to it, not just sandwich a few words for revival into prayers for other things. If hundreds of us set ourselves to do this God might really hear from heaven and heal our land before He comes in judgment.

I can get a lot more specific but I'll save that for another post.