If history is our guide and His Word the light, three conditions should exist in a people before God can pour out his revival –
1. A messenger with a divinely inspired message
2. Fear of the Lord and obedience
3. A profound concern and burden for the matters of God
Haggai was among the first wave of exiles’ that returned to Jerusalem in the year 536BC. After their return, people started to rebuild the Temple of the Lord, but left it incomplete. As they settled down and their basic necessities taken care of, they turned their attention to luxury (Haggai 1:3, 4).
It is to this people God send Haggai. His message had a singular theme – “Put God first” and called them to rebuild the temple (Haggai 1:2-9). The leadership both temple and civil, and the people obeyed the word of God and the message of Haggai because they feared God (Haggai 1:12).
When they decided to turn (repentance) from advancing themselves and instead developed a concern and burden for the matters of God (by obeying the Lord and Haggai’s message (Haggai 1:12(b)), thereby dedicating themselves to finishing the temple, then the Lord started stirring their spirits – hence spurring a revival (Haggai 1:13-14)
God sends revival for a purpose. A task is accomplished by a revival. In our times it is to expand the kingdom of God. But he will not send it to a people that are unprepared or unwilling to give God’s matters priority.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I agree and that was a good posting. Well just to add on...the fear of the Lord and obedience would include humbleness and the willing to sacrifice yourselves. We always tend to just say we're humble but inside we have too much ego that everything should go our own way, but it will be amazing to see how God can use us when we completely surrender ourselves to Him. This is always a beginning of the revival. In addition, in order to keep the revival going in our lives we should obey and walk according to His word. Revival is not just a 'one' time thing that is offered by God but it's ongoing. Others (believers and unbelievers) should be able to see the revival in us. This revival is not just speaking in tongues but the change that occurs within us as God takes and molds us. It should be shown the way we dress, talk, treating other people, and overall in every aspect of our lives.
Very True. Thanks for giving more substance to the posting.
Bobby good points, I wondered many times, why the sustenance of a revival does not last for long time, not more than one generation. A typical spiritual generation consists of one half cycle of revival and other half cycle of survival and many times, people may tend to stay longer in survival mode than the other.
In addition to the 3 point you mentioned, we need to have continuous, overflowing experience of the Holy Spirit to extend the revival time window.
We need more of the Holy Spirit than ever before !!
Anu
I guess the question of why revival does not sustain is a thought provoking. In Act 2 we see the first NT revival. Again in Act 4:23-31 the Church is once again revived by the power of the Holy Spirit. In both cases the revival worked a visible change in the Church. In Act 1 – the Holy Spirit was made known for the first time, working miracles in the lives of believers and society. The Church came into form with 3000 added to it. In Act 4 we see the second revival – this instilled boldness in the believers. In both cases it was to expand the Kingdom.
Revival as I see it is an event where the Holy Spirit moves in supernatural ways to strengthen and touch people to accomplish the work our Lord is doing (Building the Church). Typical for both these events (in Act 1 and 4) is a people that had burden and a people that waited on the Lord –“TOGETHER”. I guess Blessy pointed the required pre-requisite.
Post a Comment