We have examined the meaning of revival, and last week we learned that revival is something that we should thirst for like the parched desert soil thirsts for the evening dew. This week’s message will deal with some of the more practical aspects of revival. Jesus said in Mk 11:24 that whatsoever things you desire, when you pray believe you have received them and they shall be yours. Obviously, they won’t be yours if you ask contrary to God’s Will, but as long as you ask according to His Will, you will receive what you ask for. This is the promise of God to all those who believe in Him.
“How am I to know God’s Will?” you may ask. One thing is certain. Asking for revival is ALWAYS in accordance with God’s Will. Asking for His Holy Spirit is ALWAYS according to His Will, for He desires to fill everyone who believes in Him with His overcoming, powerful Spirit so that they may work His works in this world, bringing glory to the Father. Read Luke 11:11-13; it clearly says so. So then, are we asking for revival? When we ask, do we BELIEVE that we have received what we ask for? That is the essence of faith. If we do not ask in faith, we ask amiss. Our prayers hit the ceiling and fall unanswered to the ground and we are not revived.
What does it mean to ask in faith? What does it mean to believe you have received what you ask for? It means that when you come out of your prayer closet having earnestly sought the Lord for spiritual revival, do not walk as those who are spiritually dying. Walk in newness of life, with a newfound purpose, with renewed vigour for the mission God has in store for you. Walk like those on the road to Emmaus whose hearts burned with spiritual revival as Jesus opened to them the Holy Scriptures. Walk as if you have something to offer the world, because you do! You have work to do. You have Gospel Truth to share. With God on your side, it is not a “mission impossible.”
When I first started driving, my mother would yell to me as I reversed out of the driveway. “Move and turn!” she would yell. “Move and turn!” Why? It was because I had a car without a power-assisted steering so if I didn’t let out the clutch a little and give the car a bit of throttle to allow it to move while I maneuvered the steering wheel, it made it that much harder to turn. When I allowed the car to move and turned the wheel simultaneously, it was easier to turn. So it is with our prayers too. God does not want us on our knees forever asking, but doing nothing. He wants us to demonstrate our faith in His power to answer by believing in Him, and what better way to do that than to start acting like a bunch of revived people? Pray and move! That is one of the secrets to starting a revival. If everyone did this, very soon, the whole Church would be revived and the effects would spill over into the wider community. If we spent half the time we normally spend on bickering, complaining and judging others on earnest prayer and fasting and then started working the works of the revived, we wouldn’t need the thrill of sporadic revivals any longer.
We would be like the tree planted by the rivers of living water!
"If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? "-Luke 11:11-13
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."- 2 Chron 7:14
