Revival: March 22, 2011

TODAYS WORD FOR TUESDAY MARCH 22, 2011

REVIVAL

DEFINITION:

Restoration to life, consciousness, vigor or strength; reawakening of interest in and care for religion; a meeting to promote religious awakening.

SCRIPTURE:

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

Restore us, O Lord God Almighty; make your face shine on us that we may be saved. Psalm 80:19

“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.” II Chronicles 7:14

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Many professing Christians today have never experienced a revival and probably never even heard of one let alone really know what a revival is. If someone asked you what we meant by a “revival,” how would you respond?

A “revival” as we refer to it here is a time when a single person or a group of people (believers in Jesus) decide that they need to restore their faith in the Lord and get back to living by the fundamentals that God expects from us.

Today we need a revival and it needs to begin with individual Christians. We want you to understand that a revival can begin with you, just one person who really is dedicated to live daily for God.

There are at least 12 revivals referred to in the Old Testament and there are four factors preceding each revival that is in common and vital to these Old Testament revivals and are also relevant for us today.

• A moral and Spiritual decline among the people of God.
• Always proceeded by some kind of a righteous judgment from God.
• The raising up of an immensely burdened leader or leaders.
• A common location for a beginning with a common burden.

The Old Testament tells us of revivals under Moses, Samuel, David, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoida, Hezekiah, Joash, Zerubbabel, Ezra and Joel. All of these prophets from God led these revivals by calling the people together and having them pray, fast and confess their sins. In each case God used a leader who was faithful to Him.

God used Moses to bring revival to the Israelites when they rebelled against God. It would seem that after all the miracles the Israelites had witnessed God do to bring them out of Egypt that they would be forever faithful to God. Yet just within months, while Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, the Israelites turned away from God and made a golden calf to worship. Moses had to call his people to a revival of their relationship with God.

God used Moses to point out to the Israelites that they had rebelled against God and that God’s judgment had come upon them for one reason --- they had sinned against God. Then Moses reminded the Israelites of God’s mercy and the many promises God had fulfilled in the past. Their restoration depended on their willingness to repent, follow the Lord and obey His commandments.

America was founded as a nation under God but today as a people we have rebelled and sinned against God. Thus we have witnessed a moral and spiritual decline not only among the general population but also among the believers in Jesus. Because of this we need a revival to begin with individuals and then have it spread to families and finally to our churches. Perhaps you need a revival in your family. God desires that we who are believers be a leader in our family to call our family members to repentance and bring revival in our home.

Our action should be to call our families together and have each one humble themselves before God, pray, seek God’s face, confess our sins and then repent from our wicked ways. He will forgive our sins and heal our homes and bring our family into a right relationship with Him. When this happens in a home God will give each one the strength to have their actions and deeds be a witness to their friends and neighbors and God will open doors for others to be drawn near to Him.

REVIVAL is needed today. When God moves into our homes and touches individual family members spiritually then a revival will begin. God is just waiting for us to HUMBLE ourselves; PRAY; SEEK HIM; turn from our WICKED WAYS, and then we will hear from heaven and when we repent, God will forgive our sins and heal our homes and our land.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Proverbs 14:21.

But he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he.

PRAYER:

Help me to put into perspective my need for a personal revival to begin in my heart. Give me the leadership to expand this “revival” need to my family. It is my prayer that You will work Your miracles in my life so that Your name will be honored and glorified.