Revival
Corrie Ten Boom, her parents having hid Jews in her home during the Nazi occupation of WW2, understood from her experiences the need for revival in her land. Her face was worn with age from the harshness of the concentration camp, but her heart was soft and full when she shared: “If you want to see revival in your own city, go to the center of your town-square and draw a circle…around your own heart.” The lesson from the wise is that revival starts with me and requires a revolution – a revolution of the heart.
This is why we need the discipline of both prayer and a lifestyle of worship in our walk with God every day, and as we gather for the National Day of Prayer to place and position our hearts, and thus, our place is positioned in His greater plan.
Why?-Because the Word of God tells us it is hard to ever know the condition of our own heart as it can deceive us. Jeremiah 17:9 says, The heart is deceitful above all else, who can perceive it?
Revival begins with me and my heart, relinquishing it to Him to touch it – my heart worn from the harsh realities of life, my perceptions, and my own selfish will; for it to be revived - made pliable and soft again; that I may know and do His will, His way.
You see, for me- prayer is less about changing MY circumstances and more about changing me IN my circumstances. It begins with me and my heart yielded to Him. Only then may these acts of obedience ignite His plan and purposes as an arsenal to the enemy’s advance on my home, city, state, and nation.
So revival prayer is merely our “call to arms” against the enemy’s onslaught. It is our 911 call. –And what power all the more, when we UNITE together for His purposes.
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am there in their midst. Matthew 18:20 And so we learn a deep spiritual truth, of a sequential process from our “God of Order” that: humility is a prerequisite for unity; unity is a prerequisite for the anointing –The time of His divine presence where He gifts and graces the fullness of His supply. And finally, that the anointing brings and is a prerequisite for revival.
We can’t control His presence, but we certainly can invite it. God is the God of order and He invites us to seek His face and receive a full heart. Full of the power of forgiveness that only He can pour. And we can have this, whether it is in our bedroom alone or in a room roaring with the praise of a crowd of 10,000! – But it always begins in the same place. –One relinquished heart.
A “revived heart” merely means my heart has been woken and unfrozen to love, live and long for the presence of God in my city, state, nation and His world. – And I’m from Minnesota – so I know that takes a miracle!” But the question we must first ask ourselves, and then the Church: Is our heart so frozen it cannot care for what He cares about? -His mission of John 3:16? Will we take on His mission as our great commission? It is only in prayer that our heart is changed to comprehend and care to know the heartbeat, the pulse of the Father’s heart.
And it is here in His presence where the “WOW Stories” happen. When we stand on the edge of life’s circumstances to face and seek truth, peering over into the great unknown. If you want all you’ve learned and know of God to become more than mere head-knowledge, to experience it as heart-knowing, this is the moment and the place. This is when we with clinched toes on the cliff edge, ask “What is important between here and eternity?”
The decision to take that step is more like a great leap over a cliff into the wild unknown of God’s presence. This place is called His perfect will. The discipline of a Spirit-Led life brings us there. And whether you take a step, a leap or what I call “a free-fall of faith” into the great unknown, it can only be found as we let go of our own selfish will and exchange it to know, trust and do- His pleasing and perfect will.
The wonder of this courageous leap is the positive reward of a new heart revived and people who pray have a positive future, because they positively know they need God.
And so, on the National Day of Prayer, we listen and look at the purpose – to ask, “Are we ready?” Are we ready to take the step to cross lines of denominations, race, and station in life to come together in unity to pray for revival?
And so this blog begins with what it should– prayer. You see, prayer is to be the foundation that we build our faith upon. Every good work is built on and from prayer. Nothing too complicated, sophisticated, or over-spiritual – just a lifestyle of talking to God, plain and simple. The springboard for the momentum in all I do; my actions, (reactions) and my motives. Everything begins with prayer.
Jeremiah 33:3 – Call to Me and I will Answer, and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.
“Things I do not know”…Your heart Father – to change mine.
WOW
LORD I have heard of your fame; I stand in AWE of your deeds, LORD. Revive your work throughout all of our lives in our day, in our time make them known... Habakkuk 3:2