Are you living in disobedience to the Lord? Face up to this! Many years ago D. Will you begin now to pray the same prayer for your church, that the world may see what God can do? Read the rest of the psalm, and notice several results which are mentioned: salvation 7 ; peace 8 ; glory 9 ; harmony 10 ; increase 11 ; provision 12 ; Psalm !
Links Blog Site map Contact us. Bible Studies. Think of the need for revival: 1. In the outside world. Multitudes are without God and without hope in the world Ephesians ; most of them are outside the churches, and revival is the only key to this tragic situation. In the Church. Many churches are worldly, formal and lacking in spiritual power and vitality. Only revival can alter this state of affairs.
In our own lives. How powerless we are! How frequently we fail, our testimony seems ineffective, and how little we pray! We are always part of the Church — the Body of Christ — and we need each other, if our spiritual lives are to be sustained.
Healthy groups that practice accountability do not degenerate into social clubs. Prayer as a Seed of Revival After cleansing from sin, there is no greater or more essential foundation for revival than prayer — not casual prayer, but intercession that involves time and commitment. This is serious business because when we enter into prayer for revival, we are immediately thrust into the middle of a spiritual battle: a battle for the eternal destiny of the souls of men, women, and children.
Our adversary does not take this struggle lightly, so we should not either. We must seek the filling and empowering of the Holy Spirit for effective spiritual warfare, and keep a continually cleansed heart before the Lord. Our prayers need to reflect a divine love and concern for those who do not know Christ. Jesus "came to seek and to save what was lost" Luke As we are drawn closer to Him in devotion and service, we will share his priorities and concerns.
Jesus wept over the stubbornness of those in Jerusalem who refused to come to Him. He told the parable of the shepherd who celebrated finding one lost sheep and bringing him safely home. He said, "I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent" Luke As we mentioned earlier, Jesus also told the parable of the prodigal son: the father rejoiced at the return of his son who had rebelled but had now returned home.
And 2 Peter states that God is "not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. Although these scriptures are familiar, often they make little impact on us.
But as we seek the heart of Jesus Christ in prayer, we will begin to comprehend the reality of eternity. And we will also share in the unconditional love He has for them. Likewise, we will not be motivated to pray unless we have this oneness with the purposes of God. Dedicated intercession, so essential for revival, requires us to identify with those lost in their sins and to take personal responsibility for the sins of the nations.
Faith as a Seed of Revival Since faith is essential to spiritual effectiveness, it is likewise crucial as we prepare for revival. Regarding the possibility of revival, Jesus Himself told us to "open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest" John Once we realize this and put our complete confidence in Him, we are on the right track toward revival.
Consecrate Ourselves to the Lord by Circumcising Our Hearts After breaking up our unplowed ground, guarding against the thorns of spiritual distraction, and sowing seeds of righteousness, we need to "circumcise" our hearts before the Lord. Later, the law was given to Moses as a covenant between God and Israel. The Israelites failed continuously to love God and remain true to the covenant, so that God referred to their faithlessness and rejection as "adultery," with all its painful implications.
With the coming of Jesus Christ came a new "circumcision" representing the New Covenant God makes with believers. The problem of faithlessness has been solved by God in the New Covenant, because He puts His law in our minds and writes it on our hearts Jeremiah The apostle Paul wrote, "circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code" Romans , emphasis added.
It is clear from Scripture that circumcision of the heart is the work of God. How then are we to circumcise our hearts to the Lord? This act corresponds with what Jesus told us is the greatest commandment: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" Matt. We should settle for nothing but total dedication of our hearts and lives to God. On the basis of the New Covenant, we belong to Him and are to give ourselves completely to Him in love and obedience.
This dedication and obedience is to be marked by joy, not fear, because Christ lives in us and enables us to love and obey Him. He said, "If you love Me, you will obey what I command" John We are to live in the New Covenant God has made with us, not just consider it part of our theology.
Revival will come when Christians dedicate all that they are and all that they have to Jesus; when they say, "Whatever the cost, I give myself completely to You; work Your will in me. In the cycle of revival, it is what bridges cultural crisis and mass conversion. Therefore, it is absolutely critical in preparing the way for a general revival.
Personal revival begins with spiritual discipline: yielding to the conviction and prompting of the Holy Spirit, and living in faithfulness, integrity, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice. Hebrews explains that "God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness. Future churches will make disciples, not just revive the few remaining ones who have drifted away. We will see great moves of God, but they will not primarily be based on calling people back to what they have left, but instead be based on calling people into something they have never experienced.
This has radical implications for how you preach, communicate, think, structure and function as a ministry. An unstated assumption in previous generations was that the future would look like the past with a few modifications.
The church of today and tomorrow is so not about the current preferences of existing members. Instead, the future church will be about existing members rallying around a mission that is not fundamentally about them, but about Christ and the world he loves. This breaks my heart, but the most gifted leaders are not flocking toward ministry or seminary anymore I wish they were.
They are heading into the marketplace. The best church staff moving forward will not be products of traditional seminaries. Sure, there will be exceptions, but for the most part, you will assemble your team from gifted and passionate people who already attend your church and have never thought about ministry as a vocation.
You might end up sending some of them to seminary after. But I think in the next decade this will hit the senior pastor position harder than ever. How we will get them educated in scripture and theology remains open. But rethinking theological education is critical.
A few years ago, David Kinnaman and I wrote a report for Orange which, among other things, pointed out how false this assumption is. You can read the report here. It will take a strategy to reach young families these days. In my view, no one is doing a better job helping leaders figure out how to reach families than my friends at Orange. This attitude will disappear. The good news is loyalty to the mission will.
Congregations come and go. The mission is bigger than all of us. The Church Growth Masterclass is everything I wish I knew about church growth when I got into ministry more than 20 years ago. Only God can do that. You can knock down the barriers that keep you from growing. You can eliminate the things that keep your church from growing and implement some strategies that will help you reach far more people.
You can learn more and gain instant access to the course today. None of these changes are bad for the church. In fact, you could argue each will make us stronger. And if all these changes continue to progress as they are now, Jesus will be more central to the church of the future. Our insular, unquestioned church culture will not be. And I thought great thinkers were dead! Revivals will become a thing of the past just like how it is in the Old Testament, and how Judaism comes true for people that attend church revivals.
Whereas, German Women do not have female rights at all, and always had to speak in male sexist nouns. I am very interested in reading the report you mention in number 4 about young adults not returning to the church, but the link takes me to the Orange website, is there another place I can read it?
This book helps dispel myths evangelicals have come to believe about the receptivity of nones and millennials in our culture. I like revival of Mission. So why I give my life to be a fronter of the Mission. I love Mobilizing people for Mission. It is my fevert work. Thanks for the information. The blog is really informative. I am learning a lot about ayurvedic treatment from you and healthreactive.
Hey Carey, this was a challenging article not because I think you are wrong, but there are some interesting implication that I see from my perspective. I am currently pursuing becoming a reservist chaplain in the Canadian Armed Forces, in addition to pastoring a small rural church part time.
But more startling, it sets the bar incredibly high for entrants. In non-mainline Christianity, MDivs are becoming rarer and rarer, and generally only the lead pastor of a church is even likely to have one. This has led to huge vacancies in reserve chaplaincy roles — at least in my area — Western Canada. There are 8 openings in Alberta alone. I personally am excited about moving into the role but I still have a year of part time courses to take to finish my MDiv.
These young men and women are exactly the people we need to reach and the fact that these chaplain roles are going unfilled should be a shame to us who claim to be evangelically inclined. Where are the evangelicals in the army? Want to reach millennials? A lot of them are in the army. Want to reach men? A LOT of them are in the army! End rant…. Come on somebody!!! Honestly I completely agree with your Oliver.
God says in the Acts 2 that he will pour his spirits out in the end times and that sons and daughters will prophecy. We are in the greatest time of the harvest and revival is here! I am 18 and I am seeing God pour his spirit out among the youth and he is stirring a hunger and thirst for righteousness in them. We are living in a time of revival and God is rising up an Army!!!! As a young priest in the Anglican Episcopal tradition down here in New Zealand, I see all of the above trends and observations happening here or already completed here.
I am constantly fending off moves to get me politically and governmentally involved in the institution but this will take me and the people I journey with away from our purpose to exist. Thank you for this article. I want to challeng one issue. But the process of bringing a group of people together with a plan designed to gain their attention and focus it on God is not dead. Unfortunately today we are not willing to put the effort in to planning out these important and necessary processes.
Therefore we lack focus. We simply trash them as ineffective. The problem is not that this process is ineffective but we have lost the knowledge in how to pull it off. The young pastors who are bold enough to give it a serious chance find long term results.
They bring in a speaker on a certain date. They announce it a few times and have no results. Then they trash it. Thanks Alan. We need more like an introduction. Just a new strategy. Only a true Holy Ghost revival ever works.
It is something that cannot be planned only prayed for. When the power of God falls it changes hearts and whole areas.
It spreads to surrounding churches line a fire. Look into the Great awakening, welsh revival, Azusa st. Brownsville, Toronto etc. Revival still works great if planned effectively. We make it focus on God not on us nor the church. Engage the congregation by talking and planning, well Announcement and great publicity.
Think about the word itself. One was formerly living, the other was formerly clay. We need to scrap old methods while still clinging to the unchanging message. The reason people do not come to the church in our culture is our God seems to be a wimp. No book of Acts power encounters. God always works with a remnant. Ground zero was with Saints. The rest is history. If you get book of Acts miracles you will get the hungry to come in.
They will change the world. Good word, but revival is NOT dead. Revival shaking — Dead church wakes up. Outpouring of the Spirit. Thanks for this! I think you might have missed the point of the article. Revival assumes there is something to revive. Israel could have had a revival in the first century.
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