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Post by josh on Sept 11, 2005 0:19:03 GMT -5
September 1
Revival: Born After Midnight
So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. -Luke 11:9-10
Among revival-minded Christians I have heard the saying, "Revivals are born after midnight."
This is one of those proverbs which, while not quite literally true, yet points to something very true.
If we understand the saying to mean that God does not hear our prayer for revival made in the daytime, it is of course not true. If we take it to mean that prayer offered when we are tired and worn-out has greater power than prayer made when we are rested and fresh, again it is not true....
Yet there is considerable truth in the idea that revivals are born after midnight, for revivals (or any other spiritual gifts and graces) come only to those who want them badly enough....
No, there is no merit in late hour prayers, but it requires a serious mind and a determined heart to pray past the ordinary into the unusual.
Most Christians never do. And it is more than possible that the rare soul who presses on into the unusual experience reaches there after midnight. Born After Midnight, 7-8,10.
"Lord, give me this kind of longing after revival. Give me 'a serious mind and a determined heart' to pray into the unusual. Help me to give myself this month to this serious prayer for revival. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 11, 2005 0:19:24 GMT -5
September 2
Revival: A Purified Church
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ. -Philippians 3:7-8
Our most pressing obligation today is to do all in our power to obtain a revival that will result in a reformed, revitalized, purified church. It is of far greater importance that we have better Christians than that we have more of them. Each generation of Christians is the seed of the next, and degenerate seed is sure to produce a degenerate harvest not a little better than but a little worse than the seed from which it sprang. Thus the direction will be down until vigorous, effective means are taken to improve the seed....
To carry on these activities [evangelism, missions] scripturally the church should be walking in fullness of power, separated, purified and ready at any moment to give up everything, even life itself, for the greater glory of Christ. For a worldly, weak, decadent church to make converts is but to bring forth after her own kind and extend her weakness and decadence a bit further out....
So vitally important is spiritual quality that it is hardly too much to suggest that attempts to grow larger might well be suspended until we have become better. The Set of the Sail, 154-156.
"Lord, I don't hear much today of the 'greater importance that we have better Christians than that we have more of them.' Help us in our seeker-orientation not to water down the message and make the teaching so shallow that we don't challenge our people to holy living. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 11, 2005 0:19:43 GMT -5
September 3
Revival: The Curse of Self-righteousness
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. -Philippians 3:13-14
Self-righteousness is terrible among God's people. If we feel that we are what we ought to be, then we will remain what we are. We will not look for any change or improvement in our lives. This will quite naturally lead us to judge everyone by what we are. This is the judgment of which we must be careful. To judge others by ourselves is to create havoc in the local assembly.
Self-righteousness also leads to complacency. Complacency is a great sin.... Some have the attitude, "Lord, I'm satisfied with my spiritual condition. I hope one of these days You will come, I will be taken up to meet You in the air and I will rule over five cities." These people cannot rule over their own houses and families, but they expect to rule over five cities. They pray spottily and sparsely, rarely attending prayer meeting, but they read their Bibles and expect to go zooming off into the blue yonder and join the Lord in the triumph of the victorious saints. Rut, Rot or Revival: The Condition of the Church, 10-11.
"Lord, keep me from the curse of self-righteousness. Show me my sin and need for continued growth. If revival is to come, it needs to start with me, and it won't start unless I'm constantly reminded of my need. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 11, 2005 0:20:06 GMT -5
September 4
Revival: Living at a Fever Pitch
And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men. -Colossians 3:23
We live at a fever pitch, and whether we are erecting buildings, laying highways, promoting athletic events, celebrating special days or welcoming returning heroes we always do it with an exaggerated flourish. Our building will be taller, our highway broader, our athletic contest more colorful, our celebration more elaborate and more expensive than would be true anywhere else on earth. We walk faster, drive faster, earn more, spend more and run higher blood pressure than any other people in the world.
In only one field of human interest are we slow and apathetic: that is the field of personal religion. There for some strange reason our enthusiasm lags. Church people habitually approach the matter of their personal relation to God in a dull, half-hearted way which is altogether out of keeping with their general temperament and wholly inconsistent with the importance of the subject. Of God and Men, 3-4.
"Lord, revive my zeal for things of God. I get caught up in the fever pitch of so many things. Help me to set my priorities right and give myself more completely to enhancing my relationship with You. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 11, 2005 0:20:37 GMT -5
September 5
Revival: The Arrow of Infinite Desire
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. -Matthew 5:6
These words are addressed to those of God's children who have been pierced with the arrow of infinite desire, who yearn for God with a yearning that has overcome them, who long with a longing that has become pain.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."...
A dead body feels no hunger and the dead soul knows not the pangs of holy desire. "If you want God," said the old saint, "you have already found Him." Our desire for fuller life is proof that some life must be there already....
In nature everything moves in the direction of its hungers. In the spiritual world it is not otherwise. We gravitate toward our inward longing, provided of course that those longings are strong enough to move us. Impotent dreaming will not do. The religious urge that is not followed by a corresponding act of the will in the direction of that urge is a waste of emotion. The Size of the Soul, 17-18.
"Oh, God, I have that longing to know You, that hunger and thirst for righteousness, that 'desire for fuller life.' Move me along in the direction of that hunger, Lord, and give me the strength to follow 'in the direction of that urge.' Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 11, 2005 0:20:56 GMT -5
September 6
Revival: Revival on Our Terms
I am the Lord, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images. -Isaiah 42:8
There seems to be a notion abroad that if we talk enough and pray enough, revival will set in like a stock market boom or a winning streak on a baseball club. We appear to be waiting for some sweet chariot to swing low and carry us into the Big Rock Candy Mountain of religious experience.
Well, it is a pretty good rule that if everyone is saying something it is not likely to be true; or, if it has truth at the bottom, it has been so distorted by wrong emphasis as to have the effect of error in its practical outworking. And such, I believe, is much of the revival talk we hear today....
Our mistake is that we want God to send revival on our terms. We want to get the power of God into our hands, to call it to us that it may work for us in promoting and furthering our kind of Christianity. We want still to be in charge, guiding the chariot through the religious sky in the direction we want it to go, shouting "Glory to God," it is true, but modestly accepting a share of the glory for ourselves in a nice inoffensive sort of way. We are calling on God to send fire on our altars, completely ignoring the fact that they are our altars and not God's. The Size of the Soul, 8-9.
"Forgive me, Lord, for wanting any of the credit or any of the control as I call on You to do a work among my people. Work today in Your way, on Your terms, only for Your glory. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 11, 2005 0:21:15 GMT -5
September 7
Revival: Blessing on Our Terms
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." -Matthew 16:24
Here is what grieves me, and I believe this also grieves the Holy Spirit: My hearers rise to this call emotionally, but they will not confirm it by a corresponding change in their way of life. Their goodness is like the morning clouds-by 9:00 o'clock the sun has burnt off the fog. This is what happens to many people's good intentions. They rise emotionally to an urgent message that we become a New Testament church, that we become a model church, that we have the order of the New Testament and the power of the Holy Spirit in order that we might worship, work and witness. Emotionally they rise to it, but they will not confirm their emotions by corresponding changes in their way of life.
They want to be blessed by God, but they want God to bless them on their terms. They look pensively to God for victory, but they will not bring their giving into line. They will not practice family prayer, rushing off without it. They will not take time for secret prayer and will not forgive those who have wronged them. They will not seek to be reconciled to those with whom they have quarreled. They will not pick up their crosses and say, "Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow Thee." Rut, Rot or Revival: The Condition of the Church, 146-147.
"Lord, may my desire for You rise above emotions. I do want to be blessed of You, both personally and in my ministry. I commit myself this morning to a willingness to take my cross and follow You-and to take the necessary action to come on Your terms. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 11, 2005 0:21:35 GMT -5
September 8
Revival: God In Our Midst
And He said, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." Then he said to Him, "If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here." -Exodus 33:14-15
In what I have to say I may not be joined by any ground swell of public opinion, but I have a charge to make against the church. We are not consciously aware of God in our midst. We do not seem to sense the tragedy of having almost completely lost the awareness of His presence....
Revival and blessing come to the church when we stop looking at a picture of God and look at God Himself. Revival comes when, no longer satisfied just to know about a God in history, we meet the conditions of finding Him in living, personal experience....
Modern mankind can go everywhere, do everything and be completely curious about the universe. But only a rare person now and then is curious enough to want to know God. Men Who Met God, 121-122,127.
"Oh Lord, show me Your glory. I don't want to be satisfied with just a second-hand picture of You; I want to sense Your living presence with me today. I long to know You. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 11, 2005 0:21:59 GMT -5
September 9
Revival: A Divine Visitation
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. -1 Corinthians 3:1
I believe that it might be well for us if we just stopped all of our business and got quiet and worshiped God and waited on Him. It doesn't make me popular when I remind you that we are a carnal bunch, but it is true, nevertheless, that the body of Christians is carnal. The Lord's people ought to be a sanctified, pure, clean people, but we are a carnal crowd. We are carnal in our attitudes, in our tastes and carnal in many things. Our young people often are not reverent in our Christian services. We have so degraded our religious tastes that our Christian service is largely exhibitionism. We desperately need a divine visitation-for our situation will never be cured by sermons! It will never be cured until the Church of Christ has suddenly been confronted with what one man called the mysterium tremendium-the fearful mystery that is God, the fearful majesty that is God. This is what the Holy Spirit does. He brings the wonderful mystery that is God to us, and presents Him to the human spirit. The Counselor, 66-67.
"Oh Lord, deliver me from carnal attitudes, actions, and desires. Give me this morning a divine visitation to purify and cleanse me. Let me sense today the majesty and awesomeness of the 'mysterium tremendium' as I wait upon You. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 11, 2005 0:22:19 GMT -5
September 10
Revival: We Need a Revival!
And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry." But God said to him, "Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?" So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. -Luke 12:19-21
We need a revival! We need a revival of consecration to death, a revival of happy abandonment to the will of God that will laugh at sacrifice and count it a privilege to bear the cross through the heat and burden of the day. We are too much influenced by the world and too little controlled by the Spirit. We of the deeper life persuasion are not immune to the temptations of ease and we are in grave danger of becoming a generation of pleasure lovers.
Any who disagree with these conclusions are within their rights, and I would be the last to deny them the privilege. But in the name of a thousand struggling churches and disheartended pastors, may I not plead for a little more loyalty to the local church during this season of difficulty?
May God raise up a people who will consult their pleasures less and the great need more. God Tells the Man Who Cares, 159-160.
"Lord, make me today one of those 'who will consult their pleasures less and the great need more.' Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 11, 2005 0:22:49 GMT -5
September 11
Revival: How Much Does Revival Cost?
I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. -Leviticus 26:11-12
So we sit down to have a board meeting. What are we going to do to stir ourselves up? Who can we get? Where will we look? We forget that all the time Jehovah is present. "I am Jehovah shammah; I am in the midst of you. Why don't you talk to me?" No, we don't ask Him.
"I am your banner of victory." But we say, "I just wonder how much it will cost?" How much does a revival cost? Absolutely nothing and absolutely everything-that is how much it will cost. It will cost not one dime, and it will cost everything we have. You cannot import it by flying someone in from New Zealand. How many of these blessed preachers have come in from Ireland and England? They did some big things over there, we heard, so we flew them in and they never got anywhere. I never saw anything result from trying to import God. He does not fly over in a jet. He says, "I am Jehovah; I am with you. I am where you are; I am here now. Call on me." Rut, Rot or Revival: The Condition of the Church, 158-159.
"I call upon You this morning, Jehovah. Right here in my study, as I prepare to fulfill the ministry to which You have called me today-I call upon You here and now to work a mighty work in and through me. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 11, 2005 23:19:39 GMT -5
September 12
Revival: Time Is Running Out
The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. --Romans 13:12
The absence of spiritual devotion today is an omen and a portent. The modern church is all but contemptuous of the sober virtues-- meekness, modesty, humility, quietness, obedience, self effacement, patience. To be accepted now, religion must be in the popular mood. Consequently, much religious activity reeks with pride, display, self-assertion, self-promotion, love of gain and devotion to trivial pleasures.
It behooves us to take all this seriously. Time is running out for all of us. What is done must be done quickly. We have no right to lie idly by and let things take their course. A farmer who neglects his farm will soon lose it; a shepherd who fails to look after his flock will find the wolves looking after it for him. A misbegotten charity that allows the wolves to destroy the flock is not charity at all but indifference, rather, and should be known for what it is and dealt with accordingly.
It is time for Bible-believing Christians to begin to cultivate the sober graces and to live among men like sons of God and heirs of the ages. And this will take more than a bit of doing, for the whole world and a large part of the church is set to prevent it. But if God be for us, who can be against us? We Travel an Appointed Way, 50-51.
"Lord, speak to me this morning as I pray slowly through that list of 'sober virtues'-and also that list of attitudes with which much religious activity reeks. Convict me; change me; cultivate within me the 'sober graces.' Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 13, 2005 0:28:34 GMT -5
September 13
Revival: Give My Thyself
O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. --Psalm 63:1
And here's a little prayer that was made by Lady Julian: "O God, of Thy goodness give me Thyself, for Thou art enough for me, and I may ask nothing that is less and find any full honors to Thee. God give me Thyself!"
We make out that a revival is everybody running around falling on everybody else's neck and saying "Forgive me for thinking a bad thought about you. Forgive me for that nickel that I forgot to pay back." Or we say a revival consists of people getting very loud and noisy. Well, that might happen in a revival, but the only kind of revival that would be here when the worlds are on fire is the revival that begins by saying, "Oh God, give me Thyself! For nothing less than Thee will do."
"Anything less than God," Julian said, "ever me wanteth." I like that little expression. Translated into modern English it means, "It won't be enough." The Attributes of God, 32.
"Oh God, of Thy goodness give me Thyself.... Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 13, 2005 23:15:36 GMT -5
September 14 A Growing Hunger After God
As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. --Psalm 42:1-2a
In this hour of all-but-universal darkness one cheering gleam appears: within the fold of conservative Christianity there are to be found increasing numbers of persons whose religious lives are marked by a growing hunger after God Himself. They are eager for spiritual realities and will not be put off with words, nor will they be content with correct "interpretations" of truth. They are athirst for God, and they will not be satisfied till they have drunk deep at the Fountain of Living Water.
This is the only real harbinger of revival which I have been able to detect anywhere on the religious horizon. It may be the cloud the size of a man's hand for which a few saints here and there have been looking. It can result in a resurrection of life for many souls and a recapture of that radiant wonder which should accompany faith in Christ, that wonder which has all but fled the Church of God in our day. The Pursuit of God, 7.
"O Father, may their numbers increase more and more--those who 'are athirst for God, and [who] will not be satisfied till they have drunk deep at the Fountain of Living Water.' Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 15, 2005 1:05:31 GMT -5
September 15
Revival: To the Individual Only
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. --2 Corinthians 5:10
No church is any better or worse than the individual Christians who compose it....
One consequence of our failure to see clearly the true nature of revival is that we wait for years for some supernatural manifestation that never comes, overlooking completely our own individual place in the desired awakening. Whatever God may do for a church must be done in the single unit, the one certain man or woman. Some things can happen only to the isolated, single person; they cannot be experienced en masse. Statistics show, for instance, that 100 babies are born in a certain city on a given day. Yet the birth of each baby is for the baby a unique experience, an isolated, personal thing. Fifty people die in a plane crash; while they die together they die separately, one at a time, each one undergoing the act of death in a loneliness of soul as utter as if he alone had died. Both birth and death are experienced by the individual in a loneness as complete as if only that one person had even known them.
Three thousand persons were converted at Pentecost, but each one met his sin and his Savior alone. The spiritual birth, like the natural one, is for each one a unique, separate experience shared in by no one. And so with that uprush of resurgent life we call revival. It can come to the individual only. The Size of the Soul, 14-15.
"Lord, make me sensitive this morning to my 'own individual place in the desired awakening.' Whatever work needs to be done to this 'isolated, single person'--do it today, I pray. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 16, 2005 1:01:25 GMT -5
September 16
Revival: Meet God Alone First
But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. --Matthew 6:6
Nothing can prevent the spiritual rejuvenation of the soul that insists upon having it. Though that solitary man must live and walk among persons religiously dead, he may experience the great transformation as certainly and as quickly as if he were in the most spiritual church in the world.
The man that will have God's best becomes at once the object of the personal attention of the Holy Spirit. Such a man will not be required to wait for the rest of the church to come alive. He will not be penalized for the failures of his fellow Christians, nor be asked to forego the blessing till his sleepy brethren catch up. God deals with the individual heart as exclusively as if only one existed.... Every prophet, every reformer, every revivalist had to meet God alone before he could help the multitudes. The great leaders who went on to turn thousands to Christ had to begin with God and their own soul. The plain Christian of today must experience personal revival before he can hope to bring renewed spiritual life to his church. The Size of the Soul, 15-16.
"Lord, I pray this morning the words of Jonathan Edwards: 'Resolved... that all men would live for the glory of God; resolved, second...that if nobody else does, I will.' Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 17, 2005 20:17:37 GMT -5
September 17
Revival: Let Anyone Seek His Face
Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you. --Hosea 10:12
It will require a determined heart and more than a little courage to wrench ourselves loose from the grip of our times and return to biblical ways. But it can be done. Every now and then in the past Christians have had to do it. History has recorded several large-scale returns led by such men as St. Francis, Martin Luther and George Fox. Unfortunately, there seems to be no Luther or Fox on the horizon at present. Whether or not another such return may be expected before the coming of Christ is a question upon which Christians are not fully agreed, but that is not of too great importance to us now.
What God in His sovereignty may yet do on a world-scale I do not claim to know. But what He will do for the plain man or woman who seeks His face I believe I do know and can tell others. Let any man turn to God in earnest, let him begin to exercise himself unto godliness, let him seek to develop his powers of spiritual receptivity by trust and obedience and humility, and the results will exceed anything he may have hoped in his leaner and weaker days. The Pursuit of God, 70-71.
"Lord, today I commit myself to 'turn to God in earnest,' to 'begin to exercise [myself] unto godliness,' and to 'seek to develop [my] powers of spiritual receptivity by trust and obedience and humility.' You determine the results. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 18, 2005 0:55:42 GMT -5
September 18 Revival: Deliverance Comes By Deliverers Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. --Exodus 3:9-10 Yes, if evangelical Christianity is to stay alive it must have men again--the right kind of men. It must repudiate the weaklings who dare not speak out, and it must seek in prayer and much humility the coming again of men of the stuff of which prophets and martyrs are made. God will hear the cries of His people as He heard the cries of Israel in Egypt, and He will send deliverance by sending deliverers. It is His way. And when the deliverers come--reformers, revivalists, prophets--they will be men of God and men of courage. They will have God on their side because they are careful to stay on God's side. They will be coworkers with Christ and instruments in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Such men will be baptized with the Spirit indeed and through their labors He will baptize others and send the long-delayed revival. This World: Playground or Battleground?, 20. "Lord, send those men to the church soon. Raise up a mighty army even among young people today who will become that kind of men. We need a great movement of the Spirit of God that would bring the much-needed revival. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 18, 2005 23:07:29 GMT -5
September 19
Revival: Poured-out Devotion
Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such men in esteem; because for the work of Christ he came close to death, not regarding his life, to supply what was lacking in your service toward me. --Philippians 2:29-30
That many Christians in our day are lukewarm and somnolent will not be denied by anyone with an anointed eye, but the cure is not to stir them up to a frenzy of activity. That would be but to take them out of one error and into another. What we need is a zealous hunger for God, an avid thirst after righteousness, a pain-filled longing to be Christlike and holy. We need a zeal that is loving, self-effacing and lowly. No other kind will do.
That pure love for God and men which expresses itself in a burning desire to advance God's glory and leads to poured-out devotion to the temporal and eternal welfare of our fellow men is certainly approved of God; but the nervous, squirrel-cage activity of self-centered and ambitious religious leaders is just as certainly offensive to Him and will prove at last to have been injurious to the souls of countless millions of human beings. The Size of the Soul, 81-82.
"Lord, give me that 'zealous hunger for God,' that 'avid thirst after righteousness,' that 'painfilled longing to be Christlike and holy.' I want to give myself in 'poured-out devotion' for Your glory. Use me as Your servant, for Jesus' sake, Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 20, 2005 0:10:46 GMT -5
September 20
Revival: The Urgency of God's Will
Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?" And I said to him, "Sir, you know." So he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. --Revelation 7:13-14
If we are serious about our Christian witness, the day may be near when we may be persecuted-even killed-for our faith. We should be stirred, as John was stirred, as we witness this vast company of God's saints in heaven who have come through earth's great tribulation.
I am not saying we are not Christians. I am only trying to find out why we are so far from revival and refreshing and renewal. I am only trying to determine why we are so far from recognizing the urgency of God's will laid upon us by the Holy Spirit.
If we belong to Jesus Christ, we should never compromise our spiritual decisions on the basis of "What is this going to cost me?" We ought only to ask, "What is my spiritual duty and my spiritual privilege before God?" Jesus Is Victor!, 115.
"Please, Lord, give me this kind of commitment. I fear it's far too easy and all too common for me to be guilty of asking, 'What is this going to cost me?' Strengthen me to only ask, 'What is my spiritual duty and my spiritual privilege before God?' Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 20, 2005 23:32:24 GMT -5
September 21
Revival: Oneness of Mind
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! --Psalm 133:1
God always works where His people meet His conditions, but only when and as they do. Any spiritual visitation will be limited or extensive, depending how well and how widely conditions are met.
The first condition is oneness of mind among the persons who are seeking the visitation....
Historically, revivals have been mainly the achieving of a oneness of mind among a number of Christian believers. In the second chapter of Acts it is recorded that they were "all with one accord in one place" when the Spirit came upon them. He did not come to bring them into oneness of accord; He came because they were already so. The Spirit never comes to give unity (though His presence certainly aids and perfects such unity as may exist). He comes to that company who have, through repentance and faith, brought their hearts into one accord....
Every church should strive for unity among its members, not languidly, but earnestly and optimistically. Every pastor should show his people the possibilities for power that lie in this fusion of many souls into one. Paths to Power, 59,61,64.
"Lord, give us that unity in our church today. I've seen first-hand the devastation of disunity. Give us a oneness of mind that we might experience Your full blessing in our midst. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 21, 2005 23:21:39 GMT -5
September 22
Revival: Unity Precedes Blessing
Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. --Acts 4:32-33
..unity of mind on the part of the people of God precedes the blessing. I have often heard people pray, "Oh Lord, send the Holy Spirit that we may become a united people." That is all right except it is precisely backwards. The Holy Spirit comes because we are a united people; He does not come to make us a united people. Our prayer should be more like, "Lord, help us to get united in order that the blessing might flow and there might be an outpouring of oil and dew and life." That's the way we should pray....
This teaches us that unity is necessary to the outpouring of the Spirit of God. If you have 120 volts of electricity coming into your house but you have broken wiring, you may turn the switch, but nothing works-no lights come on, the stove doesn't warm, your radio doesn't turn on. Why? Because you have broken wiring. The power is ready to do its work with all the appliances in your home, but where there is broken wiring, you have no power. Unity is necessary among the children of God if we are going to know the flow of power. Success and the Christian, 86-87.
"Lord, help us to get united in order that the blessing might flow and there might be an outpouring of oil and dew and life. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 22, 2005 23:23:29 GMT -5
September 23
Revival: Don't Substitute Praying for Obeying
So Samuel said: "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams." --1 Samuel 15:22
Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late-and how little revival has resulted?
Considering the volume of prayer that is ascending these days, rivers of revival should be flowing in blessing throughout the land. That no such results are in evidence should not discourage us; rather it should stir us to find out why our prayers are not answered....
I believe our problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying; and it simply will not work....
Prayer is never an acceptable substitute for obedience. The sovereign Lord accepts no offering from His creatures that is not accompanied by obedience. To pray for revival while ignoring or actually flouting the plain precept laid down in the Scriptures is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble. Of God and Men, 55-57.
"Search me, O God, and know my heart; show me any wicked way that needs to be corrected in my own life before revival can come. I'm praying for revival; help me to also be obeying. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 23, 2005 23:16:45 GMT -5
September 24
Revival: Not Just Intensity of Prayer
He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. --John 14:21
Intensity of prayer is no criterion of its effectiveness. A man may throw himself on his face and sob out his troubles to the Lord and yet have no intention to obey the commandments of Christ. Strong emotion and tears may be no more than the outcropping of a vexed spirit, evidence of stubborn resistance to God's known will....
No matter what I write here, thousands of pastors will continue to call their people to prayer in the forlorn hope that God will finally relent and send revival if only His people wear themselves out in intercession. To such people God must indeed appear to be a hard taskmaster, for the years pass and the young get old and the aged die and still no help comes. The prayer meeting room becomes a wailing wall and the lights burn long, and still the rains tarry.
Has God forgotten to be gracious? Let any reader begin to obey and he will have the answer. "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him" (John 14:21).
Isn't that what we want after all? The Size of the Soul, 20-21.
"Lord, help me to obey Your commandments. My spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak! I long to live in that obedience, in order that I may know the Father's love and manifestation to me. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 25, 2005 1:58:32 GMT -5
September 25
Revival: It Requires Obedience
But why do you call Me "Lord, Lord," and not do the things which I say? --Luke 6:46
It is my conviction that much, very much, prayer for and talk about revival these days is wasted energy. Ignoring the confusion of figures, I might say that it is hunger that appears to have no object; it is dreamy wishing that is too weak to produce moral action. It is fanaticism on a high level for, according to John Wesley, "a fanatic is one who seeks desired ends while ignoring the constituted means to reach those ends."...
The correction of this error is extemely difficult for it entails more than a mere adjustment of our doctrinal beliefs; it strikes at the whole Adam-life and requires self-abnegation, humility and cross carrying. In short it requires obedience. And that we will do anything to escape.
It is almost unbelievable how far we will go to avoid obeying God. We call Jesus "Lord" and beg Him to rejuvenate our souls, but we are careful to do not the things He says. When faced with a sin, a confession or a moral alteration in our life, we find it much easier to pray half a night than to obey God. The Size of the Soul, 18-19.
"May this never be true of my life, Lord! I see the futility; I'm convinced of the need. Now enable me by Your Spirit to live this obedience. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 25, 2005 23:28:43 GMT -5
September 26
Revival: More Than Talk and Prayer
Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. --Joshua 1:7
It will take more than talk and prayer to bring revival. There must be a return to the Lord in practice before our prayers will be heard in heaven. We dare not continue to trouble God's way if we want Him to bless ours....
If we are foolish enough to do it, we may spend the new year vainly begging God to send revival, while we blindly overlook His requirements and continue to break His laws. Or we can begin now to obey and learn the blessedness of obedience. The Word of God is before us. We have only to read and do what is written there and revival is assured. It will come as naturally as the harvest comes after the plowing and the planting.
Yes, this could be the year the revival comes. It's strictly up to us. The Size of the Soul, 10-11.
"Lord, I'm beginning to get the picture that there's a real key to seeing the revival for which so many are praying! I pray indeed that this would be the year when Your people will get serious about heart-felt obedience to Your commands. Then send the great revival among us! Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 26, 2005 23:06:03 GMT -5
September 27
Revival: Doing the Will of God
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. --1 John 5:2-3
We urgently need a new kind of reformation throughout our Christian churches--a reformation that will cause us not only to accept the will of God but to actively seek it and adore it!...
The reformation we need now can best be described in terms of spiritual perfection-which reduced to its simplest form is no more and no less than doing the will of God! This would expose us all at the point of our need, no matter how sound we think we are in doctrine and no matter how great our reputations.
I long for the positive and genuine renewal which would come if the will of God could be totally accomplished in our lives. Everything that is unspiritual would flee, and all that is not Christlike would vanish, and all that is not according to the New Testament would be rejected....
Do we voluntarily and actively observe God's commandments, making positive changes in our lives as God may indicate in order to bring the entire life into accord with the New Testament?
That is the active aspect of the will of God that I would own as reformation in the church, and it would surely result in revival. I Talk Back to the Devil, 89-90.
"Oh Lord, 'I long for the positive and genuine renewal which would come if the will of God could be totally accomplished in our lives.' Let it begin in me...today. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 27, 2005 23:46:34 GMT -5
September 28
Revival: The Fire Falls
And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, "These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: 'I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.'" --Revelation 3:1-2
For a long time I have believed that truth, to be understood, must be lived; that Bible doctrine is wholly ineffective until it has been digested and assimilated by the total life....
We must be willing to obey if we would know the true inner meaning of the teachings of Christ and the apostles. I believe this view prevailed in every revival that ever came to the church during her long history. Indeed a revived church may be distinguished from a dead one by the attitude of its members toward the truth. The dead church holds to the shell of truth without surrendering the will to it, while the church that wills to do God's will is immediately blessed with a visitation of spiritual powers.
Theological facts are like the altar of Elijah on Carmel before the fire came, correct, properly laid out, but altogether cold. When the heart makes the ultimate surrender, the fire falls and true facts are transmuted into spiritual truth that transforms, enlightens, sanctifies. The church or the individual that is Bible taught without being Spirit taught (and there are many of them) has simply failed to see that truth lies deeper than the theological statement of it. That Incredible Christian, 92-94.
"Lord, send the fire today. Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 29, 2005 1:44:52 GMT -5
September 29
Revival: A Revival of Repentance
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. --2 Chronicles 7:14
I have little fear that any nation or combination of nations could bring down the United States and Canada by military action from without. But this I do fear-we sin and sin and do nothing about it. There is so little sense of the need of repentance-so little burden for the will of God to be wrought in our national life. I fear that the voice of blood will become so eloquent that God Almighty will have no choice but to speak the word that will bring us down.
I do pray often: "Oh God, send a revival of repentance and the fear of God that will sweep through the continent that we may be spared and that we may honor Thee!" Echoes from Eden, 44.
"Lord, I pray for our country today. We've deteriorated morally so horribly since Tozer's day. I too pray, 'Oh God, send a revival of repentance and the fear of God that will sweep through the continent that we may be spared and that we may honor Thee!' Amen."
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Post by josh on Sept 30, 2005 0:09:54 GMT -5
September 30
Revival: No Limit to What God Could Do
But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too." --Acts 17:6
There is no limit to what God could do in our world if we would dare to surrender before Him with a commitment like this:
"Oh God, I hereby give myself to You. I give my family. I give my business. I give all I possess. Take all of it, Lord-and take me! I give myself in such measure that if it is necessary that I lose everything for your sake, let me lose it. I will not ask what the price is. I will ask only that I may be all that I ought to be as a follower and disciple of Jesus Christ, my Lord. Amen."
If even 300 of God's people became that serious, our world would never hear the last of it! They would influence the news. Their message would go everywhere like birds on the wing. They would set off a great revival of New Testament faith and witness.
God wants to deliver us from the easygoing, smooth and silky, fat and comfortable Christianity so fashionable today. I hope we are willing to let the truth get hold of us, even at the cost of rejection or embarrassment.
The faith of the heavenly overcomers cost them everything and gained them everything. What of our faith? Jesus Is Victor!, 116-117.
"Oh God, I hereby give myself to You. I give my family. I give my business. I give all I possess. Take all of it, Lord-and take me! I give myself in such measure that if it is necessary that I lose everything for your sake, let me lose it. I will not ask what the price is. I will ask only that I may be all that I ought to be as a follower and disciple of Jesus Christ, my Lord. Amen."
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