Spiritual Awakenings

Revival is upon us once again. What is Revival though? A time when we try to reach out to the lost? Aren’t we supposed to do that all the time? A time when you have to be in church all week? Why? A Revival is a spiritual awakening. Let’s look at revivals in the bible. When Asa became king he removed all the Idols the Jews had been worshipping.(1 kings 15:8-13) He Prayed to God for help.(2 Chronicles 14:11) God sent the prophet Oded to tell him “The Lord is with you when you are with him.” (2 Chronicles 15:1-2)Asa assembled the people and held Sacrifices to the Lord. Then they entered a covenant to seek the Lord. Think about that. Imagine the whole community coming to God and making a covenant to actively seek Him. If you read all the verses that go with this story you will see they came from several tribes because they could see that God was with Judah. (2 Chronicles 15:8-15) Well Judah goes back to idol worship until Hezekiah comes along and makes a covenant with the Lord. He tells Judah to Stand before the Lord and serve Him, to minister before him. (Chronicles 29:10-11) At the age of sixteen Josiah began to seek the God. (2 Chronicles 34:1-3) As the Levites were cleaning out the temple they found the Book of the Law of the Lord. (2 Chronicles 34:14-18 ) He renewed the covenant to follow the Lord and keep his Commandments with all his heart and soul. Then he had everyone in Jerusalem pledge themselves to it. (2 Chronicles 34:31-32 ) Next we have revival after the Israelites were freed from Babylon captivity. Ezra stood at a podium in front of the water gate and read aloud from the Book of the Law. From daybreak till noon Ezra read. As he read Priest and teachers walked amongst the crowd instructing in what it meant, making it clear and giving it meaning so that the people understood what was being read.(Nehemiah 8:1-8 ) For seven days Ezra read the Law. Later that month the Israelites confessed their sins. All of these revivals involved everyone seeking God. They involved studying the word of God. Ezra prayed before revival, “O my God, I am too ashamed and disgraced to lift up my face to you, my God, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. 7 From the days of our forefathers until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.” We have to want revival and pray for it. During revival sermons we must listen, understand and study the word of God. For a true revival we must confess our sins to God. Vow to seek Him. Then go out and minister. Imagine standing in the hot sun from daybreak till noon listening to someone read the bible. Some people can barely sit in church for an hour. This was seven days for half the day. I pray that God will use this year’s revival not only to bring in the lost, but also to awaken all Christians.
MSW
"Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise.

Nehemiah 9:5 NIV