God's Reach
A true revival will usually begin in a number of individuals who are burdened excessively for souls. This burden then moves them to their knees and according to their earnestness in travailing prayer, stimulates God to bring a revival to the Church. As the Church is revived and alive in the presence of God, a community revival is then possible if the Church is obedient to the will of God. A true revival should never just be an in- house experience. You see, no building on Earth can contain the Living God of the universe, so if God starts pouring out His Spirit, the whole community will know about it and many will be saved.
God Initiated in Answer to Prayer
Is revival God initiated? Yes, I believe it is, but I also believe He burdens certain people in the Body of Christ to pray and believe for one. God does nothing but in answer to prayer. Matthew Henry said, “When God intends great mercy for His people, the first thing He does is to set them a-praying.” The great revivalist Jonathan Edwards comments that “when God has something very great to accomplish for His Church, it is His will that there should precede it the extraordinary prayers of His people.” It is the invariable constitution of the kingdom of heaven that blessings of great magnitude are not imparted except to prayers of the deepest urgency.
Patient God
So if you are burdened for souls and for revival in your city, this is a sign that God is initiating it. But how we respond to this burden is critical to the outcome. Many Christians have been burdened for souls and for revival in the past but have seen no fruit forthcoming. God has been patiently waiting for His people to give up conducting Church their way. Their grace to us has been time to get it right. When our leaders and lay people realise that the Church is not about preaching, it’s not about the next big minister coming to town, it’s not about the activities or the Bible studies, but Church is about the presence of God, then and only then will we begin to conduct true Church services.
Encounter with God
If all our efforts and energies are directed into Church organizations, then you can be sure that God is not in the house. Our job as a Church is to be a place in the community where people can come to have an encounter with God. Unbelievers are desperate for a real encounter with God and the Church, by and large, has failed to give them that consistently. This will change in the coming days of revelation and awakening. In the last 100 years or so, God has been increasingly moving in modes of revival on our planet, in various places and at various times. But what the church should be looking towards is the last great move of God to come, as prophesied in Joel 2:28, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on all flesh. Compared to the revivals of the past, this coming move promises to make all other moves seem like but a mild foretaste. We have to prepare the way for this most powerful move of God in the history of this planet.
In Christ
Robert Cartledge
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