It’s Time For The Church To Wake Up And Pray For Revival

I would rather speak 5 words out this book than 50.000 words of the philosophers. If we want revivals, we must revive our reverence for the Word of God. If we want conversions, we must put more of God’s Word into our sermons.” Charles Spurgeon

It’s time for the church to pray for revival

In the last few months I have written about the concept of history repeating itself. Some may say, new days, old demons. Others might opine that humans are predisposed to make choices that usually do not benefit society as a whole. In our haste to forget the past, we erase it without ever really learning anything from it. After all, didn’t George Santayana say, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Have we done this? Does history really play like an old tired story with different characters and a little more technology? What can we do? How can we navigate a time when we are inundated with information? We must pray for revival and the Latter Day Rain. 

What do you think the state of the church is at the moment?

What do I mean by church? The church as a whole. Are we truly walking out God’s Word and taking it as truth or are we tweaking what we think God meant by walking in His ways? My husband and I are pretty big fans of the BBC. We have a few favorite shows that come to mind, one of those shows is The Vicar of Dibley. It’s a pretty irreverent show about a little village in England. The sitcom was set in the late 90s when women were allowed to become ministers in the Anglican church. This caused quite a stir in the church, men were only permitted to serve as vicars, bishops, etc.. and now, women were ordained to serve in that role. In Dibley, the parishioners are quite shocked when a woman was sent to lead their local church. Throughout the series the villagers come to realize that the vicar is a wonderful person whom they grew to love and cherish. 

One episode of the series caused me to think it is time for latter day rain

In one of the episodes of the series, Vicar Geraldine Granger wants to put on a nativity play for the village. They want to make it better than any Christmas play they have ever put on, it has to be new, different and it must knock the people’s socks off. A series of comedic takes came through that were just funny. As the silly stories came through, Geraldine became more and more frustrated.  She raised her hands in exasperation and explained to the group that one of the reasons that Jesus’ story was still told is because of His message that He shared with the world.  We must love one another. In the past I nodded my head and thought, “Yes! It’s all about love, right on!” But yesterday as I watched the episode again, I felt the nudge of the Holy Spirit really bring that declaration into a greater focus. Is the Gospel just about love? Is this what the church has reduced their message to? Only love is what is needed to live out our kingdom work? 

The state of the modern church states that only love is needed

Think about the state of the church at the moment. Before we delve into this subject let me say from the beginning; I am aware that the “church” has many issues, that is one of the reasons some have chosen to deconstruct the Gospel message. Some churches chose to be so strict that some perceived all joy was removed from life, while others started to change the Gospel to suit their lives and propensities rather than let the Gospel change them from the inside out. Having said that, what is the state of the church? There are some that are affirming lifestyles and choices that some would say are not Biblical. Other churches are still standing on the Bible as the final arbiter of where your life choices should lie. Walking with Jesus and following Him is a suggestion that might help you navigate this thing called life, maybe.

Then there is the worship of self. Happiness on this earth is the epitome of joy in life, the focus is on following your heart, living your truth and focusing on me, me and me. In each of these instances I see one glaringly obvious precept that is left out. There is a way that seems right to a man (person), but in the end it leads to destruction. Our ways dear readers lead us down one path, the path of destruction. 

It’s time for the modern church to get a letter about speaking the truth

Dear church, that is where we have headed for many years. We’ve become weak and afraid to tell the truth in love. Which brings me back to the concept of love. Is the Gospel just to tell others that Jesus said to love? No, it is not. The Gospel is to say, there is a way that seems right to us, and because that way leads to destruction Jesus chose to come with HIS love and die for our sins, take our place in hell, rise from the dead and pay a debt that we ourselves could never pay. The walk starts with loving one another enough to tell people the truth of Jesus, not the truth of self. 

The Gospel is Offensive to sin and self

For so long the church has been afraid to offend others with this message. I’ve got news for you church, the Gospel is offensive to sin. The Gospel is offensive to your truth. There are a few passages of Scripture that tell us this very idea. In I Peter chapter 2, the Gospel message says that it is a stumbling block of offense to people. Does this mean that we must disregard those who are living their truth? No, we must love them enough to give them the truth of the Scripture, pray for them and let the Scripture do its work. After all, the Word is alive and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. We must not only give the Scriptural truth to others, but we must turn the mirror onto ourselves and let it do its faithful work. How do we do this?

We must pray for the latter rain and revival

It’s time to step up church and pray for revival. Personally I believe that we are about to see an outpouring of God’s Spirit that we have not seen in our lifetime. As I have discussed in other articles, I am not going to predict when Jesus will come, I will just live as if He is coming tomorrow. But I will pray for revival. In the book of Acts the Holy Spirit was poured out on believers after Jesus rose and ascended to Heaven. When the Holy Spirit came, He came with tongues of fire upon the believers in the upper room. Can we take a moment and just imagine this for a moment? The Holy Spirit and fire. The fire of consecration and love preparing believers to go forth and give the world hope in Jesus Christ. That is what we need to pray for. 

The church has been on the decline

Since the 1960s church membership, Christianity, Bible knowledge and Judeo-Christian values have been on the decline. The sexual revolution that dominated the 60s stuck a thumb in the face of Biblical sexuality. Life was about feeling good and free love. The thing is church, Jesus’ love was not free. It cost Him great pains of leaving the Bosom of His Father in Heaven and bearing the sins of the world. The love of the world is not free, it costs us our mental, physical and sexual health. The Love of Jesus which he freely gave us gives eternal life. As time marched on, the seed that was planted in that time grew and the Gospel decreased, the truth of the Gospel was exchanged for the truth of the world. The Sunday School generation became the sports on Sunday generation. Church on Sunday became sleeping in. If there was something better to do on Sunday than church, that won. Fellowship was neglected for feeding the self.

No wonder the Gospel started to decrease. As the church became less prominent, the church of self took center stage. Numbers began to diminish, the money quit flowing and God’s truth was maybe a suggestion. We have now come full circle, humanity is searching for meaning and the only place they can find it is in self, and when you worship at that altar, you will only find confusion. 

The Book of Joel might give us an answer

We’ve seen it, floods everywhere. I read one day last week that there were 3,040 flash flood alerts in America in one day the most ever recorded since the system was used in the US. The awful disaster in Texas, earthquakes all over the world, tumult in politics, confusion in the identities of those both young and old. The church is in disarray, alcoholism is at an all time high. It seems as if each day something new and bizarre is happening in nature. Is God trying to get our attention? Where did this occur in the Scripture? In several places, they moved away from God, worshiped other gods, were invaded by false truths and found themselves in a place of destruction. One such place was in the book of Joel, he shared that the day of the Lord is coming. The day of the Lord is coming to us church. We must pray, fast and return to Him with all of our heart. In Acts the Holy Spirit came with new rain, let us pray in our time, the Latter rain will come to us. 

Is our time like Joel’s?

In Joel’s time he prophesied that God would pour out his spirit on all flesh. Their sons and daughters will prophesy, their old men will dream dreams, and their young men would see visions. If you look a little further, God says He will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke. The great and awesome day of the Lord was and is coming. Are we in that time? Perhaps we are. Let us live and pray as if we are approaching a new, wonderful time of God’s Spirit working and moving in our lives. The signs are there, God is trying to get our attention, will we listen? Will we give the message that God’s love draws us closer to Him and away from ourselves? One bit of hope that came from Joel? When the latter day rain does come, He promises to be a refuge for those who call to Him. Is love the central message we share with others? Yes, it’s not our love, or our self-love or following our heart. It is putting away our desires and following His love which changes us from within. Let us wake up and pray for the latter day rain church!