“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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land” (2 Chron 7:14).
Here are four observations from this verse:
1. POVERTY OF SPIRIT..humble themselves
2. PRAYER …and pray
3. PURSUIT OF GOD….and seek my face
4. REPENTANCE…and turn from their wicked ways
Poverty of spirit, prayer and pursuit of God are all interconnected. When we are poor in spirit, it drives us to God in prayer. Not just prayer as a ritual, but a desperate prayer – a hot pursuit of God.
The kind of prayer that lays hold on God; that says “show Yourself Lord”; “speak Lord”. Whatever the expression, it is a desperate cry giving expression to a deep yearning, an unquenchable thirst for God.
Jabez prayed; Jacob prayed; Daniel prayed.
Moses prayed, “Blot out my name for their sake Lord.”
John Knox prayed, “Give me Scotland or I die.”
For revival to come, the desperation level of God’s people must reach its boiling point. After all, desperate people do desperate things. They can go to extremes. They are beside themselves. Their desperation reaches feverish pitch. It affects their brains, their wallets, their ways of doing things. They begin to act unusual and talk the unusual. They are focused. They cannot be pacified except through the very thing that drives them “mad”.
When the Church reaches a desperation level, it behaves unpredictably. Gone is the ostentatious sophistication, the self-focused rhetorical prayers, the hollow and starchy rituals and mere cerebral worship. It creeps out of the rags of traditions and tears apart the chains of formalism. It stretches out to touch reality; to touch God. It stops being held back by man’s opinions. It cries for freedom, for connection; for God. It wails. It screams out loud or sobs gently but it does not stop begging, appealing, knocking and asking.
It stops looking at the watch and begins to do things at odd timings – through the night, all day, through the week, through chain prayers or unlimited 12 hour or 24 hour, 7 days or more of non-stop prayer or praise. Such desperation is the key that opens the door to revival!
Then comes repentance. It is not strange that repentance comes after desperation. No one repents unless they are desperate for God. When one becomes desperate for God, only then he repents. Whatever it takes, however it costs – is the true spirit of repentance. It is willing to take upon itself not only the responsibility for its own sins but even the sins of others. The latter could even include the sins of the past generations.
There can be no revival in the land unless there are people who have moved into this advanced stage of repentance. These are the true prophets – the watchmen -those who stand in the breach along the wall; the true intercessors from the stock of Abraham, Moses, Nehemiah and Daniel. Oh, how much the Church today needs this kind of warriors. There has to be such people before the Church sees revival. And they are worth more than all the legislators put together because their act determines the destiny of the nation.
The good news is that anyone can be counted if only he or she is desperate enough, and that’s the key!
Question: How desperate are you to see God visit this generation?
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