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Study the history of
revival. God has always sent revival in the darkest days. Oh, for a mighty,
sweeping revival today!
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Revivals begin with
God's own people; the Holy Spirit touches their heart anew, and gives them
new fervor and compassion, and zeal, new light and life, and when He has
thus come to you, He next goes forth to the valley of dry bones…Oh, what
responsibility this lays on the Church of God! If you grieve Him away from
yourselves, or hinder His visit, then the poor perishing world suffers
sorely!
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God's time for
revival is the very darkest hour, when everything seems hopeless. It is
always the Lord's way to go to the very worst cases to manifest His glory.
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We often have a
tinted view of revival as a time of glory and joy and swelling numbers
queuing to enter the churches. That is only part of the story. Before the
glory and joy, there is conviction; and that begins with the people of God.
There are tears of godly sorrow. There are wrongs to put right, secret
things...to be thrown out, and bad relationships, hidden for years, to be
repaired openly. If we are not prepared for this, we had better not pray for
revival.
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Oh! men and
brethren, what would this heart feel if I could but believe that there were
some among you who would go home and pray for a revival - men whose faith is
large enough, and their love fiery enough to lead them from this moment to
exercise unceasing intercessions that God would appear among us and do
wondrous things here, as in the times of former generations.
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Revival is a renewed
conviction of sin and repentance, followed by an intense desire to live in
obedience to God. It is giving up one's will to God in deep humility.
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A revival, then,
really means days of heaven upon earth.
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Does it grieve you
my friends, that the name of God is being taken in vain and desecrated? Does
it grieve you that we are living in a godless age...But, we are living in
such an age and the main reason we should be praying about revival is that
we are anxious to see God's name vindicated and His glory manifested. We
should be anxious to see something happening that will arrest the nations,
all the peoples, and cause them to stop and to think again.
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True revival is that
divine moment when God bursts upon the scene and displays his glory.
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Revival awakens in
our hearts an increased awareness of the presence of God, a new love for
God, a new hatred for sin, and a hunger for His Word.
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The 'glory' comes
when God takes over. He fills the church with His presence and power. When
He takes over, all the credit goes to Him.
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Revival is not just
evangelism, excitement, or emotionalism. It is the extraordinary movement of
the Holy Spirit!
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Revival, no matter
how great or small in its ultimate scope, always begins with individual
believers whose hearts are desperate for God, and who are willing to pay the
price to meet Him.
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God wants to avert
judgment, and He's simply looking for one person who will pay the price in
prayer and in faith and in commitment, whatever it takes, to get a hold of
God and not let loose.
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Revival is the
moving of God's Spirit, through the power of His Word, to the hearts of His
children, that resurrects to new life those areas which have been lying
stagnant, dormant, or out of balance, and that results in new love and
obedience to Jesus Christ.
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If revival depended
on you -- your prayers, your faith, your obedience -- would your church ever
experience revival?
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Nothing short of an
outpouring of God's Spirit will revitalize and empower an impotent and
anemic church to display once again His glory to a lost world.
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A baptism of
holiness, a demonstration of godly living is the crying need of our day.
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A revival almost
always begins among the laity. The ecclesiastical leaders seldom welcome
reformation. History repeats itself. The present leaders are too comfortably
situated as a rule to desire innovation that might require sacrifice on
their part. And God's fire only falls on sacrifice. An empty altar receives
no fire!
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We cannot organize
revival, but we can set our sails to catch the wind from Heaven when God
chooses to blow upon His people once again.
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If revival is being
withheld from us it is because some idol remains still enthroned; because we
still insist in placing our reliance in human schemes; because we still
refuse to face the unchangeable truth that, 'It is not by might, but by My
Spirit.'
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I read of the
revivals of the past, great sweeping revivals where thousands of men were
swept into the Kingdom of God. I read about Charles G. Finney winning his
thousands and his hundreds of thousands of souls to Christ. Then I picked up
a book and read the messages of Charles G. Finney and the message of
Jonathan Edwards on 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,' and I said, 'No
wonder men trembled; no wonder they fell in the altars and cried out in
repentance and sobbed their way to the throne of grace!'
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Revival is when God
gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented that He shows Himself.
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The spiritual
disciplines of 2 Chronicles 7:14 are not just conditions for a true revival;
they are the revival itself!
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A spiritual
awakening is no more than God's people seeing God in His holiness, turning
from their wicked ways, and being transformed into His likeness.
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An awakening is
ready to burst on the dismal scene when Christians have a deep, profound
Spirit of prayer for an awakening.
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In the Irish Revival
of 1859, people became so weak that they could not get back to their homes.
Men and women would fall by the wayside and would be found hours later
pleading with God to save their souls. They felt that they were slipping
into hell and that nothing else in life mattered but to get right with
God... To them eternity meant everything. Nothing else was of any
consequence. They felt that if God did not have mercy on them and save them,
they were doomed for all time to come.
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Revival is not the
discovery of some new truth. It's the rediscovery of the grand old truth of
God's power in and through the Cross.
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Whether it be in the
personal life, or in the church life, or on the mission field, we need
revival--we need revival urgently--we need revival desperately!
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Revival is the
manifestation of the glory, power, and blessing of the Son of God among His
people.
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Revival is
ultimately Christ Himself, seen, felt, heard, living, active, moving in and
through His body on earth.
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Revival is not some
emotion or worked-up excitement; it is rather an invasion from heaven which
brings to man a conscious awareness of God.
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Will you pray
'Revive me!' and then open your being to the Spirit of Revival? Do not rest
until you have been restored to the fullness of the blessing that God is
waiting to pour out in your life!
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Revival is that
strange and sovereign work of God in which He visits His own
people--restoring, reanimating, and releasing them into the fullness of His
blessing.
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When God breaks into
a life or a community, nothing else matters save the person of Jesus, the
glory of Jesus, the name of Jesus.
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Perhaps the greatest
barrier to revival on a large scale is the fact that we are too interested
in a great display. We want an exhibition; God is looking for a man who will
throw himself entirely on God. Whenever self-effort, self-glory,
self-seeking or self-promotion enters into the work of revival, then God
leaves us to ourselves.
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Revival is falling
in love with Jesus all over again.
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God loves with a
great love the man whose heart is bursting with a passion for the
IMPOSSIBLE.
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Let Christians
remember, that in a season of revival as well as in a season of coldness,
the evidence of piety is to be sought in the fruits of the Spirit. And let
sinners remember that no degree of attendance or means, no degree of fervor,
can be substituted for repentance of sin and faith in the Savior…
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