The Method of Revival

 

The Method of Revival
2 Chronicles 7:14
 
I want you to take God's Word this evening and be finding your place at the Old Testament book of 2nd Chronicles. We are in a series of messages on the the Biblical concept of revival that we have entitled, "Revival In Our Time." And this evening I want to talk to you about "The Method of Revival."
 
I know that you've all seen the Verizon commercials where the tech guy is going all over the nation making sure that he has signal. (I've even used his little phrase from this pulpit before when we've had sound problems.) But you know the question he asks: "Can you hear me now?" And he's asked that question all over the place. He's asked it in the big cities, out in the country, at the beach, even in a bathroom. But what he's trying to make sure of is that there is a connection between he and whoever he's talking to. 
 
Well, God desires for there to be a clear connection between Himself and His people. He desires for there to be a clear channel of communication from the throne room of heaven to where you sit this morning.
 
Now, remember, this morning I shared with you a simple, straightforward definition of what a real revival is. "Revival is the sovereign, supernatural movement of God among his people, that comes about as a direct result of their prayer, repentance and holiness, that results in a fresh walk with the Lord among believers and the drawing of the lost to Christ." That's what a real revival is.
To put it simply, it is the manifested presence of God. Now, God is omnipresent. That means, He's always present. But His manifest presence is when He shows up personally and powerfully. 
 
Like one old country preacher said, "It's when God shows up and God shows out." 
 
And He does this among his people. It's an experience within the church. Revival isn't a Billy Graham crusade. That's evangelism. (Now, one of the things that happens around a real revival is that people will become convicted of their sin and come to know the Savior. People will be saved.) But that's one of the results of revival, that's not revival. 
 
Vance Havner said, "We are trying to have the results of revival without the revival; the effects without the cause." 
 
And that's true. Revival is when God's people get right, and God gets right in the middle of His people. It's the manifested presence of God. It's God showing up in person and in power and changing the lives of believers forever. 
 
Now, I do want to give you a warning right here. Not everything that is called a 'revival' is a revival. There is such a thing as a counterfeit revival. 
A carnal copy of the original, and you've got to be very careful when somebody tells you that "revival's broke out" or "revival's started there" and you've got to go there in order to get 'revived.' 
 
 
 
 
To quote Vance Havner again, "I am more afraid of a false revival than of no revival at all. We are so desperate for a visitation of God that we must beware lest we accept a synthetic substitute and for fear of attributing the work of God to the devil, wind up ascribing a work of the devil to God. The woods are full of imposters. . .Elijah was not on Mt. Carmel to demonstrate what he could do, but what God could do."
 
And that's the difference between a real revival and a counterfeit revival. A counterfeit revival is manipulated by personality. A real revival is manifested by deity. And there is definitely a difference.
 
I want to remind you of something: Not everything that is spiritual is of God. For every real gift from God, the devil has created a counterfeit. And that is true for revival as well. Instead of revival, you might call it 'devival.'
 
Now, this evening I want us to move from talking about the meaning of revival and I want to talk to you about the method of revival. How can you and I experience revival power in our lives and in the life of our church?
 
Somebody asked Gypsy Smith, a great revivalist, to explain the best method for how to start a revival and here's what he said:
 
"Lock yourself in a private room. Take a piece of chalk and mark a circle on the floor, get down on your knees inside of that circle and pray for God to start a revival inside that circle. When God answers that prayer, the revival will be on."
 Well, that's almost exactly what God prescribed and promised in 2nd Chronicles 7:14. Solomon has dedicated the Temple to God. He's cleansed it and consecrated it. He's called a solemn assembly, a time where the people of Israel met in hushed holiness before the altar. 
 
Verse 12 – 14
 
Here in 2nd Chronicles 7:14, we have in essence, God's philosophy of revival. This is THE classic passage on revival. I guess more sermons on revival have been preached from this portion of the word of God than all of the others put together. 

But as you study this simple verse, it teaches us two things. 
 
First, revival implies a spiritual decline. There's a falling away. There's a leaving of your first love. 
 
Second, it teaches us that revival involves spiritual awakening. It doesn't matter how dark, how depraved, how dirty, how depressing the day may be; if God's people, who are called by His name, will humble themselves, and pray and seek His face and turn from their wicked ways, God will hear from heaven, forgive their sins and heal their land. In other words, this is God's prescription, God's pattern, God's plan for a heaven-sent revival.
 
And the thing that you can walk out of this building with tonight is this: if you will follow the prescribed pattern for revival, God will send the promised power of revival. This is a rock-ribbed promise from almighty God.
 
This is God telling you and me how we can hear from heaven and experience revival power in our life and in our church.
 
So how does it happen? What is the method of revival?
 
1. We Must Follow The Prerequisites Of Revival. 
 
Notice what the Lord says, "If my people, who are called by my name will. . ." He says, "If my people . . .will." It's a conditional statement. God says, "You do this and I'll do this." 
 
Now, what are we supposed to do? What are the steps? What are the prerequisites that must be met in order for God to pour out revival power on a church or an individual Christian? Well, he tells us in that next word: "humble themselves." 
 
We are to
 
Position Ourselves Humbly
 
In others words, you bend your knee. That's what the word literally means. You bow and bend before almighty God. You realize how little you are and how great He is. 
 
It's like John the Baptist said about Christ, ""He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30)
 
F.B. Meyer, an English Baptist of the late 1800's wrote in his book on John the Baptist, "The only hope of a decreasing self is an increasing Christ."
 
What does it mean to be humble? Does it mean that you think lowly of yourself? No, it means that you don't think about yourself at all. It means understanding that in reality, without God, you and I are nothing more than a big zero with the edges rubbed out. 
 
One of the things that you'll find as you read your Bible is this. God hates pride. Proverbs 6:16-17, "These six things the LORD hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: (And he starts it off by saying) A proud look. ."
 
When pride walks into a church, God walks out. That's why 1st Peter 5:5 says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." So we are to humble ourselves so that He might be exalted. And when you humble yourself, God will walk with you.
 
Micah 6:8, "He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?"
That's what God wants. God wants you to walk with Him in humility. If you walk with God you can't walk in pride. And if you won't humble yourself, He'll do it for you.
 
Jesus humbled Himself. Listen to what Paul wrote to the church at Philippi:
 
Chapter 2:3-11
 
We're talking here about brokenness - to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. And until we know brokenness, we will never experience the blessing of revival.
I wonder, how long has it been since you wept hot tears over your sin? I wonder how long has it been since your heart broke over breaking the heart of Jesus? I wonder how long has it been since you've been broken in the presence of God and marveled out how a great, glorious, holy and mighty God could love you the way that He does?   How He could want to spend time with somebody like you? 
 
Are you willing to be broken in order to be blessed? This will only happened as we realize the majesty and glory and purity of God as compared to our own sinfulness and wickedness and wretchedness like Paul did when he cried out in Romans 7:24, "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"
 
There was a group of English tourists were visiting the house where Beethoven, the great composer, spent his last years. As they were going through the house, they came to the room, the conservatory, where his piano sat. 
The guide said in a hushed, almost whisper, "And here is the master's piano." One thoughtless young woman pushed her way from the back of the room all the way to the front, sat down at the bench and began to play one of Beethoven's sonata's, and then paused and said to the guide and the others there in the group, "I suppose a lot of people enjoy playing this piano." The guide said, "Well miss, Ignacy Paderewski was here last summer with a group and some wanted him to play, and his answer was, "No, I cannot. I'm not worthy."
 
We are to position ourselves humbly and we are to
 
Pray fervently
The Lord goes on to say, "If my people . . . will pray." 
 
Dr. Louis L. King, "The Bible and the record of history reveal there has never been such a thing as a prayerless revival." 
 
Leonard Ravenhill, wrote in his book Sodom Had No Bible that "The church is dying on its feet because it is not living on its knees."
 
The only way that we will see a real, heaven sent, Holy Ghost revival is if God's people get serious about spending time with him in prayer -and not just any kind of prayer. The Bible says that there's a specific kind of prayer that gets God's attention. 
 
The Bible says in James chapter 5, "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. (And then just like a good, Baptist preacher, James gives an illustration. )
 
17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit." 
 
That's powerful prayer. And you and I will never see revival in our time until we get serious about getting a hold of God through prayer.
 
John Bunyan, "You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed."
 
 
George Whitfield, "Whole days and weeks have I spent prostrate on the ground in silent or vocal prayer." 
 
E M Bounds, "Our praying needs to be pressed and pursued with an energy that never tires, a persistency which will not be denied, and a courage which never fails."
 
Position yourself Humbly, Pray fervently and
 
Pursue His face passionately
 
That's the next prerequisite. ". . .and seek my face. . ." 
 
I'll tell you, we get the cart before the horse when we desire the power of revival more than the presence of revival. We miss the whole point when we're more concerned about what takes place at a revival than we are about Who shows up and brings revival. 
 
Isaiah hit the nail on the head when he cried out to God, "Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence;2 As fire burns brushwood, As fire causes water to boil; To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence!
3 When You did awesome things for which we did not look, You came down, The mountains shook at Your presence." (Isaiah 64:1-3)
 
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is found in Exodus 33. Moses is having a talk with God. 
 
And God is talking about walking with His people and guiding them with the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. And Moses just blurts out, "Please, show me Your glory." And you get the idea that Moses is very insistent. He's not letting go. He's not giving up. 
 
God even tells him, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live." He said, "If you were to see me as I really am, in all of my power and glory and might, you'd die." 
 
But Moses doesn't give up. He's still almost pestering God. "God let me see you. Let me see your glory. Let me see your face." So, God puts him in a cave on the side of a mountain, puts his hand over the entrance to that cave, walks by, removes his hand and lets Moses see what the Bible calls, God's "back" and that one moment totally changed Moses life forever. 
 
That's how passionately we are to pursue the face of God. "God let me see you. God let me see your glory. God let me see your face." 
 
Do you want revival as badly as Moses wanted to see the face of God? Do you want revival as badly as Sarah wanted a baby when she said, "Give me a baby or I don't want to live?" Until there is that passion and that persistence, to see the presence of God, we'll never experience the power of God in revival. 
 
Position yourself humbly, Pray fervently, Pusue God Pasionately and
 
 
Pivot in your path completely. ". . .and turn from their wicked ways,"
 
The word turn there means to pivot, to turn away from, to repent, and what better word could be used to describe what God wants us to do in our lives, because true repentance involves a complete change of direction in our way of life.
 
Dr. Stephen Olford, Heart Cry For Revival, "If we are drawn closer to the throne of His majesty, our sin will appear hideous and loathsome; if our prayer for His blessing has been from a pure heart, we shall abhor that which has brought His disfavor upon us; if we have truly sought His face initially, we shall not seek to continue in the paths of unrighteousness."
 
The Psalmist asked this question: "Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully.5 He shall receive blessing from the LORD, And righteousness from the God of his salvation." (Psalm 24:3-5)
 
God will not pour the river of revival through dirty pipes. And until you have acknowledged your sin and confessed your sin, you will never experience the blessing of God in revival.
 
Evan Roberts was a young man who God used in a mighty way during the Welsh Revival which took place in Wales between 1904 and 1905. During that time of spiritual awakening, there were more than 100,000 people saved in just 5 short months. 
 
 
Evan Roberts, as he would go around and preach really the only message than he had, shared four simple points that God greatly used.
 
1.     The past must be made clean by confession of every known sin to God and every known wrong to man.
2.     Every doubtful thing in the believer's life must be put away.
3.     Prompt and implicit obedience must be rendered to the Spirit of God.
4.     Public confession of Christ must be made within and without the church.
 
Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, as he was reporting on this revival pointed out that there was one thing that characterized this revival: “ and that was the most remarkable confession of sin; confessions that were costly.”
 
I told you this morning about the 1932 Shantung Revival that took place in northern China. During that time, the reports tell us that prisoners who would not confess their sins, even after the most terrible and cruel of tortures by their jailers, openly and immediately admitted their sins when they came under the power of revival. What the torture of the jailers couldn't do, the conviction of the Spirit of God could.
 
That's why, John 16:8 says about the Holy Spirit, ""And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment."
 
TS Rendall, "We play at prayer when we come into God's presence with unholy lives."
 
"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways." 
 
Now, I want you to look at me. Don't be getting ready to leave. Anybody in this section over here got any wicked ways in their lives? If so, do you know what God's saying to you today? "I love you, but repent." Any of you men looking at things you shouldn't be looking at?" God loves you, but He's saying repent. 
 
How about in this center section, do any of you folks have anything in your lives that you're ashamed to talk to God about. Listen, He already knows about it. You can fool us, because you can come to church cleaned up on the outside and be filthy on the inside. 
 
And I'm not trying to beat up on anybody and I'm not trying to condemn anybody and I'm not throwing rocks today, for your good and the good of God's work in your life and revival in this church, if you've got any sin in your life, I'm asking you in the name of Jesus to repent and get right with God.
 
What about this section. Do you have anything between you and God? Check your prayer life, maybe that's why you can't pray. You can't be intimate with somebody you're holding out on. 
 
Some of you kids, do you have anything in your life? Are you talking about things you ought not be talking about? Are you doing things you shouldn't be doing? Playing church? God says, repent. Get clean. Turn from your wicked ways. Don't look around and say everybody's doing it. Who cares what everybody else is doing. 
What matters is what are you doing. Are you right with God?
 
Senior adults, what about you? You say, "O we're senior adults, we're fine." Listen, senior adults can have sin and wickedness in their lives too. 
 
What about you? Are you right with God? Is there anything in your life that would hold revival back in the life of this church?    God's word for you today is repent. Because if you will follow the prerequisites of revival - position yourself humbly and pray fervently and pursue His face passionately and pivot in your path completely -
 
2. He Will Fulfill The Promise Of Revival. 
 
Now, we're not going to spend a lot of time here because we're going to look at the wonderful marks of revival in two weeks. But God does promise to pour out revival when we meet the prerequisites that He has set before Him.
 
When revival comes, there will be. . .
 
Heaven's proclamation. ". . .then will I hear from heaven. . ." God will speak to our hearts.
 
Sin's justification. ". . .forgive their sin. . ." Psalm 32:1, "Blessed (happy) is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered."
 
National restoration. ". . .and will heal their land. . ."
 
Your land. . . Personal. . .