Revival- Turning from our Wicked Ways no. 4

For fourth broadcasting:

Good morning dear friends, Thank you for taking time to listen to insights from God’s precious Word: Today I will be speaking to you again on the very important subject of revivial! My message today is a continuation of the message that I shared last time on this theme entitled, If my people will turn from their wicked ways.”

Revival will not just drop from the sky! In a sense there is a price that we must pay in order for God to send Revivial. In 2 Chronicles 7:14 we read God’s recipe or formula for revival and I quote:

“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 I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” End of quote.

In the above verse we see that if If God’s people would do four things God would do three things

One important condition that I will speak on today is, If my people will turn from their wicked ways.

Johnathan Goforth missionary to China and who was greatly used in revival said and I quote,

“We cannot emphasize too strongly our conviction that all hindrances to revival in the Church are due to sin!

He gave the following important advice as to how confession of our sin should be made and I quote:

“In view of the prominence that is given to confession of sin in this article, perhaps I ought to make plain my own views on the subject. We have a strong feeling that sins committed before conversion are under the blood of God’s Son and never should be confessed. To do so is to bring dishonor upon Christ’s Calvary sacrifice.

We believe that as regards secret sin, that is sin which is only known to the individual soul and God, to confess it at the private altar is, as a rule, sufficient to ensure pardon and cleansing. Yet there are times when secret acknowledgment of secret sin is not sufficient and public confession is the only way to secure relief…

As to sin against an individual, the Scriptures are quite plain. The following is a verse from Matt. 22-24 “Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift” (Matt. 5:22,24).

It is vain for us to pray while conscious that we have injured another. Let us first make amends to the injured one before we dare approach God at either private or public altar.

I am confident revival would break out in most churches if this was done. Then again, as regards public sins, experience has shown us that those can only be swept away by public confession.

True, this amounts to crucifixion; but by our willful disobedience, we have put the Lord of Glory to open shame, and it is the price we must be willing to pay if we are to see revival sweeping through our churches.”-End of quote

Robert D. Jones in his article, “Pursuing Peace: A Christian Guide to Handling Our Conflicts”, gave some following good advice and I quote, “The circle of confession must be as big as the circle of offense. In other words, if I sinned against one person, I need to seek forgiveness from one person. If I sinned against six people, I need to seek forgiveness from six people. If I sinned against two hundred people . . . And so on.” End of quote.

Everyone we have offended by our sin must be addressed! We also need to make restitution, for example returning stolen property or making any other financial compensation that is necessary!

John Van GELDEREN, president of revival focus, shared how In the 1960s, when three ladies started meeting weekly to pray for their church, they asked God to search their hearts based on Psalm 66:18, ( “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;”

”Six miserable weeks” followed as they dealt with the subtle sins the Holy Spirit brought to their attention. Then, the Spirit released them to pray for God to pour out His Spirit in revival on their church. The next Sunday, the Spirit moved. God granted a season of refreshing for six months, reviving the church and bringing in a fresh harvest of souls.

Smith Wigglesworth shared the following important instruction in regards to forsaking all sin,and I quote:

“I realize that God can never bless us on the lines of being hardhearted, critical or unforgiving. This will hinder faith quicker than anything. I remember being at a meeting where there were some people tarrying for the Baptism-seeking for cleansing, for the moment a person is cleansed the Spirit will fall. There was one man with eyes red from weeping bitterly. He said to me, “I shall have to leave. It is no good my staying without I change things. I have written a letter to my brother-in-law, and filled it with hard words, and this thing must first be straightened out.” He went home and told his wife, “I’m going to write a letter to your brother and ask him to forgive me for writing to him the way I did.” “You fool!” she said. “Never mind,” he replied, “this is between God and me, and it has got to be cleared away.” He wrote the letter and came again, and straightway God filled him with the Spirit.

I believe there are a great many people who would be healed, but they are harboring things in their hearts that are as a blight. Let these things go. Forgive, and the Lord will forgive you. There are many good people, people that mean well, but they have no power to do anything for God. There is just some little thing that came in their hearts years ago, and their faith has been paralyzed ever since. Bring everything to the light. God will sweep it all away if you will let Him. Let the precious blood of Christ cleanse from all sin. If you will but believe, God will meet you and bring into your lives the sunshine of His love.”-End of quote

We read in God’s precious Word found in 1John 1:7-9 and I quote,

“But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”-end of quote

Shall we pray:

our precious Father, we worship you and glorify you and give you glory and honor and praise!

We thank you that you are the God of revival, send revival to our churches etc.

May your manifest presence come in our midst convicting sinners of their and their great need of repentance! Do this for your great Name sake and for your glory!

We ask this is Jesus a name Aman

Revival- God’s People Must Turn From Their Wicked Ways no. 5

Give me Seven Minutes of your Time:

Revival:

God’s People Must Turn from Their Wicked Ways:

Hello, Thank you for taking time to listen to insights from God’s precious Word: Today I will be speaking to you again on the very important subject of revivial! The title of my message is again entitled, “Turning from our Wicked Ways”

Before revival came to Korea, Dr. Hardie one of the key instruments in the revival said, “When the Holy Spirit came upon me, He first commanded me to confess my failure and its cause before my fellow missionaries with whom I spent most of the day during my missionary life. That was deeply painful and humiliating.” Hardie also confessed in one of the Korean churches! He said and I quote, “I had a strong racial prejudice against Korean people. I was not filled with the Holy Spirit.” -end of quote. After he confessed his racial prejudice, the congregation also asked his forgiveness for hating him and there was deep confession. This step of obedience plus other factors paved the way for God to move in power and revivial that brought many souls into the kingdom of God in that Nation.

If the leaders are guilty of public sin( i.e. sin that affected others for e.g. the congregation that they may be pastors of!) they should be among the first to repent and make a public confession of their sins! This would then make it possible for them to intercede earnestly for their members. We read in Joel 2:17, “Let the priests, who minister to the Lord, Weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord, And do not give Your heritage to reproach, That the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ””

We read our Lords clear and stern warning to the backslidden Church in Sardis in Rev. 3:2-3:,

“Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God. Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again. If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief.” – end of quote.

Also we have our Lord’s admonition to the church of laodicea the following very serious words found in Rev. 3:16-21:

““So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.”

If perhaps you are guilty dear friend of the same sins as the church in Sardis or of the church in Laodicea and your heart has become cold and hard, you have lost your first love for the Lord Jesus Christ and for your brothers and sisters in Christ and you have become insensitive to the misery and to the bondage of the lost that are going to an eternal hell then I encourage you to return to God and deeply repent of your sins

There are those who say, the blood of Jesus shed on the cross covers all our sins but dear friends the blood of Jesus will not cover what we must uncover, if we have stolen something we must be willing to return what we have stolen or cheated, if we have offended somebody by our words spoken in anger we must be willing to go to that person or persons and ask for forgiveness, if we have lied to somebody we must be willing to go to that person or persons and tell them the truth, if we have been involved in immorality we must be willing to go to the affected person or persons and make restitution! And so

We read in Is. 55:7, the following wonderful words, and I quote, “Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.” End of quote

Not only pardon, but abundantly pardon! Our precious Lord Jesus Christ was crucified and shed His precious blood in order that you might be completely and totally forgiven and released from Satan’s bondage and brought into wonderful freedom!

In the above passage of scripture that we read about the church in Laodicea we saw our loving and compassionate Lord Jesus Christ standing at the door of this backslidden church and knocking longing and desiring to come in and have fellowship again !

If you are backslidden and your love for this world and yielding to its evil temptations has squeezed Jesus out of your life He is standing at the door of your heart dear friend and knocking, think of it, the Lord of glory, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords standing at your heart’s door and knocking! Because He is all love He will not force Himself in, will you let him in today!