“If My people, who are called by My name, shall 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 will heal their land.” (2 Chron. 7:14)
The conditions for spiritual revival are: surrender to God and repentance. Those two conditions bring unity in the Body of Messiah and then comes the blessing from God.
All of us want to experience spiritual revival. The question is, are we willing to stand in those conditions? Are we willing to give up our plans, our wills, our position – in short, our ego and to surrender to God’s will? All of us know that Yeshua paid a very, very, very precious price, in order to release us from Satan’s hold, in order to guide us in the Holy Spirit, in order to give us that life we will live them as to God’s will and not as to our will.
Do we really know His will for our life? Are we really living in freedom? Are we guided always by the Holy Spirit in every spiritual issue? Do we submit before Him?
We believe that God wants to bless us, therefore sometimes He brings us into hard situations (as He did with our father Jacob – Genesis 32: 25-32). He
wants to soften us and to bring us to a place where we surrender to Him and then we will look for His face (not His pocket…). Only after we will repent of our egotistical ways will He hear us and heal us – His Body – who are very important to Him in the land and all over the world. “Be humbled before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” (James 4:10). “Therefore be humbled under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you in due time.” (1 Peter 5:6). Our humility before Him and our surrender are very precious in His eyes. We know it according to His word, but the question is do we implement it in our life?
The enemy of our souls fights against us since we have come to believe in God, because all of us are still in our sinful flesh. “For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.” (Eccl. 7:20). He tempts us to fulfill our desires of any kind, or he tempts brothers to hurt one another out of competition or jealousy (Gal. 5:26), or tempts pastors to control the flock (1 peter 5:3).
We should be aware day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, to identify and discern his plots and to fight against those – by faith! “Be sensible and vigilant, because your adversary the Devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking someone he may devour; whom firmly resist in the faith…” (1 Peter 5:8-9)
We also have to be aware every moment of our lives in order not to take even a small amount of glory to ourselves, of which only God is worthy, because in the moment we are doing it, the enemy gets into our life and then everything goes downhill.
The enemy tries to cause us to fail even by the sin that he himself has fallen in – pride. The result of the sin of pride is spiritual blindness and then the believer is groping in darkness and living by the flesh, which are against the will of God. He thinks that the ones who reprove him are wrong and only he is right. He does not want to repent and from here the way to falling away is short! But, confession and repentance bring us to freedom from our ego, from our fleshly deeds and from sin. It also makes us walk in meekness, in surrender and in reverence in the Lord’s Spirit. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” (Rom. 8:14).
This process depends only on us and our will and we can already start it today! In the letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation the Lord warns part of the churches to confess and repent. (Rev. 2:5, 3:3, 19). These churches are a symbol for part of the churches that also exist today. The Lord warns because they have left Him, their first love. They are compromising with this world because they are spiritually dead (even they outwardly look like they are alive), and more they are lukewarm with regard to Him, that He wants to vomit them out of His mouth. That is sad!
This is the time to examine ourselves and to see where we are, before the “day of judgement”, which will come soon. “For the time has come for the judgment to begin from the house of God…” (1 Peter 4:17).There is an example in the Bible of a man of God, who even with all of his human weakness, was a mighty tool in God’s hands – the prophet Elijah! He surrendered before God and acted according to His will. He feared God and was filled with faith in the impossible, and God used him to bring to spiritual revival in his time. This is an example for us today.
Elijah knew God and as to His instruction he prepared the alter to make the sacrifice in front of all the people. He acted out of strong faith, obedience to God’s word and reverence of Him. “…let it be known this day that You are God in Israel, and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your Word.” (1 Kings 18:36).
He put 12 stones as to the number of Israel’s tribes, prepared a trench for water, arranged the woods and on them put the bull. Then he poured 12 jars of water on everything…! This is something which is against the human common sense! (the Lord by His grace supplied the water which was so precious in that time). He prayed fervently to God that He will send a fire from heaven on the alter and indeed God answer his prayer and the result was that the people fell on their face and shouted: “the Lord, He is the God, the Lord, He is the God”!!! Hallelujah!
That was a spiritual revival, which had started from one person! In the end came the blessing – a physical revival – the strong rain came “and the earth sprouted its fruit”. He remembered the word of prophecy he had received from God: “…Go, show yourself to Ahab. And I will send rain on the earth.” (1 Kings 18:1). He believed in His word, obeyed with reverence and acted according to God’s will and all of us are witnesses of the results. Elijah is mentioned also in the “New Testament” in James 5:17-18: “Elijah was a man of like passion as we are. And he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for the time of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth caused its fruit to sprout.” “…and will heal their land…”.
Elijah had faith in the impossible! We have to transcend above our human and fleshly thinking and to see the situations as God sees them. We have to believe in the impossible, because we are serving the God of the impossible! The power of God is what worked in Elijah’s life, and it is working also miracles in our life today. God has promised in His word to equip us with spiritual gifts, which through them we will work out His power. (1 Cor. 12: 4-12)
We are only tools in His hands, but He is the one who makes those miracles. Those who believe in Him with spirit and truth will see many are coming to believe through His mighty action – because He will do it by His grace! Therefore He Himself deserves all the glory! “… and My glory I will not give to another…” (Isaiah 42:8)
We believe that what happened in the life of the apostles, as recorded in the book of Acts, will also happen in our days. (Acts 2) The power of God will do it! “And many miracles and wonders were done among the people by the hands of the apostles; and they were all with one accord…” (Acts 5:12)
We need to be with one accord so that the people around us will see Yeshua through us and will want to believe in Him as their savior. “That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” (John 17:21)
We read in Acts 2:46-47: “And continuing with one accord in the temple… and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” They were in one accord, God worked through them and brought to them the ones who were thirsty for His word, Amen! It is true that we are commended to go to the entire world and to bring the gospel, but God is the one who acts in the hearts and draws the people to Him so therefore only He deserves the glory!
Spiritual revival is an act of God! We cannot bring it by our power, as we saw in one revival conference in Israel. John the Baptist in the New Testament is the embodiment of the prophet Elijah – and he came to proclaim repentance for forgiveness of sins before Messiah would come. “…Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Matt. 3:2). John the Baptist was one who called the people to turn back to God.
Today we are one body, a body which is composed of many believers, who have the task to call the people to turn back to God in spirit and truth before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord and Elijah will come before that day to return the hearts of the fathers to their sons and the hearts of the sons to their fathers (Mal. 4:5).
Meanwhile, until we’ll see more miracles worked by God, let us keep a right relationship with Him – in surrender, repentance and unity in the spirit!
“And finally, all be of one mind, having compassion on one another, loving the brothers, tenderhearted, friendly. Never give back evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, giving blessing, knowing that you are called to this so that you might inherit blessing.” (1 Peter 3:8-9).
And the blessing is:”…and I will heal their land…” – and of course heal them. Glory to God!