You can have some preaching, prayers, and evangelism without having genuine revival, but you can't have genuine revival without having some preaching, praying, and evangelism. Evangelism does not bring real revival, but real revival always brings evangelism!
Deep down what do you really long for? Is it revival? Is it awakening? I think I know, it's a Person. Jesus Christ. So I double dog dare you to get right with God through Him and pray for the biblical revival and awakening that only He can bring. Let it start with us! Yes, I dare you if I may to bring a lost friend. Where?
Here.. I dare you to be a part of HarvestAmerica.com. Sure, let God use you.
Yes, I dare you to pray for this good outreach. I dare you to makes some calls, to make some visits, and to help out. I even dare you, in preparation, to prayerfully read the book of Acts again..expecting.
"And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them…Then Peter said to them, 'Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit'…Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them" (Act 2:2,3,38,41 see the whole context).
You know that when the fire falls, it literally consumes the dross among Christians, it consumes the impurities, and it disrupts the status quo programs and mere religion. Listen, that kind of disruption is a good thing!
Personally, I wanna forget about yesterday and yesteryear, cuz I want to be a part of what God is doing in the earth in this day! Mighty rushing wind – unstoppable! Send it again, Lord. Have Your way. It's time for a burning in my soul. Do it again, what You've done before. It's time for the whole Church ablaze..again! Burn on! In us do Your thing, Holy Spirit. Yes, let the fire fall; burn on even more and more and more. Burn on the inside O fire of God, until we up and go tell the whole world.. and until they really hear Your Gospel.
For there is power, power, wonder working power in the Gospel of Jesus and we want to be a part of spreading this Message.
I'm thinking about Mr. John R. Rice who couldn't stand it another minute, such a lack of fire. Please remove the impediments. Rice preached,"Listen, it is not sinners that are hard. The trouble is it is ..the preachers that are hard. It is the Sunday school teachers; it is the Baptist deacons and Methodist stewards and Presbyterian elders that are hard. I find it easier to win a soul and get a drunkard or harlot converted than it is to get a preacher on fire for souls!" Do we feel like Mr. Rice? If we don't something is wrong with our Christianity. Just look around you some.
I'm thinking about Mr. George Whitefield who couldn't stand to see such lack of fire, or see such fruitlessness in Your church, so he prayed in Jesus Name with determination! Then he and John Wesley were used mightily of God to turn England upside down (right side up really—it already was upside down) for Jesus Christ. Yup, God rocked nations. So many were revived, refilled, ignited, and then so many others heard the Message and were saved! That's still God's greatest miracle. And He wants to use you. Are you willing? Tell Him so.
It was said by some in the British Isles of this simple preacher, "From the time he began, as a lad, to preach to the very hour of his death, he knew no abatement of passion. To the end of his remarkable career his soul was a furnace of burning zeal for the salvation of men."
His soul was a burning furnace! I want that too. Ah! Why try to lead a sinner to Jesus in the strength of the flesh, or of the mind? Weak! Problematic! Stop it.
Why seek to serve God without having first prayed to this God of the Bible? How can a local church advance and take territory so to speak, if God's people have hearts that have never been truly set ablaze, or have hearts that have lost their burning flame? Let real revival and awakening must begin with the leadership! Lost ministers and pastors faking it just grieve and hurt the Lord.
Think about Elijah who prayed earnestly until the fire fell on Mt. Carmel. What happened next? Well, it was then that the backslidden people leaped to their feet, walked and exclaiming, "The Lord—He is God! The Lord—He is God!" (1 Kings 18:39).
It only takes a spark to get a fire going! Is there a day in the past when you were more in-love with Jesus Christ than you are right now? If so, you are to a degree backslidden, but let God fix that right now.
"We want in this age above all wants, fire – God's holy fire, burning in the hearts of men, stirring their brains, impelling their emotions, thrilling in their tongues, glowing in their countenances, vibrating in their actions, expanding their intellectual power and fusing all their knowledge, logic, and rhetoric into a burning stream. Let this baptism descend, and thousands of us who, up to this day, have been but commonplace or weak ministers, such as might easily pass from the memory of mankind, would then become mighty." ~ T. DeWitt Talmage
"To be revived is a blessing which can only be enjoyed by those who have some degree of life. Those who have no spiritual life are not, and cannot be, in the strictest sense of the term, subjects of revival... A true revival is to be looked for in the church of God. Thus, revival is for believers only!" ~ C.H. Spurgeon
"Set us afire, Lord, stir us, we pray! While the world perishes, we go our way purposeless, passionless day after day! Set us afire, Lord, stir us, we pray!"
Once upon a time, a Psalmist said, (85:6), "Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in you?" (nkjv). And the prophet Habakkuk, he got it and he prayed this prayer: "I have heard all about you, Lord, and I am filled with awe by the amazing things you have done. In this time of our deep need, begin again to help us, as you did in years gone by. Show us your power to save us. And in your anger, remember your mercy" (Hab. 3:2 nlt). How badly do you want revival? Will you pray for this? Awakening is when those who are spiriually asleep being woke up, and revival is when a community gets saturated with God who is at work!
Are you currently on fire for Jesus? Have you been baptized in His Spirit? Whaaat?..those are simply Bible terms. I don't really care how you want to define this, I just care that you are filled! God wants you filled, influenced, voluntarily dominated by, controlled by the Holy Spirit today and every day following.
Let the wind blow! Is Jesus first, is He Lord? The Spirit is resident, but is He President? He really should be in each of our lives, and in our country! Preacher, with all sincere respect I challenge you get set on fire by God and people will come to watch you burn!... or watch you go and spread the fire elsewhere. Don't wait another day!
Were you once filled with the Spirit? We leak, Christians, but the good thing is this… God gives refills free of charge. Ask. Worship. Pray some more. Then go tell.. tell em about Jesus! Decide now to bring go get a lost friend and bring them to HarvestAmerica.com 2013.
#PrayerfullyReadActs #LetTheFireFall #MightyRushingWind #SpreadTheFire #EnFuegoIglesia #LassenSieDasFeuerAufUnsFallen facebook.com/shareJesus
