I have felt God stirring in me a great deal the last six months. It seems the feelings get stronger and stronger - the kind you cannot run from. Even if you have for twenty plus years! I still cannot speak it out loud or write it. I have felt God pushing me out of my comfort zone more and more. While in the past I have run, I continue to try to be obedient. But God continues to give me bigger and bigger tasks. The tasks that I cannot do alone - only with God's supernatural powers. I have found that I am leaning more on Him and less on myself. I continue to be scared but find myself excited for what God has planned for me! I just keep telling Him, "I expect great things, God!" God only wants what is good and right for us and His plan for us is the best!
For years I have asked for God to show me signs and He has. This time I already know what I am supposed to do but that does not make it easy. I had been praying about this and how God might use me. Today in church my pastor shared the following story which really hit home with me. "Doctor J. Edwin Orr, the greatest authority ever on revival in the church was a lecturer at Wheaton College. He took some students in 1940 in a brief visit to England, to visit the Epworth refectory where John Wesley was based. Beside the bed are two worn impressions in the carpet where it was said that John Wesley knelt for hours in prayer for England’s social and spiritual renewal. As the students were getting on the bus, he noticed one missing. Going back upstairs, he found one student kneeling in the carpet knee holes praying with his face on the bed. “Oh Lord, do it again! Do it again!” Orr placed a hand on the student’s shoulder and said gently, “Come on Billy, we must be going.” And rising, Billy Graham joined the bus."
Now while we probably won't be the Billy Graham's of the world, God does need you and God needs me to be His hands and feet. And that one person needs you or me. So I have decided to add to my prayers, "Do it again, God; do it again! Use me!" We all complain about this world and how it desperately needs another outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We need to pray that God's Spirit will fall on us , our family, our church, our community, His church and our world. Cry out, repent and ask Him to fill you with His Spirit.
The Bible tells us of a great awakening in Acts 4: 24-31. “All the believers lifted their voices together in prayer…‘Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’ After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.”
Charles Finney, who was known to be a part of a great revival, said, “The experience of revival is nothing more than a new beginning of obedience to God.” Any genuine revival in history brought about repentance in the lives of the people. Revival is meant to spread and it did to the communities of the people. Psalm 80, 18, "Then we will not turn back from You; revive us, and we will call upon Your name."
We know our country needs revival but have we personally been revived so we can spread this great awakening? Let's pray, "Do it again, God; do it again!"
Comments