Y Safle

“So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more…

“But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.

Joel 3:15-21

Do you long for the day when the Lord dwells again amongst us? Are you even aware that he does not dwell amongst us now? Are you still unconvinced of the need within the church of today?

I know there are a few bright spots were the sun shines weakly through the clouds, but even these bright spots shine with a wan and wintry light compared to the radiance of the shekinah glory of God descended upon the church.

Look at the powerful picture Joel has given us of the effect of the presence of God. When God is amongst his people, then people know it. Why is it that we have to write placards on the front of our churches that say we are “Biblical” Christians? is it because we are afraid people won’t recognize a Biblical Christian otherwise?

In this series of articles I have attempted to hint at what I am convinced we are missing in our church life. We live amongst Laodicean churches which are merely lukewarm, and I pray that God will be merciful and not spew us from his mouth.

Again, we live in churches which think themselves rich, lacking in nothing, without realizing that we are poor, and blind and naked.

Yet God has promised:

“If my people who bear my name will humble themselves and pray, then I will heal their land and forgive their sins.”

If you agree with me that we need to know the glory of the Lord living amongst us in our churches once more, and if I have made one iota of sense to you, then may I beg you to pray God that he would heal our land.

And lest I have left a bitter taste in anyones mouth, having left the impression that I am condemning everyone except myself, then let me here admit that I am deeply unhappy with my own level of spirituality. I am ashamed at how unmoved I can be when God’s name is abused and his church is degraded.

Let us all humble ourselves and pray that God would heal his land. Let us pray for revival, and let us pray that that revival will begin in us.

Oh Lord, search me, try me and show me every wicked way within me.

“And I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.

“And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered; for on Mount Zion there will be those who escape, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.”

Joel 2:30-32

The prophecy of Joel now turns to the last days and we read of things repeated by Isaiah, Daniel and John. Wonders will be seen on earth and in the sky and there will be great distress. The day of the Lord will be a bewildering and frightening time for those who do not love Him.

But in the midst of the prophecy of coming judgement, of the final wrath of God and the great and terrible day, we see the grace of God once again. In those bewildering times, when all the world will be in utter chaos, we have this simple promise “Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Even at the last minute of the eleventh hour God will still save men and women through his abounding grace and mercy, such is his love for us. In the midst of his final wrath he will not forget his elect.

But tell me, do you have a burden for the lost? Do you weep for those people who will know nothing but fear on that day? Maybe you think that the days are far off and there is much time yet, but for millions of people every day those great and terrible days are here already.

Millions of people die every day, consigned to a lost eternity, and why?

Does God smile with grim satisfaction when he sees evil men being condemned for all eternity?

Of course not. God has held out his hand to everyone who would only believe in him, and yet not everyone has believed. God weeps for every man who dies without knowing him, and yet they still die. Why?

It is down to you and me. We are God’s chosen vessels on Earth, and our churches are His chosen means of grace. Why do we not weep with God over empty churches? Why are we still not burdened with the overwhelming need of the hour - the need for revival?

Revival should not be a buzzword, but a burden. Where is our burden?

The day of the Lord could be a great and wonderful day, but for billions of people it will be horrific in its intensity, and dreadful in its extent. People living in fear will die in fear, and why? because the people of God, the elect of God, were so content with their “I’m alright” selfish attitudes and comfortable lifestyles that they could not spare the time to turn to their God in prayer and plead for the souls of the lost.

Here are some questions and my answers concerning revival:

1) Do we truly want revival.

As in all times, there are a remnant who do indeed truly want revival, but it is harder (and probably unproductive) to try and define the remnant.

Part of the problem is that people do not really know what revival entails - what it demands of us as believers, and if we cannot even give a nights sleep, or a few hours a week to pray for it then how can we say we are ready for the demands of holiness it places upon us as believers?

Do we want revival? The answer is probably no (for most of us). We want an increase in church numbers, and we want signs and wonders. We enjoy movements such as the “Toronto Blessing” and such like, but all these things require very little effort of us.

I am reminded of George Whitfield, and his time at University when he was in an agony of soul for months, so that he made himself quite ill.

There was a man who was desperate for revival, and it showed. Not only did it show, but his preseverence and seriousness was rewarded by God and he did indeed see revival.

The same is true for all the great revivalists, but is it true off us? Are we in agony of soul, or are we content with the occasional prayer meeting? I submit that if the latter is true then we do not want revival, and God will thus not give it to us.

I would note, also, that revival is something that happens to us first.

Again, if we read of Hywel Harries, who was in secret prayer at Llangasty church (which, incidentally, I visited just last week) when the Spirit of God responded to his heart cry and he knew revival personally. It was a response to this personal revival in his life that started the methodist movement in Wales, and brought that same revival to the whole Principality.

2) How will we know we are in revival.

If it happens to us, we will know it.

At the same time, we should be careful not to critisize other apparent works of God, simply because they do not meet our expectations of revival.

We must allow things to bring forth their fruit, and if God is in them then the fruit will announce its source. (This does not absolve us from our responsibility to prove all things, but we should be aware that in every revival there have been church men who have opposed the move of God because it did not meet their expectations).

3) Is revival simply a sovereign work of God, or are there steps we can take to hasten it?

It is both. There are steps we must take to allow God to move, but whether he will move is entirely in his sovereignty.

4) What are some of the biblical evidences for revival?

Pentecost.

There are Old Testament analogies (such as when Hezekiah arose to the throne of Judah) but such analogies are incomplete in that the revival in the Old Testament is clearly quite different from a revival under the new covenant. Nevertheless, there are many many lessons to learn from these historical narratives.

5) What are some of the historical evidences/consequences for revival?

In Wales in 1904/5, crime dropped by two thirds. National events (even the national Eisteddfod) were cancelled and churches were built in every community in the Principlaity.

There are many more, but I’ll leave the posts for another day (although a quick read of any history of a revival will be most informative).

Some Christians have argued that if we just can convince non Christians of this argument for the existence of God, or that argument fro the creation of the world, that non Christians will be forced to accept the truth of Christianity. There are books on apologetics, which discuss issues of philosophy, history and archeology, and these books can be very interesting. I enjoy reading them.

But we are wrong to put apologetics on a pedestal, as though all we need is an intellectual conviction to accept a saving faith in Christ.

My point here is not to attack apologetics as ungodly - it is to assert over again the divine imperative to us to pray. Pray at all times. Pray without ceasing. Have no anxiety about anything but by prayer and supplication - with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Prayer is so important that nothing else comes up to its mark. Not apologetics, not street evangelism, not schools work, not youth work, not even preaching. You could have all these activities and without prayer every one will fail.

if only Christians would spend as long on their knees as they do reading books”

I am not saying Christians should not read books. I would never suggest that. On the contrary I wish that Christians would study more and more widely too; but more then anything I wish Christians would pray more.

We see from a reading of revivals of religion that God has in the past done mighty things amongst his people. We know that there have been times when hundreds of thousands of people have been saved within a few short months. In Korea a quarter of the population now claim to be evangelical Christians because of the revival that swept that nation through Paul Y Cho.

What did Paul Y Cho say was the key to revival? Well he wrote a book on the subject called “Prayer: the Key to Revival”

If we as Christians were praying as earnestly as we should be, would God stay his hand? Clearly it is not as simple as some have argued (and I’m not talking about any listmember here): There is an element of the sovereignty of God in revival, but we know that God will answer our prayers and where His people are praying, the Spirit will be working - convicting people of sin and bringing them to a knowledge of God.

And again, what of our personal testimony if we put our faith in human methods? You said that Anselm’s proof was boring, and I have sympathy for that view - but you see that such logical reasoning is a human method. We do not despise such efforts, but they must pale in comparison to the hand of God.

In 1904, when revival spread across Wales, one man sought to escape into the mountains because he did not want to become a Christian, and yet even there, in his solitude, with no books, nor preaching nor any other method, the Holy Spirit brought upon him such a conviction of his sin and wretchedness that he was saved, and returned to his town praising God.

God does not need any help in saving people, but he has chosen to act through the means of human prayer and human effort. The responsibility is on us to answer the call - we are called to prayer first.

We know that the God who predestines us to salvation also predestines the means of that salvation, and the means will often be preaching or shared Bible study, scripture readings, Sunday school work or even apologetics. We do not neglect these lesser ministries, but the one ministry we are all called to above all else is prayer.

Consider Rev Y. Cho again. He takes prayer so seriously that when he is at prayer he is quite uninterruptable. The story is told of him that on one occasion the president of Korea telephoned him, and his secretary refused to put him through because he was praying. That is where our priority should lie. That is how important prayer is.

It is when we understand the importance of prayer that our witness is liberated, because when we show that we would rather spend time with God then anywhere else, then we show the world what is important to us. Then there is no hypocrisy when we say “Come to God, he will change your life”. As we allow him to change our lives, mould us and shape us into his servants through the closeness of our relationship with him, then we model Christianity more powerfully then any amount of writing or reasoned argument will ever allow.