Prayer For Heart Revival

Study 8 HABAKKUK: A PRAYER FOR REVIVAL – Words of Life Ministries

STUDIES IN THE MINOR PROPHETS by Francis Dixon

(Key-verses: Habakkuk 3:1-2)

The strange word “”shigionoth”” in Habakkuk 3:1 indicates that this beautiful heart-felt prayer for revival, offered by the prophet around 600 BC, was originally set to music.

Habakkuk prayed because revival was desperately needed. God’’s people had become forgetful, formal and careless in their devotion and obedience to God.

They had almost lost their testimony, God’’s holy name was not honoured, and His kingdom was not being extended.

How relevant this study is for our own times! –- because our greatest need today is for spiritual revival. Our greatest need is not for more evangelistic meetings (although we thank God for these), for more money or for better methods.

The greatest need is for spiritual revival, for a fresh infusion of divine life into the Church, for an awakening in the lives of God’’s people and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It was for this that Habakkuk prayed.

Let us examine his prayer:-
 

1. The word ‘O’’ expresses a deeply-felt longing for revival

The prophet prayed ““I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord…”…” –- what intensity of feeling! Are we burdened this? What is our reaction to the following facts:-

1. 1. The average Christian is living on a very low level of Christian experience, often defeated and powerless and in bondage to self.
2. 2. The testimony of the Christian Church in the world is frequently ineffective and very different from the testimony of the early Christians.
3. 3. Many Christians and churches are completely occupied with petty things such as jealousies, squabbles, barriers between Christian and Christian, and often there’s a lack of love amongst God’’s people.
4. 4. Many churches have no prayer meetings or poorly-attended prayer meetings.
5. 5. Many preachers and teachers have departed from the Word of God and from pure Gospel preaching.
6. 6. There are few conversions in our churches.
7. 7. Much worldliness has taken over the lives of many believers in our churches.

2. The word ““Lord”” (repeated) declares that God is the author of revival

Habakkuk’s prayer was rightly directed to the Lord because revival comes from Heaven. It cannot be worked up; it needs to be prayed down.

It is not man’s doing, but God’’s, though God in His mercy sends revival through His people. The fact that we so often place emphasis on outward things, on organization and methods, on advertising and publicity etc.

shows that we do not see this amazing truth. These things do not produce revival –- God alone can!
 

3. The words ““I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe…”…” show how revival begins

It is when a believer gets alone in God’’s presence, hears His voice and trembles at His word (Isaiah 66:2). Habakkuk had in fact done this (2:1-3), and while he was alone in God’’s presence he experienced what the Psalmist mentions in Psalm 85:6-8.

So often we rush into God’’s presence and do all the talking, but it is when a man abases himself before Almighty God, confesses the sins of his people and his own sins, that revival can begin in that one man.

One person can open the door through which the Risen Lord will enter in reviving and quickening power into His Church (Revelation 3:20)!
 

4. The words “”Revive thy work…”…” (KJV) unveil the true nature of revival

Habakkuk did not pray, ‘‘Lord, deal with the heathen and save them…’…’, but ‘’Revive your work……put your people right…’…’ Many Christians confuse revival with the work of evangelism. Revival includes evangelism, but evangelism does not necessarily include revival.

Evangelism includes organization, publicity, team work, perhaps media appearances, and much human effort –- all of which is good; but when revival comes it is quite apart from these human endeavours.

It always begins in the Church and in the hearts and lives of God’’s own people.
 

5. The words “”In the midst of the years…”…” (KJV) speak to us of the time of revival

Habakkuk repeats these words in his prayer, so what is their significance? No doubt the prophet meant, ‘‘O Lord, revive your work now, when the need is so desperate…’…’; and surely for us it means that any time is God’’s time for revival, any time when revival is needed and when God’’s people will pray.

Here we are not in any way contradicting what has already been said about God being the author of revival; God is sovereign, but has also declared in His Word that He is willing to hear and answer the prayers of His people.

Therefore, “”in the midst of the years””, at this very time, God will revive if……look up 2 Chronicles 7:14.
 

6. The words “”make known…”…” reveal the effects of revival

When revival comes, what does God “”make known””? (1) He makes known His majesty, His glory and His holiness (Isaiah 6:1-8).

(2) He makes known our sin, weakness, emptiness and failure (Lamentations 3:40-42; Matthew 5:23-24; Luke 19:8). (3) He makes known the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:11-12).

When revival comes God reveals Himself, for revival is a revelation of the Lord Himself –- and the result is a tremendous consciousness of God’’s presence.
 

7. The words ““in wrath remember mercy…”…” suggest the true motive for praying for revival

God had been punishing the Chaldeans and chastening His own people, but Habakkuk prayed He would reveal His mercy to show the other side of His nature –- He hates and punishes sin but loves the sinner. Is that our prayer too?

Источник: //www.wordsoflife.co.uk/bible-studies/study-8-habakkuk-a-prayer-for-revival/

Prayer, Revival and the Holy Spirit

By Dennis Pollock

Why don’t Christians pray? I’m not talking about praying at the dinner table or at church or on special formal occasions; we do enough of that.

I’m talking about real prayer, prayer that stretches itself out toward God in intense desire and with great expectation.

This kind of prayer is occasioned not by polite tradition but by a heart hunger that says to God, “I will not let you go until you bless me!”

Among professing Christians this kind of prayer has always been scarce. We talk about prayer, preach about prayer, read books about prayer — we just don’t often pray, at least not beyond formal necessity. The reason for our prayerlessness has sometimes been charged to laziness, but I believe there is a deeper reason.

I am convinced that one of the major killers of prayer among the people of God is a problem of unbelief. In many cases Christians just don’t believe that the simple act of making a request of their Father in heaven can really make a difference in their lives. If they had any clue that major blessings could be theirs just for the asking, they would be praying up a storm!

The Common Thread of Revival

When I was a young twenty-something year old pastor, I began a study of revival.

It began with a study of some of the great revivalists and evangelists in church history, men such as John Wesley, George Whitefield, D. L. Moody, and Charles Finney.

The revivals they experienced in their ministries were thrilling to me. I couldn’t help but feel that what God had done in the past He could certainly do today.

As my circle of reading widened, I began reading of other revivals that seemed to occur spontaneously, even without major evangelists associated with them.

All the great evangelists were men who prayed, often with fasting, and often for hours upon end.

Many times revivals seemed to break out in churches or places where a band of faithful prayer warriors had been seeking the face of God for months or years.

The more I read, the more convinced I became that I had found the secret of revival. It was a secret that any experienced minister could easily have shared with me, but it is always so special when you find it out for yourself. The secret I discovered was this: revival comes when God’s people pray! Let me give you a couple of examples.

The Revival of 1800

By the 1790’s, the United States had become a spiritual desert. Atheistic philosophies from the pens of Voltaire, Rousseau, and Thomas Paine had captured the minds of many of the nation’s intellectuals and leaders, and had been particularly embraced by the college students of that day.

A poll was taken at Harvard and not one student would admit to being a Christian. A mock communion was held at Williams College, and anti-Christian plays were common events at Dartmouth. The churches were diminishing and were struggling for their very existence.

Thomas Paine joyfully announced, “Christianity will be forgotten in thirty years.”

It was with heavy hearts that 23 New England ministers met together on a winter day in 1794 to discuss and consider what could be done to halt the flood of ungodliness that had ravaged the nation.

The ministers came to agree that only a divine visitation could breathe life into the dying churches of America.

The question was, what could they do to precipitate such a revival? They had only one answer — pray.

A call was sent out to all churches and all Christians in the nation to pray specifically for revival. The Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists, Moravians, and many other churches adopted the plan.

Prayer became the main business of the church.

Then the breakthrough came. Revival broke out in Connecticut and soon swept through the country. In town after town the churches began to see converts being added to them at a rate few could have imagined possible. In one New England town, young people at a social gathering suddenly began to weep for no apparent reason. Conversions followed and revival swept the city.

James McGready, who pastored three little churches in Logan County, Kentucky, saw eleven thousand people come to a communion service/camp-meeting.

While McGready preached, some of the sinners who were considered the hardest cases broke down and cried babies.

At Yale University great numbers of students rushed to join the Moral Society, and Christianity became as popular among the college students as Voltaire had been only a few years previously.

This revival, a raging forest fire, swept from one end of our nation to the other. Although it is historically known as the revival of 1800, it lasted for many years and its effects were felt for a generation.

this revival came the resurrection of the church in America, a new emphasis on missions, the beginning of Sunday schools, and a great deal of stability in the previously lawless West. The church once again exerted considerable influence in the United States.

God had surely answered the prayers of His people.

The Prayer Revival of 1857-59

By 1857, bitter division over the issue of slavery and a gradual weakening of the church had brought us to another place of desperate need for revival.

In September of that year Jeremiah Lanphier, a former businessman turned lay missionary, decided that the businessmen of New York City would profit themselves and their city by a weekly prayer meeting.

Distributing hundreds of handbills throughout the city, he invited businessmen to stop in over their lunch hour at the 80 year old Dutch Reformed Church on Fulton Street for “5, 10, or 20 minutes; or the whole hour, as your time permits.”

It was decided to meet every day rather than weekly, and soon the entire church was filled to capacity with 3000 praying businessmen.

Prayer meetings began to spring up in other parts of the city and within six months 10,000 were gathering daily over their lunch hour to pray.

This movement of prayer swept through New England and spread across the nation. Charles Finney, the great Presbyterian evangelist, summed up the prevailing attitude in saying, “The general impression seems to be, ‘We have had instruction until we are hardened; it is time for us to pray’.”

With so much prayer going forth from the lips of God’s people, it was inevitable that great numbers of conversions would soon follow. And follow they did! There were towns in which the people declared it was “almost impossible” to find persons who had not been converted.

Throughout the land, taverns and gambling dens shut down for lack of patrons, and the churches filled up at a phenomenal rate. One man who traveled from Omaha to Boston found continuous prayer meetings the entire length of his journey in the cities which he passed through.

At the height of this revival it was estimated that no less than 50,000 souls were professing their faith in Christ each week throughout the nation. In one year, a population of thirty million, an estimated one million Americans were converted.

This revival was the most intense and rapidly spreading of all the awakenings our nation has seen. From the beginning it consisted of two key elements: much prayer and many conversions.

Once again, God had proven that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Prayer, Rain, & Fruit

Of course, you can find this “secret” in the Bible without too much effort. Luke seemed to know it well. In Luke’s writings (Gospel of Luke, Book of Acts) we find a strong emphasis on prayer and on the Holy Spirit.

Luke has more to say about the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit than all the other Biblical writers combined! Interestingly, he also gives us some insights into prayer that the other gospel writers do not.

It is Luke that tells us what Jesus was doing at His baptism by John: “Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened…” (Luke 3:21)

While the other gospels tell us of Jesus’ baptism, only Luke mentions the fact that He was praying as He came up the water. And what followed His baptism and prayer? We read further: “And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, ‘Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased'” (Luke 3:22).

Luke tells us that at Jesus’ baptism several important things were happening. Jesus was praying, the heavens were opened, the Holy Spirit came upon Him, and God the Father endorsed Him. Could it be that there is a connection between prayer and the descent of the Holy Spirit?

Consider Luke’s other book, the book of Acts. On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended upon 120 disciples of Jesus, and the early church was birthed in revival. Was prayer involved here? Any Bible student knows the answer to this. In Acts 1:14 we read: “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication…”

Again we find that prayer precedes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. During that assembly of praying saints, God shows up, and we read: “Suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind… and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…” (Acts 2:2,4).

In this verse we find the profound link between prayer, the Holy Spirit (as symbolized by rain) and the fruit that Jesus longs to produce in our lives and churches. Prayer brings the power of the Spirit, and the power of the Spirit brings forth the fruit. Both church history and Scripture amply testify to the reality of this.

The Last Days

When it comes to the last days, Christians seem to be divided pretty neatly into two camps.

Many believe that the last days will be a time of great apostasy and spiritual coldness for the church.

They predict perilous times and a “Laodicean” condition for the church prior to the return of Jesus. Others insist that God has promised to “pour out His Spirit” upon all flesh in the last days.

I believe the Scripture supports both views. Clearly there are ominous signs of societal degeneration and a slide into spiritual impotence by many of the professing Christians and churches. When 42% of Americans declare that Jesus Christ committed sins (including one-fourth of those who claim to be born again), something is dreadfully wrong.

On the other hand, evangelism goes on in record proportions. Nations such as South Korea and many of the African nations, which had almost no Christians at the turn of the century, are bursting at the seams with churches and evangelical believers today. In the previous century, any church with 1,000 members was considered enormous. Today we have many churches of 10,000 or more.

Yes the world is growing darker, but the Holy Spirit has not gone into retirement. The Bible gives no indication that the whole world will be converted to Christ before He comes, but it does tell us that the Gospel shall be proclaimed to all nations.

Let us join our voices in prayer for our churches, communities, and our nation, crying out to God for a great spiritual awakening as we await the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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Источник: //christinprophecy.org/articles/prayer-revival-and-the-holy-spirit/

Youth with a Heart for Revival

CBN.com Do you want your church to grow?  Do you want to know what young people desire?  If so, read this two-part series by a real young person who craves revival.

Shhh.  Can you hear it?  It’s a revival.  It’s coming.  People of all ages can sense it.  Yet young people particularly desire it.  They desire a change of focus; to center on Jesus, His love, and applying His Word in a fresh, uncompromising way. 

That’s right!  We young people don’t merely crave for more material stuff.

  We aren’t only searching for churches that flash fancy graphics on the PowerPoint, build deluxe buildings, or construct coffee shops in order to attract us.

Instead, we clamor for churches to stop the compromise and change the focus to that of Jesus, His love, and His Gospel.  We want people to be real and live the faith.  We want change.  We want authenticity.

Guess what?  Churches and young people can team up to prepare for revival.  Here are three points for churches and three points for fellow young people to consider:

Three Points for Churches

1. Stoke the fire. Don’t water it down.  Include Scripture.  Don’t toss it out.  Young people want a change, but it’s different from a material change: We want authenticity.  We want a return to a focus on Jesus, His love, and His Word. 

2. Materialism isn’t evangelism.  Now, some churches are already on the right track.  But many churches are sidetracked –by material things.  (Many seem more the lukewarm churches of which Jesus spoke.  Click here to read about it in Revelation 3:15-17.)

As young people, we’re hitting barriers erected by some materialistic churches that don’t understand us.   Unfortunately, some older adults cannot relate to our uncompromised passion for Jesus.  They look down on us for being young.   

3. God is not into ageism.  Don’t look down on young people because of our age.

  There are many older adults who are wise and strong believers.  But there are some older adults who balk at anyone under thirty-five.  They dismiss young people for being “idealistic.

”  With a twinge of sing-song in their voices, they say to young people –including me- something this: “Well, after you’ve been around for a while, you’ll understand why this won’t work… You’ll simmer down.” 

But that’s wrong: Our fire for God will continue to bellow.  (If you don’t understand this “fire for God,” be sure that you know Him personally.)  Keep feeding the fire. 

You are never too young or too old to serve Him in some way.  God has repeatedly selected people who were young to serve Him.  I could list David, Samuel, Ruth, Timothy, Mary (the mother of Jesus), and countless others.  (i.e. Jesus started His public ministry at the age of thirty.)  And God has used very elderly people to do His work. (Think of Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Zacharias, Elizabeth, Anna, etc.  They were all older when God used them.) 

Three Points for Fellow Young People

1. Let’s ignore “the look.”
Hey, fellow young people, you know what I’m talking about.  We know “the look” that some older adults give when they patronize us:  The slight tilt of the head, almost imperceptible smirk, and rising of the chin give them away.  Some people degrade us because we’re young.  But God doesn’t.

In fact, God encourages us to serve Him despite the limited number of discouraging adults.  Here’s proof: “Let no one despise or think less of you because of your youth, but be an example (pattern) for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.” (I Timothy 4:12, AMP)

2. Respect what God says about respect.
We need to follow what God says about respecting people who are older.  And we need to remember that many adults do not look down on us because of our youth. (We don’t want chips on our shoulders.)

After all, many older adults are loving believers who appreciate our passion for Jesus.  We must respect, honor, and love all older adults as we’ve been instructed in the Bible.  (To discover some of what God says concerning respect and honor of adults and leaders, check out I Timothy 5:1-2, Romans 13:7, Ephesians 5:21, Hebrews 13:17, and Romans 12:10.) 

3. Okay, it’s time!  Let’s rise up!
Let’s rise up and help change the church to return to a focus on Jesus, His love, and His Word.

  (For a bit of inspiration, download a great song sung by Dove Award-winner, Pam Thum: “Lazarus Generation.”  Even though it’s older –it came out back in 2000- it’s still awesome and applicable.  I love it.

)  Young people can –and should- change the focus of the church back to Jesus!

Some of you might be scratching your heads and thinking, “How do we change the church and help it to focus on Jesus and stop the compromise?  How do we set the stage for revival?”

Click back soon.  In part two of this article, I’ll include that answer with Five Faith-Filled Steps to Change the Church. 

Note from the
Connected! isn’t a typical monthly column. Think of it as an e-mail.  Feel free to reply. Reply to: [email protected]. After all, I want to be a friend and introduce you to my Best Friend, Jesus Christ.  We’ll cover issues relevant to our generation. Most of all, we’ll connect with Christ. If you don’t know how to connect with Him yet, click here.

Stacie Ruth Stoelting and Bright Light Ministry share how to have victory over tragedies and trials. She loves Jesus!  And she loves to help people.  (She knows what it feels to “wistfully wish for help.”  That memory helps to ignite her passion to help others.

) At 23, she already has experience:  At 15, Stacie Ruth wrote Still Holding Hands: Bonus Tips for Caregivers & Tips for Helping Families Facing Alzheimer’s, depicting her grandparents’ romance, and victory over Alzheimer’s. Celebrities (i.e.

Pat Robertson) endorsed it and/or Bright Light Ministry.  At 20, she sang for President Bush.  In dramatic programs for all ages, she speaks, acts, sings and entertainingly inspires. Now, she is writing another book ( Whatever Happened to My Faith?).

  Feel free to invite her to speak and/or sing at your church or school. Visit www.brightlightministry.com.

Источник: //www1.cbn.com/family/youth-with-a-heart-for-revival