Introduction.
Records abound in the Bible to show that God does not visit a people on earth except He gets the correct individual to use. It is through such a vessel that He manifests His power and flows out in grace and might to the generality of others (Ps. 115:16). God is Spirit and for Him to make Himself manifest in the midst of visible, physical men, He has to pass through human beings like them. He gets such men who are prepared, ready for the master’s use. He does not just use anybody, but those qualified for His use. And until He gets such people the problems of men must have to wait. But when he finds such a person that He can use, there is no limit to which He will make Himself manifest through him or her.
Examples of such lives are Moses (Ex.3: 7-10), Joshua (Deut.34: 9, Joshua 1:2) and various judges in the book of Judges. Women are not exempted from God’s use. As He used men, so also He used women in the Bible who are yielded to Him. Examples of such women in the Bible include Deborah, Mary Magdalene and a host of others. Deborah became such a great vessel that even when men were not available in Israel for God’s use, she arose to the challenge and brought revival and deliverance to Israel.
Desiring therefore that God might use us in our generation and in our land, we must first seek a definite personal visitation of God on our lives. This study is thus designed to help us in seeking personal revival (a visitation of God).
Here we shall study personal revival in 4 sections.
A. What is revival?
B. The need for personal revival
C. Steps unto personal revival
D. The impact of a revived life
We plead with you to prayerfully study along. Humble yourself that God may exalt you in due course. May God grant you revelation and may you experience His visitation in your personal life in Jesus name. Amen.
A. What is Revival?
1Kg.17: 17-23, Ezra 9:8-9, Isa.32: 13-15.
Literally speaking, revival is a process of bringing back to life what was dead or is about to die. Note 1Kg. 17:17-23. The son of the Zarephath widow was alive before. Suddenly one day, the child became ill. He grew worse and finally died. The woman drew the attention of the man of God (Elijah) to it and he prayed and cried out to God for the life of the boy to return to Him. The Lord heard Elijah’s cry and the boy revived. His life returned to him. That is revival. Note three key events there:
- the boy was alive before but one day he died;
- God used Elijah to bring him back to life;
- the boy came alive again.
Hence revival means bringing back to life a dead situation.
Note Isa. 32:13-15 also. Verses 13 and 14 tell us of the dead situation of the people, how thorns and briers would come up on their land and how they would forsake their fortress (the Lord God) and abandon the noisy city and their watchtower (their praise and prayer life). That was a dead situation indeed.
Verse 15 talks of what must be done to bring the dead situation back to life – The Spirit of God has to be poured on them from on high. He is the only one who can bring revival. No amount of noise or struggle can do it. Only when the Spirit of God intervenes do we know true revival. Then the wilderness would become a fruitful field and the fruitful field, a forest. Then justice shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remains in the fruitful field.
B Why Do We Need Personal Revival At A Time Like This?
i. There is decay within and all around us. Lam 4:1-10, Ezek 22:1-12, 29-30.
Considering the condition of our personal lives, homes, places of work and the communities and nation where we live, it is clear that we need God’s divine intervention. Even though Churches are multiplying, the decay in our society is increasing in an alarming rate. We are the light of the world and salt of the earth, says the Lord (Matt 5:13-16). Light and salt normally cause definite and specific change wherever they are found. But in our own case, it seems our light has become darkness and salt is fast losing its savour. If men and women of the world will not cast us out and trample us under foot, we need revival. We need God’s divine intervention on our personal lives. It is only when this happen that the church will be revived and our land and nation saved, when He finds a revived life to use.
ii. We need personal revival because it is only God’s visitation that
(a) Reveals to a man his true condition. Rev 3:1, 17, isa 5:8, 11, 18, 20,lsa 6:1-8, Isa 32:14-15
The heart of man is very deceitful above all things. You may think you are rich and have need of nothing. Until the Lord visits you as He visited them at Laodicea, you may be making a costly assumption. It was not until Isaiah saw the Lord that he was able to know his true condition. If you discover that you have more or less forsaken the palace of our great King and our Fortress, and you are neglecting the watchtower of prayer, replacing these with other things, you are losing a treasure. It is time to cry out for divine visitation on your personal life.
(b) God’s visitation purifies a man. Isa 6:6-7, Isa 1:18-19
(c) God’s visitation commissions a man. Isa 6:6-10. What did you discover here?
iii. We also need personal revival because it is a revived life that God uses to avert impending doom on nations, cities, and persons. Isa 61:1-4, Jonah 2:8-10; 3:1-10; Ezek 22:30, 2 Chr 16:9
Examples: Daniel: – Dan 1:19-21, 2:12-20
Esther: – Esth 3:5-11, Esth 4:12-17 Esth 7:1-10
iv. We need personal revival because it is only someone who has experienced God’s personal touch that can:
(a) Fight God’s battle. 1Sam 16:6-13;1 Sam 17:12-13, 34-37 ,45-57
(b) Know God’s strategies in battle E.g. Elisha and his servant 2Kings 6:15-20
Joshua- Josh 5:13-15, 6:1-5
(c) Not be intimidated by any man, authority or any situation.
Mary Magdalene -Matt 27:65-66; 28:1-8
Peter and John- Acts 4:13, 19-20
C. Steps unto Personal Revival.
We shall examine this in three parts:
1. How to deal with idols in our lives
2. Cultivating the habit of being alone with God
3. Being prepared to hear God’s word and to obey promptly.
1. How To Deal With Idols in Our Lives.
(a) What does an idol stands for in the life of a Christian? Ezek 14:1-6.
From that bible passage, an idol is anything that hinders a man’s devotion to God. Anything that makes you enstranged from God and makes you desert God in one way or the other is an idol. It is anything that controls you and takes the place of God in your life. Such a thing has its root in the heart. It is hidden deliberately or unknowingly in the heart and it controls one’s life in one-way or the other. Anything that is painful for you to give up is an idol. For you to experience personal revival and the power of God in your life, you need to identify such idols one by one and deal with them according to the word of God.
Such an idol could be money, jewelry, your beauty, certificate, self ambition, self outlook, a habit, a game (e.g. football, judo etc), your hairdo, fashion, your marriage, your husband, your children, your job, your tradition or it could even be a festival you love to observe (e.g. Christmas could become an idol). Can you mention more? Such idols take away one’s devotion to God and they become stumbling blocks in one’s life. It controls your time, your behaviors, and your movement. Anytime you fall into sin or disobey God, the root cause can be easily traced to the fact that you cherish that idol in your heart. Dig deep into your heart right now and search out your own idols under the searchlight of the Holy Spirit. What are your own idols? Do not persist in it. It will rob you of God’s presence. God desires to recapture your heart. Will you not surrender those idols?
(b). Put away and burn down all your idols and all sin.
Having identified the idols in your own life, God’s own method of dealing with them is to put them away and burn or destroy them. Examine and discuss the following scriptural examples: i. Asa- l Kg 15: 11-13
ii. Jehu- 2 Kg 10: 26-27
iii. Jehoiada 2 Kg 11: 18
iv. Jehoshaphat 2 Chr 19:3
v. Hezekiah 2 Chr 31:1
vi. Manasseh 2 Chr 33: 115-16
vii. Gideon: Judg 6: 27-28
viii. Peter, Andrew, James and John : Matt 4: 19-22
(c) Why must we put away idol of heart as a pre-condition for personal revival? Exo 20: 3-5, Prov 6: 30-35, 2 Chr 11: 2-3
2. Cultivating the habit of being alone with God.
This is very crucial in encountering and experiencing God progressively.
a. Create time and place to be alone with God. Gen 32: 22-30, 2 Kg 9: 5-6, 1 Kg 22: 24-25, Ex 3: 1-4
b. Seek for personai revival in heart-felt prayer and fasting. Dan 9: 2-4, Ps 85: 6-7, 80: 4-7, 51: 7-13
3. Be prepared to hear God’s word and to obey promptly
Ezra 7:6-10, Isa.34: 16, 2Kgs.22:10-13, 2Kgs. 23:3-4, Dan 9:2, Jer.6:16, Isa.66:2b, Lk.10 :25-29,37.
D. Discuss the impact of a revived life on the church, the community and the world at large.
Ezra 10: 9-12, Matt 3: 1-6, Acts 5: 1-11, Acts 8: 4-13.
Conclusion
Great potentials are normally locked away and left to decay under untouched lives of men, until the finger of God peels off the covering of self, and unveils the dynamite inside the inner life. You must have discovered now that you need personal revival. You need God’s visitation upon your life before the inner treasure in you can be released. God’s visitation upon your life will reveal to you your true condition, purify you and commission you.
God is looking for people to use but He does not just use any kind. He uses people who have personally experience Him in their closet. There is a great potential of God, a great dynamite inside you as a child of God, but the treasure is in an earthen vessel. Except this earthen vessel is broken, except the life of flesh is dealt with, there can be no outflow of the power of God in your life. Will you not surrender your life to God for His visitation? Will you not seek the Lord while He may be found? Realizing the on-slot of the devil over the Church, the land and the lives of men, will you not respond? Realizing the desperate search of God for men, you should not hide under the rubbish again as did Saul. Come forth in your closet with strong cry for God to visit you, touch you and by your life, turn the table against the enemy. Search for the visitation of God until He visits you. The difference will be clear!
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