Are You Ready?A Devotional
© 2001 Steve Lattier and Men's Help MinistriesFor what, you might ask. Well you can ask but I won't tell you! Ok, I am kidding. Most everyone who is a Christian would love to see the world turned around for God. Sadly though none of us has ever seen a revival. Sure we all get blessed when we worship and even sometimes there is a local move of God that gets several people to accept their salvation. But rarely is something happening of Biblical proportions. Many of us have even prayed for revival to come, not even having the first concept of what we prayed for. The majority of Christiandom is not the slightest bit prepared to have a biblical revival take place near them. Let me illustrate to you a “little” revival that happened in the Old Testament.
The Word:Jonah 3:1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: [2] "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you." [3]Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city--a visit required three days. [4] On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." [5] The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. [6]When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. [7] Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. [8] But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. There you have it a classic picture of a revival. The bible says that Jonah's visit was supposed to take three days, but it insinuates that everything took place on the very first day that he arrived! Wow that is impact! What would happen if in one day your whole neighborhood came back to God? Are you ready to minister to that many new Christians? Have you asked God to prepare you as a tool for revival? I don't want to scare you into NOT praying for revival I want you to keep doing that. I want to show you the reality of revival so that you may pray to prepare yourself to be used by God! OK, the whole city of Nineveh came back to God in an afternoon, well it was just a town, not like a modern city, right? Wrong! Nineveh was a large city. Notice the Bible's description of it, “a very important city--a visit required three days.” That would involve a tremendous amount of walking and preaching! If we look a bit further into the book of Jonah we can see just how big it was!
The Word:Jonah 4:11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"Um, let me think. One hundred and twenty thousand people, oh excuse me
more than one hundred and twenty thousand people. Each and every one of them coming to God in one afternoon! WOW that is a revival. Yet, on a biblical scale small! Now I don't know the size of the town that each of you live in, but I am located near Houston, Texas population 3 million (+,-) There is no single facility that can hold that number of people! There is probably enough space in the variety and number of churches to be able to minister to that kind of an increase overnight, but only because of the sheer size of the town. Look back at Nineveh, that wasn't a portion of the population , as it would be here, but the whole of the city. The fast that was declared even included the animals! Does the town you are in have the capacity to minister to every person in it? Is your Church and are you prepared to deal with that kind of event? I have, as I am sure several of you have, sung the song “Revive us again.” Did you have a clear concept of what you were asking God? It is not about just making your local church feel good and keeping the saints holy. Revival is a Holy Spirit led phenomenon that transforms the spiritual landscape of whole regions at a time.
The Word:Daniel 6:23 The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. [24] At the king's command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lions' den, along with their wives and children. And before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.
Daniel 6:25 Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations and men of every language throughout the land: "May you prosper greatly! [26] "I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. "For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. [27] He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions. There it is in an instant. God was elevated to the topmost place it the entire kingdom of Babylon. Yes that is a little different than what happened a Nineveh, but keep in mind that how the leader of the country went, so did the country! Darius was impressed with God and changed! Moving up through time to one revival that occurred in the New Testament we can flip over to the book of Acts. That is also the book we look to the most when trying to model the modern church. Once the Apostles were imbued with the Holy Spirit, things started happening. The Church grew to astronomical size in a very short period of time. Lets look at some scripture.
The Word:Acts 2:38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. [39] The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call." [40] With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." [41] Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.Let me set the stage. They were in a house, no football stadiums to hold a well planned crusade in, just a house in Jerusalem. Look at who was preaching, Peter. Wasn't Peter the one who denied even knowing Jesus to the point that he swore at the person who accused him of it, then he promptly ran away! When God puts the power of the Holy Spirit to use things happen. Peter's words caused three thousand people to repent and get saved that day. Can your church baptize three thousand people in one day? Can your church handle three thousand, I am not so much talking about size, after all Peter and the other apostles were operating out of a house, but I am speaking about a heart for harvest. That is the key to allowing the Holy Spirit to move people towards their salvation. You and your church must have a heart for harvest. I honestly don't think that there are too many churches that could even hold three thousand people. God doesn't care if you have a huge church or not. He only wants to know if you will allow the Holy Spirit to minister in his power and his way to the people. This wasn't like some evangelist who popped in and had an alter call then left again. This was a revival, look just a bit further into chapter
The Word:Acts 2:46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, [47] praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.There you have it. It was ongoing! It was no flash in the pan it was God ordained. Do you catch the depth of that last verse? People got saved every single day, not just on Sunday and Wednesday! The Apostles weren't in town that long and had grown the church to a size that without the Holy Spirit we cannot achieve in our own churches either. One more scripture with numbers to really hammer the point home.
The Word:Acts 4:4 But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.Five thousand! Wait, I hear you, three thousand were saved on the first day right? Yes they were, good observation. This passage is only referring to the men! Doing the math conservatively and adding in the women and children, the church had a minimum of fifteen thousand members! Whoa! That is a revival! When whole regions are transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit into God centered people that is what revival is for. Are you ready for fifteen thousand people to get saved in a short time? Is your heart ripe for helping? The average church in America has about 250 members. That is a distant cry from a Holy Spirit filled fifteen thousand! Are you ready?
Pray with me: Father I have prayed for revival for years, not really knowing what it was that I was asking for. I don't feel that I am prepared to serve in a move like the ones in the Bible. Teach me to be prepared. Lay the groundwork in my heart Lord so that you can send the revival. Father I need you to fix me first, put in me the heart for harvest that will increase your kingdom and draw people to you. With the full knowledge of what I am asking Lord and a heart that is broken for all the people on the outside, I ask that you send revival to my area. As always I ask this in Jesus name. Amen!Download the MS Word version:
CLICK HERE To Subscribe or Unsubscribe to this Devotion send an email with the appropriate subject line to: MensHelpDevotional@JESUSaves.every1.net
Previous Topic
Index
