21 Days of Prayer for Revival

When tracing any theme through Scripture, it is always wise to check out how it all started. What were God’s original intentions?

It looked like the failure of Adam and Eve had closed the door to deep human intimacy with God. But this was not the whole story.

One of the encouraging things about the Bible is that it describes its heroes warts and all. King David is one of these godly heroes.

In today’s Scripture, Jesus uses an agricultural illustration to explain his relationship with his followers.

In our Scripture reading today, when Paul outlines a prayer that he prays for those he is writing to, don’t think that he is making it up as he goes.

God is watching you now. You have no idea how much he loves you.

We finish our week on praying for personal revival in the last book in the Bible -Revelation 3:20.

When God blesses us, he always intends it to be passed on to others. God’s reviving work in our hearts is meant for our community.

Isaiah speaks of a new season – a season of hope and comfort, of God’s power, of God living close to his people, of God’s glory being seen by all. In other words, a season of revival.

We live in a secular and materialistic society (at least in the West) and we are surrounded and influenced by our culture. How can this ever change? How could our community come alive spiritually?

Every powerful work of God is different so it is difficult to predict, but let’s have a look at a spiritual revival that occurred in the Old Testament to see if we can find some clues.

Joel prophesied blessing ahead for Israel if the nation would repent and turn to God, and he described an even more powerful time of revival that would lie still further ahead. This revival would impact the whole world. He calls it “the Day of the Lord.”

Today we move out of the Old Testament and into the New Testament in our biblical study of community revival. We are looking at the Day of Pentecost – it was an incredible day.

We have looked at some of the signs that accompanied biblical revivals. But how will community revival impact the lifestyle of Christians?

We have asked God for personal revival and greater intimacy. We have looked at what community revival will entail. What else can we do as we wait for God’s revival?

James tackles challenging issues right through his letter, but in this passage he really lets fly. “You are proud. You are committing adultery. You are an enemy of God.”

There are many different ways of praying for revival as we have been discovering in the last few weeks. We confess and pray for forgiveness. We ask for personal closeness to God. We pray for God to work in power. We cry out for our nation.

There is one other specific revival prayer I would like to focus on. In John chapters 14 to 16, Jesus is giving his final instructions to his disciples before his crucifixion.

We know that Psalm 24 was written by David but we are told nothing about the context that lay behind the composition of this song. However, if we look within the psalm, there is a call to open the gates so that the King of glory can enter.

When God called his people to “turn from their wicked ways” in preparation for his revival, we would think that they were involved in all sorts of evil practices. In comparison, we are mostly behaving okay and we feel that God is fine with us. We are off the hook. The church in Ephesus was just like that.

We are at the beginning of a new passion and prayer for God’s reviving work. God is not finished with us yet. The spiritual wave might appear to have withdrawn, but there is a new wave coming.