What is the secret of revival? I have been praying for a long time for revival. I pray for revival in my own heart. What is missing? I know it is the power of the Holy Spirit. By why is it missing, and how do I get it? I have not yet found the secret to revival, but I know the answer is in the word of God. Join me on my journey to find out.
The study will begin in Isaiah as the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel are pleas from God to His people that they will repent and turn to Him.
In chapter 1, God describes the state Israel, His chosen people, were in at that time.
“Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.” (verses 2-4)
Israel had a goodly heritage. They trusted in God as their King.
America has a similar heritage. Many of the first people who came here from England only recognized God as their King. They only wanted one King, God. And they founded this nation upon the principles of God’s word. They recognized the goodness of nature’s God. They wrote our founding documents on the premise that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. These rights include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The first step to repentance seems to be realizing who God is.
The second step seems to be realizing where we get our heritage.
The third step seems to be realizing the desperate situation of our country, realizing our rebellion against our Creator, realizing that we no longer recognize God as the Giver of life, liberty, and happiness.
Consider these words, “…the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.” (verses 2-4)
The Lord nourished us and brought us up as a nation, the United States of America, so blessed by God. He blessed our land and prospered our industries and increased our goods and made us rich and strong.
But we did not recognize that these blessings came from God. We thought we made ourselves rich and strong by our own hands. We rebelled against God. Years ago, during the Civil War, a Methodist preacher wrote a diary. Later this diary was copied into a book and named, The Heavens are Weeping. In this diary, the Methodist preacher outlined the history of Christians in America. They trusted in God, and God sent prosperity and blessing. They forgot God. God sent war. They repented. God sent prosperity and blessing. They forgot God. God sent war. They repented. God sent prosperity and blessing. They forgot God. God sent war. They repented. God sent prosperity and blessing.
As God’s people, we have not yet learned. When we are blessed and strong and rich and healthy, we forget that we need God. We are dumber than animals. Animals know their owner and answer to and obey their owner. But we do not even consider God. Theodore Roosevelt was a President who has been highly criticized, and truly there are things that he did that were not right. But there were certain principles which were firmly entrenched in his mind. And he recognized the danger of trusting in uncertain riches, for he said, “No people ever yet benefited by riches if their prosperity corrupted their values.”
We are like the children of Israel. God could easily say of us Christians in America, “Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.” (verses 2-4)
I Thessalonians 1:9 explains that true repentance consists of turning to God from idols to serve the living God. It means we turn to God from sin, to God from whatever we hold to be more precious than God or His word or His will. But, like Israel, we have turned, turned the wrong way. We are gone away backward. We have turned to idols from God. We have turned to our own way from God’s way. Our iniquities have separated between us and our God, and our sins have Hid his face from us, and He will not hear. (See Isaiah 59:2)
Oh, that we could experience repentance and revival! Oh, God, “Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.” (Psalm 85:6,7)