Generations of Revival
090705 Generations of Revival
2 Chron. 29:3-11
Tim Franklin
Introduction:
· Revival before July!
o May 22, I woke up with “revival before July” in my spirit. I have stirred by the zeal of the Lord to pursue it. I have labored in prayer and the word to achieve it for myself.
o I have preached into it on Sundays and Wednesday nights. I see signs of it in many of you and especially in our prayer efforts here at FCC.
o I am not discouraged, nor disappointed that we may not be seeing signs, wonders, or multitudes coming to Jesus. What I do see in many of you as well as in myself:
§ Renewed obedience to God
§ Serious searching of the heart. Dealing with sin and activating the beatitudes.
§ I see and increase of love. A response of love coming from many of your hearts. If I am seeing a little of this chances are there are more who are also being lit up by the Spirit of God and I am just not aware of it.
§ Heidi Baker “The Be Attitudes are God’s recipe for revival.”
§ Shawn Bolz “Revival culture is not signs and wonders but changed lives and changed lives deepened.”
§ Charles Finney “A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God.”
· Do not let up. Let’s continue to cry out for revival. And believe for what God has for us and for our county of Brevard.
· I want to share with us today a message that demonstrates God’s heart for revival among the generations through the ages, God’s heart for revival among the generations today, and God heart to for people.
· 2 Chron 29:3-6 In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he (Hezekiah) opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. Then he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them in the East Square, and said to them: "Hear me, Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place. NKJV
· 2 Chron 29:10-11"Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that His fierce wrath may turn away from us.My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, and that you should minister to Him and burn incense." NKJV
1. Hezekiah and Revival
A. Hezekiah set himself to bring revival, renewed obedience to God to his nation. He was looking for changed lives and then those changed lives to be deepened. He did several things to make this possible. All of which we can learn from today as well.
B. Hezekiah opened the doors. The doors to the temple had been shut at the city had been sacked years prior. The place of access to God was closed to the people and closed to the nation. Many of you would have revival if you would just open the doors of your heart to God, your home to God, your business to God.
i. Revelation 4:1 After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this." NKJV
ii. Jacob saw a ladder reaching up to an open door of heaven and God was at the top of the ladder.
iii. You open the door when you purpose in your heart
a. to go into God’s presence
b. to govern you life by his word
c. to worship no matter what
d. to walk by faith and not by sight
C. Hezekiah repaired the doors. Evidently the doors were not in good condition. So they had to repair some things before they could actually go in and out.
i. In life, you will have to repair some things to get the blessing of God in your life in full measure.
ii. Some of you come out of incredibly dysfunctional homes. You will have to make repairs to your own heart and if you are parents you will have to repair the hearts of your children.
a. You will have to repent of your ways, adopt God’s ways.
b. You will have to make amends with those you have hurt, especially your children.
c. You will have to enter into accountable relationships to really push yourself to grow for God.
D. Hezekiah cleans house. It is what it says. The sacked temple was unclean. Conquerors had been in there. They had defiled it. It was left in disrepair for year. Etc.
i. You will have to clean some things out of your heart if you really want a move of God in your life and home, and church.
ii. We all do things that are not pleasing to God. But we do not have to stay there.
iii. The priest had to sanctify themselves, they had to clean out the temple.
E. Hezekiah restored prayer and worship vs. 24-29
i. When they were done, the priests and Levites sacrificed, prayed and they worshiped.
ii. When you purpose to:
a. Open your heart to God.
b. Repair the relationship with God and others that you have damaged
c. Sanctify yourself by removing the junk/sin in your heart.
d. You will be in revival! God wants this for us and for the generations!
2. Generations of Revival
A. Comments
i. Generally we think of revival in terms of adults longing and praying for God to move.
ii. When Hezekiah sent out his evangelists of his day the message was to turn to God that the children would be treated with compassion by the captors and return to the Land.
iii. The Bible is full of references that show God’s heart for children. Children, God loves you and I am so happy to be sharing this with you today. Since God’s heart is so big for children let your hearts be stirred that God wants them to have revival too.
a. Charles Finney “A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God.”
b. Heidi Baker “The Be Attitudes are God’s recipe for revival.”
c. Shawn Bolz “Revival culture is not signs and wonders but changed lives and changed lives deepened.”
iv. The Tragedy
a. Most adults have a low spiritual expectation for their children. And as a result we drag them down to our own level of spiritual backsliding.
(i) We don’t pray therefore we do not expect our children to pray.
(ii) We don’t read the word therefore we do not expect our children to read the word.
(iii)The tragedy is that our children reflect us as we pass on our spiritual life to them.
(iv)One generation creates the environment that either stifles or invigorates the next generation to spiritual growth in Christ.
B. God has great concern for children.
i. Dt. 6:4-9 Parent and Grandparents are instructed to teach their children the ways of God.
ii. Neh 8:3; 10:28 Ezra read the book of the law to adults and children and then lead them into a binding covenant with God.
iii. Joel 2:15-16 Joel calls for adults and children to enter into solemn assembly with prayer and fasting.
iv. Mark 10:16 Jesus takes the children in his arms and blesses them.
v. Acts 2:39 Peter declares that this Gospel is for you and your children.
vi. Mt 18:6 Jesus tells the crowd that it would be better for you to drown than to drag on of these little ones into sin.
C. What is significant in this message today is this: that in revival, it has often been children and youth who are especially challenged and changed, and who sincerely long for and pray for revival. All revivals have notes about how God has touched children but there is very little said from pulpits today about it. Let me encourage you with some quotes on/about past historical revivals. See Revival by Brian Edward Chapter 3, pp163-ff
i. Kilsyth and Cambuslang, Scotland, 1742. James Rob, pastor, discovered that sixteen children in a nearby town were meeting together in a barn to pray, and in his own parish (church), “Several young girls…from 10-16 years of age had been meeting together for prayer in an outhouse they had access to.” It is hardly surprising that when revival came many children, some only eight years old, were brought to salvation.
ii. David Brainerd-N America 1840s-Susquehannah Indians-wrote in his diary: “Old men and women who had been drunken wretches for many years, and some little children, not more than six or seven years of age, appeared in distress for their souls… and some of them expressed it.”
iii. M’ Cheyne, 1841 in reviewing revival at Dundee, Scotland said that ministers began to speak to children as to adults and that “many children, from 10 years old and upwards, have giving full evidence of their being born again… Children were impressed; often in their own little meeting when no minister was present. To receive Christ.
iv. Aberystwyth, Wales in 1805, Thomas Charles describe a powerful awakening among children and young people…hundreds of children from 8 years and up were seen in the congregation hearing the word with all attention of the most devout Christian and bathed in tears.”
v. In 1973 in Borneo, even “little children” were brought to tears of repentance when God came down at the VBS at Bario.
D. Not only did they get converted—they prayed.
i. 1727 atGermany, Herrnhut in Saxony. Aug 13 Count Ludwig of Zinzendorf began to pray for his class of girls, by the 26 48 adults began to pray around the clock –taking shifts dividing the time between them. The next day the number increased to 77. Then the children set up a pray schedule of their own. “the children of both sexes felt a most powerful impulse to prayer,” they ended up pray from 10 pm one night until 1 a.m. the next morning. This launched a 24/7 100 year prayer meeting.
ii. A few years later in Northampton, New England, Jonathan Edwards witnessed the same. He found that the largest number of children converted in revival were between the ages of 10 and 14. He writes, “In the summer and autumn, the children in various parts of the town had religious meetings by themselves, for prayer, sometimes joined with fasting;…we had the most wonderful work among the children that ever was in Northampton.”
iii. George Whitefield 1741 from his diary writes, “that many small children sat on the pulpit steps while he preached in the open air; they were listening to the preaching and handing up to him notes from the crowd. What impressed Whitefield was the fact that these children often received the eggs and filth that were thrown at him, and yet they appeared to be unconcerned for their own welfare. In and age when children were little noted, this is a significant entry in the diary of one of Englands greatest preachers.
iv. Just before the revival in Beddgelert in Wales 1817, a spirit of prayer was noted not only among the church members, but among the children as well.
v. Wales 1859, “In many places children were used by God to bring the fire of revival into the adult community and some of the most powerful effects of the Spirit were felt in the children’s prayer meetings. One minister wrote; “The youth of our congregations and nearly all the subjects of deep religious impression. Many of them seem filled with the Spirit of prayer. Very young people, yes, children from 10 to 14 years of age, gather together to hold prayer meeting, and pray very fervently…”
vi. 1904 in Wales, Children met frequently for prayer, even using their playtime at school for that purpose. They held meeting in their own homes, and in the barns and even in empty pigsties.
vii. October 1973, Bario, Borneo, Jr. High. Two boys began to pray together and gradually the whole school was drawn in until the headmaster himself, opposed to the work of the Spirit at first, was brought to repentance.
E. These children who were converted and answered the call to pray also filled the streets with the witness of Christ.
F. In Madras, India in 1949, Sunday School teachers were so concerned for their children that they got up at 4 a.m. to pray for them. It is not surprising that revival soon followed among the children.
3. The Price of Revival
A. Holiness- God is looking for men who will be willing to surrender anything and everything in order to keep their lives clean. It is essential to personal revival. Men used in the Bible were men who reached a place where they had a passionate desire to be holy. God will use people who fear God and sin.
· Love for the Word of God. Hezekiah wanted to know what God’s word had to say to him. You have to know what God’s word says to you and obey it. Charles Finney “A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God.”
· Prayer. I have not experienced, nor read of any revival that began without someone or some group of people paying the price of prayer. For the early church prayer was not an option it was a necessity and they were devoted to it.
o In the Greek—the definite article ‘the prayer’ Acts 1:14; 2:42; 6:4 implies a commitment to corporate prayer.
o Hezekiah opening the temple doors illustrate the commitment to establishing relationship with God.
o Prayer for revival is not enough. We must long for it. Urgent prayer and confident expectation are important in this price tag.
· Courage
o Will take hard work. Revival is not easy.
§ Labor is intense
§ Persecution is expected
§ Resistance is common
o Will take determination
Conclusion:
· There are children in here that God has spoken to your heart about revival today. Come forward, I want to pray for you.
· Others are hungry for revival but bound by sin. Today is your day to throw off all manner of backsliding.
Prophetic word From Chuck Pierce
"A new corridor is forming and I will narrow your way. You must narrow your desires. I am sanctifying desires and narrowing the corridor through which you will walk. You are entering into new alignments and assignments, and coming into a place that will bring you forth into a realm you have not known. You will come from a dark place into light, but the corridor that you have been in is beginning to narrow to push you through into the new.
"This is the day of 'My Gideon's call.' There is a clarion, Gideon call being released into the earth. It is urgent for My Gideon call to be heard. There is a call coming now into the earth realm to separate the desires of My people. My people's desires have been muddled with their own desires. In the next 3 months, I will begin to separate the desires of My people so that they can follow Me. You started out with My desire to get to a new place, but your desires from the past season are coming up and you are being muddled in the call I am extending to you. You must separate your desires, beginning now, so that I draw you out and into that place.
"The teams and troops that I have will be narrowed down, for this will be a narrowing time. The corridor is narrowing in the midst of this sound. Listen! Listen carefully, for this clarion call is now being extended and it will look like the days of Gideon. The anointing I will release will be a Gideon anointing that will overtake the Midianites that have robbed in the past seven years and stolen at the time of harvest.
"Know that there is a great separation that must take place to overthrow the enemy ahead who has been coming in and taking away at an opportune time. I must rearrange My people's call so that their opportunity will be seen in a different way. Hear, today, the clarion call and know that it is a Gideon time upon My people. Heed the call and rise up today and enter in through the corridor that is a narrow way. Many things will fall to the left and to the right and even your body will change to get you through these next three months so that you break into that place that I have for you."
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