Are We Substituting Praying for Obeying?

                                            

How many of us truly have the desire to see revival in our day?  I’m talking about a spiritual awakening that spreads like fire throughout our churches and cities, where people’s lives are radically changed because of the awesome power of Jesus shed blood on the cross!   
This spiritual awakening will involve:

1) Dying to our selfish, sinful worldly desires
2) Seeing our sin just as our Holy God sees it
3) Mourning over and confessing the sin we've been harboring
4) Loving God with ALL of our heart, soul, mind and strength
5) Bowing our will to the will of Our Creator God and HIS sovereign purposes for creating us
6) Getting busy doing what God has called us to do in this vaporous, earthly life   
                                                                                                   
If we truly desire revival, how many of us have been diligently, fervently praying for it? BUT is prayer the ONLY thing we need to do for revival to come?   A.W. Tozer wisely said, “Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late- and how little revival has resulted?   I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute “praying” for “obeying” and it simply WILL NOT WORK.”
Revival is NOT just something that happens out there in the world.  We Christians can’t just sit and pray, waiting for God to answer our prayers for revival.  Revival takes place in the church first!  Who is the church?  That’s you and that’s me!!!  As a whole, the church today is apathetic, indifferent, unconcerned, unloving, unresponsive, careless, insensitive, resistant or stubborn?  Do we see some of these same attitudes of sin even in our own church?  Do we see some of these sinful attitudes in our own hearts?  When we see evidences of these sin attitudes, we are really dealing with a “disobedience” issue, not a “God’s not answering our prayer for revival” issue! 

In the past, God has brought revival to people’s hearts through hard economic times, through heartbreaking circumstances or personal trials. Sometimes God must use those methods to bring us to our knees because we refuse to humble ourselves and realize that we are absolutely NOTHING without Him.  We do not have to wait for trials to come for God to bring us to our knees in brokenness before Him.  In Matthew 5, Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, where He describes the characteristics that will be evident in every believer’s life.  In verse 4 Jesus says, “Blessed are they that mourn, for they will be comforted.”  I used to think this meant people who were mourning or suffering a loss.  With deeper study of this passage I came to realize that Jesus is saying that those who mourn over their sin  will be blessed and comforted by God. 

It is when each of us is TRULY mourning over our sin that brings repentance and revival.  Genuine repentance will involve each of us having the attitude of a beggar, humbly grieving over our sin, and then asking forgiveness from God and others we have sinned against.  God shows us our example of how to mourn over our sin in Psalm 51.  King David was devastated by his broken relationship with God, humbled himself and deeply mourned over his sin with a beggar’s attitude.  David acknowledge his sin and pleaded with God for forgiveness and cleansing from his sin in Psalm 51:1-3, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving kindness, according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.  For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me.”   When we think of David’s sins of adultery and murder, we quickly excuse ourselves from those sin categories or that degree of sin, but we are OFTEN blinded to our own sin of pride, anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, envy, or greed.   We MUST be aware that Satan uses our “inner private” sin to destroy us just as he uses the “outward public” sin.  If left unconfessed, our “inner private” sin WILL eventually lead to “outward public” sin.  We can see where David’s pride, greed, envy and guilt led him in this instance with Bathsheba that left him distraught, devastated and almost destroyed.   David’s repentance of his sin led to an amazing revival in his heart!

 If we are praying for revival to come, the first place we need to look is at our own personal spiritual condition.  God’s will and desire for us is to have a broken spirit and a contrite heart.  He wants to use us in a mighty way to fulfill His purposes in and through us, but our sin hinders that work.  We will experience personal spiritual revival, but we must plead for forgiveness of our sin, and confess our guilt from harboring sin just as David did.   When we experience God’s forgiveness, our joy will return and God will use us in a mighty way to testify to others who need to experience revival in their hearts. 

Should we pray for revival?  Most definitely!   BUT if we truly desire revival, we CANNOT substitute prayer for our obedience to God by confessing our sin.  Others WILL notice when we’ve experienced revival in our heart because our countenance will change, and the joy of the Lord will radiate through us because our heart is pure.  When we experience personal spiritual revival it will be evident in our conversation, our attitudes, our desires, and our goals in this earthly life.  God desires the same revival that took place in David’s heart to take place in our hearts, but it’s ONLY possible through humbly mourning over and confessing our sin. 

“Search Me, O God, and know my heart today.  Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray.  See if there be some wicked way in me.  Cleanse me from EVERY sin and set me free.

I praise You Lord, for cleansing me from sin.  Fulfill Your Word and make me PURE within.  Fill me with fire, where once I burned with shame.  Grant my desire to magnify Your name.

Lord, take my life and make it wholly Thine.  Fill my poor heart with Your great love divine.  Take ALL MY WILL, my PASSION, SELF and PRIDE.  I now SURRENDER, Lord, in me abide.

O, Holy Spirit, revival comes from Thee.  Send a revival, start the work in ME.  Your Word declares, You will supply our need.  For blessing now, O lord, I humbly plead.”