“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
I don’t think there is anyone who is a Christian who would not agree that the United States of America is in deep, spiritual trouble. And nothing that has happened recently seems to have made a difference in our nation.
Events surrounding 911 certainly didn’t change things. The cost of oil certainly is not having any effect on the conscience of the United States. And, even the Mel Gibson movie, “The Passion of the Christ”, as wonderful as it was, hasn’t changed the spiritual condition of our nation.
The last great nationwide revival in the United States occurred in the late 1850’s and has been termed “The Third Great Awakening”. Of that movement of God in our country, revival historian J. Edwin Orr has written:
“...the influence of the awakening was felt everywhere in the nation. It first captured great cities, but it also spread through every town and village and country hamlet. It swamped schools and colleges. It affected all classes (of people) without respect to condition . . . It seemed to many that the fruits of Pentecost had been repeated a thousand-fold . . . the number of conversions reported soon reached the total of fifty thousand weekly”.
In our nation, we have seen glimpses of revival since the closing of the “Third Great Awakening”, most notably, the Asbury Revival in 1970 and revival that began in Brownwood, Texas in 1995 (not Brownsville, Florida).
Before our nation was formed, a call to prayer was proclaimed in 1775, when the Continental Congress asked the colonies to pray for wisdom in forming our country and that call to prayer has continued through our history.
President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation for a day of "humiliation, fasting, and prayer" in 1863 during the Civil War. It is interesting to note that the Civil War began only three years after the waning days of this great revival.
The National Day of Prayer was established in 1952 by President of the United States, Harry Truman and “The National Day of Prayer Task Force”, spearheaded by James and Shirley Dobson, has been in existence since the early 1990’s.
We have had the prayer and fasting movement since at least 1994 when Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, began a yearly 40 day fast and encouraged other Christians to join him in fasting for national revival.
But, why, hasn’t revival happened? So many believers have prayed and fasted and cried out to God for Him to send revival to our nation. But why have we not seen a great movement of the Spirit of God in our nation in one hundred and fifty years?
Some may ask, “What is wrong with God? Doesn’t He hear our prayers? Doesn’t He care that our nation is traveling downward through a spiral of degradation and evil wickedness?”
There is nothing wrong with God but there is something terribly wrong with us. God help us. We need revival.
Second Chronicles 7:14 is a verse that many of us could quote from memory. The verse has been used over and over again when someone speaks about praying for our nation and praying for God to send us a revival. But, even though many of us can quote it from memory, it is possible we have become so familiar with the verse that the significance and meaning has been lost to us.
“If my people which are called by My Name…”
A literal translation of this phrase reads: “If my people over whom My Name is called”. The Hebrew word for “called” carries with it the idea of:
God’s people possessing the mark of His ownership
God’s people possessing the mark of His reputation
God’s people possessing the mark of His signature
God is the Owner/Ruler of His people.
The Owner is in charge. The Owner is King and the Owner is sovereign. The Sovereign King is Ruler over all of creation. The King is all-powerful (omnipotent), all-knowing (omniscient), and He is everywhere (omnipresent). We are the King’s servants and we belong to Him. The servants work in the King’s kingdom. The servants don’t have a kingdom. The servants aren’t in charge, the King is in charge. The servants submit to the King and the servants represent the King in matters of the kingdom. No servant is allowed to usurp the authority of the King. There is only one King and the servants do not have the option to be King. Though the servants sometimes attempt to rule their own lives, they usually come to understand who is King when they experience times of trouble, hardship, and crisis. The servants belong to the King and they carry the King’s reputation and the mark of His signature to a lost and dying world. The servants of the King must yield their lives to Him, acknowledge His ownership of them, must never attempt to be the “king” of their own little kingdom.
The Hebrew for “over whom My Name is called” suggests that God is proud to call us His name over His people. Therefore, the question must be asked: “Are the people of God living in such a way that God is proud to call His Name over them?”
”If My people over whom My Name is called will humble themselves”
The Hebrew word for humble means to submit, to fall on one’s knees, to be lowly, to be subdued and captured, and to be depressed, not in spirit, but in position, as in a depression of land.
Why is humility important in the kingdom of God? Because....
Humility is acknowledging our own spiritual bankruptcy (“blessed are the poor in spirit”) and it is acknowledging our spiritual need for God (“blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”).
Humility is acknowledging God’s sovereignty, authority, and power over all of His creation.
Humility is unequivocal dependence upon God.
Humility is a willingness to wait for God to act in His own time and in His own way.
Humility does not rush in and take matters into its own hands.
Humility is doing something only when there is clear word from God.
Humility is being patient.
Humility is not being offended by being treated like a servant.
Humility does not brag and boast about one’s own achievements and one’s capabilities.
Humility understands that you can’t get away with hidden sins before God.
Humility does not exalt self or the flesh.
Humility is being obedient to God and obedient to other people whom God has placed in your life to have authority over you.
The person who is humble is the person who pursues the face and heart of God and becomes more detached from the things of this world.
But, humility is uncommon in the kingdom of God. Why is that? Because......
We are full of pride and we are so full of ourselves.
We like to talk about ourselves and exalt ourselves.
We want to be recognized for what we do.
We want to name web sites after ourselves.
We love to promote ourselves because we think we are so great.
We want to be the first in line not last in line.
We expect other people to serve us and God forbid that we should serve somebody else.
We expect other people to clean up our messes, instead of doing it ourselves.
We think the rules apply to everybody else but us.
We don’t want to go down, we want to rise high up on our pedastel.
We don’t want to be crucified and we don’t want to die to the flesh.
We like to brag on ourselves and let people know how truly important we really think we are.
We definitely don’t want to be treated like servants; we just want to be called servants.
And, we certainly don’t want to be treated like slaves. Even though the word of God says in Romans 6 that we are “slaves” to righteousness and therefore to God, we don’t want to be treated like a slave because a slave is treated like a “nobody”, who has no privileges and has no rights. (One of the Apostle Paul’s favorites words he used to refer to himself was “doulos”, which means slave).
How do we know that humility is uncommon in the church today? For example....
Some pastors sit around wondering why Pastor "So and So" always gets invited to preach at all of the conferences and all of the conventions. Then, these same preachers wonder why they never get invited to preach......never imagining that just maybe they can’t preach as well they thought could or maybe their lack of humility results in not being invited to preach.
And, this principle also applies to those who sing. “Why does she always have to get the solos when the choir sings? Why don’t they ever ask me to sing?” Have we ever thought about the fact that just maybe we can’t sing as well as what we thought we could or maybe it is our lack of humility that results in us not being asked to sing?
“If my people over whom My Name is called shall humble themselves and pray”The Hebrew word for “pray” carries with it the idea of rolling around in something and becoming stained.
In order for God to send revival and heal our land, the people of God will have to understand that we must become people of prayer and that our lives must become “stained” by “rolling around”, (i.e., entering into), in His presence.
Prayer is a relationship with God. We speak to Him by praying and He speaks to us, primarily through His word. But, He also speaks to us through His Spirit, through our circumstances, and through other servants in the kingdom.
We know we should pray but we don’t. We know we should pray more but we don’t. Why is that? Because we cannot submit to God and acknowledge our spiritual bankruptcy and acknowledge our need of Him.
Do you think we would pray more if our lives were in a constant state of crisis? Of course, we would. But, God is merciful and He gives us times when there is no crisis in our personal lives. So what do we do when there is no crisis? We don’t pray as much and we don’t cry out to Him as much. It is almost like we are saying to God, “I don’t need You unless I am going through some trial in my life”.
God desires for us to be in such an intimate relationship with Him that nothing changes in the amount of time we spend with Him, whether we are in crisis mode or not. The amount of time we would spend in communion with Him during periods of calm in our lives should be the same amount we would spend with Him during those difficult days of hardship that we go through.
In our relationship with God through prayer, we should not be seeking to get things from Him. Parents know the joy of giving gifts to their children. But, the greatest joy of parents is when the children spend time with them, just wanting to be together. And, so it is in our relationship with God. He loves to give us gifts. But, the greater joy for Him is when His children just want to spend time with Him and enjoy being in His presence. Our relationship with God through prayer should be seeking to know Him more deeply and more intimately so that we can become more like Him.
“If my people over whom My Name is called shall humble themselves and pray and seek My face”
The next requirement is that we must seek the face of God. The Hebrew word for “seek” carries with it the idea of touching, striving after, seeking after, and getting a hold of. The Hebrew word for face is “peniel”. It is the same word that is used in Gen. 32:30 when Jacob called the name of the place where he struggled with God “Peniel” and says, “for I have seen God face to face’.
When we seek the face of God, we must realize that there will be times when it will be like Jacob’s experience. There will be a struggle: between our flesh and the very nature, character, and will of God. Yet, when we seek the face of God, just like Jacob, the character of God will be reflected in and through our lives. And, just like Jacob, the one who seeks the face of God will never ever be the same.
“If my people over whom My Name is called shall humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways”
In our pursuit of God, there must be a turning from our wicked ways. The Hebrew word for “ways” is a word that can mean: a path, a journey, a course, a habit, or a manner. “Wicked” can be defined as evil and anything that is unpleasing to God. Wicked ways can apply to anyone who is doing anything or going in any direction that is unpleasing to God.
It is interesting to notice the order of these requirements for revival:
To become a people whom God is proud to call His Name over
To become a people of prayer
To become a people of humility
To become a people who seek God’s face
To become a people turn from our wicked ways
As a result:
*God will hear from heaven.
*God will forgive our sins.
*God will heal our “land”.
(For the Israelites, the “land” represented the physical relationship with God, which He had promised to them, but the land also represented their spiritual relationship with God.
Keys for personal revival:
The key to turning from evil is to seek God’s face.
The key to seeking God’s face to is to pray.
The key to prayer is humility.
The key to humility is an understanding that we belong to God and should be the kind of people that He is proud to call His Name over.
