Friday, November 9, 2018

Revival: Cause and Consequence.

I remember as if was yesterday. I was part of a small hispanic church in Illinois, a "family" kinda church, the one where people "spend" themselves taking care of one another, where needs are  promptly met. At this time, we started praying, we had prayer 6 days a week. The most amazing thing was that we didn't have an "agenda", no "script", just prayer and worship. As time went by, we started seeing God's move among us, we saw things that i never heard before (doesn't mean it never happened),  PRAYING WAS A PLEASURE! We delighted in God's presence, there was days of joy, days of extreme brokenness and days of peace were we just stayed in God's presence without saying anything (started praying and this happened). I already spoke about this in other post, so on this one I will talk about what brings revival and what it does to the people involved in it. In our case, we MISSED God's revival, sadly,  we're were unprepared for it. Let's talk about the real revival they had in the Early Church (Acts 2). Where did it start? The answer is: With John the Baptist! He was the "pioneer", the one who open the way for the Lord. It was prophesied by Isaiah many years before his birth: Isaiah 40:3 A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God". What did John the Baptist preached? REPENTANCE! Please, read the Gospels about it, you'll see that REPENTANCE is the "foundation" (cornerstone) of a true revival. Then came Jesus Christ and in his "first sermon" He preached REPENTANCE: Matthew 4:12-17 Now when he heard that John had been arrested, He withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: "The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned". From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "REPENT, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand". See that Jesus didn't started His preaching with another "subject", He continued were John the Baptist stopped. From this point Jesus announced the Kingdom of God. So REPENTANCE is the first step towards a true revival. The second step is UNITY (oneness). Only after achieving repentance we can have unity. Jesus in His last priestly duty, prayed to the Father for His disciples to become ONE as He (Jesus) and the Father are one: John 17:21 That they may all be ONE, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Paul describe very well what Jesus prayed, when he taught about the "church as a body": 1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. In this chapter, Paul talks about the need for the church to be one, as our body is one, though we have different members in our bodies. Pay attention to yourself and see how amazingly perfect your body works, when there is any problem (sickness, brokenness, etc.) you feel the effects (or should i say "defects"). Because we failed to understand and practice UNITY,  our churches are defectives! The "organization" (we call church) works wonderful, but the "organism" (body of Christ inside the organization) is malfunctioning. The "main" problem (malfunction), is that the HEAD (Jesus Christ) is out of place, as Jesus Himself said to the church of Laodicea: Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. Sad as it sounds, many times Jesus Christ is at the door of our churches, we don't even allow Him to enter, much less to be the Head of the Church. The third step is LOVE: Colossians 3:14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Love is the only thing that will keep us together, will "bind" our hearts towards one another. Paul tells us that we can have every gift, gain everything and yet without love we will gain nothing (nothing will remain). I believe revival is not an easy thing to accomplish, but the "formula" God gave to a true revival never changed, even knowing it from the back of our minds, we fail to practice it, that's the reason we don't experience revival as the Early Church did: 2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Of course you are intelligent enough to realize that even with the revival the Early Church experienced (2 Chronicles 7:14), God didn't heal Israel (political land), maybe that's why even John the Baptist was "disappointed" when he was in jail, the nation (Israel) was expecting a POLITICAL MESSIAH, someone who was going to restore the political kingdom. In fact Jesus restored the Kingdom, just as He said, His Kingdom was not of this world. Nowadays, there are many prophets "prophesying" that God will "restore" our nation (country) when the Bible says that this world (system) lies in the power of the devil: 1 John 5:19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Besides, Jesus Christ said that when He returns, the world will be like in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot, any expectation that things will turn good is a false expectation. Things maybe temporarily good, but don't be deceived, they are not. The LAND God wants to heal is our lives, He is interested in saving lives, restoring lives, to give us eternal life. John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. The Consequences of the revival in the Early Church is described in Act 2, they "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved". The Church was alive, had no physical or spiritual needs, they were ONE BODY being Jesus Christ the HEAD!

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