Hosea 10:12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
Revival is that sovereign work of God in which He visits His own people, restoring and releasing them into the fullness of His blessing. — Robert Coleman
Over the years I’ve often gotten emails asking “Do you think revival will ever come to the United States?, When do you think it will come?” While re-reading Charles Finney’s lectures on revival recently, I was reminded that a key aspect of world revival is revival within ourselves. Revival must begin within each of us…..and it’s not just a one-time event but an ongoing process of desiring to be closer to Him. Once, a lady asked Billy Sunday “Why do you keep having revival meetings?” And he quickly retorted, “Why do you always take a bath?”
Revival is an ongoing transformation of our hearts to be constantly moved by the Spirit of God. We need to be daily breaking up our fallow ground, those places in our hearts which we’ve allowed to grow hard. How? We have to first ask the Lord to reveal those hard places, pray that He would forgive us and ask Him to heal all our rough edges that we might be soft before Him and sensitive to His leading. Only then will we be changed and be in a place where we can contribute to revival around us.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]For several years now, I’ve been focusing on the Kingdom of God, a central theme of Yeshua’s preaching [Luke 4:43], and will be offering a series of devotions on this topic with particular emphasis on our present season, which I believe portends the birthing of this Kingdom. A study of the gestation process from conception to birth yields insight as a natural parallel into the historical process we’re witnessing and taking part in. This theme will be developed in the coming days.
One of the sacrifices mentioned in the Tenach (Old Testament) is mentioned as a Peace sacrifice or sometimes translated as the Thanksgiving sacrifice. It is known as the ‘shalem’ sacrifice. The root behind this word is the word ‘shalom’ whereby we get the word, peace.
From the beginning of Genesis (Genesis 4:4) to the end of the Bible (Revelation 22:3), there is a common theme — the Lamb! In Revelation 6 we read about the Lamb who sits in the midst of the throne — worshiped by all of heaven because the Lamb was worthy to take the book and open the seals therein. The most harmless of creatures — the object of sacrifice, becomes the authority of heaven. Isn’t it interesting that the focal point of heaven is a Lamb?
So often in ministry, the Lord deals with my own spirit, saying – “You need to step back and get refocused!” And we all know how hard it is at times when we get so busy with the normal every day stresses of life tugging at our limited time.
Throughout the United States today, everyone will be celebrating the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence — a document through which leaders of the colonies in the New World broke free from the King of England.
The Hebrew expression in this verse from Isaiah is rich with meaning. The root “nus” (from the expression “raise up a standard”) is related to or sounds like numerous words which mean “sign”, “miracle”, “to drive away”, “to flee”, “cause to disappear”, “a waving flag”. This abundance of meanings in Isaiah’s poetic style reveals the multiple dimensions of God’s revelation; in this case, the way he deals with evil. The assertion in this word is that the Spirit of YHVH will be powerfully activated when evil comes.
The word contrite in Hebrew is ‘dakah’ which means one that is crushed to pieces. Paul wrote of being a ‘living sacrifice’ holy and acceptable to God. Being a living sacrifice means we often can walk off the altar. To be a continual living sacrifice we need to renew our minds day to day!