Experiencing Personal Revival

There have been times in my life where I have been on fire for God in a seemingly never-ending season of mountaintop experiences of walking in a close intimate relationship with my savior Jesus Christ and sadly there have been other times in my life where the fire has gone out the flame was barely visible where I had left my first love and forsaken him for the things of this world. Every believer is at times like a piece of driftwood atop the waves of the ocean and if there is no proactive effort to swim forcibly toward shore then the wood will drift out to sea carried about by the capriciousness of the waves and the vastness of the ocean. Our spiritual life is like that driftwood for we must be continually pressing onward toward a red hot love relationship with our savior Jesus Christ but if we don't then our love grows cold and the world fills our hearts and we drift slowly away from our redeemer in a period of backsliding.

Therefore it is critically important for each follower of Christ Jesus to experience personal revival when needed from time to time we must relight the fire friends we must keep the coals burning on the altar of our hearts and desire more of God each day as we serve him with our life in our mortal body. I've been a student of revival for several decades and I have found from studying historical revivals that corporate revival often begins after there's been a personal revival of a pastor or a saint to God. This was the case with Jonathan Edwards in Northampton how that dear man kept the fire burning in his own heart by drawing closer to God each day and then the contagion spread to his church and then to the entire community of Northampton.

This was the case as well in Camp Busline Scotland around the same time under the preaching of William McCulloch he first experienced a personal revival then God visited his church then the whole community became aflame for God up until the day that George Whitfield showed up and quite suddenly a small congregation of around 100 people soon grew to 20,000 hearers standing on the hillsides at odd hours of the night for what purpose to hear a sermon but the preacher was George Whitfield and God was afoot in revival. You see friends when the church is in revival there is a much greater chance for a national revival as the people of God get right with God and return to him in repentance and holy vigor. Thus it's essential for ministers of the gospel to yearn for more of God each day and to pursue personal revival themselves so they will be a fire that will spread among their own congregations.

I believe the main reason friends we are not seeing revival in our days because of the sleepy headed pastors who are not pursuing God as they should in personal revival and praying for revival each day with fervency and heat and with a strong faith to believe that God can and indeed send a revival to us at this hour. Pastors often bypass themselves when they think of having revival come to their church. They believe it's needed for the deacons or the leadership and not necessarily them.

This is a great mistake and a great missed opportunity to truly see God move in revival in our midst. I remember over a decade ago I received a phone call from a local pastor who had read my first book on revival, Realities of Revival, and he wanted to know if I would come and have lunch with him to talk about revival. I agreed and we set a time.

When I got to the restaurant I saw that this pastor was an older man in his late 70s but he had a real desire to see revival come to his church and as a matter of fact he asked me if I could help him bring Henry Blackaby to his church to preach on the subject of revival. I looked this older saint in the face and I said to him very plainly, you will not have revival in your church until you are willing to repent of your sins and experience revival yourself first. He looked at me strangely and the lunch ended.

We parted and I thought that was the last I would hear from him but he telephoned me the next week and asked me to meet him again with two other pastors to talk about revival. We arranged a time and we met. Then these three pastors asked me if I would be willing to meet with them on a regular basis to pray for revival.

We agreed on a location and a set time. I met with these dear men for several months while we sought God and prayer for revival. Soon other pastors in the community joined us to where we had about eight to ten men meeting on a regular basis praying each week for revival to come to their respective churches and or community.

We'd arrange our seats in a circle and pray. I'll never forget it. One day while we were praying, this older saint, the pastor who originally asked me to lunch, jumped out of his chair and threw himself down on the ground in front of us all and he looked toward heaven and cried out with his arms raised over his head, oh God forgive me for my dirty rotten sins.

I want to see revival. Let it begin with me. Now that man was getting serious with God and he experienced a personal revival and I believe every pastor and every evangelist and every serious worker for God must pursue God regularly in a red hot love relationship with him and if we drift away in our love to him, we must then pursue a personal revival to relight those fires once again, friends.

The times in my own life where I have experienced personal revival have all been memorable instances in my Christian walk with my God. There's nothing like being on the mountaintop with God, walking with him in an intimate love relationship to the degree that you can't wait to jump out of bed in the morning to get in his presence again. My message today, friends, is entitled Experiencing Personal Revival and my text is found in the book of Malachi in chapter 3. You can turn in your bibles there now.

We will be in verses 1 through 7 and let me read us this exciting passage to us at this time. Here now is the word of God and may the spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word. Behold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in behold he shall come saith the Lord of hosts but who may abide in the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap and he shall sit as refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord in offering and righteousness then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years and I will come near to you in judgment and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against false swearers and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages the widow and the fatherless and that turn aside the stranger from his right and fear me not saith the Lord of hosts for I am the Lord I change not therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed even from the days of your fathers you have gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them return unto me and I will return unto you saith the Lord of hosts I will stop there friends it's obvious that this striking passage deals with messianic prophecies and the forerunner John the Baptist but we may apply the context of this passage from Malachi to us today as a pattern for personal revival notice the passage speaks of a necessary preparation before the Lord suddenly appears in his temple this is revival it speaks of how when God comes in revival there is a purging process in the church among believers as he sits like a refiner over a refiner's fire purging out all sin all troughs and impurities so each believer can be more Christ-like and more useful to God then after this time of repentance and sanctifying work of the spirit we see then the offerings of the people of God are now pleasant to the Lord in times of sad spiritual declension in the church God is revolted by our worship and offerings he states this time and time again regarding the Jews who had backs living away from him that their offerings were a stink in his nostrils so to speak they were not accepted by him but when revival comes restoration comes and it is a time of acceptable offerings for each believer is a offering poured out unto the Lord and how does God address his strained people what does he say to them to begin this revival process return unto me and I will return unto you is his promise to them and it is his promise to us as well friends we must return to God in full repentance and clear out any idols in our lives that stand between us and him I believe the number one sin in the church today that keeps us from experiencing revival is pride the church of today refuses to turn from her pride and humble herself before God almighty but if the people of God would only return to the Lord in humility and in prayer and in repentance he would come and leave a blessing behind we have his word on this friends return to me and I will return to you saith the Lord of hosts but do we believe him do we believe he will actually visit us in revival let it begin with us I'll never forget the story about Duncan Campbell who was used of God in the Lewis revival in Scotland from 1949 to 1952 let me relate the following story to you now friends and you will see the importance of experiencing personal revival Duncan Campbell was in a study early one morning preparing a sermon on the Holy Spirit which he was going to preach to a group of ministers at a convention from up in his study he could hear singing downstairs in the parlor it was a 16 year old daughter's voice and she was happily singing a hymn he went downstairs to listen to her he asked her lassie what is there to sing about so early in the morning at six o'clock she came over and sat in his lap and exclaimed oh daddy I have just spent an hour with Jesus isn't Jesus wonderful daddy Duncan Campbell's heart sunk within him he felt like a knife had been stabbed through his heart that remark of his daughter convicted him and as he walked back upstairs to his study he said to himself Jesus isn't wonderful to me he had drifted away from the Lord and his affections for him and here he was in the settled pastorate preparing a message on the Holy Spirit to preach the following week to a bunch of ministers and Jesus at this time in his life was not wonderful to him it broke his heart and he threw himself down on the floor of his study and wept out loud for his lack of love for his savior and as he wrestled with God in prayer that morning on the floor of his study something happened a Duncan Campbell experienced a personal revival and when he rose to his feet he could now say in his heart that Jesus is wonderful to me how about you friend is Jesus right now wonderful to you do you love him as you should or are you in a red hot love relationship with your savior at this very instant or are you more like that piece of driftwood that has drifted away on the ocean of life's business do you long to have that fire back do you long to have a deeper walk with him this aspect of personal revival is of vast importance and we must make it a priority to be able to be more useful to him as he would have us to be to bring him glory with their lives and service to him in our generation take this time now friends and reflect on your own relationship with Jesus how is it is your bible a closed book and are your eyes dry when you pray oh how he loves you how much he loves you he wants to spend time with you in a love relationship with you that is not one-sided his promise to you is firm return to me and i will return to you you are wonderful to him friend but is he wonderful to you right now do you delight in him as you should the first step in having a personal revival is to admit our bankruptcy before him to admit our great need of him to confess our sins and our cold heart to him and to ask him for the grace repentance to turn back to him in a red hot love relationship with him go to your god friend go to your knees and return to your god he is waiting he wants to delight in you let us pray