Times of Refreshing

I'd like to begin by reading from Ecclesiastes chapter 3, first three verses. For everything there is a season, and a time, for every matter under heaven, a time to be born, and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted, a time to kill, and a time to heal, a time to break down, and a time to build up. And these times are largely beyond our control.

We have nothing to do with the time of our birth, and unless we take our own life, we will have very little to do with the time we die. And it's so important for us to be able to discern what these times mean and fit into them. You know, the tendency is for us to go banging against the times that are unfolding from God's hand.

And what we need to learn to do is fit in. For instance, our Lord was extremely conscious of time. O woman, what had you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.

It's not time yet. Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live. The time for this has arrived.

Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice. That time lies in the future. We must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day.

Night comes when no one can work. We have to make the most of the time. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

It's time to go to the cross. Notice that Jesus never tried to bend the times and make them fit into His program, but rather He received the times as they were unfolding from God's hand and fit in. He knew when it was time to leave Nazareth and go down to the Jordan River and get baptized.

He knew when it was time to go into the wilderness. He knew when it was time to come back and begin His ministry. He knew when it was time to go up to the cross and die.

He knew when it was time to come out of the tomb. He knew when it was time to leave this world and go back to the Father. Now, by contrast, the disciples, right up to the day of Pentecost, were forever crashing against the times instead of fitting in.

They were always doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. When it was time to sleep, they lay awake in worry. When it was time to stay awake and faint and be alert, they fell asleep.

All was caught off their guard. They were unprepared for the crucifixion, even though Jesus tried again and again to get them ready. Totally unprepared for the resurrection.

But then, a wonderful thing happened. After the resurrection and after those 40 days, the very end of those 40 days, Jesus gathered them together with Him for the last time. So when they had come together, they asked Him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said, it is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has fixed by His own authority.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and to the end of the earth. Times and seasons belong to the Father.

You don't control those, nor do you understand them. But I'm going to give to you a time of refreshing. And when you begin to respond to this time of refreshing, you will then have the power to fit into God's time, and you will be my witnesses.

From the day of Pentecost on, there are two kinds of time. There is the unfolding of God's purpose in times and seasons which are known only to Him. And then there is the unfolding of God's purpose in times of refreshing which are given to us.

What we need to learn to do is to leave the times and seasons which belong to God in His hands. And concentrate on making those times of refreshing which God has given to us to really make them ours. We're never going to be of any earthly use to God in His movings, getting this world ready for the coming of His kingdom in its fullness.

Until we learn how to make every day a time of refreshing. Every day. And we can do this.

And we need to know the difference between the times that belong to God. For instance, nobody knows but the Father the time of the return of the Messiah. Nobody knows what's going to happen in the Middle East.

Nobody really knows whether or not or when the economies of the world will collapse. Or whether there will be a World War III before 1984. Those things belong to God and they are not to be known to us unless, for reasons of His own, God chooses to reveal them to us.

But all along the way, as these things are happening, whatever's happening, it's possible for us to have a time of refreshing. And by the power of God's Spirit in that time of refreshing to be changed into people who are able to be used by God as He prepares the world for the coming of His kingdom. And we see this clearly in Acts chapter 3. Peter and John are going up to the temple.

They heal the man who was lame from birth. A crowd gathers. They begin to preach.

And the substance of the sermon is, This Jesus whom you crucified, God raised. And by the power that is in His name, this man has been healed. Peter goes on to say, Now brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.

But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He thus fulfilled. Repent therefore and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, that He may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive, until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old. Now the time for the unfolding or the fulfilling of all the things the prophets spoke, that time belongs to God.

The time for the coming of the Messiah belongs to God. But the times of refreshing that are promised here are given to us. Repent therefore and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

It's like having a spring of living water in your backyard, and all you have to do is go out and drink. If we but turn, and open our hearts, and pursue the face of God, and call on His name, we receive times of refreshing. For instance, it's possible that there could be people who came in here today, thinking in their hearts, when's God going to give me a break? I mean, it's just one thing after another.

You know, when's it going to stop? Or, when is God going to open up the windows of heaven and show me His reality? And the answer to that is, that doesn't depend on God anymore. God has done everything from His side. It depends on you.

God doesn't promise rosy circumstances, but He promises that in the midst of all the circumstances, all the turmoil, it's possible to have times of refreshing. And those times of refreshing depend on whether or not we turn our hearts to Him and pursue Him. From Isaiah 55, Seek the Lord while He may be found.

Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and return not thither, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth.

It shall not return to me empty, but shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing to which I sent it. For you shall go out in joy, and be led forth in peace. The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Now this is a description from the mouth of God of times of refreshing, what they are. You shall go out in joy, and be led forth in peace. The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands, even in the wintertime.

So what do we mean by times of refreshing? Three things. First, times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord cause our ears to open so that we can hear God speak. And one of the first evidences of this for most of us is when we go to the Scripture and suddenly they're blazing with life, no longer a dead word on a musty page, but a living, burning word from God.

You open to the Psalms, God's talking to you. Flip back to the Epistles of Paul, God's speaking. You read the Gospels, the Prophets, Genesis, everywhere you turn, God's talking.

During these times of refreshing, we begin also to find that God speaks to us through other people. Clearly. You see, through books we read, God is just lavishing upon us a word that we are able to hear.

And the reason we can hear it is because He has opened our ear. Isaiah 50. Morning by morning He awakens, He awakens our ear that we may hear as one who has been taught by Him.

Times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord also cause our spirits to open so that we can pray. Paul says, we don't know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, sighs too deep for words. During these times of refreshing, the stirrings of the Spirit in the depths of our heart are awesome.

And He gets down in there and He begins to snap the chains that have been wrapped around our spirits and we find ourselves able to pray. You know, for somebody to say, I can't pray. Sometimes that means they just don't want to take the trouble or spend the time.

Sometimes it really means, you know, I tried, it just doesn't seem to become prayer. You know, I just can't seem to do it. Times of refreshing mean that suddenly those things snap and you pray.

You just pray. To your own amazement, it just flows. And when times of refreshing visit an assembly such as this, we begin to see and a power in prayer that was not there before.

Even though, you know, the vain repetitions or the tiresome efforts of the past begin to become quickened with life and become living, burning, prayer, the walls begin to shake. The mountains and the hills before us break forth into singing and all the trees of the field clap their hands. Times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord begin to speak forth a word from God.

Every one of us. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in other languages as the Spirit gave them utterance. Many of us here are shy by nature or we're reserved or perhaps we're very private in our lifestyle.

And we're not saying that when the Spirit moves and that everybody just moves in exactly the same way. But we are saying when this happens even those of us who are very, very inward and tend to be very shy find that God does some strange thing with our mouth. It begins to open.

Our tongue is loose and we begin to speak. It's as if we can't hold back the torrent of living water that flows out to the earth and to the world that Jesus is Lord. If it's truly a time of refreshing from the Spirit of God the net result, the outcome of it has to be that a living word goes forth.

It's not like we praise God and thank Him in here and then we go through the door and clam up. We'll wait until Wednesday night or next Sunday and then we'll praise God some more. But it means that we're going to do what we have to do to get these times of refreshing.

Repent therefore and turn again that your sins may be blotted out that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near.

Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord that he may have mercy on him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon. The times and seasons the unfolding of the prophecies the moving of the kingdom in this world those belong to the Father.

And our purpose is to fit in to what the Father is doing in exactly the place He puts us and in the way He shows us. And none of us has a corner on the whole picture. Praise God.

But times of refreshing in His mercy God has put into our hands. And during this age of grace God is closer to us with His own breath. And at any point we can turn any day into a time of refreshing.

That's up to us. All we have to do is turn. Seek the Lord.

Renounce our fears and our idols. And lay our sins openly before the foot of the cross. Call on His name.

And they come. Every day can be the opening of heaven for us. If we will turn and call on His name Jesus through His Spirit will open our ears and we will hear God.

He will open our spirits and we will pray. He will open our mouths and we will confess with power to the Father to each other and to the world that Jesus is Lord. Before we go to prayer let me just read this passage from Isaiah 55 one more time.

Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

Let him return to the Lord that he may have mercy on him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and return not thither but water the earth making it bring forth and sprout giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth it shall not return to me empty but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and prosper in the thing to which I sent it. Let's wait upon God. Let's begin with silence.