Oh God, Would You Rend The Heavens?

Chapter two, preparing for the downpour. And the scripture I like to reference is Isaiah 57, 15. For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Now, I'm gonna get into this in just a minute, but think about this. God says, I dwell with those who have a contrite, which is a broken heart, and a humble spirit. The difference between humility and contrite is humility walks it out, where being contrite is a position or the characteristic of a broken, humble heart, so they go together. And God says, I will revive that person, I will revive the spirit of the humble, and I will revive the heart of those who are contrite. So, incredible, incredible promise, at least in my opinion. So, in this amazing passage in the book of Isaiah, it's clear that if we prepare the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart, God will bring the fires of revival. It's a great reminder that his word always comes to pass. From Isaiah 57, we also see that holiness plays a role in being revived. Did you catch that? Holiness plays a role in being revived. Now, here's the danger. One extreme is it's all about rules and rules and rules, and you can't do this, you can't go there, and the more rules I follow, the more rigid I am, the more filled I will be with God's spirit. No, that does not work. And the other side, of course, is it doesn't really matter. You know, we're under the dispensation of grace now, and I can kind of live however I want because Jesus forgave my sins, and holiness was mainly for those Old Testament people and maybe the new church for a little while, and no, that's not it either. Holiness is desiring what God desires. God is love, but keep in mind that his name is holy. He is referred to as the Holy One of Israel over 30 times in the Bible. There were times when the church trembled at his word and walked in holiness. Those were and still can be glorious times. God abides with those who have a humble spirit, and holiness is often a mark of humility. So here's how it plays out. When God changes us through the power of the Holy Spirit, we submit our lives to Jesus Christ, we want to watch things that glorify him. We want to listen to things that glorify him. We want to treat people the way he wants us to treat them. And as we walk in this holiness, as a result, we are filled with the spirit. And often when we quench and grieve the spirit, it's when we are not living holy lives, that we are living in sin, besetting sin, unrepentant sin. But I do want to encourage you. If you're caught in sin, repent to God as you're listening to this. Say, Lord, I am sorry, I repent. And repent means I'm going to change. You can cry about it, and that's not going to really change anything. That's just sorrow. But genuine repentance actually changes and actually restores things that maybe were taken or restores relationships. If you've hurt your spouse, you've hurt your children, you repent, you acknowledge it, and you turn and you do something different and you begin to repair that broken relationship and restore those areas. If you're just crying about it saying, oh, I'm so sorry, that usually doesn't get you anywhere. You have to repent and change course. And God abides with those who have a humble spirit, again, and holiness is that mark of humility. So to be clear, again, I want to clarify, holiness involves salvation as well as sanctification. The only way to be declared holy before God is to repent of our sin and confess Christ as Savior and Lord. Romans 10, of course, if you confess with your mouth in the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. From there, we are called to live holy lives that honor God and our decisions either fuel the fires of revival or quench the spirit. We either rejoice in God and walk in his word, or we grieve the spirit by disobeying him. The choice is ours. The next section, five ways to keep the fire burning. Now, this is important because this is how we keep the fire of the Holy Spirit burning in our own hearts. According to the scriptures, there are five spiritual principles that often spark a spiritual awakening and keep it going. Prayer and fasting ignite that fire along with worship and the reading of God's word and obeying his word, but following these scriptural truths can continue to fan those flames. Number one, embrace godly sorrow. Now, I just told you sorrow wasn't important, that it's repentance that is important. However, godly sorrow, the right kind of sorrow, is the precursor to repentance and is desperately needed in the church today. Second Corinthians 7.10 reminds us that godly sorrow in conjunction with repentance leads to salvation. Check it out. But it also leads to brokenness and dependence on God. For example, when was the last time you wept over the condition of the nation as well as the condition of your heart? Brokenness breaks up the fallow ground of the heart, and as the scripture says, break off your evil habits, clear your hearts of weeds in order that they may be prepared for the seeds of righteousness. And that is from the Easton's Bible Dictionary and it has a great commentary on what that means. You are breaking up the fallow ground of your heart by removing evil habits, clearing our hearts of weeds, and then now we're able to prepare our hearts for the seed of righteousness, that being holiness. Now, number two, recommit your life to God. Recommit your life to God. Zechariah 1.3 says, thus says the Lord of hosts, return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you. Once your focus is back on God, he begins to work in and through you. I recommit my life to God quite often. If I'm just busy with the cares of the world, I'm not in his word as much and I can tell I'm drifting, then I say, Lord, I want to return to you in the fullness of your spirit, I want to return to you in full surrender and get my focus back on you. And then a change takes place and there's a renewed focus on him. So it's healthy to do that often. I would submit to you that if you don't do that very often, you say, oh, I did that years ago, you probably need to do it because pride can come in and we over magnify how holy we are and we need to get back to that spot of brokenness and recommitting our lives to him. And then number three, restore what you can. This is what I alluded to earlier. Genuine repentance always leads to restoration, whether it's seeking forgiveness or mending broken relationships, you can never go wrong by making things right. That can also involve misuse of money with your children or your spouse and say, hey, listen, or business partners, I want to restore this. I've come back to the Lord. The Lord's working my heart. I want to restore this. And would you help me and maybe make payment plans or pay someone back? And it's part of the restoring process. In Isaiah 58, even their fasting was ineffective because they were harsh and self-focused. Pride never ushers in a spiritual awakening. Did you catch that? Pride never ushers in a spiritual awakening. A critical heart needs to be crushed under the power of the cross, plain and simple. So number four, holiness is not a suggestion. Holiness is not a suggestion. Second Corinthians 7.1 says that we must purify ourselves from everything that contaminates our spirit. And Romans 12.1 reminds us to present our bodies to God as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. We know that famous verse. But also, without holiness, no one will see revival. They go together. And then number five, there must be a continual hunger and thirst for God. Matthew 5.6 tells us that only those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. Again, there must be a continual hunger and thirst for God. The more I feed on the things of God, the more thirst I am for Christ, the more hunger and thirst is increased. It's amazing. This kind of appetite cannot be satisfied. Where you eat, you're satisfied. Not with God, that you hunger and thirst for more. And it tells us if you keep hungering and thirsting for righteousness, you will be filled. Filled meaning complete, lacking nothing, fulfillment in Christ. Continually seeking him isn't optional. It's essential to spiritual awakenings. It is absolutely essential to spiritual awakenings. Should I say that a third time? Continually seeking God is not optional. It is essential if we want to experience a genuine spiritual awakening in our own lives and in the lives of our church. Now in studying past revivals, many of which were years or decades in the making, I have found that they all begin after consistent and persistent seeking. The heat of revival never comes from a microwave setting. It's never gonna be quick. It's often through travail, perseverance, pleading, and seeking God. That's just the realities from a biblical perspective. The next section, answer the call to return to him. Second Chronicles 16.9. It says this, the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to him. So it does beg the question, will he find you seeking after him or running in the other direction? Nothing is more painful than seeing an unbeliever on the broad road to destruction or a believer running from God. So my call to you today, my plea to you today is to return to him today and experience the flames of revival. His call is to the prodigal. Be clear here, return to me and I will return to you. His call is to the exhausted. Come to me all who labor and heavy laden and I will give you rest. His call is to the fearful. The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. His call is to the barren. He who believes in me, as the scriptures say, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. His call is to the broken. I will bind up the broken. His call is to the sick. I will strengthen the sick. His call is to the lost. I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away. So even if you're not where you'd like to be, God's love and mercy is continually calling you back to him. You can find these verses in Malachi that I just quoted in Matthew and Philippians and John and Ezekiel 34 was that credible verse that he will bring back what was driven away and bind up the broken and strengthen the sick. But he says the proud, the arrogant, I will feed in judgment, thus saith the Lord. So again, if you're not where you need to be, that's okay. That's why I'm writing this book. That's why God's call is to those who are distant often, to the prodigals, to the wayward, to those who don't know him. It's his love and mercy continually calling us back to him today. So make that decision. I don't know where you're at, but if you want to prepare your heart for a downpour, just like the title of this chapter suggests, you have to remove the weeds via repentance and humility and say, God, I'm preparing the soil of my heart. Would you come down? Would you rend the heavens? God, rend the heavens today. I'm contending for my family. I'm contending for my marriages, for our nation, for our churches. God, I've been distant. I don't know where you've been the past weeks or months or years, but I'm coming back. Lord, the prodigal son is coming back and I want to do a massive amounts of work for your kingdom. I don't want to let discouragement and defeat stop me anymore. God, I'm coming home and you will experience the flames of revival in your own heart and that will lead to change in other areas as well. And we praise God for that. But I feel the need to pray for you and Lord, I pray for those listening right now who are discouraged, they are defeated, they are caught in shame and guilt, maybe addiction, strongholds, bondages that they have not been able to break free of, that they are staying in the cycle of shame, defeat, guilt, and they go back to the sin. Shame, defeat, guilt, go back to the sin. You seem distant. You seem far away from them. They don't see you working in their lives anymore. They don't have a heart for you. The Bible's boring. They don't want to go to church. God, would you break that in Jesus' name? And Lord, we ask these things not only be done quickly, but Lord, also that you would confirm what you're doing in the hearts of those who are wanting to seek after you. And Lord, I pray that you would strengthen the listener, strengthen the listener spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Lord, I pray you would show them how to put on the full armor of God, look to your word, look to your truth, put on the breastplate of righteousness and live righteous, holy lives. And the sword of the Spirit, they would wield that like never before. God, honor them and bless them and remove anxiety and fear and depression. And I ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you guys. Now on to the next chapter.