SermonIndex Audio Sermons
SermonIndex - Promoting Revival to this Generation
Give To SermonIndex
Discussion Forum : Devotional Thoughts : Revival Conditions - A.W Tozer

Print Thread (PDF)

PosterThread
hmmhmm
Member



Joined: 2006/1/31
Posts: 4994
Sweden

 Revival Conditions - A.W Tozer


Our mistake is that we want God to send revival on our terms. We want to get the power of God into our hands, to call it to us that it may work for us in promoting and furthering our kind of Christianity. We want still to be in charge, guiding the chariot through the religious sky in the direction we want it to go, shouting "Glory to God," it is true, but modestly accepting a share of the glory for ourselves in a nice inoffensive sort of way. We are calling on God to send fire on our altars, completely ignoring the fact that they are our altars and not God's. And like the prophets of Baal we are working ourselves into a frenzy as if we could by violence command the arm of the Almighty.

The whole error results from a confused notion of revival and a failure to recognize the moral laws that underlie the kingdom of God. God never moves whimsically; His ways are never impulsive or erratic. He never sends judgment unless there has been a violation of His laws, nor does He send blessing apart from obedience to those laws. So precise are His movements both in justice and in mercy that an intelligent observer, aware of the circumstances, could predict with complete accuracy any visitation of judgment or grace God might send to a nation, a church or an individual.

Of this we may be certain: We cannot continue to ignore God's will as expressed in the Scriptures and expect to secure the aid of God's Spirit. God has given us a complete blueprint for the Church and He requires that we adhere to it 100 percent. Message, morals and methods are there, and we are under strict obligation to be faithful to all three. Today we have the strange phenomenon of a company of Christians solemnly protesting to heaven and earth the purity of their Bible creed, and at the same time following the unregenerate world in their methods and managing only with difficulty to keep their moral standards from sinking out of sight. Coldness, worldliness, pride, boasting, lying, misrepresenting, love of money, exhibitionism--all these things are practiced by professedly orthodox Christians, not in secret but in plain sight and often as a necessary part of the whole religious show.


_________________
CHRISTIAN

 2008/9/20 3:52Profile
AbideinHim
Member



Joined: 2006/11/26
Posts: 5185
Louisiana

 Re: Revival Conditions - A.W Tozer

As Arthur Wallis said in his book "In the Day of Thy Power", that revival involves both the sovereingty of God and the preparedness of man. Before God will send revival, there are certain conditons that have to be met. Here is a brief excert from the book.

"There is an extreme view of the sovereignty of God that argues, "If God wills to send revival it will come. Nothing that we do can effect this, so why need we be concerned?" The word of God and history teach us that such an attitude of indifference and fatalism must be abandoned before revival can be expected. If the blessing comes then we may be sure that somewhere someone has met the conditions and paid the price. Such a view of divine sovereignty ignores the conditions of spiritual preparedness.

There is also an extreme emphasis on spiritual preparedness that ignores the fact of divine sovereignty; it suggests that God is at our beck and call, and that we can have revival any day we care to pay the price, much as we can have electric light the moment we care to turn the switch. The word of God gives us the proper balance by presenting, as here in the first verse of Acts 2, the two aspects side by side. Similarly David declared, "Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of Thy power" (Ps. 110:3). The day of His power is determined by God alone, and emphasizes His sovereignty; but in that day His people have met the conditions by being ready and willing, which reveals the fact of spiritual preparation. God reminds us of His sovereignty when He declares, "I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be builded . . . I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it"; but He adds, "For this moreover will I be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them", reminding us of the conditions that must be fulfilled (Ezek. 36: 33-37).

War is not all attack, but there is a strategic moment for offensive action. The place, the time, and the manner of any attack are of crucial importance in the interests of the campaign as a whole; therefore such matters are not left to the soldier in the fighting line, but are determined beforehand by the supreme commander in the conference room. He alone can see the whole picture and keep his hand upon the whole situation. If, however, the plans made at the highest level are to be carried through successfully, the soldier in the line must be fully prepared for all that is involved. Revival, as, we have seen in the previous chapter, is a strategic attack by God upon the strongholds of Satan. The place, the time, and the manner of working are in the sovereign hands of the Lord the Spirit; but His subordinates, through whom He works, must be spiritually prepared when God's zero hour strikes.

How clearly these two important factors are set forth in the promised rain of Canaan. Divine sovereignty was seen in that the rain was confined to its God-appointed "season", but it was also strictly conditioned by the obedience of the people. "If ye shall hearken diligently unto My commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give the rain of your land in its season" (Deut. i x: 13). God declared with equal emphasis and on the same occasion, that if on the other hand they turned aside and served other gods and worshipped them, He would "shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit" (verses 16, 17).

How spiritual preparedness, or the absence of it, may influence God's working is vividly illustrated by the visit of the Saviour to Nazareth. "He could there do no mighty work . . . and He marvelled because of their unbelief" (Mark 6: 5,6). What this spiritual preparation involves, and how it may be effected, is a subject so large and so important that it must be considered separately."


_________________
Mike

 2008/9/20 13:22Profile





©2002-2024 SermonIndex.net
Promoting Revival to this Generation.
Privacy Policy