I have had some folks ask me these questions lately and I thought it would be beneficial to see what others were thinking on this subject. Maybe we are all thinking alike but there could be disciplines overlooked and perhaps we will help one another on this journey.

I looked back and I do not see this subject as such discussed in the last year or so at least in the subject headings in this forum so...

What are you doing in your personal life to prepare for revival? If the Lord should choose to bless you with this renewing what things are necessary to maintain the "new normal" and prevent apathy and lukewarmness from re entering your spiritual life?

Secondly, If this is a burden your church has as a body what are you doing as the body to prepare for this move of the Lord and does the church have a plan for maintaining the fire after it is kindled, again, to prevent coldness from setting in?

For myself I have established several disciplines that the Scriptures declare are necessaey to know the Lord and to walk in His way.
1. Be sure of my salvation. The lost can't be revived they must be reborn. I have examined myself to see if I am in the faith and must be diligent to make my calling and election sure.
2. Prayer. Jesus often prayed through the night and we see Him praying fervently with great urgency out of love for man and submitting Himself to the will of the Father to the glory of God. Can I do less?
3. The Word. I want to read it for knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. By it I am convicted, corrected, cleansed, and comforted. I want it hidden in my heart that I might not sin against God.
4. Purity. By the above I want to be holy in spirit, soul, and body. Not just declared holy and set apart for heavens purposes but to live daily as a vessel cleansed and ready for the Master's use in any way He sees fit. I want to be conformed in His image. Anything less is unfitting for a child of God.
5. Fellowship. We sharpen one another and hold one another accountable in the Lord. If we all will seek the first 4 points we will be walking in the light and we will have fellowship with one another.
6. I seek godly wisdom from those who have experienced true revival. Sermonindex plays a large part in this with sermons and testimonys from saints long departed. While there is no template for revival, and there should not be, there are principles we can glean and by faith experience the same blessings they did.

Why would someone or a church drifted into such a backslidden callous, or moribund state. What went wrong.

That is a good question passerby. I don't see any one thing to explain it. I know we are not in a unique situation
Richard Baxter spoke of the coldness of Kiddiminster in his day. Jonathan Edwards saw the declension in his. Whales was full of religious formality before the Lord visited those islands as well.
Perhaps it is lack of discipleship and people just don't know better. How could they if they are not taught to love the Word and prayer and by these know the Lord? This is where the priests and ministers should come and weep before the porch and the altar. Confessing their own culpability in this.
It may be carnality that is not confronted that particular persons fellowship or it may be the misunderstood teaching of "liberty" that people feel give them license to follow their own hearts rather than seek the will of God.
This is why I listed the things I did because without knowing specifics to the problem or judging the hearts of the backslidden (i only know my own failures) I want to apply and give the remedy to any issues and I think these are found in those disciplines mentioned. Only these things guided by the Spirit can restore us to walking in the light and pleasing God.

I prepared this paper for church leaders on how to prepare for revival, but few are interested:

http://newchristian.org.uk/churchprep.html

_________________
Brian

THE REVIVAL WE NEED by OSWALD J. SMITH


In it he asks a simple question

"Now, how may we secure such an Outpouring of the Spirit?"

"by prayer"

"True, but there is something before prayer. We will have to deal first of all with the question of sin; for unless our lives are right in the sight of God, unless sin has been put
away, we may pray until doomsday, and the Revival will never come. "

"Probably our best guide just here is the prophecy of Joel. Let us look at it. It is a call to
repentance."

"God is anxious to bless His people, but sin has withheld the blessing. And so in His love and compassion He brings a fearful judgment upon them. We have it described in chapters 1 and 2. It has almost reached the gates of the city. But see--how great is His love! Notice verses 12-14 of chapter 2, where He says, "Turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God; for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil. Who knoweth if He will turn and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him?"

"Now my friend, I don't know what your sin is. You know and God knows. But I want you to think about it, for you may as well stop praying and rise from your knees until you
have dealt with it, and put it away. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Let God search your heart and reveal the hindrance. Sin must be confessed and
put away."

"It may be you will have to forsake some cherished idol. It may be you will have to make restitution. Perhaps you are withholding from God, robbing Him of His own. But this is
your affair, not mine. It lies between you and God."

"Now notice verses 15-17. The prophet has called for a prayer meeting. Sin has been confessed and forsaken. Now they may pray. And they are to entreat God for His own name's sake, lest the nations say, "Where is their God ?" They are dead in earnest now and their prayer is going to prevail. Listen! "Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: gather the people, sanctify the congregation; assemble the elders, gather the children. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch
and the altar, and let them say, "Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among
the people, "Where is their God ?"

"Ah! my brethren, are you praying? Do you plead with God for this city? Are you beseeching Him night and day for an Outpouring of His Spirit? For now is the hour to pray. We are told of a time in the work of Finney when the Revival had died out. He then made a covenant with the young people to pray at sunrise, noon and sunset in their closets for one week.The Spirit was poured out, and before the week ended the meetings were thronged."

Was reading that book - I have six weeks off I am going to take the advice of this book during that time.

I am going to get with God during that time.

_________________
Colin Murray

Rev Charles Grandison Finney wrote a classic piece: "How To Experience Revival".

I have updated it to more modern English with more current examples and the updated version is here:

http://newchristian.org.uk/revival.html

I revisit this every year or so to check up on my own walk.

_________________
Brian

Thank you Brother!!
Excellent article by Oswald Smith:

If we are praying for revival, we should be fully revived, full of the Holy Spirit, spending time with the Lord in prayer and the Word.

There are a few that contribute on this forum that don’t even see the need of revival.

May God open our eyes to see what He sees about the condition of the Church, and for a outpouring of the Holy Spirit that would bring a great harvest of souls into the Kingdom.

_________________
Mike

“You will never have the Spirit of God dwelling in you until you have dealt with this whole question of personal sin and spread out your sins before God. Allow time for a deep work of repentance and full confession, and you will have as much of the spirit of prayer as you can bear. The reason why so few Christians know anything about the spirit of prayer is because they never take the pains to examine themselves properly, and so never know what it is to have their hearts all broken up in this way.”

Charles Finney

_________________
Mike

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