Are we seeking personal revival?

sermonindex Nov 20, 2010

My wife bought me a copy of (The Journal Once Lost - Extracts From The Diary of John Sung), and the Lord recently moved me to start reading it. The man's life is a powerful testimony of the grace of God and being absolutely surrendered to Jesus Christ. One of his many quotes in the book is:

"Seek your own spiritual revival and revival will come upon everyone else. Know your own shortcomings and let the Truth live in you....." John Sung

My questions are for those of us who are burdened to see revival come to the Church in these last days;

1. How many of us are burdened for and think we need personal revival?
2. How many of us are or have been seeking personal revival?
3. For those who have been seeking personal revival, what steps have we been taking to seek that personal revival?

For me it has been a matter of fasting, intense prayer and systematic bible study. I have basically brought my life to a standstill and I'm asking God to cause me to hear His voice before I take another step. The process is not an easy one. It takes everything out of me. But the Lord has blessed me by opening my eyes to many truths out of His word. The process is still ongoing, I have not yet attained, and I am still seeking that personal revival.

Please feel free to share your testimonies on this if you are so lead. I should emphasize the question is a personal one.

G

ginnyrose Nov 20, 2010

As I understand a person's walk with the LORD, you are either going forward or backwards, commonly known as backsliding.

As I study the Word I become painfully aware that these great men and women of God were ordinary people, just like us. And see how God used them, see what kind of walk they had with Him. Now, who is to say this could not be me? that I could not have this kind of walk and fellowship? Questions ...and there are more like it.

Then I become aware that if my walk is not like theirs it is my own fault, not God's. What do I do now? I do not hanker for fame nor recognition - I could not deal with it humbly, I just want to know Him and be faithful where I am at.

To solve this dilemma, I ask the LORD to teach me to recognize his voice when he is leading me, leading me in the smallest details of life. I love to do this every day and He does take me seriously. When I can see, hear Him and obey, it evokes within me an awesome sense of wonder and praise. It is only when I am filled with the sense of awe that I can with joy share with others. It occurs naturally, is not forced...and one does not have to spend any money to learn how to do it either. It is as close as your knees and your will to obey.

You can also be certain the enemy will work to thwart this process. Like make you too busy to spend time in the WORD...

Some day I hope there will be graduation and from the way the world looks like it could be soon. But if not, we will endure - if we hide in the cleft of the Rock...

My testimony...

ginnyrose

sermonindex Nov 20, 2010

My wife bought me a copy of (The Journal Once Lost - Extracts From The Diary of John Sung), and the Lord recently moved me to start reading it.

i have that book as well!!!!!!

you brought a smile to my face and joy to my heart, more you can know!!!!!

For me it has been a matter of fasting, intense prayer and systematic bible study. I have basically brought my life to a standstill and I'm asking God to cause me to hear His voice before I take another step. The process is not an easy one. It takes everything out of me. But the Lord has blessed me by opening my eyes to many truths out of His word. The process is still ongoing, I have not yet attained, and I am still seeking that personal revival.

oh! you shall receieve, you shall recieve. you KNOW this in the Holy Spirit.

i'm so happy that John did not go thru all the earthly physical pain while in his body for naught. there is the wonderfully deeply buried, moving, vibrant house Church in China, and there is you, on a Caribean island, wrestling with God, using the template and ministry of John Sung, pressed out like an olive....Gethesemane. God will not forsake your heartcry....

...and my brother, i recieve this post as a Heavenly Nudge. i read Dr. Shengs privately published book a few years back(read it three times), then picked up Levi's new book, started it, put a bookmark in it, and back on the shelf.

your dear post is a Word from the Lord to me. my heart is filled with Joy inexpressible anytime God the Holy Spirit deigns to push me in the right direction.

Thank you dear brother and may God answer your heartcry, your burden, yoke, and may you claim the Caribean basin for Christ. May God bring a true Holy Ghost revival to many islands.

Jamaica is always on my heart, such a rich soil, and so many dear saints. Haiti, where satan has a seat, may God bring revival in the Holy Spirit to Haiti, may God have mercy on Haiti, and heal that land, heal His people.

amen. i'm sorry to go on as such. i feel like the baby John the Baptizer when in the womb and hearing Mary's voice! i'm just kicking with JOY!!!!!

feel free to PM me, my name is neil, in Jesus love, i bid you Grace and Peace in Jesus.

J

Joyful_Heart Nov 20, 2010

I really never think of personal revival. I am most likely too simple. Seriously. I just love my Savior. He is the love of my life. He unconditionally loves me. He is so good to keep me on the straight and narrow. I am convicted all the time for thoughts that are not of Him. If forgiveness begins to come in or lack of mercy somewhere He is there to convict. At that time we talk and I ask Him to help and He brings Scripture to mind to help push me over into His way of thinking. And glory to God there is victory. Sometimes it takes longer than others but it is happening and by the grace of God there is fruit. It is by His grace alone.

Personal revival to me I guess now that you brought it to my thoughts, grin, is just staying so close to Him. When I begin to get too busy or my thoughts are crowded in in even the slightest I run to Him quickly. I dont like the feeling of being distant from Him.

In my worship music, in my daily devotionals, my Scripture reading is where I love to be. I guess I let God do the work in me. I keep my eyes on Him and who He is and He does His work. Glory to God.

And as the Holy Spirit brings family, friends, SI, missionaries etc. to me with a burden - I pray. Be it morning, noon, or in the night. And one day a week I praise Him for all the prayers He has heard and is working on and in His timing.....

So, for me, I guess, personal revival is staying so close to my Savior, repenting as the Holy Spirit shines His light on my darkness and keep in constant communion with Him. I don't think of ever arriving. I just care about staying close to Him. He has become my everything in this world - everything.

Jesus will keep us in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him. Isaiah 26:3

Turn our eyes upon Jesus, look full to His wonderful Face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

My we all hunger and thirst for more of You Lord.

I have been such a mess, I have had so many voids in my life, so many hurts and disappointments and mistakes made that the Lord has not allowed anything to fill them but Him and I am so humbly grateful and thankful to Him for this. I just want to embrace Him and sit at His feet. He has taken the sting away and filled all with Him. Glory to God! In Him is all my joy.

sermonindex Nov 20, 2010

Thank you for the responses, I am blessed and encouraged by them.

As I study the Word I become painfully aware that these great men and women of God were ordinary people, just like us. And see how God used them, see what kind of walk they had with Him. Now, who is to say this could not be me? ...Then I become aware that if my walk is not like theirs it is my own fault, not God's.

I receive these words ginnyrose. The Lord showed me that Moses, Elijah even Daniel were men, human, just like me. The thing that made the difference was the God with whom they walked and were completely sold out to. Like you I came to realize that that walk and fellowship was available to me and the fact that I did not posses it was indeed my fault. I needed to be totally sold out to Christ just like them to be able to have the power in my life that was evident in theirs.

i'm so happy that John did not go thru all the earthly physical pain while in his body for naught. there is the wonderfully deeply buried, moving, vibrant house Church in China, and there is you, on a Caribean island, wrestling with God, using the template and ministry of John Sung, pressed out like an olive....Gethesemane. God will not forsake your heartcry....

I am glad that you were blessed Neil. Thank you for your encouragement as well. The road has not been easy, but it has been rewarding. God is still at work.

The thing that strikes me with John's life, was his absolute surrender to the Lord. He would go anywhere, suffer anything, sacrifice anything for the Lord. He had no desire for this world and it's accolades. The power of God was evident in His life. A power that I had to confess was not evident in my own life. Therefore I stopped everything and began to seek the Lord that He might bring me to that place where His power would be evident in my life. A dangerous prayer some might say, but I could not continue as I was.

Recently the Lord showed me that even seeking Him for His power in my life was incorrect. That I should seek Him simply for the fact that He is God and deserves it and for no other reason. He has been continually humbling me, and re-educating me from the things I thought I knew.

Thank you for your words Joyful_Heart. May God continue to hold you close to Himself as you continue to walk with Him. May your fellowship grow from strength to strength as you continue to seek His face and His will.

Personal revival to me, if I should define it, would be for me to come to the place where God is my everything and nothing else matters. It sounds like a high and lofty ideal, and it's not my intention to sound super spiritual, but I want to have God as my focus and be absolutely surrendered to Him. Not as a point in time thing, but as a lifestyle and on going walk. Not for the purpose of receiving anything from Him, or for the purpose of being used by Him, but simply because He is my God and He deserves, requires, commands my absolute surrender.

I

InTheLight Nov 20, 2010

For me it has been a matter of fasting, intense prayer and systematic bible study. I have basically brought my life to a standstill and I'm asking God to cause me to hear His voice before I take another step. The process is not an easy one. It takes everything out of me. But the Lord has blessed me by opening my eyes to many truths out of His word. The process is still ongoing, I have not yet attained, and I am still seeking that personal revival.

I would like to point you to something that AB Simpson wrote, it will be very helpful in your quest...

I prayed a long time to get sanctified, and sometimes I thought I had it. On one occasion I felt something, and I held on with a desperate grip for fear I should lose it, and kept awake the whole night fearing it would go, and, of course, it went with the next sensation and the next mood. Of course, I lost it because I did not hold on to Him. I had been taking a little water from the reservoir, when I might have all the time received from Him fullness through the open channels. I went to meetings and heard people speak of joy. I even thought I had the joy, but I did not keep it because I had not Himself as my joy. At last He said to me Oh so tenderly "My child, just take Me, and let Me be in you the constant supply of all this, Myself." And when at last I got my eyes off my sanctification, and my experience of it, and just placed them on the Christ in me, I found, instead of an experience, the Christ larger than the moment's need, the Christ that had all that I should ever need who was given to me at once, and for ever! And when I thus saw Him, it was such rest; it was all right, and right for ever. For I had not only what I could hold that little hour, but also in Him, all that I should need the next and the next and so on, until sometimes I get a glimpse of what it will be a million years afterwards, when we shall "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of our Father" (Matt. 13: 43), and have "all the fullness of God."

The full article...
http://www.christinyou.net/pages/himselfabs.html

In Christ,

Ron