What would it take for people to repent or for a revival

In venezuela and Iran they are experiencing a revival
I always wonder what it would take to wake people up

When people thought that Iraq had nuclear weapons , people in the UK thought about death

It is so sad in the UK as in total i handed out 20 tracts and there was an evangelist who struggled.

I have been handing out tracts for ten years or more and it has never been so hard because of online shopping and people working on the weekends

So the footfall on the street has been less but not only that people just don't care

People are so apethetic , even if you have lots of people they may not want to hear

To me it would take a nuclear disaster before they turn to Jesus

What saddens me it is like because we have a prime minister who believes in Brexit or because we have got a non globalist president such as trump that everything is ok

It is like things are ok because of the political situation

When you see churches closing, Christian bookshops.
Then you have groups like the apostasy of groups such as bethel church and other and prosperity gospel

The sad thing is in the UK Christianity is mocked on the BBC then even if people were interested they would run into people who after money more than salvation

Then they are vaccinated by the religious education system in England which is almost like poison to the young people

I wish in hemel that i could go somewhere else and go to another town but i know it is the same around the UK

Would it take a nuclear disaster to wake people up

Even if God judged people through the weather they would just say it is climate change

OP asks,

"What would it take for people to repent or for a revival"

______________

The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, "Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath a enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”¯” Ezekiel 37:1-6

-””------------------------------

"He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

"Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

” ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

"He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ” (Luke 16:27-31)

"Then Jesus looking upon them said, For men it is impossible, but not for God because all things are possible for God." Mark 10:27

Dominic,
Thank you for this important , timely and insightful subject.

WHY , and how does this come about ?

Is there an underlying desire for change, but a lacking of power to do anything about it ?....

Is it a thing of ‘the mind’, The heart ? ... ....

And is there a solution,.. a provision provided by God ?...
””””””””””

* complacency, ..(unconcerned) ...

*sleepiness,.. needing to be AWAKENED out of sleep !! .....
Is the whole, of The world ‘asleep’ ? ...

But what can arouse out of sleep ? ...
””””””””-

* Addiction ?,..... But what is the addiction ?....

** Can it be just everything ‘earthly’ ? ...
.... something acting as a gravity that is pulling us down to the ‘earth’ ? ...

......things that are ‘drawing our heart away from the things of God,..
””””””””-
Rom.8:5-8,
"Romans 8:5-8 (KJV) 5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

6 For to be carnally minded [is] death; but to be spiritually minded [is] life and peace.

7 Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
””””””””””
Continual desire and over involvement w/ things of The world,.. this life.
Worldly minded...

Could it even be the continuous peering into the telephone, for news or any worldly/ earthly things that occupies time, mind,/heart,.? ........addicted.
””””””””””-

Phil.3:18-21,
"(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:

21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby HE IS ABLE even to subdue all things unto himself."
””””””””””-
But why did Paul say, ‘we look for the Savior ’ ? ... wasn’t Paul initially saved ?

So here is our hope,.. our solution,.. :

"that whosoever shall call upon the Name of The Lord shall be saved”

.....but what does a savior do ? He continues to save us, if we call upon His Name. ( If we call upon ‘whatever that Name stands for/ whatever is in His Name) ... the whole Word of God.)...whatever is in His righteous Name.
””””””””
And why did Paul say "whose God is their belly ?”
Would that be our ‘appetite’ ? .... what our hearts desire, ,.. souls craves
after?

””””””””””
And why did Paul say, "they are enemies of the cross of Christ’ ?
(We know ‘ the cross of Christ’ is a death)

Could it be because of refusing to die daily to self ? ... ( doing flesh will )

””””””””-
What is ‘revival’ ?
Is it when our soul is revived, and another soul is revived, and another soul is drawn to the things of God, through The God that is continually working in us ?
””””””””-
Oil,.. ?
””””””””””
elizabeth

*I appreciated your Scripture thought as well, Savannah

I don't think anything but the conviction of the Holy Spirit will ever change people. I have literally seen people at the point of death who wouldn't repent.

Revelation 16:8,9 "And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory."

Bro Dominic

You really have to stop your whining.

Check this out -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ-0ZTD1K8o

Maybe it will remind you of what is available to you every second of every day.
Snap out of it and strengthen yourself in the Lord.

Blessings

I am not whining i am just saying how it is
I would love for the churches to be fall and for people to be saved from hell

I have asked the same question: what would it take for a revival to happen in our community, our country?

I do not know the answer to your question but have noted some observations from history.

1. It will likely begin in a small community away from the limelight.

2. It will shake the church structure as we know it.

3. God will expose sin that will rock peoples' trust in their leadership.

The end result will be an heightened awareness of sin and the awfulness of it. There is right now an ongoing exposure of sin in the conservative Anabaptist community. People are angry, upset and teaching is coming forth that we have not heard - ever. There is a separating of the sheep from the goats. And it is interesting - if one wants to call it that - to see how it is working. It is upsetting, in the least, but knowing God is in control does calm the concerned Believer.

So, maybe, what we are seeing globally is God is working to destroy man's security, confidence in structures managed by power entities that are at its core self-serving and this includes the "church".

Powerful lesson here.

My observation.

Sandra

A revelation of the Holiness of God 🙏🏻

I don't know what you are like for preaching. But this is about the other side of preaching.
It is hard to find preachers on the streets that are coming across as having a care for the lost and compassion for the sinful. I do get most of my ideas about this from YouTube I must admit. But also from having matured into realizing Gods love for people and how we should forgive others. But you can see people wanting to speak with the preacher on these videos who aren't allowed to interrupt them.
Witnessing one to one has more benefits. I would advise most preachers to stop preaching out loud in the street and just do one to one for a couple of years to get it drilled into their mind that they can't be detached from the plight of the lost. And learn how to communicate and practice the fulfillment of the verse. Be ready to give an answer to him who asks.

Most of the time.. Possibly it's the preachers who are at fault. As they are talking AT people and not TO them in sincerity of heart . They more likely have a desire to do what they believe to be the will of God by standing there preaching. Another problem is just standing handing out tracts and hoping people will read the message without really telling people what Jesus has done for us.
Like I say I don't know what people on here are like in their preaching.
The first thing that struck me when I got saved after listening to a man standing on a box preaching was the sincerity and belief of what he was saying inside of him.
I just thought I would add this.

I have street preached for years, I have also done much one-on-one witnessing as well.

It has been my unfortunate experience to listen to Christians (pastors and others) who disdain street preaching or at the least speak about it with some contempt.

They will note some poor folk didn't get to speak while the preacher was speaking, or they will note someone got mad or will note someone cried or walked away.
Shortly afterwards comes the solution. Avoid street preaching because in his/her mind a negative reaction means God isn't in it, God didn't anoint it, God doesn't like it.

The reality is far different.

The condemnation coming from various leaders are the same ones who have sermon series "sermons to sleep by" or a 7 week series on "using Christianity to better your situation".
My point is
1. Devils will cause a crowd to get uptight, angry or hostile, you can sense it. Why? Because any gospel preaching can have serious reprocussions to Satan's rule in their lives.
2. Street preaching is no 'sermon to sleep by', God uses it to stir people to think, and when they do...maybe for the first time they don't like what they hear or think.
3. Condemnation of street preaching is usually to make sure the congregants don't get any ideas about taking their Christianity into the public where the Church or the Pastor could suffer reproach. It's a rare thing to find pastor who has the slightest idea what it means to think and minister as an evangelist.

In short, usually condemnations are motivated by fears of reproaches, fears of demonic reprisals, fears of loss of reputation.

When you preach to the same group week after week, it's comfortable, easy, and needful to create sermons designed to keep everyone safe and secure.

Street preaching is far from that.

In our modern culture, street preaching has become far more confrontative. Instead of respecting the speaker, folks jeer, talk-over, ask angry questions, make noise or seek to disrupt the speaker.

Today its fashionable to show hatred toward Christianity because the LGBTQ crowd has shown they should be hated.

Its fashionable now to mock God, Christians, Jesus with no repercussions at all.

Here's the worst part, many Christians take up the torches to light the street preacher on fire. They are happy to vilify the street preacher along with the pagan crowds listening. They will side with the abortionist, approve of the mocking of the gays or criticize with the atheist some attempt to put the gospel in the public court.
This kind is of the mindset that Christianity should look like a hallmark movie or maybe feel Christianity should stay within the Church walls. Of course, in such a state as that...one wonders if what's in those walls constitutes a 'Church'?

I do admire people that do the preaching but there are many on the internet that I don't feel care about others. What do you think of some of the preachers you see on the net Marvin ? I did see a guy walking through a Muslim area of London on one of them. He was shouting at them as he was walking along. I wouldn't be able find the video again.
If people like yourself are sincere I hope you get some real fruit from it of course. I was trying to say why I thought that people in today's world are turning against the preacher.

Hi David:

Ive seen numerous ones on youtube who I thought were doing a great job...even though the crowd was really mean. Others had attentive listeners and folks were getting healed.

Sincerity and mannerism are two very different things.
Its rare that Ive seen someone who's sincerity I questioned, but I have definitely questioned mannerism.

I personally am not that guy with the sandwich board with "the end is near" on it.

If I had to take a recollection of street witnessing/evangelism the vast majority were as sincere and caring as one can find in any church. Where mannerisms get dubious is where the mockers get to the guy and he gets angry or judgmental. Some one-on-one conversations go bad where the newby Christian gets stumped by someone and gets cold feet or fear comes upon them and they loose confidence in the ministry of the Spirit through them.

I have seen some street preaching that was just plain poor, bad theology coupled with a fear of rejection leads to a lop sided presentation of sin and grace.

Ive witnessed a very few who thought old-testament judgments were best.

In every case where the evangelist was goofing it up, he needed some training, patience, encouragement, prayers and support. I don't want them to quit, I want them to recognize they've slipped into the flesh and its noticeable.

Way back in the day I ran into scientologist doing the street preacher thing...which I confronted with the word of God. Most false teacher/ preachers speakers fold up like a wet towel when confronted.

The fruit of course is up to Jesus, on the streets its difficult to masquerade our screw-ups and it's also easy to tell if there is conviction. In Church it's not near so easy and church is not geared for conviction it's geared for comfort and conformity.

As to why the world is turning against the preacher? Well, there are many reasons, but one that stands out to me above all else is the spirit of the age has given sinners an approval to dismiss any call to rethink their pattern of life. Any lifestyle is permitted and encouraged and anyone condemning any lifestyle in another deserves hatred and retaliation.

Thanks for your reply Marvin. You've made some good points.

Yeah, we cannot throw out the baby with the bath water when it comes to street preaching. On the internet you will find the good the bad and the ugly. There are also many bad preachers behind pulpits who preach from an angry spirit but that doesn't mean we should discourage all pulpit preaching on account of that.

So what will it take for people to repent or for a revival? I'd say fervent and desperate prayer and like Len Ravenhill said, we need some hell-fire preaching on repentance.

great point alec:

2002-2009 I preached for the Union Gospel mission, their main building, the mens center and the women shelter. Around 6 some years.

hundreds and hundreds came to a saving knowledge of Christ, many were recommitted and found a fresh start again.

Jesus will honor his word, he will save those who respond to the message of the gospel, he will deliver those who surrender their lives to him.

I ministered to every kind of sin-sick person, Jesus was more than sufficient for everyone of them.

It's true I don't know how they all turned out, I don't know how many were truly saved or truly repented, but I do know this, Jesus was faithful to them in every little baby-step they made and every repentance done from their hearts.

Almost a 1000 people responded to the gospel over those years, and that was just when I was preaching, I don't know about the others. This of course was only the main building, the mens center and womens shelter were two more venues where God saved and delivered sinners, in those places I was able to mentor many of the men and teach the women.

My point, Jesus is faithful, always honoring his word, always keeping his promises and always seeking and saving he lost. I got to be a part of it in some small way.

I was able to reap in abundance there, but I have also watered and seeded for many others over the years as well.

I ministered to hundreds of men in the mens center, and hundred there followed Christ, repented and started anew. Not everyone is sincere, not everyone really gets saved, but all I can do is be faithful to live and preach the gospel and give everyone a message and a man with gospel.

edit to add:

What I am getting at is, I saw more saved in a day at the mens center than I did at my Church all year, or two! So, when scant few folks are saved at a Church venue it can lead folks to think "well nobodies getting saved anymore".
But I am here to say that's not the full story and Alec made a great point in what he said.