2007...Pray for revival!

As I listened to DJ's sermon Sunday about New Year's Resolutions, I knew the sermon was for me...especially when he got to his addendum...pray for revival. I have been praying and dealing with the Lord in my own heart over the past several months about the direction of my life and what He is calling me to do in the future. As much as I love my job, I am looking forward to retiring in the next five years to see what kind of new life calling God has planned for me. The Lord has been working on some areas of my life that need some attention and as you know He has brought me down and through the road of suffering in 2006. Through all of this He has impressed upon my heart clearly I am in need of some personal revival. I want to make my life count for His Kingdom and in order for Him to be able to use me, He has to be the Lord of every minute inch of my being, emotions, thoughts and spirit. This is why I need personal revival.

I want to share an excerpt from I Saw the Lord by Anne Graham Lotz. For those of you who were at the Christmas party, this is the book Sherry shared from.

"And as passionately as I love my mother and long to be with her, I love Jesus even more. I talk with Him from time to time in prayer, although I don't pray as much as I should or as much as I want to. I love the sound of His voice when He speaks to me through His Word. And I feel torn between where I am-here-and where I want to be-there, with Him. I long for...the wind of His Spirit to breathe calmness into the chaos of my life, the fullness of His wisdom to order the thoughts in my mind, the sufficiency of His strength to undergird the weakness of my body, the abundance of His blessing to saturate the poverty of my spirit, the joy of His will to give rich pleasure to my journey, the refuge of His arms to shield me from my fears, the gentleness of His touch to reawaken the feelings of my heart, the compassion of His heart to enfold me and hold me close. I long to see Jesus again.

Considering how strong my love for Jesus is, you would expect my hunger for His presence, my urgent longing to see Him again, to be a constant, motivating force in my life. Yet sometimes...in the busyness of my days, or the duties of my ministry, or the familiar habits of my worship, or the everyday routine of my home, the longing becomes complacency, and I sleep through opportunities to be with Him. That's when I need a wake-up call--a jolt that pushs me to seek out a revival of the passion that began as a blazing, empowering fire but somehow tends to die down to a comfortable but weak, ineffective glow.

The revival I long for is not a tent meeting. It is not a series of church services designed to save the lost. It is...'breathing the breath of God'...'God purifying His church'...'people saturated with God'...'the inrush of the Spirit into a body that threatens to become a corpse'...'a work of God's Spirit among His own people...what we call revival is simply New Testament Christianity, the saints getting back to normal.'

....But the revival I'm talking about--the revival God is calling you and me to experience---It's authentic, personal revival.

Because personal revival is....Jesus in you and Jesus around you and Jesus through you and Jesus under you and Jesus over you and Jesus before you and Jesus behind you.

Personal revival is just Jesus...Jesus on your mind, Jesus filling your heart, Jesus overflowing from your lips."

I am praying for revival in my own heart. I am praying for revival in our choir. I am praying for revival in our church. I am praying for revival in our town, our nation and all over the world. I want Jesus to be on my mind, I want Jesus filling my heart, and I want only Jesus overflowing from my lips. Pray with me and watch God work!