"If My people..."

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"May God be merciful and bless us. May His face shine with favour upon us" (Psa 67:2)

 Pentecost may be understood as a fresh visitation of God among His people. What the disciples went through or did during those 50 days, between Resurrection and Pentecost, presents for us lessons on preparing for Revival. If we prepare ourselves in these areas, the long-awaited Revival will "suddenly" come!

The Spirit of prayer and worship gripped the disciples even beforePentecost, especially during the last ten days following Ascension. Luke, who has given us "an orderly account" of the ministry of Christ and the Holy Spirit, mentions this graphically in his Gospel and the Book of Acts. Following Christ's Ascension, "they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God" (Lk 24:52,53). As they went up into the upper room, "they all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication" (Acts 1:12-14). They were soaked in a spirit of prayer and worship on the Day of Pentecost "with one accord" (Acts 2:1).

The need of prayer as a preparation for Revival cannot be overemphasized. Prayer here is more than just asking God to send a revival. It means self-examination and confession of sins. Self-examination means we let the Lord turn His searchlight on us and reveal to us our carnality, corruption and casualness (Rev 2:23). And it's a time of remembering our broken vows before the Lord (Eccl 5:1-6); and the wrongs we have committed against others (Mt 5:23,24). Prayer leads to true humility because it is in His presence we realize our nothingness and His holiness (Isa 6:1-5). Prayer is also an expression of our inability and inadequacy and therefore a pleading for His strength and power (Mt 26:41). God is pleased with such sacrifices and His fire will invariably fall on them (Psa 51:17-19).

When Elijah repaired the altar of the Lord, the fire fell. God breaks and makes His men on their knees. When Jesus prayed, Heaven was opened (Lk 3:21). When the early Church prayed, the place was shaken (Acts 4:31). Prayer releases the power of the Spirit to affect the earth. I believe we have preached enough about revival and published enough about revival, but have not prayed enough for revival. The more we pray for revival the more we will long for it, and the more we long for it the more we will pray for it. Leonard Ravenhill (1907-1994) rightly says, "One main reason we have no revival is that we have learnt to live without it!"

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