I woke up Saturday morning with a message on my heart. That was before the former President of the United States was nearly assassinated. This message is timely in more ways than I can fathom....We need revival and we need it now!
Engage: Real Worship
Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, this is a reasonable act of worship (Romans 12 paraphrased). God is not interested in our five-minute devotion or our Sunday morning hallelujah. We are to be in constant communication with the Father. Jesus did the work on the cross and intercedes at God’s right hand for us. He’s telling the Father, "don’t look upon her sin, see her through me". Jesus also tells us, "don’t try to earn God’s favor on your own, come to Him through me". At the cross, the veil of the temple was not only torn, it was imposed on Jesus (Matthew 27).He is now the veil that hides our sin from God and shields us from certain death should we encounter the glory of God in our human condition. At the moment of salvation, when we repent and relinquish our lives to the Savior, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and we are capable of hearing the still, small voice of God guiding every moment of our lives… if we will listen. But the Holy Spirit will not shout above the television or social media or anything else. It is our job to live in the stillness offered by the Prince of Peace so that we can hear the Spirit.
The longer we live as sacrifices to the King of Heaven, the less tolerant we become of sin…our own sin and the sin of others. The Church today is in trouble and people are falling away because we have rejected the TRUTH and have accepted the heresy of tolerance. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are not tolerant beings. They are perfect. They require a perfect sacrifice and constant distancing of our lives from sin; Our own sin and the sin of others. That does not mean we do not love sinners. That does not mean we do not seek to serve sinners. That does not mean that we do not interact with sinners. How else could we possibly reach them? What it does mean, though, is that we get comfortable making other people uncomfortable. Were we to approach the throne of Grace without the veil of Jesus to shroud our fallen state, we would be far too uncomfortable to seek God’s favor. The Father cannot tolerate sin or even be in the presence of sin.
But, there is Good News, loads of it. God speaks to us through His Word, a few minutes in the Bible can inform our entire day. Our drive to work or time spent doing dishes can be time to ponder a few verses from our Bible in a year or a short devotional we have read. Technology gives us the opportunity to listen to a message while we rock a baby or tend a garden. We have constant access to the Word, both in the person of Christ Jesus and in the physical book God Himself breathed, to be the guide of our lives.
It's time Christ’s followers got a little saltier.
God is the King of Heaven and Jesus is His Crown Prince of Peace. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter and the Three in One are deserving of all of our devotion and honor and praise. As Crown Prince, Jesus bears the weight of the Kingdom. His sacrificial service was required to bring the Kingdom to fruition. His Resurrection made it possible for us to live and not just live, but come alive with Him. He forgave us, but He did a whole lot more than that. He empowered us. He took all the pressure off of us. He said, “come to me and I will make you who my Father designed you to be.” Jesus says, “live for me and I will do all the hard things, all you have to do is tell everyone you know about your amazing big brother.” Jesus and the Father offer us adoption and require only a life lived with gratitude. And what do grateful people do?.... A grateful person sings the praises of the One to whom they are grateful. A person who truly appreciates a relationship tries to grow in that relationship. If we are in constant relationship with God, we are in constant communication. Every moment we live can be spent in continuous, unceasing prayer. But, it is up to us. God is calling us to a new level of holiness. He has revival in store, but He wants to have evangelists and witnesses through whom to work.
So, let us approach the throne of Grace together: Father, we are yours. We give you our imperfection, our brokenness, our hatred, our disappointment, our bitterness, our sin, Lord. Take it and use it for your Kingdom. We submit our ambitions and our careers and our families to Your Divine Will and ask you to remake us into who you intend us to be. We recognize that you are smarter and holier and wiser and more than we are in every conceivable way. You sit above time and space. You already know the plans You have for us and we are choosing to trust you with our lives. We submit our will to Your perfect will. We ask You to turn up the volume on the Holy Spirit in our lives, turn up our witness for You. We beg You to send revival, Lord and we ask You to start right here, right now, with us.
You alone are worthy of all glory and honor and praise, Father. We stand in awe at our adoption into Your eternal family. Thank You for Jesus and thank You for Your guidance and provision in our lives on earth and the life to come. No words can describe Your glory or perfection, Father. No adoration is sufficient to give You praise. Let every word from our lips, every step of our feet, and every act of our hands testify of Your love and power and salvation through Your Son, Jesus. We live to know you better….in Jesus Holy Name we pray. Amen.
So, after Christ has provided, through His sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection, a brand-new garment, a robe of righteousness; how many of us run back to the filthy rags of our sin? How dare we wear a robe of righteousness to yell at a teenage umpire at a little league game? How dare we wear that brand new robe into a movie predicated entirely on sex? How dare we lift our hand and gesture to a car that cuts us off while wearing Jesus Christ as a veil to our own sin?...Have I stepped on your toes yet? If Christ were sitting next to you, physically, you would not drive 80 mph in a 55. Were He embodied with you, you would not take him to a poker game or bar. Would you sit next to Christ and look at that magazine or video? Do you think the Holy Spirit is sticking around for that trash? We are an entire generation of “Christians” who are perfectly willing to accept Jesus as Savior, but we have not made Him LORD.
If Jesus is your co-pilot, you are in the wrong seat. He drives, He guides, He directs, He determines each and every word and action in our lives or HE is NOT YOUR LORD. Are you mad now? I hope the Spirit is stirring up conviction all up and over everyone reading this. The Church has not gone completely cold, but we are not willing to be hot enough to offend anyone. The TRUTH is offensive! I don’t want to know that I am a liar or a thief or a murderer in my heart…I don’t want to be confronted by my sin and I certainly don’t want to point out someone else’s sin…And the Lord says the lukewarm He’s going to spit right out (Revelation 3). Look at the world around us. That is the spew of the Almighty and we need to get cooking. It’s time to get salty and on fire and bright in our light. We are either with Jesus 100% of the time, or we are not HIS! Make your calling and election sure (2 Peter 1) If you do not, there could be Hell to pay. HELL to pay...
Encourage: BUT GOD
But God has given us SO MUCH GOOD NEWS! When we acknowledge where we have failed, seek forgiveness, and CHANGE our behavior through repentance…God says, “YES!” He forgives, He puts the Jesus filter over our lives and He calls us to more. If you claim to be His…act like it. If you want to be His, talk about it! If you choose to be His…brace for impact. You are in the cross hairs of the enemy, but you have Heaven to gain. No power in Hell or on Earth can stand against the Risen Savior.
Empower: The Bible tell us that we receive power after the Holy Spirit falls on us.
At the moment of our salvation, we are indwelt, and we are empowered to live life according to the calling, election, and power the resurrection provided. Go! Tell everyone! Jesus Christ is LORD and Savior and the Prince of Peace and life eternal can belong to whosoever would believe He is who He says He is (John 3): I AM. Son of God and Son of Man. Prophet. Priest. Redeemer. King of all Kings. Tell everyone you know and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit when they believe…..Let there be revival, Lord, and let it start right here with me, in Jesus Name. Amen
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