I had set my alarm for 6:15, this morning, but instead I awoke at 5. I knew it was the Lord who woke me up. I sensed the Lord was in my room, I dared not to go back to sleep. I hadn't plan on waking up at 5. My desire was to sleep until 6:15 and spend a solid hour with the Lord before I begun my day. I guess He had different plans in mind for me this morning.
As I sought God in prayer, I had an overwhelming compelling desire to go back to sleep. In disgust, I went from kneeling to supine position. Closing my eyes, I told the Lord, "I am having a hard time staying awake, I am exhausted, I want to sleep." I was struggling with my flesh, and continued to seek the Lord in this matter. I went as far as setting my alarm for 7:15 and closed my eyes in frustration.
God heard my heart--not more than one minute later, my eyes popped open, my heart cried out to Him and the exhaustion I was feeling at that moment fled away. "He satisfies me in the morning with His unfailing love..."
This is what I would like to convey; revival and reformation. Revival is about renewing our focus on Jesus. Letting the Holy Spirit to remove our lethargic spiritual condition with renewed sense of need for revival fire to ignite our hearts once and forever more.
Do we need revival personally? Each of us can administer the simple self-test by asking ourselves, “Who has the heart? With whom are our thoughts? Of whom do we love to converse? Who has our warmest affections and our best energies? If we are Christ’s our thoughts are with Him, and our sweetest thoughts are of Him. All we have and are is consecrated to Him. We long to bear His image, breathe His spirit, do His will, and please Him in all things.”1 Revival is an ongoing experience in the life of every believer. Since our natures are fallen, the Holy Spirit leads us to spiritual renewal every day.2
Revival signifies a renewal of spiritual life, a quickening of the powers of mind and heart, a resurrection from the spiritual death. Reformation signifies a reorganization, a change in ideas and theories, habits and practices. Reformation will not bring forth the good fruit of righteousness unless it is connected with the revival of the Spirit. Revival and reformation are to do their appointed work, and in doing this work they must blend.”3
Reformation is allowing the Holy Spirit to reorganize our lives according to Biblical values and principles. Reformation is also simply choosing to surrender our lives to Christ, and to submit to God's will in every area of our lives. It is the charge, the commitment to please and honor God in everything we do; the willingness to live in harmony with God's commandments.
Only through a personal relationship with God will bring about revival and reformation. What joy it will be to seek God’s face until the earth is full of His glory!4
"Revival--It asks whether we will be the first to give the answer, to offer ourselves for the Holy Spirit to do His full work of convincing of sin and consuming self. It asks if we will accept and carry the answer to our brethren and prove what God can do. Oh, this prayer for revival may mean much to us in more ways than one, but let us not fear.
Is God ready to pour out His blessings? God is ready! As the sun pours its light and warmth on every tiny flower to give it growth and beauty, God’s love is waiting and longing to pour itself into hearts that reach out after Him. Sometimes it may appear as if He waits long and delays His coming. But let us be sure of this: He does not wait one moment longer than is needful... Let us give ourselves to such prayer—intelligent, deliberate, intense prayer."5
Persistence compels us to the true center of prayer...
NOTE: Due to my busy schedule right now, my friend, Chelsey, is the contributor to today's "Morning Sonshine" thought. Thank you Chelsey!!
___ ____________________________________________________
1 Step to Christ p. 58
2 Mark Finley, Is "reformation" a confusing term? Adventist Review
3 Review and Herald, Feb. 25, 1902
4 Andrew Murray, Revival
5 Andrew Murray, A Revived Church, Chap 2
6 Psalms 5:3, 59:16, 92:3, 90:14
No comments:
Post a Comment