Words blazed in my soul this morning with such force that I had to scramble to my feet to find paper. I’d prayed a few minutes earlier out on my front porch for true revival: for such a groundswell of souls saved that we’d have no earthly explanation, and for believers to be flooded by the Holy Spirit in such a way that our souls would be purified with a holy, selfless, unstoppable fervor. I have prayed those kinds of things before but this time I called upon the Lord with my whole heart to rip away this ceiling that seems to be over our heads. The Holy Spirit is moving with breathtaking force in parts of the world and in segments of the church. Why not among all of us?? And why not now? We love Him, too!
So many of our pastors, leaders, evangelists, and teachers are crying out for it. We see glimpses of it. We feel it pressing on the walls of many of our churches. The paint is beginning to crack. We sense a change coming. The roof shifting. We know the sun of righteousness is rising on a different kind of day and the horizon beaming with a new shade of color on young and old, on rich and poor. On all who would let Him lift their chins despite their sins, for our redemption draws near. I feel the stirring of a fresh work of the Holy Spirit in my own congregation and sense that He’s ushering us step-by-step and person-by-person and Sunday-by-Sunday to a place of open-armed willingness for whatever He would give us. For many of us who have felt the breezes of revival stirring, we can’t often define how the Holy Spirit is working or explain the difference between one gathering and the next. All we know is that there are times when we are left to say, “Only God could do that.” We taste it. It’s on the tip of our tongues but our throats are still parched. Our voices may be hoarse and our volume weak but, at the sound of His yes, the mute would find speech.
I cried out this morning for Him to remove the obstacles that hold us at bay on the damp edges of a mighty torrent of revival when, before us, is the deep. We have seen drops of rain but, if we’re willing to be honest, most of us know that we have not yet seen what the living Lord Jesus Christ is capable of doing when He has a mind to pour His Spirit out on millions and wreak the holy havoc of true revival with innumerable souls. We have blamed our government and every secular institution possible when revival has ever remained a matter between God and His own people in the pages of Scripture. They are not our problem. We point fingers at our pastors when many of them have nearly broken their backs trying to drag us to revival. We hold worship leaders responsible for our own small worship and say that it must be the songs.
My heart burns with a sense that part of this ceiling over our heads is our demand that God must bring awakening and revival within our means, keep our rules, and respect our boundaries. If Christ is to do what He longs to do, we must relinquish all our expectations and formulas for revival. Lest we think we can’t leash a work He’s willing to perform, the words of Matthew 13:58 and Mark 6:5-6 won’t peel off the gospel page. We keep getting together and rehearsing for a revival He’s not yet fully attending. Why?? Why does He wait?
I think one reason is that we are afraid for Him to do whatever it would take. We are scared of the uncertainty of revival. We don’t trust God with the work of His own Spirit. He might embarrass us. Or make us change our minds. God won’t work contrary to His Word but many of us must admit that it is not His Word we are worried about Him working contrary to. We are worried about Him working contrary to our tastes. We are worried that He will not use our methods. I said we. I have done the same thing. I want Him to work in a way that makes me feel comfortable. But maybe a true outbreak of revival is not comfortable. I don’t know. I can’t say I’ve ever seen what I believe God may want to do in our day. Meanwhile, numerous gatherings of believers dwindle and die or rust for the sake of routine. Generations are falling away as revival clings to our doorposts. It’s there. It’s close. But why won’t it come on in? We feel it. We hunger for it. Why does it delay? Perhaps there are many reasons why revival waits and we could write more blog articles and list the possible hindrances and deliberate over them and mull over them and debate them and exert more and more energy while we have less and less time.
Or maybe we could say today,
Lord, if Your time is now – and it’s the only time countless millions have – remove the obstacles, whatever they are. Shove them out of the way and COME, Lord Jesus, with a torrential downpour of Your Holy Spirit.
I’m just looking for anyone out there who would be willing to echo a prayer something like this one. I bring it to you in humility, lacking much, wanting much. I do not wish to put words on any tongue detached from a heart. Vocabulary is meaningless without volition. If this is not you and if these sins are not yours and these aches find no place in your soul, you are not who I’m talking to. But this is me and I wondered if it might be anyone else, for where two or three are gathered in His Name, crying out for a cracked-open heaven, that ceiling that we feel shifting over our heads could shatter to our feet. I’m tired of giving God an inch and expecting a mile. I want to go with Him wherever He’s going.
Most glorious all-powerful, merciful God,
Your Son died for more than these. We thank You for what You’ve already done but we beg You to do infinitely more. Look upon this ailing planet, pulsing with the hopeless, helpless, the hiding and the dying. You have willed that people would not die in their sins but be saved and redeemed through Your Son, Jesus Christ. You promised that the Cross was big enough for us all, with stakes pointed northward, southward, eastward, westward, reaching everlasting arms to the ends of the earth. We know what Your Word says You can do and we confess to You that many of us have not yet seen it with our eyes but we feel it stirring in our souls. Hosanna, Lord! Save now!
We who are willing confess to you our sinful arrogance. We have prescribed to You by what means You, the solitary Healer, should heal souls and You have refused to sign Your Name to our prescriptions. We say to You this day, write Your Name across our sky and bring revival! Save by whatever means brings You glory. Bring it any way You like but bring it, Lord. We free You from using our methods. We free You from using our denominational names. We free You from using our buildings though we welcome You to them. We free You even from using us, though we cast ourselves before You at Your complete disposal and beg that You would. Use none of us. Use all of us. Use whatever people and whatever means honors You most but do it, Lord. Please do it!
We confess to You our appalling narcissism in asking You to mirror us. We confess to You our over-sophistication and snobbery. We confess to You that we are terrified of Your Holy Spirit. We confess our pathetic arrogance for having forbidden signs and wonders when there could be no greater sign and wonder than a tidal wave of salvation rolling on our dry banks. Oh, Jesus, that we would not leave You to marvel that You could do so few miracles among us because of our unbelief.
We repent this day for not trusting You with what revival should look like. We repent this day from prioritizing our dignity over Your downpour. We confess to You that we have torn pages from our Bibles and handed them back to You and demanded that You work through what was left. We confess to You this day that the tent pegs of Scripture are vastly wider than our imaginations and our expectations.
Lord, if souls are saved by the thousands of thousands and millions of millions, we pledge to You this day that we will not, in our sectarianism, pick apart the process and reason how it was not legitimate. We are ready even if it’s messy. Even if, atop the beautiful feet carrying the good news, are bruised and broken bodies of willing evangelists.
Open Heaven. Rain down, Holy Spirit. We repent for having asked You to respect our boundaries. We bow now to Your boundless Spirit and make room over our lowered heads for You to fall upon us with power and might and a firestorm of Your great affection. You have loved us so. You have loved us well. Scar our hearts with Your Cross and love through us, Lord. Oh, Holy Spirit of the Living Christ, come without limit. We have known You were able but begged You to be willing. All the while, we have been disabled because we have been unwilling.
To what conceivable degree we could have held them in our hands, we turn the reins of revival back over to the Rider who is Faithful and True and we plead that You would not let them rest on the neck of that great horse but that You’d bid him run.
Whatever, Lord. Do what You want but do it now. Do it here. You have no peer. Make Your name glorious. Save now. We avail ourselves.
O God, I avail myself.
In the holy name of Christ our King. Amen.
Savior, Savior, Hear my humble cry;
While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by.
Oh Lord, forgive me for being so caught up in the cares of this world at times; may you rain down your Spirit upon us sweet Jesus. May my heart, our hearts be open and willing to what you will. Come Lord Jesus, turn the hearts of men and women, boys and girls to you as never before.
Yes, Lord God!!! Send Your Holy fire & so consume Your people that You burn away all chaff – we want to be refined by the fire of that which and Whom is TRUE. Oh God, Please come quick & do what only You can do!
Lord, I’m not even whole-hearted enough to ask in a right way. Lord, I believe…help my unbelief! Lord, come… we need your help!!!
My sentiments exactly Lord! Forgive me and help me to be ready to be used as You see fit – In Jesus Name, Amen!
A Million Amen’s to your prayer…
I have been Praying Habakkuk 3:2 for a while out of the Message
“God, I’ve heard what our ancestors say about you, and I am stopped in my tracks, down on my knees. Do among us what you did among them. Work among us as you worked among them. And as you bring judgment, as surely you must, remember mercy”.
Love the ESV that says: O Lord, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it. In the midst of the years make it known, in wrath remember mercy”.
Open the heavens and drench us in the avalanche of Your Spirit. Radiate Revival across the world..
Lord we are so hungry for a fresh outpouring of your spirit, a fresh revelation of who you are and most of all Lord your presence.We seek you Lord , we seek your face. to gaze upon the beauty of you Lord and to dwell in your house forever. We want you high and lifted up , exalted and gloified . We have let the idols of worry of what others might think, idols of comfort, idols of religious rituals, idols of pride, idols of our desires and many other things to keep us from worshipping you with all our hearts, minds, soul and strength. We repent, we humbly bow before you , all our worthless idols torn down , eyes fixed on you. Your servants are listening Lord, Speak to us. Teach us how to approach you, how to wait, to perserve , to consecrate ourselves. Because of Jesus we can come boldly before your throne , enter directly into the holy of holies, but yet somehow we seem to still be longing for your presence Lord,. We are told we are your children, children of the King of Kings, yet we fail to act like it. We believe, help our unbelief. Teach us what it looks like to worship in spirit and truth. Help us strip off any mindsets that keep us from worshipping you with total abandon. Help us to seek you till we find you and then to respond without a thought of pleasing anyone but you. What ever you desire Lord, that is what we want to give back. Teach us to take every breath you give us and turn it into praise and thanksgiving. In the past when your people humbled themselves, repented and cried out to you , you answered. you are the same God today as back then. We are deperately in need of your presence to lead us. We want to go where you go and stop when you stop. We don’t want to take one more step without you lighting the way. We have tried it our way and it only takes us so far, people want you Lord, they need you and anything short of that and they will just end up thirsty again. We know who you are ,and we are asking for living Water Lord. Your word says we have not because we ask not.. We are asking for more of you Lord . Come Let us adore you, you Lord are the desire of our hearts. We long for more of you.Amen
Yes, we humbly ask that You change us by Your holy power. We bow in sin, confession, repentance, expectation, and hope. Use us for Your glory and purposes alone, Lord Jesus.
Amen,
Deb Weaver
Beth, I hear your cry, I so understand what you are saying. I encourage you to read “God’s Favorite Place On Earth” by Frank Viola.
I am not a follower of author’s or what is popular but this book opens the sacred text like never before. I can not stress enough how every believer needs to hear this message that is unveiled from the scriptures through this book! Blessings to you in the name of Peerless worth.
We bow our hearts
We bend our knees
Oh Spirit come make us humble
We turn our eyes
From evil things
Oh Lord we cast down our idols
So give us clean hands
and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Oh give us clean hands
and give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Oh God let this be
a generation that seeks
Who seeks Your face, Oh God of Jacob
Lord, set a fire in my heart that I can’t control.
Prayed boldly with you. Amen!
Wow!! I am praying and believing God for this with you. Your words were like an echo in my heart because the Holy Spirit has been the topic of conversation with friends and Bible Study members this week. Rain on us!!
You penned the words that flood my heart. I long to see revival to spring up across the land. My heart aches for companions who will pray for fresh wind to blow across this tired and weary body of believers. We are so downtrodden with the cares of this world that we have forgotten that there is so much more. How can we make much of an impact ontheworld when we are so broken that no one wants what we have. Oh God hear our prayer pour your spirit out upon us reviving your own so that the lost will see an example of what a Real Christian looks like. You must impact your children before we can ever make an impact on those around us. Stir up the family of God and let us rise up instead of hiding in the stale and dusty churches scattered across the land. We cry out for new life that comes only from our relationship with the Holy Living God. Breathe fresh life into us Oh Lord.
Praying in His great Name!
YES!! I have been praying this too, Beth. Come, Holy Spirit, to all ages and groups, we pray.
Amen to that, Beth! I can tell you from my own experience that the Holy Spirit can just take over a person without warning and in the most unlikely places. I have no doubts that when the time is right…when it is the time God has determined, there will be a great outpouring of His Spirit. My gut feeling is that it will come in times of greatest persecution which this country has not seen yet. When I think of what has been going on in horrendous places like North Korea and China, I know that God has called many while persecutions are ongoing. It is just my humble opinion. I know that Billy and Franklin Graham have planned a huge revival that will take place soon. I think this might kick things off. Because the virgins need to be shaken awake out of their slumber.
Oh Beth.
May it be so in my heart, in our lives.
Thank you…
Oh Beth for months my spirit has cried out for revival. #lessonsfromgideon first week with the circle that Priscilla stood in and told of the evangelist who stood outside the city and prayed for revival to start in the circle first! Oh Yes my spirit cried! Oh Yes Beth my spirit cries out; for the forgiveness of holding God back by my own boundries; my worship back by my own tunes, I cannot let the Rocks cry out in worship nor can they cry out for revival. It is me Lord, pass me not oh gentle Savior, hear my humble cry; while on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by!!! Savior, Savior hear my humble cry… while on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by.
Yes… praying with you… and thank you for leading us by example. So grateful.
I’m praying with you…Lord Jesus, we pray for an awakening in our churches- that we would truly seek you instead of just “attend” church and think we’re good to go. Lord we ask that you would convict our hearts of anything that keeps us from serving you fully, convict our hearts of the stumbling blocks we put in front of others-through our words or our actions, and Lord, convict our hearts of anything we should not be allowing ourselves to be a part of. We pray that our congregations would want to “learn to know the God of our ancestors intimately.” We pray that the veil would be taken from those who are blinded. Lord please show us when we are getting in the way of the Holy Spirit. I pray that “the church” would allow your Spirit to move freely, and that we would follow, no matter how uncomfortable it may be. I pray that we (your people) would become more and more obedient to your voice and to your calling. Lord, thank you for taking our sin and allowing us to have a relationship with you.
Amen in every language, for every tribe. Amen.
God has laid such a burden on my heart for our once-great country and the state of it today. Only HE can lift us up out of the mire and mud that is bogging us down. Praying in total agreement with you tonight!
Reading this through tears, being reminded of these scriptures…
Luke 4:14-20
So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
Oh that we would again be “fixed on HIM”…and the GIFT He left in us!
Oh Lord, Let it be so NOW. Here. However. Whomever. Us. Me. Please Lord. Now.
Amen.
Deborah
Do your work in me LORD! Praying, Praying, Praying…..AMEN!
Thank you sweet Beth for your beautiful words. You are LOVED.
Elijah was sent to one widow and her family.
Jesus often healed one person, in the crowd.
Peter was sent to Caesarea to Cornelius family.
There are times when the crowd/nation is not ready for God so, he responds to those individuals that are.
When a godly person is available, he/she can be sent to: * pray for one person in ICU,
* encourage one family on the block,
* testify to one person in the busy airport.
Thanks to God for those that responded to the baby Moses, the harlot Rahab, blind Saul. God WILL send YOU (because you are ready) to that person crying for God’s help.
After reading this post, I opened the blinds (even though it is the middle of the night) just signifying and asking Him to start here and with an open me to His Holy Spirit and His new ways. Confessing sin with each pull of a cord to open my blinds, my closing off of His Spirit and asking Him to open me to new ways of the wind and downpour of His Spirit.
My Spirit resounds yes and amen to the cry of your heart. Two weeks ago (June 23rd) on the drive to church, I saw a barn with a flat top and then an opening and then another level and an opening and then another opening and then a cupola. I told my pastor, I felt like the Lord was saying that where we think there is a ceiling, He wants to raise the roof and then do it again and again. Oh Mama Beth, Yes and amen!!!
We’ve been singing a new-to-me song at our church: Holy Spirit You are Welcome Here by Brian & Katie Torwalt and I think I must go turn it on and pray it to the Lord and Holy Spirit.
I am praying along side you Beth. It is so encouraging to learn that so many other sisters are feeling the conviction of the Holy Spirit as well. As we all align our will to His, in obedience, His perfect will can be accomplished. Confession, repentance, discipleship. We must all be doers and not hearers only. Lord God, pour out all of me, and fill me entirely with your Holy Spirit, and may every member of your bride, the body of believers, join in unity calling for your Lordship. Praise, honor, and glory to the Holy name of Jesus! Amen
Here am I – send me…
Amen!Praying with you.
Praying alongside you!
Our church is in the beginning week of 40 days of prayer of seeking the face of God. Thank you for articulating what has been stirring in many hearts. Holy Spirit, rain down your love and power on this land and draw us and the lost to the glorious Son of God.
Amen and amen- make me willing Lord, strip away my security blankets and free me to be utterly used by you as you desire- your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.
Not longer than 30 minutes ago I was in my closet on my knees, wholly surrendering to the LORD, longing, crying out for the Holy Spirit. And then I read this message…. Oh how I pray right along with you from the deepest places in my heart, soul and spirit!
Most Christians in one way or another are praying this prayer….Are we truly ready? It is my prayer that God will make us ready. Thanks, Beth and Amen!
Praying with you my dear sister.
Wow…. and AMEN!
We patiently on God to perfect His words in our life.To Him alone be the glory.
Praying in agreement. Only in His strength and power. Trying to get myself out of the way.
This is my prayer also.
Yes, Father, yes. Forgive me for my pride, forgive me for wanting You to do things my way, forgive me for wanting to be comfortable. Move me, use me, do whatever You chose to do. Open the floodgates of Heaven, move in a way that we have never seen. I stand in agreement with my precious sisters, Holy Spirit rain down on us all. In the precious name of our living Savior, Amen
Lord, I didn’t cry … my heart didn’t pound … and I am quick to fear unnecessary things because neither occurred. But oh, how this prayer reflects me … I want revival on my terms. But Lord, this world is so broken, there are so many thirsty people out there. Please unite my heart to yours 100%. Please bring unity with my husband in this longing. Whatever the cost, Jesus, come down on us and let your holy fire consume us. Set our eyes on the Hope of Heaven. Fill my wandering heart with your grace, let your Holy Spirit fall upon my heart, my marriage, my workplace, my city, my nation, and this world. Father – as a decision of the will, not of my emotions, I choose to believe You for wondrous things. I choose to believe You love us, You love me – and that Your ways are not mine and that is a very good thing. Don’t leave us, Don’t forsake us. Come, Lord Jesus!
Tammy
Read this before rising out of bed. Awestruck at how much He truly loves us! We need Him more than ever. Praying for revival to begin in me and spread to my family. Jesus knows the depths of my heart and loves me the same… that is LOVE. Rain on earth Lord Your precious Holy Spirit!!!
Amen and Amen Lord please bring revival to us , our towns, our nation, and our world. We hunger for you. Stir up such a hunger for you that we are in Your word more and praying more. For You are what we need in our everyday life and deep in our souls. Lord we thank You now for what You are about to do.
Amen! That is the cry of my heart and for my church! Grant it Jesus! Thank you Beth!
“For many of us who have felt the breezes of revival stirring, we can’t often define how the Holy Spirit is working or explain the difference between one gathering and the next.” Yes, Lord. Thank you Beth for this beautiful blog post. You said exactly how I have been feeling.
Cfrying. Yearning. Begging. Pleading. Waiting. Fighting. Believing. Expecting.
Amen.
Lord, I have heard the report about You;
Lord, I stand in awe of Your deeds.
Revive Your work in these years;
make it known in these years.
In Your wrath remember mercy! Hab 3:2
Yes!!! I stand in agreement with that prayer Beth! I was watching Priscilla’s Gideon DVD yesterday where she talked about praying for revival but praying that it would start with me. I drew my circle and prayed “Lord let it be….let a revival swell up within me that would be so full of your Spirit that it flows out of me and causes others in my circle to want to know you”.
May revival and repentance be more important than my reputation. I long to surrender and yet hold back. Show me the way to let go, to follow unconditionally, to love all. Lord, I do believe, HELP my unbelief. Bring YOUR revival to all…especially my heart.
Oh God, hear our prayers to you. You said if YOUR people who are called by Your name would humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways that you would hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land. God, our land needs healing. Please start with me. I love you God, and you are my rock and my deliverer. Thank you for hearing us.
Wow Beth. That spoke to me. I needed to hear this and I prayed the prayer with you. God, please work in such a mighty way that we can’t even imagine. Our nation and our world needs YOU.
Beth, this was beautiful and I could almost hear your voice, filled with passion, declaring this plea. Thank you for inspiring us to be bold in our prayers and petitions.
Never doubt that the Holy Spirit is doing great work through you, my friend, I am “living proof”.
Love you, Sista.
Joy