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.
Praying WITH you. Longing and waiting….
Praying in agreement..send it now, Lord!..we beg you!
My husband and I have been praying for a fresh wind for months now. Come, Lord Jesus!
Praying this morning ….please forgive us Father, for our sin, for denying who You are, for not glorifying you , for falling away from our God and from who this country was created to honor and praise. Please, Lord, come! Bring a revival! Help us to love you, to put you on the throne of our lives, to love Your Word, and to Honor and Glorify You!!! Lord God Almighty, you are Holy! I praise you! Have mercy and grace on your people. Bring a revival and glorify yourself! In Jesus’ Name, Amen
Beth thank you for pouring out your heart. Your prayer is my pray! I’m in Jesus!
Amen & Amen
“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.”
Oh my….I LOVE that you wrote this. I got such a powerful nugget from God yesterday (while I was in the shower and totally not thinking about anything). He not only whispered to my spirit, but He drew it out for me in the steam. It was so real I had to take pictures. The message, “You are pregnant with my Spirit that will burst forth and overflow onto many. There were 4 different pictures that represented each part of the message. His revival is definitely on its way!!
Amen, Lord Jesus. Break our hearts to be broken for you…mend them with Your healing balm and let us participate in however manner You see fit—embarrassing or other. I want to be YOURS Lord and I want You for others.
Come Lord Jesus, quickly come.
Sandra Borgen, Lidgerwood, ND “But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.” Romans 6:22 NKJV
Right there with you! Come Lord Jesus Come!! Open the flood gates of Heaven!!
Praying with you!
Praying tonight and daily and passing this along!
NIV Palms 105:4. Seek The Lord and his strength; seek His presence continually.
Shove the obstacles out of the way and COME, Lord Jesus!!! Amen. Thank you for leading me in prayer today, mama Beth.
Thank you for your heart, your vulnerability and your example. Holy Spirit have your way!
Yes, Lord. Yes. Praying these same words in total agreement. In Jesus mighty name, Amen.
yes, Lord, bring your Spirit among us today. Work as only you can, and revive us again.
Amen!
Start with me Lord start with me…
Amen and Amen
Tears flow, this echoes the cry of my very soul. Rain down, Lord Jesus. Come.
Amen. A weeping and resounding AMEN.
Amen.
Thank you~so good to hear from you in this way. Thank you Lord,your influence covers the earth!!!
Psalm 84:2
My soul longs, yes, even faints
For the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
My heart and flesh cry out for the living God!! I love this verse.
Thank you for sharing what you are learning and longing for Beth!
Amen, sister! Thank you for putting in to word what has been on my heart. Here I am Lord, send me.
“For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.” Is. 61:11
Father, let the planting principle be fulfilled. Let all that is Your kingdom come into being and increase on earth as it is in Heaven. And let us all rejoice when it happens! In the precious name of Jesus, Amen!
Dear Sweet Beth,
The Lord knows who He needs to be like Joshua and lead an army and there is no doubt, that is you!! Just not having to keep going around that mountain. And that is what we are doing! Just like that old song “She’ll Be Comin Around That Mountain When She Comes” I may not own stripped pajamies, but I do know thing are changing in my life. So you are not alone in wanting a revival. Yes I too need forgiveness for not taking the Holy Spirit more seriously and then when I do have an encounter, I’m excited and then move on. Ever since I was a child I have loved a Thunder Storm!! Yes I have been considered weird. But the harder the rain and louder the thunder, the more safe I would feel inside my home. I even get all fuzzy inside when I know when one is coming. So it doesn’t surprise me when my shout out prayer is the words to the song:
“Holy Spirit Rain Down”
Holy Spirit rain down, rain down.
Oh comforter and friend, how we need your touch again.
Holy Spirit rain down, rain down.
Let Your Power fall, let Your voice be heard.
Come and change our hearts, as we stand on Your Word.
Holy Spirit rain down, rain down.
No eyes have seen, nor ear have heard, no mind can know
what God has in store.
So open up heaven, open it wide, over Your church, and over our lives.
In Jesus Name…Amen
Thank you for your obedience. Praying with you in one accord! Praying for a flood!
Oh my heart is weeping. I had this very feeling and burden and prayed something very similar to this this morning. I have had this desire for sometime now and I am in awe and amazed to see the Lord at work in believers! It brings such great encouragement to see you pen your heart today! I too pray with you this prayer. I live in a small farm community. I have visions of little camp fires along the plains that grow into one big fire. I have had this vision for a year now. I am excited to see how God will fan the flames! Standing with you in Montana!
Oh yes! Father God, by the blood of your Son, send your Spirit! Soon! Please! May we get out of the way. May we not complain at the whatever it takes. Oh that we could see your Spirit without boundaries.
YES, love everything you said! My church is echoing this same heart cry and I believe Holy Spirit is preparing all of us for revival in the earth…have your way Oh Lord!
Sister, I’m in. Praying for a huge revival. My heart is excited!
Beautiful. Praying along with you, Beth. Thank you for obeying the Spirit’s calling to post this today.
AMEN and AMEN!! Maranatha, come Lord Jesus!
Amen!! Joining you in this prayer!
Yes! Thank you, Beth. Praying with you. I’ve waited a long time for this.
Amen.
This is so timely. You don’t even know. Talking and praying about this in our small group. Thank you. Really. Thank you!
Oh what a prayer! Oh what a prayer. I have had such a hard time untangling feelings and thoughts in my soul and these words spoke directly to me in such a moving way. I am so thankful! Amen!!
I am so blessed to see the greater body of Christ coming together in complete unity to echo this prayer! May God be glorified! Yes, come Lord Jesus!
Thank you Beth.
Dear Beth, I prayed something similar to this two years ago. After that I saw my life turned upside down and inside out. I was moved and shaken, and so were the lives of many people I knew. I had one of the worst things happen to me after I prayed, but the relationship I have with my Jesus through all of it was worth all the pain. My heartache now is there seems more left to be done. I know what you mean about reveal being at our door but not making it in. I’m praying with you and for you dear sister. We are so thirsty for you Holy Spirit. May we open wide the door of our hearts for Your will, Oh Holy Father.
Love you Dear Beth
Praying along with you!! My memory verse is “You are the God who performs miracles; You display your Power among the peoples!” I come in agreement with you and all the Siestas for the miracle of the Holy Spirit to fill us so full and all the people will say “Hey I want some of that!” I pray for such an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that addictions are broken and the lost and hurting are overcome with the Love that only Jesus can give! They will Not be able to deny His Love for them! Love wins ALL the time! No matter what the circumstances look like! We will trust You Lord! And watch with expectation to the Miracles you have in store for us! Show us your Power and we will be sure to brag on You!! We Love you and Thank you so much!!
In Jesus’ name I pray! Amen!!
Beth as soon as I began to read this the presence of The Holy Spirit was overwhelming!!! Recently
I have had such an aching heart for those who don’t know Jesus ( like I’ve never had before), praying He would some how stir their hearts with just the mention of his name to their ears! Your words are truth and they come from Him to awaken souls to be saved !!!!! March on!!!
Preach it, sista! I’m clapping and shouting from California!
Yes and Amen!
Yes Lord and Amen! Praying in total agreement.
And, Lord, begin at my house.
Amen and Amen!
Break open my heart, Lord, with the things that break your heart. Give me a greater, deeper, wider, richer capacity to love. Bring revival to me…and let it be infectious. Rain down, Lord Jesus.
“Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever” ~Philemon 1:15 NIV
Pick me! Pick me!
Hes getting US ready….you have our attention Father-we cry YES!!!!
Prayers for this to happen. It is coming, I assure you. The rains are here. I smell them, I see them and the bank of the headwaters of the Missippi overflow here in Minnesota that run its length of this country. The heavens are clamoring. There are many prophetic words that the LORD has spoken to me through Himself and others that have been confirmed in this prayer and outpouring. It is of His Spirit. LORD, let it be so. LORD, You know what you put forth from her soul and I know what it means. To Your glory, LORD. I praise You and thank You for your servant, Beth and I will serve You in the fullness of Your Spirit to do what You desire in Holy flood and fire. I praise You for my freedom from denomination and the depth and heights You have made Yourself known. May they all know You as you set our feet upon Zion to know the fullness of Life. This is the day.