Awakening Favors the Prepared Heart

Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? 6 Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? 7 Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.

Psalms 85:5-7 KJV

Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. 7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:6-7 KJV

Louis Pasteur said: "Chance favors the prepared mind." I don’t know exactly what Pasteur meant by this statement but I think it’s safe to say that he didn’t believe in chance or luck or destiny – he believed in preparation.

It doesn’t take a new believer long to recognize that scripture doesn’t support these ideas either. We find very quickly in the Bible that God is a God of immense order and there are no accidents with Him. Nothing in our lives or in the entire universe happens by chance or takes Him by surprise. He is unquestionably in control!

There is, however, a misunderstanding within even some of the most well studied of believers that revival or awakening in the church is a random event and that one can only hope to be in the right place at the right time to receive it. Of course awakening is and always will be a “sovereign move of God” as it has often been called, but because it is “sovereign” does not mean it is random.

Scripturally, awakening happens in the lives of those who desire it. EVERY TIME! When men and women deeply desire a move of God in their lives they receive it. EVERY TIME! I have searched the Book exhaustively to find one single person in the Bible who truly wanted to be revived, renewed or awakened and did not receive. They are not there. In fact, there are a few instances where people seemed to be oblivious to God altogether yet were moved upon because God chose them! Abraham and Moses both resemble this scenario.

Now to be fair, there are a few times when God’s judgment was poured out and people hastily decided to “seek the LORD” too late, but no righteous person who wants God to move in their life has ever been denied. They may not receive exactly what they want, but if they want what God desires they may have it, again, EVERY TIME!

I submit that there is revival happening in our nation and our world. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of people who are genuinely seeking God in America and seeing Him move mightily in their lives.

At the same time, there are multitudes of believers who claim to want revival but want it only on their own terms. They can’t see what God is doing because they are blinded by what He isn’t doing. Until they see what they want (and only what they want) they will never believe revival has come. Then, of course, there are also those who would rather curse the darkness than turn on the light. It’s easier to complain that there is no move of God than to allow God to move and make the kinds of changes true revival always makes.

I am absolutely convinced that one last great awakening will take place in these last days and I believe it is already beginning to happen. I am also absolutely convinced that many who have preached the need for revival will not recognize it or want it if they have an opportunity to receive it.

There are no accidents in God’s Kingdom. You will receive from God because you have prepared your spirit to receive from God. He may or may not heal your sickness, but He will revive your spirit. He may or may not supernaturally pay off your debts but he will revive your spirit. He may or may not cause your church to explode from twenty to twenty-thousand but He will revive your spirit. And when your spirit is revived, souls will be saved, lives will be touched and gifts will begin to surface in you and in those around you.

I don’t know if chance favors the prepared mind or not, but I do know that scripturally awakening favors the prepared heart.

My all time favorite quote is from Leonard Ravenhill who said, "The only reason we don't see revival is because we're willing to live without it.” I, for one, am not willing to live without it and neither should you be!

Awakening Within

"If anyone acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will openly acknowledge that person before my Father in heaven. 33 But if anyone denies me here on earth, I will deny that person before my Father in heaven. 34 "Don't imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! No, I came to bring a sword. 35 I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 Your enemies will be right in your own household! 37 If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. 38 If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. 39 If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will find it.”

Matthew 10:32-39 NLT

True spiritual awakening does not happen corporately until it first comes personally. Those who would seek a revival of the church or the lost world must secure their own revival of the soul to begin with. Just as we can never win others to the Savior until we have first been won ourselves, you should not expect the church and the world, which are both in religious languor as a whole, to be ignited with flames of revival unless the fire first begins in you.

The truth is, most people who cry for revival would neither recognize it nor want it if it came to them. Revival turns men inside-out; causes conviction of sins that even most churchmen are not willing to admit or renounce; causes confession to be made of the sins of the heart; and causes repentance, redemption and restoration to come about. True revival is painful and wonderful at the same time so most people will do without the wonder to avoid the pain.

Revival separates too. Those who hunger for God will often be abandoned by those who have been their closest friends. The nominal and unrighteous cannot and will not be near a man or woman who is drinking deeply from the wells of God. The cold begins to thaw if they stay too long in the presence of God’s fiery passion.

Too soon are they without excuse for their superficial faith and they find no firmness in the trappings and conventions of religion which are the only moorings for their shallow beliefs. When they can no longer trust alone in standard churchism, they will flee the person who has found God living in the sanctuary of the heart rather than only in the sanctuary of the church.

But do not be discouraged. Though we must begin to have awakening in the privacy of our own spirit, God never leaves us alone for long. Just like Elijah who said,

"I have zealously served the LORD God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I alone am left, and now they are trying to kill me, too." 1 Kings 19:10 NLT

But God told him,

…I will preserve seven thousand others in Israel who have never bowed to Baal or kissed him! 1 Kings 19:18 NLT

Awakening WILL come to those who hunger for God and seek Him, dedicate themselves to His Word and His will, and are willing to trade the earthly for the eternal. We should not fear personal awakening or dread corporate revival. We should rather embrace God’s desire to turn us from religious (or secular) robots into life giving, spirit-led children of God.

Let it begin in you!