Personal Revival

1) Get thoroughly dissatisfied with yourself. Complacency is the deadly enemy of spiritual progress. The contented soul is a stagnant soul.

2) Set your face like a flint toward a sweeping transformation of your life.  Timid experiments are tagged for failure before they start. We must throw our whole soul into our desire for God.

3) Put yourself in the way of blessing. It’s a mistake to expect God’s help to come as a windfall apart from conditions known and met.  To desire revival, and at the same time to neglect prayer and devotion, is to wish one way and walk another.

4) Do a thorough job of repenting. Hasty repentance means a shallow spiritual experience. Let godly sorrow do her healing work. It is our wretched habit of tolerating sin that keeps us in our half-dead condition.

5) Make restitution wherever possible. If you owe a debt pay it. If you have quarreled with anyone, go as far as you can to achieve reconciliation. As fully as possible, make the crooked straight.

6) Bring your life into accord with the Sermon on the Mount and other such New Testament Scriptures as are designed to instruct in the way of righteousness. An honest man with an open Bible and a pad and pencil is sure to find out what’s wrong with him quickly.

7) Be serious minded. The people of the world used to go to the movies to escape serious thinking about God and religion. There must be a radical change in your habits, or there will not be any permanent improvement in your interior life.

8) Deliberately narrow your interests. Too many projects use up time and energy without bringing us nearer to God.  The mansions of the heart will become larger when the doors are thrown open to Christ and closed against the world and sin.

9) Begin to witness. Find something to do for God, and your fellowman. Make yourself available. Do anything you are asked to do. Learn to obey.

10) Have faith in God. Begin to expect. Look up toward the throne. All heaven is on your side. God will not disappoint you.

These suggestions constitute a formula for personal revival. When personal revival is experienced, there is no knowing how far it may spread. The Church is in desperate need of a spiritual resurrection and it can only come through the revived individual.

Do you wish to be an instrument in the hands of God? Do you want to see God's power at work through you? Do you long for your prayers to be answered? If you do, then the barrier of sin between you and God must be demolished and a lifestyle of holiness and love for God renewed. Though you are pardoned and placed eternally in Christ, God chooses to bring discipline and to allow ineffectiveness in the lives of his erring children. To be restored, spiritual surgery must take place.

Personal revival begins when the believer faces his sin honestly. Though painful, only honesty with God and others will enable the Christian to walk in purity and power. The following resolves are not a formula but are required of every believer. Humbly pray and search your own heart. Trusting in God, begin this moment to repent and return to Him. Pay any price to be a means of spiritual renewal to others.

1) Repent Of Every Known Sin

'Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous
therefore, and repent. Revelation 3:19 (NAS)

Resolved: I will not go to bed this evening nor live this day without fully repenting of all known sin against God. (James 4:4-10; 2 Corinthians 7:10)

2) Forsake All Questionable Habits and Activities

For whatever is not from faith is sin. Romans 14:23b

Resolved: I will not to go to bed this evening nor live this day without removing from my life every habit or activity I cannot be absolutely sure is approved by God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)

3) Make Right Any Wrongs between Yourself and Others.

"If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Matthew 5:23-24

Resolved: I will not to go to bed this evening nor live this day without doing all that is possible to correct any wrongs between myself and others. (Matthew 6:14-15; Matthew 18:15-35; Romans 12:17-21; Colossians 3:12-15)

4) Commune With God In Prayer And Be Personally Instructed Through His Word.

Pray without ceasing; 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Revive me, O LORD, according to Thy word. Psalms 119:107b

Resolved: I will not to go to bed this evening nor live this day without spending quiet moments with God in prayer and sincerely meditating on His Word. (I Peter 2:2-3; 1 John 5:14-17)

5) Trust God To Use You As His Specially Designed Tool For Revival In Others.

My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth, and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins. James 5:19-20

Resolved: I will not to go to bed this evening nor live this day without asking and expecting God to use me as an effective instrument of revival in someone's life. (Jude 22-23; 1 Peter 4:11; Psalms 51:10-13)

Review these resolves daily until your thinking conforms to holiness, and your life is revived and useful. Never fail to apply them.

·         If you weaken in your desire and intensity for holiness, do not give up and return to a half-hearted, selfish life. Repent of your apathetic heart and lack of love to God immediately and continue. Holiness improves this life and the one to come. Do not let the enemy of God take advantage of you by giving him time to build strongholds. Resist him and he will flee from you.

·         Ask God to bring some like-hearted friends with whom you may share struggles, discoveries, and victories on the road to holiness. Pray together seriously for revival in others. Remind each other of these resolves. Make honesty and repentance your creed. Admonish each other with humility. Speak the truth to each other in love. Do not doubt the value of such a gathering or God's ability to use you. God will guide you.

·         Seek also to encourage others outside your groups to submit to God and to obey these same biblical disciplines for revival. Actively pursue holiness in others.

·         Expect God to use you now and to make you even more effective in the future by His own perfect methods for transforming your life and renewing your mind.

·         At all times avoid religious pride.

 Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. Psalm 139:23-24