If My People

This past week we held revival services at our church. The speaker spoke on 2 Chronicles 7:14. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Each night he broke down part of the verse for us. The first night we talked about “If my people.” We talked about when Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?” in John 21. As saved people we are supposed to have a supreme love, a suffering love, and a submitting love for God. In this verse in 2 Chronicles, God is talking to His people. It is those of us who must heed to God’s word if we want revival. If we want revival, we as God’s people have to change.

Night two we talked about, “shall humble themselves.” He broke “humble” down like this.

Humility – We can’t have revival without humility. It is hard for      God to use us if we are not humble.

Unity – We must be united as a church. We should be like geese. (research geese and how they travel) It is pretty amazing how they stay together as a group and help each other. If one goes down, two go with.  Our church should be that way.

Missions – We all have a mission field. It is everyone’s responsibility to share Jesus.

Boldness – We should have boldness and share Jesus like Peter in Acts 4:31. Our churches are not growing because we are not being bold. We need to get out of our comfort zones.

Love – We should have love like we talked about the first night, like God did in John 3:16.

Eternal – We need not forget what it took to get eternal life. It took humility. As God’s people, we need to continue to humble ourselves so we can share the gift of eternal life with others.

Night three was on “Prayer.” We as God’s children have fallen asleep, just like the disciples in Matthew 26:36-46. We need to wake up and pray.

Why should we pray? It is our communication line with God. We should pray to confess, pray to thank Him, pray for others and pray for ourselves.

How should we pray? Anywhere and anytime, with humility, believing, and in Jesus’ name. We should always pray from our heart, asking for His will to be done.

When should we pray? Now! We should pray in times of trouble, sorrow, need, or rejoicing. It is time to wake up and pray.

Night Four we talked about “seek my face.” What are we putting first in our lives? Is it our profession, our wealth, or even our pleasures? Whatever we do, we should seek God in it. If God can’t be found we shouldn’t be there either.

We should humble ourselves and seek God because He will humble us if we don’t. He can take away anything we put in place of Him. We tend to get in our comfort zones and forget to seek Him. We become conformed to the world instead of transformed by God.

We should be ambassadors for Christ. So we can be that light for the world to see. We should be serving through our church, helping others and praying for each other. If we aren’t seeking God first we will miss out on His blessings.

Night Five we talked about “turn from your wicked ways.” We may not think we have wicked ways, but we are all sinners and sin is wicked. We may think our sin is hidden and doesn’t affect anyone else, but we learned in Joshua 7:1-26 how Achan’s sin affected the whole camp. When we have sin in our lives it affects us and everyone around us, even our church.

God told Joshua to “get up” in verse 10. That is what we need to do is get up. God has given us the plan for revival. We have to humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways; then God will hear us and forgive us and heal our country. Revival has to start with God’s people for us to see a change in our nation.