Scripture: 2 Chronicles 7:12-15
12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people, 14 and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.
LISTENING NOTES:
Psalm 85:6 said, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”
Isaiah 57:15 declares, “to revive the heart of the contrite.”
Habakkuk 3:2 prays, “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known…”
Biblical revival happens to God’s people determine to follow God’s plan.
Revival will come if…
1. We are Humble
James Hunter said, “We Americans generally want to think of ourselves as good people. That, in many respects, is where the trouble begins.”
James 4:6 says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
2. We are Prayerful
Jesus taught His disciples to pray by beginning with the greatness of God and then focusing on our needs.
3. We Seek Him
The idea of seeking implies a desire for something of great value.
Psalm 27:8, “My heart says of you, ‘Seek His face!’ Your face, Lord, I will seek.”
4. We Turn from Sin
This is where our “wills” must engage and take action.
Stephen Olford wrote, “to have defilement in our hands, to have dissension in our spirits, and to have doubting in our hearts is to cancel out all effectiveness in prayer.”
God always intends for revival to start with His people.