Today, response is shared to the article (14 August 2017) The 1st Truth the Church Needs For Revival! posted by M R Charles (Rwanda) in his Mugisha Thoughts Blog - Change Obey Endure Project™ - at wordpress.com. Revival for the church of Jesus Christ is a sacred operation to assess and declare spiritual needs within the body, to prepare developing believers for a falling of the Holy Ghost as well as one to invoke and welcome a fresh outpouring of divine gifts. It may be more correct to say that prayer is one of the fruits from revival, rather than revival being one of the fruits from prayer. The following except was shared:
When prayer becomes the engine, not the caboose, of our ministry efforts then our churches become an unstoppable train that advance the Gospel in unimaginable ways!
To experience this we must learn how to pray with passion, focus and faith. We must pray for the lost. We must pray for each other. We must pray for this nation. We must pray for the world. We must pray that God intervenes to break up the hard soil of unregenerate hearts and send forth seed-chuckers who will spread his message everywhere to everyone!
Let’s wake up to the need to pray!
Written by Greg Stier
THE GOLDEN ARROW: Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. (James 5: 13-20, King James Version, KJV)
THE DOUBLE DAGGER: Meanings for “Apostolic Church” (05/08/2017); Sin Must Be Personal (04/29/2016); Confession and The Cross (03/25/2016); Prayer in Public? (02/24/2015); Saved by a Prayer? (10/31/2014); Is Prayer an Act of Faith? (11/01/2014); Perfection and Prayer? (08/27/2014); Before Getting Baptized? (11/28/2013); The Rich in Divine Relationship? (11/29/2013)
“Mugisha”, speaking in oneness without sameness and the authority of one believer to another, my first thoughts in response to the call for prayer being made in your blog was to caution myself that to pray is more than simply to ask that GOD give and supply whatever might be our sacred desires and needs. In fact, I thought, that may be one of our greatest weaknesses, understanding prayer as primarily a process of petitioning divinity. Prayer also can be continuous conversation and dialog with divinity, inquiry for guidance and knowledge, praise, and thanksgiving. Surely where confession and sorrowing for sin are not thought more essential as the wellspring of revival, the church tends to center upon carnal and material goals for increased membership, fund raising, and social activity (i.e., business as usual). The call for revival should emerge from the assessment of spiritual health and maturity within the body, not merely a calendar of events, or inquiry asking, how long has it been since the last…?
Both through regular prayer and revival, there should be acknowledgment of the ongoing judgment and refocus on the promises of GOD. Thereby, the process, proclamation, and fulfillment of prophecy will be maintained in our view as our answer from GOD in Christ. I hesitated to share any comment, because I thought my motives might be misunderstood, and received as argumentative, interference, or meddling. Perhaps, because my goal is to edify, the following from the holy writings will clarify what it is that needs to be said:
(1.) Ezra 9: 5-8, King James Version (KJV): 5 And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God, 6 And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. 7 Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day. 8 And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.
(2.) Nehemiah 9: 1-3, KJV: 1 Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them. 2 And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. 3 And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the LORD their God.
(3.) Daniel 9: 4-10, KJV: 4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my
confession, and said, O LORD, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; 5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: 6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7 O LORD, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. 8 O LORD, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. 9 To the LORD our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; 10 Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
There is far more to be said, correctly examined, and spiritually apprehended. (For example, (4.) 1st John 1: 5-10, KJV: 5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.) Even so, I trust this fragment will be useful. Be it unto you according to your faith.
THE BLACK PHOENIX
Washington, DC
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