Our church has just come through Revival Services earlier this week. I know that some people love revivals and some people do not and that is fine – I am not out to change anyone’s opinion today.. In our services the speaker was excellent as he shared the word of God clearly, he was low pressure, presented in an interesting way, not long winded, and you could sense the Spirit of God when he spoke. God really did a fantastic job through him and you could sense the Spirit in the services.
Each night when the speaker would close, he would give a three point invitation - the first was salvation, the second was church membership, and the third was changing an area of life which depended on what he preached on in the service. We had a few people come forward in the first couple of service for various reasons but the Spirit of God really opened the floodgates the last two nights of services.
The speaker spoke the next to last night on the need for repentance in the believers life. He used this verse from 2 Chronicles 7:14 that most are very familiar with – and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. The phrase “turn from their evil ways” means to repent which was the focus of the message and the message was powerful. It was humbling at the end of the service that night for me to be praying with all people who were repenting and “turning from the their evil ways”. It was an awesome time at the altar of the church.
He spoke the last night of the revival to families. He asked that everyone sit with their family – we canceled our children’s program and had the kids in there. It again was a powerful service with powerful songs and with a powerful message on the sin of David with Bathsheba – it was called “One look was all it took”. At the end was the same three point invitation with the third point being for families to rededicate themselves back to God. Again, it was honestly and truly humbling to have a full altar of families together praying, seeking God, and rededicating themselves back to Him. I had the privilege of praying with many of these families – it was humbling and powerful.
In all of the good that happened in those services – “if nothing changes, nothing changes”. I pray that those who came forward begin to make the changes that the Lord laid of their hearts. I pray that anytime the Lord puts something on any of our hearts to change – that we would do what He calls us to. The sad thing to me is that many people talk all about changing their lives but never follow through with it. They talk about changing but yet they do not do nothing that the Lord tells them for various reasons like – they feel they cannot, it is too hard, or simply fear. Any way you cut it, they feel like they cannot make the change and so they do not and it is very sad.
I pray that all those who came forward and prayed and sought the Lord at the revival – make godly changes. I pray all of us who have the Lord leading us to change – make the godly changes. Let us make sure we are making the changes we need to make to be who the Lord wants us to be – no excuses.
I love to hear these stories. I agree with you that people need to take the next step. God took the step of making His word pierce those hearts. The next question is what are we to do with the Gospel? Things need to change!
What a great and true statement, “if nothing changes, nothing changes.” It sounds like God is doing some great things in your area. I pray the fire of God will continue to increase.
It’s easy to become distracted in this busy, visual world. Glad to hear that families were rededicating their lives.