Revival: Prayer Precedes Revival

Prayer Precedes Revival

Have you ever found yourself asking…

“God, where are You?”

Maybe you’ve prayed it quietly after another difficult week.

Maybe you’ve prayed it while watching someone you love walk away from God.

Maybe you’ve prayed it as you’ve looked around our nation, our schools, our families, or even your own heart and wondered…

“Lord… why don’t we see what they saw in Scripture?”

We read about fire falling from heaven.

We read about dry bones coming to life.

We read about prison doors opening, cities turning to Jesus, thousands being saved in a single day.

Then we look at our own lives and wonder…

Where is that God today?

The interesting thing is that every generation has asked that question.

The prophets asked it.

The disciples asked it.

The Church has asked it throughout history.

And when we ask that question, our instinct is almost always the same.

We begin looking for the next great preacher.

The next worship song.

The next conference.

The next strategy.

The next program.

As if revival is something we can produce if we just discover the right formula.

But every genuine revival in history has one thing in common.

Before there was a move of God…

…there was a people who became desperate for God.

Before Pentecost…

they prayed.

Before fire fell on Mount Carmel…

Elijah prayed.

Before Nineveh repented…

someone prayed.

Before the Welsh Revival…

before the Great Awakenings…

before every great movement of God…

there were ordinary people on their knees, acknowledging they could not accomplish in their own strength what only God could do.

Big Moves of God often start is small prayer closets

Because prayer has never been about convincing a reluctant God to act.

Prayer has always been about transforming a dependent people.

Maybe prayer isn’t simply asking God to move.

Maybe prayer prepares us for the move of God.

1.) Prayer Prepares ME for Revival

The preparation for REVIVAL is PERSONAL….

Look at how David prays

Psalm 51:10

“10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

he doesn’t say.. IN US, IN OUR PEOPLE>.. He says IN ME….

Before God Revives a community, a church… there is a humble prayer by an individual…. GOD RENEW ME… SEE ME, MEET WITH ME… I am desperate for you.

You can be excited about an event, but the power is in PRAYER

Revival starts with INDIVIDUAL SURRENDER

There’s was a young man… 26 years old named Evan, Evan was in a pre service prayer meeting when consumed by his desperation for the Holy Spirit He prayed 2 simple words…. Over and over again..

-BEND ME-

Evan wasn’t praying for Revival…. He was praying surrender, through those two words, Evan had a dream of seeing 100,000 people accepting Jesus…. Through two words the Welsh Revival was born and shaped the faith of nearly the entire world.

Big Moves of God, start in small prayers of SURRENDER

Psalm 139:23–24

“23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Prayer is an INVITATION for God to reveal things we cannot see and lead us into a future we do not know….. ITS SURRENDER

Prayer is depending on HIM, seeking HIM… KNOWING HIM… and I believe this is why when individuals pray, a community experiences revival

Psalm 63:1

“1 You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.”

I want to caution you… don’t be more excited to attend Revival Nights than you are to meet with GOD…. We are seeking GOD, not an event…. We are thirsting for His Spirit not the things of this world….

This is what Revival Sounds Like…

It’s not in the music, its not in the preaching…

It’s the Personal Prayers that utter.

I surrender

Bend me

Search me

Cleanse me

Test me

Send me

Revival starts in a HUMBLE HEART before it spreads to MANY HEARTS

2.) Prayer Positions us for Revival

Personal Prayer changes an individual

Corporate prayer changes the atmosphere….

Joel 2:12–16

“12 ‘Even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.’ 13 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. 14 Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing— grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God. 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. 16 Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.

The call was to the PEOPLE…. The assembly…

He calls everyone to prayer, to fasting, why… .

Revival is not built on the stage, rather by praying people at the altar.

Preaching MAY move people…. Prayer ALWAYS moves God,

So Joel calls the people to PRAY, and look at the promise of God at then end of the chapter

Joel 2:28

“28 ‘And afterwards, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.”

A praying church is the starting place for God to pour out HIS spirit on ALL PEOPLE… if we are going to truly embrace the call to be a church for all people… that every man woman and child would hear the gospel…. It doesn’t start in the parking lot… it starts in prayer at the altar…. Then it flows to the parking lot

**KEYS HERE**

Prayer UNITES the church!

Acts 1:14

“14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”

BEFORE there was PENTECOST…. THERE was a unified church

The anointing flows where unity grows…

Prayer doesn’t simply invite GOD… it aligns God’s people

Prayer softens hearts, removes pride, promotes forgiveness and releases the spirit

3.) Prayer Releases Revival for ALL PEOPLE

I want to circle back to Joel for minute

Joel 2:28

“28 ‘And afterwards, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.”

Since day 1 Venture has hoped to be a church for all people… since day 1 we have been a church that loves all people, but now there is a deeper call… not that we could host all people, not even that we could love all people…

But that HE would pour out HIS SPIRIT ON ALL PEOPLE… that every man woman and child in the low country would experience the tangible and life changing presence of GOD

SALVATION:

You knowing God… having a connection with God isn’t found in religion… it’s found in one simply prayer… confess that Jesus is Lord, believing that God raised him from the dead… its a personal prayer that changes everything

CHARGE

So what do we do….

2 Chronicles 7:14

“14 if my people, who are called by my name, will 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.”

Humble/pray/ seek me/ repent.

I’m asking you to join me in 2 weeks of prayer that will start right now…

-cards/qr code

ALTAR… I believe revival begins with a praying church at the altar…

-prayers on the screen