From the prayer room
I had allocated some time to spend in prayer at our Resource Centre today and I must admit the first hour sped by but I just didn't feel I was hearing God say anything. It was tempting to give up but I've learned that it is important to push through those feelings.
Gradually I realised that a phrase from Roy Hessions book We would see Jesus that I had read earlier was the key to what God wanted to show me.
"Revival in it's essence is nothing more than finding Jesus again."
Some friends and I have been discussing of late how repentance is such a key component of revival. What has been bothering me is how we get to that place. We can preach sermons to make people feel guilty and try to push people into it or we can present repentance as a button to press in order for God to deliver revival results. Neither of these seem very satisfactory to me and we would probably have to repent ourselves of being manipulative.
It hit me today that we are starting in the wrong place and it is all so simple really. We need to see Jesus. It was seeing that led Isaiah to repentance and Peter to declare, "Depart from me for I am a sinful man."
As I prayed along these lines I was led to Revelation 19:11-16 which gives the picture of Jesus as a rider on a white horse. In the passage he is called Faithful and True and also the Word of God. The armies of heaven are following him.
You know I think that we are an army that truly loves Jesus because of what he has done on the cross for us but sometimes I think that the image of him by our side is more familiar to us than that of our leader whom we follow into battle.
He is our friend but not our General. He is our helper but not our stratgist.
Sometimes because the battlefields he asks us to fight in are often in remote and unimportant places in the world's eyes we let him go to battle in those places alone. We on the other hand get very excited if we slay a few demons that are probably nothing more than decoys to keep us from the real fight.
Why will we not follow the Saviour on the white horse whose name is the Word(or Widsom)of God?
I was quite shocked by this thought but I sometimes wonder if the problem is that we are tender towards Jesus, sentimental about Jesus, maybe even a little in love with Jesus but we don't respect him.
My prayer is Open our eyes Lord we want to see Jesus!
I had allocated some time to spend in prayer at our Resource Centre today and I must admit the first hour sped by but I just didn't feel I was hearing God say anything. It was tempting to give up but I've learned that it is important to push through those feelings.
Gradually I realised that a phrase from Roy Hessions book We would see Jesus that I had read earlier was the key to what God wanted to show me.
"Revival in it's essence is nothing more than finding Jesus again."
Some friends and I have been discussing of late how repentance is such a key component of revival. What has been bothering me is how we get to that place. We can preach sermons to make people feel guilty and try to push people into it or we can present repentance as a button to press in order for God to deliver revival results. Neither of these seem very satisfactory to me and we would probably have to repent ourselves of being manipulative.
It hit me today that we are starting in the wrong place and it is all so simple really. We need to see Jesus. It was seeing that led Isaiah to repentance and Peter to declare, "Depart from me for I am a sinful man."
As I prayed along these lines I was led to Revelation 19:11-16 which gives the picture of Jesus as a rider on a white horse. In the passage he is called Faithful and True and also the Word of God. The armies of heaven are following him.
You know I think that we are an army that truly loves Jesus because of what he has done on the cross for us but sometimes I think that the image of him by our side is more familiar to us than that of our leader whom we follow into battle.
He is our friend but not our General. He is our helper but not our stratgist.
Sometimes because the battlefields he asks us to fight in are often in remote and unimportant places in the world's eyes we let him go to battle in those places alone. We on the other hand get very excited if we slay a few demons that are probably nothing more than decoys to keep us from the real fight.
Why will we not follow the Saviour on the white horse whose name is the Word(or Widsom)of God?
I was quite shocked by this thought but I sometimes wonder if the problem is that we are tender towards Jesus, sentimental about Jesus, maybe even a little in love with Jesus but we don't respect him.
My prayer is Open our eyes Lord we want to see Jesus!
posted by Rehoboth at
11:53 AM
2 Comments:
Carol - I agree that we need to see Jesus. Indeed I was reminded only yesterday that a 'new glimpse of Jesus' will indeed deliver revival.
However, we need to remember that sin causes blindness and distances us from God. Let's not forget that Isaiah considered himself a 'man of unclean lips' and had to be cleansed before he could go. However I admit that God at least did manage to find him in the temple (i.e. a seeker) rather than the local branch of Starbucks :-)
I do think we need to let God remove the sin (i.e. repent) in order to improve our vision.
L&P Andrew
By
Andrew Bale, at 10:58 AM
Thanks Andrew
I suppose I was thinking that we don't always see the sinfulness of our sin until we see stop comparing ourselves with our own standards, or the behaviour of others rather than the perfection of Jesus. We often don't see the need to repent until we see Jesus.
But I take your point entirely. Indeed I have been reading John 9 where the blind man is given a the gift of sight without even knowing who Jesus was. He then goes from complete ignorance to believing Jesus is a prophet to, once having met with Jesus to worshipping him as the Son of God.
It was Jesus who opened his eyes and when he saw Jesus he bowed his knee.
Anyway I'll go away and ponder some more.
God bless
Carol
By
Rehoboth, at 5:55 AM
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