Prerequisites to Apostolic Revival!!! - Habakkuk 3:2
Intro.: Some people say "A Troubled World Needs a Church in Revival", this may be true, but I think "A Church in Revival Needs a Troubled World"!!!
This Church in Revival needs to also be ready for this Troubled World!!
A minister once said that Prayer & Fasting are THE RESULT of Revival. I believe that prayer and fasting are THE CAUSE of Revival!
There are several prerequisites we need before we can experience apostolic revival:
1. An understanding of what hinders revival
2. An understanding of what “revival” really is
3. A personal, ongoing, overflowing anointing of God
4. A burning desire to please God
5. A passion for worship
Look at the New Testament Church. No matter what they went through, no matter the cost… they were going to have revival!!!! It was an absolute must!!!
I. What hinders revival?
NOTE: Things will creep up in our lives. This is where we need to fully rely on God
A. Pride
B. Greed
C. Jealousy
D. Complacency
NOTE: A "status quo" church will continue to stumble over these things, but THE church WILL HAVE Apostolic Revival!!! We need to decide if we are going to be part of that church!!!
II. What is revival?
A. It is not a series of meetings with a special speaker
B. It is not a lot of whooping and hollering that fades when church is over
C. It is a personal state of heart that reflects the majesty of God and overflows
D. It is a move that compels other believers to humble themselves before God
E. Revival then draws the unbelieving to the cross
NOTE: When there is pride, arrogance, complacency, greed, jealousy or apathy in the church, unbelievers are repelled
III. The Anointing of God
Isaiah 10:27d, " and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing."
NOTE: We must live with the anointing of God dripping off our fingers
A. The anointing breaks the yoke (deliverance)
1. Anointing = "fatness" or "prosperity"
B. This anointing can’t help but include the living presence of God in us
1. This presence needs to surround us and “INVADE” us
IV. A Burning Desire to Please God
A. Not a complacent, apathetic or lethargic approach to Christianity
B. We need to be PROACTIVE
1. We need to be ready ahead of time rather than living in crisis
a. We need to live in a state of READINESS
2. Pray and fast like you believe what you say…
3. If we really believe what Jesus has told us to do, why aren’t we doing it?
C. Are we “men-pleasers” or God-pleasers”?
V. A Passion for Worship
Quote: Calvin Coolidge once said, “It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.”
NOTE: I am absolutely convinced that without a passion for worship we will not experience the same type of revival that the early church knew.
A. Worshipping God is not singing songs or playing instruments
B. Worshipping God is laying down your own desires, fears and reputation
NOTE: Jesus laid everything down for us in death, surely we can lay these things down for Him in life!!!
Concl.: When we think of believers around the world what comes to mind?
1,000’s of people being saved, filled, healed or delivered in one service?
Consider what many of them go through just to be in Church
- Walking miles to get to church, some of them, with no shoes
- Risking death in some countries because it is illegal to worship Jesus
- These people have what it takes to experience Apostolic Revival
- They avoid the attitudes and other things that hinder the move of God.
- They understand the true heart and purpose of being & staying revived
- They allow God’s anointing to break their bondages and keep them free
- They have a burning desire to please God and live in His presence
- They have hungry hearts and thirsty souls
- They have a passion for the kind of worship that reaches heaven
This isn’t just happening in other nations, it is a growing movement in America. Christians that believe, embrace and hotly pursue these things are experiencing Apostolic Revival because they are walking the path that was established in the first century apostolic church.
