Prelude to Revival

In 2 Kings 23 we read of all the good that Josiah di: so much evil overthrown, so many false gods and idols destroyed and purged.  Even some that had been there since the time of Solomon more than 300 years before.  It's interesting to note that there had already been several kings of whom it was said they "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord," yet Solomon's idol-worshiping place stayed.  How tradition and history becomes a part of everyday life so that we can't see how sinful it really is—until God brings revival.

Note, this was a time that was prophesied about during the early years of Jeroboam I, almost 300 years earlier.  God's word and promises are always true.  But why did it happen in Josiah's 18th year of reign?

There were steps leading up to this.

Josiah became king at age 8.  The summary statement about him was that:

 “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.”
 2 Kings 22:2

So he did a little in the limited knowledge he had and God worked in his heart to seek Him more:

 “In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David.”
 2 Chr. 34:3

Thus when he was sixteen years old, he followed God more.  God blessed that and gave Josiah a heart to start purging the land of all sorts of idols by the time he was almost twenty:

 “In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols.”
 2 Chr. 34:3

God further blessed this further obedience by sending a prophet, Jeremiah, who began preaching, teaching and exhorting the people when Josiah was 20 or 21 years old.

 “For twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—the word of the Lord has come to me and I have spoken to you again and again...”
 Jer. 25:3

It's obvious that Josiah took the words to heart because he started purifying the land and the temple in his 18th years (when he was 26 years old):

  “In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, to purify the land and the temple, he sent [people] to repair the temple of the Lord his God.”
  2 Chr. 34:8

That's when the Book of the Law was discovered.  Notice that obedience is rewarded with further revelation of God and His will.  The proper response is humility and zealous obedience.  In view of the Law being found and read, Josiah is humble and wants to hear from the Lord.  In view of the Lord's response, he goes out and obeys with great joy and zeal.  Suddenly things that had been accepted as normal and tradition for hundreds of years were understood to be detestable in God's sight so they no longer wanted those things around.

The only way to have real revival is to obey the revealed truth that you already know, then humbly ask for more revelation and then obey the new understanding with great humility, joy and fervor.

That is why Josiah served God all his days and had a revival in his time.

Appealing to a Higher Power

Make no mistake.  We live in strange times.  Good and morality are laughed at.  Evil, which was once shunned, decried or at least hidden far away and out of sight, is now paraded openly and applauded as wonderful.  Surely, O Lord, the righteous perish and no one notices.

The abominations continue to mount: the wickedness of in utero infanticide and the calloused reduction of human to a mere collection of useful tissue; the brazen display of increased immorality of all persuasion and the wholesale bent of government to aid the punishment of those who would disagree. 

More folks are starting to push back and vocalize their displeasure and their opposition to such a radical change of the fabric of our society.  And that is good.  Our society was left to drift and careen wildly out of control when the churches and their members bought into the lie that said there was a vast divide between sacred and secular life, between religious and public dealings.  Religion must inform how we live and thus how we vote and form opinions about everything—including politics.

Being politically informed and expressing well-informed political & social comments is very important.  And within the constraints of our democracy working to inform public opinion is good too.

But, I fear that it will do nothing if that is all that good people do.

If we only try to change by exerting political force or gentle protests or internet HashTag_campaigns, we are going to lose.  We must understand the opponent in order to engage correctly.  The opponent is not this political party or that one.  The opponent is not Left™ vs Right®.  No, the opponent is the very world-view and underlying philosophy, the zeitgeist, of this age.  It is the very force of darkness, the "god of this age," and our puny, human strength and ingenuity will utterly fail against its vastly superior firepower.

We need to understand that.  It bears repeating.

                                   Human against Darkness will lose!

Am I throwing in the towel?

Not at all.  We have a greater force than all of the hosts of Evil and Darkness.  But we must remember that God is not just a *force* that we can direct to satisfy our every whim as a divine shopping cart.  God is fundamentally and foremost in the business of making sure His creation unfolds to His highest and most perfect end.  If the chief and highest end of a human is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, then we could reason that God's chief and highest purpose to His Glory and His honor.

"I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images."
Isa. 42:8

His glory and His honor.  Are we thinking of that?  Are we considering how offended God is with all this sin and rampant wickedness?  Or are we merely cultural warriors in search of a trophy and another feather to stick in our cap?  (Look at me!  My meme was shared 42 times today!  I *MUST* be making a difference in this world!)

I say that partly humorously because obviously we post things and we share things, but what is our fundamental, deep-seated, driving impetus behind what we do?

We need to start over.  Maybe not politically start over, but at least spiritually.  We need to start with God.  And the only way to approach God is to start with confession.  Isaiah was a good man; he was already a prophet and had been used by God; but when Isaiah saw God (Isa. 6), he immediately saw how wicked and sinful he was.  The Apostle John, who had been one of Jesus' closest friends and disciples, saw the risen Lord and fell at His feet as though dead.  (Rev. 1)

We need to see God.  We need to be filled with God, with His Spirit (Eph. 5:18), who is called the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord (Isa. 11:2), and we know that the fear of the Lord is to keep you from sinning.  (Ex. 20:20)

So I think this whole political mess and our response to it must be addressed at a far different level than most political junkies have even thought about.  Spiritual.  We need the Holy Spirit.  He is called the "Holy" Spirit because He is Holy.  Sin problems are dealt with only when He comes and convicts.  Wickedness is put away only when He shines the light of His Law in a human heart and gives repentance.

Our political and societal problems are too great.  We need GOD!  We need a revival.

We can't be Cessationists and say that all of that was something back in Bible times.  That's garbage.  That's putting God into your own tidy little box and deciding for Him that doing something miraculous would be rather inconvenient for you.  It is basing your theology upon your limited experience.  It is the equivalent of someone living in the arid lands of central Nevada and deciding that no one could ever swim in an ocean because it's impossible for that much water to exist in any one location!

To say that God cannot (and does not) start revivals any more is to ignore history of the church.  There are many, many credible and well-documented accounts of revivals: the Welsh revival, the many revivals on the Isle of Lewis, Asbury College, Kentucky.  (Among many others!)

But I am not talking about self-termed meeting where a preacher or evangelist decides that they're going to hold a revival.  I am talking about the Sovereign act of the Holy God who shows up and moves in people's hearts and there is confession of sin and forsaking of sin.  Powerfully.

You want to solve the nation's moral collapse?  Pray that God will send a national repentance.

During the Welsh revival, police were unneeded because crime had almost completely stopped.
(Read this link, especially the last several paragraphs)

Consider how gracious God is.  He is more willing to bless than we are to reach out for that blessing.  He will not give the blessing, though, unless we follow His proscribed path.  There are specific conditions attached to every blessing He has promised.

• "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (2 Chr. 7:14)  There MUST be humility, prayer, seeking of God and turning from sins.  Then He will bless.
• "Open wide you mouth and I will fill it." (Ps. 81:10)  We must ask and ask large.  Large petition with you bring for you are coming to a Great King!

Consider the results of such a revival.  God's name would be glorified and He would be held in highest honor.  The forces of Darkness would be pushed back and our Lord's Kingdom would advance.  Consider also the blessing of souls being saved, rescued from the clutches of the devil and his hordes.

Any draw backs?  Yes.  "Self" is not in control.  God is.  "Self" does not get to do whatever "Self" wants.  Suddenly "Self" only wants God. 

But isn't that best?  We were created to fellowship with God.  Sin destroyed that perfect fellowship; but God, in His matchless, wonderful, gracious ways, restores that fellowship.  Revival brings heaven closer to earth and allows frail human mortals to taste of the divine in a more powerful way.

I can only imagine.  But I want it.  I see what the world is offering and it is looking increasingly bad.

Shouldn't all of us Christians who love our Lord be praying that revival happen?  Locally where we each live and attend church; but also across our states and nation too.  And why limit God only to just the bounds of one nation?

Pray!

See also this related post