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| Jesus said, �I will NEVER leave you, nor forsake you� (Hebrews 13: 5) � He was saying, �I will be with you perpetually!� So if there is a problem with �revival� right now, the problem is not with God. God has not sovereignly decided to turn off the tap � to turn the flow on and off when He sovereignly feels like it! But He has left the ball very firmly in our court, and He has said, �IF My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray...� So what has that produced? We have a lot of people chewing carpets � we have a lot of people slinging snot around � trying to �humble� themselves and get into a place where they can be worthy to receive the blessings of God. But God said something else. He said, �You�ve got to turn from your wicked ways.� Repentance is a �turning� � it is a 180-degree turnaround. Repentance is about walking away from death and walking into life; it is about walking out of darkness and walking into light; it is about walking out from under the power and dominion of satan and walking into the kingdom of God; it is about walking out of sickness and walking into health; it is about walking out of bondage and oppression and walking into deliverance and freedom; it is about walking out of anxiety and walking into peace; it is about walking out of poverty and walking into prosperity; it is about walking out of fear and torment and walking into faith that works through love; it is about walking out of religious formality and walking into revival! When God says, �If My people will turn�, that is what He is talking about! Romans 2: 4 says, �The goodness of God leads us to repentance.� The revelation of His goodness causes us to turn � to abandon the death and the darkness and to pursue His goodness! The problem is that people are focusing on their �badness� rather than on God�s �goodness�, and so you have Christians who are paralysed, and who believe that God is withholding something from them, when what they really need to believe is that God is longing to pour everything out on them � all they need to do is believe and receive! And so when people stop their unbelieving thoughts and their �evil thinking� - their bad thoughts about the Lord � and instead begin to believe in the goodness of God and in the fullness of His provision, THEN we are really going to see something happen! Because God says, �Revival NOW!� He doesn�t say, �Revival in five years�, He doesn�t say, �Revival in ten years�, He doesn�t say, �Revival in forty years� � He says, �Revival NOW!� As soon as His people BELIEVE in His GOODNESS they walk into REVIVAL! And as long as they continue to believe in His goodness they continue to walk in revival! Perpetual revival! �NOW�, He says, �My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.� What has happened? What has changed? The prayers have changed! |
| Hebrews 11: 6 says, �Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.� In the first chapter of Romans we read of people who exchange the truth of God for a lie, and so are �filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful.� What a list! Paul then goes on to say that although these people are aware of the righteous judgement of God, that those practising these things deserve to die, yet they continue to do them and also approve of others who do the same things! |
| As you move into Romans chapter two the spotlight turns toward the church � �Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things...And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practising such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgement of God?� For years I puzzled over this � does this mean that the church is full of homosexuals and sexually immoral people, etc? And so I sought revelation and wisdom from the Lord. He gave me the answer from the next verse of Romans chapter two � �Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?� |
| What the Lord showed me was that we are inexcusable when we despise the riches of His goodness � when we reject His provision for sin, for sickness, for oppression, etc. That is when we fall into the same category as the homosexuals, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the deceivers, the backbiters, the haters of God. Psalm 14: 1 says, �The fool has said in his heart, �There is no God��. When we start to believe that God is not good all the time � when we exchange the truth of God for a lie, that maybe He hasn�t made provision for all of our needs, when in the midst of a physical attack on our bodies we cry, �There is no healing for me,� what we are really saying is �There is no God who is good all the time!� - we are saying there is no God who heals the sick every time, all the time! If we are in financial straits and we say, �There�s no help for me� what we are really saying is, �There is no God who supplies seed to the sower and bread to the eater, there is no God who has always provided for the righteous and has never left his seed to beg for bread!� |
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