“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” -Psalm 85:6
I’m in the midst of the greatest spiritual revival of my life. It started in mid 2017 and is still going strong! So explosive has the Holy Spirit’s work in my life been that I would call it miraculous. From a place of deep devastation and brokenness God has brought the most profound healing and deliverance of my life. Some of the things that God did were sudden and very dramatic, others came through gradual process. I’m thankful that the work God began in 2017 continues to this day.
The following are a few thoughts as I consider this journey.
When I think about what God has done during this time I continually come back to two things that have have been critical to the healing, deliverance and spiritual revival that has taken place in my life:
- Complete, unreserved, surrender to Jesus.
- Worship of Him with everything in me!
I went through a very painful life event that broke my heart. Out of my brokenness I cried out to God and SURRENDERED my entire life to Him. I went through a period of many months where I poured out my heart to God in constant prayer, deep repentance, surrender and worship.
It’s important that I mention my brokenness and repentance first, because it’s what actually happened before the glory came, and it follows the biblical pattern of a true work of God.
The bibilcal pattern of refreshing
When the Spirit of God brought renewal, it was so dramatic, and so sudden, that everyone around me immediately noticed the difference in me.
It all seemed so miraculous, and it was! But to speak of the miracles without speaking of the repentance that went before it, would be to give a half-truth.
The unleashing of the miraculous in my life was preceded by five and a half months of the most gut-wrenching repentance that I’ve ever had before God. Nothing was held back.
When a local church saw how miraculously I’d been changed they wanted me to testify of the miracle. I didn’t do it at the time, because I knew it would be a lie to go before a crowd of people and tell them how God had miraculously healed me unless I also told them about the months of brokenness, travail, sobbing, and deep repentance that preceded it.
A distressing thing about today’s Church is that we love to talk about the happy part, while we leave out the hard part!
Giving my life completely to Jesus without reservation and worshipping Him with my whole heart ushered in miraculous healing!
Not only was I healed, but God set me free to worship with such total FREEDOM that it is unlike anything I have ever experienced before in my life!
“You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” – Psalm 16:11
Repentance and the Presence of God
Repentance and the Presence of God changed me!
In scripture, they go together.
“Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,” -Acts 3:19
Repentance brings us into times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, which brings us into true worship
By repentance, I mean falling on my face before God and getting real before Him to the point where I dealt with EVERYTHING that He showed me was wrong. I held nothing back. Completely and without any reservation I layed EVERYTHING at His feet and went HIS way and not my own way anymore. I don’t believe I’ve ever repented to this extent in my entire life and it was exactly what I needed to do.
By worship, I mean I sang my heart out! I loved Him with everything that was in me, and worshipped Him with every part of my body! I prayed morning, noon and night. I could not get enough of Him and wanted every part of my life to be pleasing to Him.
Complete abandonment to Jesus. It was the best thing I ever did in my entire life!
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God–this is your true and proper worship.” -Romans 12:1
I adored Jesus, loved Him, and entering into a place of intimacy with Him, as well as complete obedience and surrender to His will, as much as I knew to do.
Repentance leads to amazing refreshing that comes straight from His Presence!
This verse bears repeating because it is so important-
“Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,” -Acts 3:19
His refreshing presence heals in ways we can’t even begin to imagine!
God can do more in a moment with you in His presence than you can do in a LIFETIME on your own.
Some of the things that come out of truly being in His Presence are:
- Unspeakable joy
- God’s peace
- A desire for, and a life lived, in holiness.
These things are, by the way, what the Word of God says the Kingdom of God is all about!
“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit!“ -Romans 14:17
God’s presence WILL CHANGE YOU!
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” -2 Corinthians 3:18
These things can’t be faked.
An unrepentant, unsurrendered, rebellious heart does not bring times of refreshing from the Lord.
Repentance is a gift from God
The blessing of being broken was that it caused me to fully surrender myself in a way that I had never done before.
Repentance, itself, is a gift from God.
“God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth,” -2 Timothy 2:25
God is the one who grants repentance. It is a most precious gift from Him!
How can we expect to receive times of refreshing from the Presence of the Lord if our hearts are turned away from Him?
In the act of repentance, we first turn from everything that opposes God. Next, we turn to God Himself and embrace Him.
Embracing God means we choose the will of God for our lives, and fall at His feet, surrendering and submitting to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
THIS IS WHERE THE BLESSING IS FOUND.
In stressing the importance of repentance am I saying that by own efforts I am somehow healed, delivered and restored, or that I can somehow earn the favor of God by repenting?
Not at all!
I would not have repented had God not given me the gift to be able to do so, therefore, there’s no room for boasting on my part!
We do well, to be thankful for, and to enter into our relationship with God by way of the means He has given. One of the things that we are told to do is to repent!
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” -Mark 1:15