Five keys to personal revival. It is God's will for us to live in a spiritual revival, when things
that are dormant are alive. And I'm gonna use the verse from, verses actually from Isaiah 40:3-5.
And it tells us about the preparation that must take place for us to live in revival.
Please understand revival is not an accident, revival is not just a chance. Revival is not just
God deciding some people to have it and some people not having it. It's actually
a result. It's actually a consequence. It's a harvest of certain things that we can do,
and you can do them today and live in that revival. Isaiah 40:3-5 says the following:
And so we see this is speaking about John the Baptist that is actually coming and preparing the
way for the glory of God, preparing the way for Jesus to come. And it mentions these five things
that actually take place, that we must take place or we must do in order to see revival. Before I
mention those five things, I just want to lay the ground that repentance, precedes revival.
Repentance paves the way for revival. When you begin to realign your life with God's purposes,
when you begin to renew your mind, when you begin to you know restructure your life, recalibrate
your life to God. Something begins to happen. It's not purdy, it's not fun. It's like construction,
but then that paves the way for the glory of God. I mean Isaiah clearly states, he says,
"Prepare the way for the Lord." Meaning you have to prepare yourself for revival, you have to
prepare your life for revival. You can't live like you used to live, if you want to walk in revival.
You can't think like you used to think if you want to walk in revival. You can't speak like you used
to speak if you want to have revival. You can't spend your mornings, your evenings, your free time
like you used to spend, if you want to live in revival. You just can't do that. A lot of people,
they need to actually change the environment that they are in because the environment they're in,
they cannot have revival in that environment. Some people they need to change the choices that
they make right now, because they're in the right environment but they're actually not making the
right decisions. Some people, they're making the right decisions but they have a terrible attitude.
And some people, they just need to be more patient because see revival requires these few things:
It requires the right soil, it requires the right seed and it requires the right season. Meaning the
right soil, speaks of the environment that you are in. If you're not in the right environment
then you're not going to have revival. If you're not planting the right seeds, the right decisions,
you're not going to have revival. And then for the harvest to come there's the right season,
because just because you planted a seed right now, you don't get a harvest tomorrow.
So there's a little bit of patience that God wants to develop in our life.
You know before Israel entered into the promised land, Joshua gave them this direction and he says,
"Sanctify yourself for tomorrow God will do wonders in your midst." Today's sanctification,
results in tomorrow's success. Today's consecration, results in tomorrow's conquest.
Today's repentance, today's you know humility, results in tomorrow's revival. Today's planting of
the right seeds results in tomorrow's harvest. And so if you want to experience this revival heed the
warning, heed the direction of Paul to Timothy. 2 Timothy 2:20, He says, "If anyone cleanses
himself from the ladder, he shall be a vessel of honor. He shall be prepared for every good work."
And so here are five things that we need to do, that John the Baptist started to declare
and prepare the way for Jesus, and we need to do it in our own life as well. And the first one is
the way needs to be made even in the wilderness or waste land. In Isaiah, Prophet Isaiah says,
he says, "Make a way in the wilderness." He says, "There's one crying out in the wilderness,
make a straight way in the desert." See so many times we say, "Well I am in a spiritual desert.
I can't make a way for revival right now. I need to have some water first. I need to feel good
first." That is not how that works. You can't wait for a better time, don't allow discouragement,
don't allow disappointment, don't allow all of that to make excuses for you to become obedient
to what God requires you to do. There's always going to be an excuse. There's always going to
be a reason not to make a way for revival. There's always going to be busyness. There's always going
to be boredom or there's always going to be disappointment. I just don't feel like doing it,
and so you have to do it in the wilderness. The way for revival has to be made in the desert.
It has to be made in a wasteland. If you're in the wasteland, if you are in the wilderness right now,
this is a moment to begin to make a way for revival. The second thing you need to remember
and that is high things need to be brought down. So not only we have to do it in the wilderness,
we actually have to bring down everything that's exalted, everything that's lifted too high.
That means that arrogance needs to turn into humility.
Every time you want to experience revival, you have to understand, there's one way
and that is humility. Revival is like water. Water will flow from the mountain but it never stays on
the mountain. It stays in the valley. It looks for the low places to reside, low places to remain.
If you have water in your driveway, do you know where it stays? At the lowest points. If you
want revival to remain in you, you will have to cultivate constantly an attitude of humility.
Humility, and rejecting entitlement, and rejecting ego, rejecting pride, self-centeredness, drawing
attention to yourself. And so high things need to come down. The third thing is that low things
need to be risen up. That speaks of insecurity. I believe that speaks of also false humility
and this is when we go too low. Not in the humility sense but when we begin to cast away the
things that God speaks about us. We begin to allow insecurity, replace confidence. See there is God
type of confidence. There is faith that actually brings boldness and God says, "I want pride to
come down but I also want insecurity to go out and I want it to be risen up. Low things to rise up."
You know for me that, that hit home for me because while I didn't battle with pride maybe, you know
in the beginning stages of my life I did battle with insecurity. I wasn't good enough. I wasn't
worthy, you know God made a mistake by making me. And this spoke very directly to me, that God
wanted to fill those low places with His truth. Not with facts which were true but with the truth
which changes facts because the truth is eternal. The truth is God's Word. The truth is Jesus.
And so and those low places have to be filled with the truth that I am made in the image and likeness
of God. I am not what I see in the mirror. I am what God says I am. I am forgiven, I am washed by
the blood. Crooked things must be made straight. So Prophet Isaiah says is not only the low things
need to rise, the high things need to come down. Crooked things need to be made straight. What does
this mean practically? Is you have to move from a living questionable life, living life in the gray,
to living a blameless life. Now just because something is not "wrong," it doesn't mean it's
morally right. There are things that Christians do that are questionable, things that are grey,
things that are just eerrr. Yeah, those things, you got to make them straight. And maybe
you're having these practices in your finances, maybe you're having these in your relationships.
You're justifying it but that, that won't work in revival. You have to live a holy life
and to live a holy life, it's not just about doing things that you can get away with. It's not just
about doing things, coming as close to the line as you possibly can without falling into the ditch.
It's actually staying as far from the line as possible. It's actually doing things that you
can do but you refuse to, why? Because it's not going to be pleasing to the Lord. I'm allowed
to have this but I won't, why? Because Holy Spirit is not going to be pleased. Yeah, I'm not going to
go to jail for it, probably won't go to hell for it but I'm going to stay away from those things.
And that's the issue of alcohol. Like it's a very debatable topic about you know, should Christians
drink? The Bible says, "Don't get drunk." But drinking you know, like it doesn't say anything.
So many people claim, that for me the line is very simple, to avoid completely drinking. Why?
Because the Bible says, "Don't be drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit." I don't want
to live in that gray area. I want to live filled with the Holy Spirit and I want to retrain my my
taste buds. I want to retrain my mind, my body, that this is no, no. I don't want to
live questionable. I want to live blameless. Not to be holier than thou, but it's because I want to
be in revival and to be in revival you have to pay a price. Crooked things have to be made straight
and the more alcohol you have, the less Holy Spirit you have. The more alcohol you have,
the less prayer you have and I don't want to have that. I want to have more of the Holy Spirit
and so make crooked things straight. The last one is the rough things must be made smooth.
Now this is a tough one. Because the moment you start walking in the holiness,
the moment you start walking in commitment and repentance, you can become actually very rude,
rough. You stop being tender, gentle, kind. Very mean-spirited, very angry. And I see
some of these you know, holy people on youtube and instagram. I see them in their comments
and they claim to be Christian. They're so right but they have such a bad attitude you know, and
we can all get into that and that's not revival because revival makes rude people nice, kind,
gentle, loving. The fruit of the Spirit is not brush, harsh, rude, brutal. It's kind, gentle,
good and that is what God wants to do in your life. So I want to invite you right now to commit
to make a way for revival. John the Baptist prepared people for the glory of God, Jesus.
Today God wants to use John the Baptist, meaning a lifestyle, a season of repentance for the greater
measure of glory in your life. If you're tired of Christian life the way it is today, maybe you're
not paying a price, maybe you're living in excuses instead of living in revival. You can do that by
getting rid of excuses, by letting the high things come down, by letting the low things come up,
by letting the crooked things become straight and by letting rough things become smooth. Let's go
for revival because routine, rut, religion, all of that stuff is boring. It's not worth, Jesus didn't
die for us to live in that. He wants us to live in revival and God's will for you is revival. I
hope this was a blessing to you. Let me know in the comments below which one of the five areas
you feel that God is nudging at this season in your life. Let's create a discussion.
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