Before crossing the Jordan River and entering the Promised Land, Joshua gave the people of God an instruction and a promise:
… “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.” Joshua 3:5
THE INSTRUCTION: Consecrate Yourself
To consecrate means to set aside for a special purpose — usually a Divine purpose. In other words, we are to set ourselves aside and apart for God’s purposes.
This is not a special request for some believers. Every believer has been bought by Jesus and belongs to Him to be used for His purposes,
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
The problem is that we forget to Whom we belong. We get distracted. We drift away.
We need times to refocus. We need times of fasting and prayer. We need times of renewed consecration and rededication of our lives to the Lord. We are in one of those times.
Many people are currently reminding the Church of the Prophet Joel's call to fasting and sacred assembly.
Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly.
Joel 2:15
When you read this complete passage in Joel, you can’t help but notice the sense of urgency that Joel is communicating! (He was pulling mothers away from nursing and busting into honeymoon suites!)
He was saying, "THIS CANNOT WAIT! We must humble ourselves before the Lord today!” And then he foretold the coming of the Glory of the Lord!
Every great move of God in history was predicated by seasons of intense prayer. Many of them from continual prayer. Pentecost, the Moravian Mission Movement, John Wesley, the Fulton Street Prayer Revival, the Welsh Revival are a few examples of God pouring out His Spirit on people of prayer.
THE PROMISE: I will do amazing things among you!
We are standing on the foundation of decades of prayer for revival. There are people who have been praying for a mighty revival to come to our region for over 60 Years. This is the time of a convergence of the promises of God.
While many focus on the evil in our world, the Church must hold on to the promise that Jesus is coming to us and remember that Jesus truly is the answer for the world today. His grace and Spirit transforms hearts. His teachings inspire us to love God and others in a manner that transforms societies.
Here are a few marks of a supernatural revival:
Christians become passionate about the Lord — very passionate about Him and they return to Him wholeheartedly.
God releases His supernatural power into His church. Not just into a few. Not just into pastors and ministers. But into the whole body of Christ. All serious believers.
Multitudes experience spiritual renewal. Believers and unbelievers, people from all walks of life and from different denominational backgrounds encounter God and are transformed by His Spirit.
The spirit of revival and awakening spreads.
God earnestly desires to do amazing things — things that the best human efforts and gifts cannot produce. Things that can only be explained as supernatural. He has done it in the past, and never doubt, He desires to do it again!
THE DECISION
God desires to releases His revival through you! He desires for you to be a fountainhead of spiritual renewal that will release life through Appalachia and the world.
Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. John 7:38
This is a time of decision. We must decide, as followers of Jesus, if we are going to consecrate our lives and time to fulfill God’s purposes, or are we going to stay distracted by the false gods of our world and culture.
For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him…. 2 Chronicles 16:9
This involves more than just saying, “I belong to Christ.” It means taking time for God’s purposes. Whenever, whatever, however is the commitment that a surrendered disciple of Jesus makes to their Lord. Like Isaiah, they say to the Lord, "Here am I, send me!"
The first Church experienced Revival. People throughout history have experienced Revival.
This is our time. Let’s seize it.