hosted by Paul Gaskin
(paul.gaskin@bbsrc.ac.uk)
It is important to first define what we are praying for .. "what is revival, anyway?" Simply put, it is the very presence of the Living God, dwelling with us by His Spirit in our midst, His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. The fruit of revival; holiness, signs and wonders, healings, deliverances and widespread new birth, are often seen as revival itself, when in fact they are the result of God's powerful and intense presence in the church.
Praying for revival involves inviting the Holy Spirit to visit us, making Him welcome and comfortable, and desiring that that visitation becomes a habitation. We create a zone where all that happens relates to Him, rather than to the will of man. There exists a tension between God's sovereign will to come, and our crying out to Him to come. He will not come if we do not ask, He wants us to want His sovereign presence, and God's manifest presence transforms everything it touches, firstly the church, reviving it, then the world, bringing awakening.
We are to pray on two levels, personal and corporate. In personal prayer we ask for first-love intimacy with Him, a greater hunger for Him, a desire to hear His voice, to walk in holiness and in a deeper commitment to Him. For Him to fill us, equip us, purify each one of us, give us a one-to-one encounter with Jesus. To say "send revival, here I am Lord, start with me". God is looking for a people to whom He can give much and from whom He can safely (for us) require much. We are to have our lives cleaned up, our characters transformed, to become holy as He is holy, before He can trust us with "more". He wants His glory to so shine out from us, that others are attracted to Him, to the God they don't yet know.
In corporate prayer we ask for unity, reconciliation between His people, and between people groups. We enter into "identificational repentance" where we ask forgiveness for the sins of others that we identify with but who are in no position to ask it for themselves. We pray for our churches, cities and nations so as to "illuminate the target" for God's lightnings of power to hit.
Corporate prayer is very powerful in that it is an expression of the unity of the body of Christ and is an ideal setting for the intimate Bridegroom worship that forms a part of intercession for revival. It forms a "birthing room" that is warm, friendly and safe, where the "baby" of revival can be brought forth and nurtured. It is a place where we can spend time seeking His face (in the Hebrew, God's face is the same word as His presence).
Revival is both gradual and continuous, it births more prayer which births more revival. It doesn't usually arrive out of the blue, so accept and enjoy what He is doing now, so that He sees we like what He does and is encouraged to send even more of His power and presence. Eventually the heavens will be so weakened by our intercession that the fire and power will be free to pour down continually. That is classic revival.
Lets pray:
Lord, we desire You alone. We love what you do and we want to bless it, yet we want more of You. You have birthed in us such a desire for your presence, that we are consumed with burning love and hunger for You. We ask that you will grant us a visitation of Your Holy Spirit. Please make us holy like You are holy, so that we can have the precious anointing of the Holy Spirit flow through us. Lord, give us a breakthrough in the heavenly realms, so that our churches and our cities receive an outpouring of Your blessing. We know You desire to do this far more than we can want it, so please, in Your Sovereign Majesty, release it O God.
Amen
Please feel free to pray into this topic during the week, to build on one another's prayers and also to discuss insights you have on the week's prayer target. Post your prayers and /or discussion to the prayer-school list by emailing them to this address: prayer-school@xc.org
Please limit your prayer/discussion to the current week's prayer target; please do not pray into or discuss previous week's prayer targets. However, if you have a praise report to answered prayer from a previous week's prayer activity, please feel free to post them any time.