As the tenth day of the revival dawns my heart is deeply grieved. To date we have not seen anything that would hint of the true and genuine revivals I have experienced or read about in the past. We have had some good meetings. We have worshiped. We have dug in the word. Most of the services have felt pretty ordinary. Please do not get me wrong. I am not saying God has not worked nor that He has not met with us. I am just stating the obvious. We have not had a breakthrough yet.
It would be tempting to give up but I know we still have another six days to meet. We have six more opportunities for God to breakthrough the fallow ground in Paradise. That is my prayer. Chris and I are devoting more time this week to prayer. We are not giving up. Everything could change in one service and I will be honest. Every time God does not breakthrough I leave disappointed and crushed in heart.
So on the dawning of this new day I reset my focus to pursue God and revival. So much is at stake I cannot afford to slacken in my pursuit now. So today I am pouring out my prayer to God on this blog. I plead with you to join with me in praying for God to breakthrough in Paradise.
Holy Father,
I come broken this morning. My heart is grieved. I thank you for the good things you have done but both of us know you have not sent revival. If there is something in my life or Chris' life that is hindering you from working I pray you would reveal it. I only want more of you for myself and our people. I come again asking you to breakup the fallow ground in Paradise, TX.
I know you love this community more than me. You love the lost more than I do. You love your glory more than I do. You have not done anything in the past week that would make this community sit up and take notice. You have not come in power. You have not brought glory to yourself. Chris and I cannot manufacture revival. That is your sovereign move. We hunger for it though. We yearn for more of you poured out in our hearts and in our services. I ask you to release more of your Spirit in this community bringing conviction and brokenness to the saved and lost alike. I ask you to come powerfully to rescue Paradise from the grip of the enemy.
Satan has full control of the high grounds of our schools. I bow my head and ask you to send wave after wave of your Spirit to take back that high ground. We sinned as a community. We went to sleep on the walls of Paradise while the enemy kept advancing. We turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the tide of evil sweeping over our students. I cannot stand for it. I beg of you with all that is in me that you turn the hearts of students back to you in droves. I pray your conviction would fall on our male and female athletes right now where ever they are. I pray you would send conviction to those in the band and those in cheerleading. I ask you to send conviction to those wrapped up in the party lifestyle. I plead with you to send the plow of your Holy Spirit to turn up the fallow ground of the hearts of the students. You know all things. You know what it will take to breakthrough.
I ask you to reveal that to me. I am willing to do whatever you lead me to if it will lead to a real breakthrough in this revival. I am desperate. I cannot do it. No matter how long or how hard I preach I know I cannot bring revival. Lord, you led me to do this. I wanted to back out of it several times but you are the one who called me to hold a revival for fourteen days. People are tired. They came for a solid week hoping for something special and they have left without having experienced you in true revival. I know you are capable of more. Ephesians 3:20 assures me of that. I know it is your will to send true revival to your sick and impotent church as well as to save the lost. I John 5:14-15.
I ask you to send revival like a spring storm. I ask you call sinful people to repentance and call the lost to new life in you. I ask you to quit holding back. I will not pray in unbelief and say if you can send revival. I know you can. This is not a matter of your ability. This is a matter of your will. To this point you have chosen to hold back even though every fiber of my being believes you are hovering over this community and church. What will it take for you to will to send a miracle season of refreshing among us.
I know the hearts of the people are hard. I know many of our own people have not displayed any hunger for you. Please do not punish the rest of us for that. You unleashing real revival would draw those very people to repentance but if you hold back nothing will ever change. The ground is dry like a kindling. One spark from you would set this community ablaze and the fires of revival would spread to other communities. We are broken. When I say we I am referring to Chris and I along with the remnant in this church who long for you.
On this early Monday I cry out with all my heart. I am not content to see this community drift further and further away from you. I am not content to watch the lost perish into eternal damnation. I am not content to see your churches continue on with business as usual. I am not content to see drugs drift into our schools and yet we do oppose the work of the evil one as churches. I ask you to break the grip of Satan on this community in the mighty name of Jesus.
I ask you to send fire. Fire into the hearts of the apathetic and cold hearted. I gave you my all in preparation for these days of revival. I did not hold back during our forty days of seeking you as a church. I cannot speak for anyone else. I have hungered for you. Day after day I have poured my heart out to you. I have laid my life down in pursuit of you and this revival. I obeyed you and have stepped out in faith holding the meetings over for this second week even though there has been nothing thus far that warrants such a move. I did it simply in obedience to you.
Please show me what to do. I want you to rescue this community more than I want my house to sell or to get a new house here. I want true revival to come to this community more than I want money. I want revival to come here more than I want Faith Community to grow miraculously. I want you. If you would come in power nothing would be the same in Paradise, TX. We both know that. Why do you hold back.
I keep asking. I am ready to receive. I have sought you. I am ready to find. I have continued to knock. I am ready for the doors to be opened. It is not my honor that is stake. All I have done is to follow through on the things you have instructed me to do. It is your honor that is at stake. Some have mocked you. Some have ignored you. Revival meetings have come and gone. You heard the testimony from one man who grow up in this community and said in 34 years he had never heard of a real revival. Why do you hold back. Do we as your churches not need you just as much as your church did in Acts. Am I not every bit has dependent on you to back me up as Elijah was on Mount Carmel. He obeyed you by taking a bold stand and you backed him up by sending fire.
I too have taken this stand in obedience to you. Elijah's cry remains my cry. O God of Elijah and Matt. I beg of you to today. Not tomorrow. We need you today. We need your glory to fall today. We need hearts to melt in your presence today. We need you to get the attention of this community today. We need you to come today. The need is urgent today. On this day I ask you to move to show these people that you alone are God. I ask you to flex your muscle and do the miraculous. I ask you to breakthrough the hardest hearts and to turn their hearts in repentance back to you. I ask you to turn the hearts of the lost to you in salvation. You know my heart. I don't care if those people end up at one of our sister churches. The kingdom is bigger than Faith Community. I ask you to bless every church. I ask you to bless ever church with revival and spiritual awakening.
Those things will never happen if you hold back. I ask you to honor the prayers of those ladies who have been crying out to you for revival for decades. I ask you to let them see the fruit of their prayers. I ask you today to move in such a powerful way nobody can deny you are at work. I ask you to give us
an open heaven for this season. Whatever it takes to turn the hearts of people back to you I ask you to do it. I ask you to use whatever vessel you choose. If it is not me I will contentedly take a back seat and give myself to prayer.
Let this community know that you are God. Not one of many but the One and only. I am your servant. I have done all these things with holding this revival at your word. It was not my idea. I beg of you to move in power. If you hold back we will never make any headway. Satan is too strong and his grip is too firm. I know of nothing else to pray. I plead you to will to send revival to Paradise. You know I will give you glory. You know I will write about it and glorify your name. You know it would encourage churches all over the land. I ask you to will to send revival and breakthrough today.
In Jesus name,
Amen
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