“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).
In David’s prayer we see modeled humility, the beginning of all true worship and the recipe for revival in our own personal lives and local churches. Revival within a local church congregation is not going to come due to an email or phone call from St. Louis, or anywhere else for that matter. Revival is still paramount upon proper Biblical relationship with God. And this is something that begins and ends with humility and personal repentance.
The place where we cannot cry out unto God in humility, asking for forgiveness and pleading for His true holiness is a place far from God. God saves by truth, but truth is not an empty badge to wear, void of any feeling and real relationship behind it. Jesus taught otherwise, saying, “true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). Our spirits must be right. No wonder Jesus warned us about coming to the altar when others have ought against us, or asking for our trespasses to be forgiven when we ourselves have not forgiven others of the same (Matt. 5:23-24; 6:14-15). God dwells with the humble. God dwells with those who recognize they themselves have no holiness but cry out to God for His. Can the prophet proclaim it any clearer? For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy;I DWELL in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. – Isaiah 57:15
The personal and church-wide atmosphere most conducive to revival is one where men fall to their knees saying, “woe is me” to God, petitioning for His help and His salvation. Knowing within them dwells no good thing but rather they must have God’s forgiveness, God’s goodness and God’s holiness. The key to great, Biblical church growth still begins with one believer at a time getting a vision of an old rugged cross, dying out to themselves and letting old man die. A key that can never be overlooked in true biblical, Apostolic church growth is creating a climate where the aforementioned happens. Let us never lose our altars.
Brian Norman is a full-time International Evangelist. His experience includes Pastoring and planting Churches in America and overseas. www.GlobalEvangelism.org Ph: (636)544-0627
