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These "awakenings" have been supernatural in both origin and effect. These were not wrought by the hands of men trying to bring about revival, for such a thing is not possible. These providential outpourings of God's Spirit upon His people were initiated and sustained by God for His glory and purposes.
However, a common factor preceding each of these historic movements of God was a unified call to prayer within the Church. I mean authentic, Christ-centered prayer. The people praying during these periods of "sleep" were not praying for the Lord to "bless the nation" or bless them and their families. They were praying that the Lord, in His mercy, would pour out His Spirit upon His people and utterly transform them so that through them individually and His Church collectively He would be glorified! They longed to be like Christ and were willing to let Him have His way in their lives knowing that nothing was off-limits to His Lordship.
This is not a "safe" prayer; this kind of prayer has the supernatural potential to change everything about us including those things that, in our flesh, we really don't want to change.
The times in which we live bear striking resemblance to the periods preceding prior outpourings of God's Spirit or revival. God still desires and providentially determines to bring glory to the Son through His Church. Our part is to earnestly seek the manifestation of the Lord's glory in our own lives and corporately in His Church regardless of what this may cost us. We beseech the Lord with hope that He will once again be merciful to us sinners.
If you remember no other commentary that I ever write; I pray you will diligently think on this one and pass it along to as many within the Church as possible. I pray that each of us would unite in this kind of prayer; seeking the Lord's glory, manifested in and through His people; that He would have His way in each of our lives and that we would be utterly transformed, becoming more like Christ so that the world would see Jesus! This should be the lifelong and ongoing prayer of the Church!
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S. Michael Craven is the Founding Director of the Center for Christ & Culture, a ministry of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families. The Center for Christ & Culture is dedicated to renewal within the Church and works to equip Christians with an intelligent and thoroughly Christian approach to matters of culture in order to recapture and demonstrate the relevance of Christianity to all of life. For more information on the Center for Christ & Culture, additional resources and other works by S. Michael Craven visit: www.battlefortruth.org
Michael lives in the Dallas area with his wife Carol and their three children.
