REVIVAL GOD'S WAY

The only reason we do not have revival is because we are willing to live without it. As long as the Church is content to go on without the fire of God, heaven will withhold the rain. You never have to advertise a fire. When flames rise, everyone comes running. In the same way, if a church is truly ablaze with the presence of God, there is no need for promotion; the community already knows it. The Church has many organizers, but few agonizers. Many who pay, but few who pray. Many who rest, but few who wrestle. Many who are enterprising, but few who are interceding. The power of heaven is not in committees but in travailing saints. The man who can get believers to praying would, under God, usher in the greatest revival the world has ever known. For when the Church prays, heaven moves. As long as we are content to live without revival, we will. The measure of our hunger determines the measure of God's visitation. Revival is when God Himself grows weary of being misrepresented by men and shows His glory without rival. It is God stepping into His Church to reveal His holiness in truth and power. The greatest miracle God can perform is not healing a body or multiplying bread, but taking an unholy man out of an unholy world, making him holy, sending him back into that unholy world, and keeping him holy in it. If we displease God, does it matter whom we please? If we please Him, does it matter whom we displease? The fear of man brings a snare, but the fear of the Lord brings liberty. The greatest tragedy is a sick Church in a dying world. When the Church loses her strength, the world loses her light. The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity. God's call is urgent, and the hour of visitation does not last forever. THE CINDERELLA OF THE CHURCH The Cinderella of the Church today is the prayer meeting. She is the one service that is pushed aside, the one gathering that is neglected, and yet she is the one place where the power of heaven is born and sustained. Unction cannot be learned in a classroom, it cannot be conferred by man, and it cannot be manufactured by talent. It is earned in the secret place by prayer, and only prayer. A man may preach and perish, but he cannot pray and perish. Preaching may stir the mind, but prayer lays hold of eternity and brings a man into communion with God Himself. No man is greater than his prayer life. The measure of your ministry, your power, and your intimacy with God is found not in your public work but in your secret place before His throne. The secret of praying is praying in secret. The true strength of the Church is not displayed on platforms but in closets where men and women seek the face of God unseen. The Church of today is poverty-stricken in many areas, but nowhere is her poverty more desperate than in the place of prayer. With all her wealth of programs, she remains bankrupt without prayer. The true Church lives, moves, and has her very being in prayer. When prayer is absent, she is a corpse without breath, a lamp without oil, a soldier without a weapon. A sinning man stops praying, but a praying man stops sinning. The power of temptation breaks where prayer rises, and the chains of sin are shattered where the knees bend. The pastor who is not praying is playing, and the people who are not praying are straying. The destiny of the Church hangs not on her buildings or budgets but on her prayers. The secret of praying is still praying in secret. It is there, alone with God, that the battle is fought and the victory won. No man is greater than his prayer life. The secret measure of every believer is not found in the public eye but in the private place before God. Entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy. It dulls the heart, numbs the conscience, and robs the Church of the holy gladness found only in the presence of God. If weak in prayer, we are weak everywhere. Our strength is not in strategy or skill, but in the power that flows from prevailing with God. The greatest miracle a man can experience is the miracle of a changed life. To be born again, cleansed from sin, and transformed into the likeness of Christ is the wonder of wonders. The man who has God's ear will never lack a man's ear. Influence with heaven gives power on earth, and the voice that moves God will move men. There are only two kinds of people: those dead in sin and those dead to sin. The cross makes the great divide, and every soul stands on one side or the other. Prayer is not a preparation for the battle; prayer is the battle. Victory is not won in the arena of public service but on the battlefield of secret intercession. The self-sufficient do not pray, the self-satisfied will not pray, and the self-righteous cannot pray. Prayer belongs to the humble, the hungry, and the broken who know their need of God. Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for? Measure your pursuits by the cross, and let eternity test the worth of your life. A vision of eternity will keep us holy. When the unseen world fills our gaze, the fleeting things of time lose their grip and the soul walks in purity.