How to Pray for Revival and Spiritual Awakening in America – Part 2

One of the best revival verses in the Bible is the following: "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 "Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place" 2 Chron 7:14-15 (NKJV). Let's examine this verse to see what is required to pray for revival. It begins with "My people". The word people is plural so this is a united effort. Christians who have a desire to pray for spiritual awakening should pray together. The early church in the Bible devoted themselves to united prayer (Romans 12:12). Once we have a group of people, what should these people do? According to verse 14, they need to humble themselves. This is done through the confession of sin. I have a free downloadable sin list that you can use for this purpose Sin List from A-Z. If you have never used a sin list as part of your confession time, you may be shocked at the number of sins on this list. I don't use this list every time I pray, but I try to get it out every once in a while. However, the first time you use it will take the longest. This part of prayer is crucial if you want your prayers for revival to be heard. If you sin is against the Lord, confess your sin directly to Him. If your sin is against an individual, then go to him and make it right (Matthew 5:23-24). The Bible refers to this as restitution.

The next part of this verse is “seek my face”. Do we really know how to seek God’s face? Most of our prayers are probably “me” focused rather than God focused. There are at least two ways to seek God’s will for your life, begin by examining the Bible to see what the Lord’s will is and secondly, ask Him what His will is for you. I like to pray in the morning and ask the Lord what He would like for me to do today. I then sit silently for an answer. Many people do not know how to listen to the Lord’s voice. I know some people think you are crazy if you say that the Lord speaks to you. The key is learning to listen. He has never verbally spoken to me, but He will put thoughts in my mind, which I know are not my thoughts. One of my favorite verses is, “Be still and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10 KJV. I am afraid that many people don’t know how to be still in prayer. We like to do all the talking, because we don’t expect God to actually give us an answer.

Now we will take a look at the phrase “turn from their wicked ways”. I am sad to say that many Christians in America think it is okay to sin. They make excuses such as, “Everyone sins” or “Nobody’s perfect”. We also forget the holiness of God. I am a Precept leader and have spent much time studying the Old Testament, which is where we learn who God is. We learn about Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, but to learn about God we need to study the Old Testament. God is so holy that he required Israel to bathe and make sacrifices for their sins before He would come into their camp.  Moses told Israel, “For the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and give your enemies over to you; therefore your camp shall be holy, that He may see no unclean thing among you, and turn away from you” Deut 23:14 (NKJV). Do you as a Christian take God to places that He would not want to go? Do we watch things on television that He would not like to watch? Many say that because we have salvation through Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter about my sin anymore. The Apostle Paul has a verse about this, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? ² God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein” Romans 6:1-2 (KJV)? For some reason in America, we want salvation without holiness. We want salvation without a life change. One time I saw an illustration with a man trying to fit through a narrow door with a very large pack on his back, but he couldn’t fit through the door with the pack on. The pack represents sin and the narrow door represents salvation. We have to repent of our sins to have salvation. We can’t go through the door with our sin. To help you “turn from your wicked ways”, I have a free downloadable sin list, Sin List from A-Z. Bertha Smith, a missionary to China during the Shantung Revival, used a sin list when she held her prayer conferences in the United States after she returned from China. This sin list was key to revival in China and pocket revivals in the U.S.A. This concept may seem foreign to you, but it has been used successfully in the past to stir revival in the hearts of Christians. It is only foreign, because it has not been taught in a long time.

Now that we have covered the steps to revival, we can pray for revival. If you are willing to go through these steps, you can have personal revival any time you want. You don’t have to wait until God sends revival to the entire U.S. because you can have revival now. Once you have your own revival experience, you will be on praying ground to pray for others to have revival. God never breaks His promises, so if you meet the conditions for revival in this verse, you will have a revived heart and spirit. You will have peace and joy no matter what is going on around you.

Now find someone to pray with and pray for Revival and Spiritual Awakening for America.