I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord (Ezekiel 22:30-31).
The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene (Isaiah 59:15b-16a).Anyone who holds a Biblical view of Almighty God has to believe that in His absolute holiness our Creator-Redeemer is deeply grieved by both the wickedness of the world and the weakness of His Church. Reading both our Old and New Testaments, we learn that God is aghast at the degradation of the world and appalled at the sins and prayerlessness of His people.
In Noah’s time The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth (Genesis 6:5-7a).
But God found Noah, who would stand in the gap between divine holiness and human depravity, and those who believed (only eight souls) were saved. Noah built an ark, but all those who scoffed and rejected their only means of salvation were destroyed by the flood.
The apostle Paul, under divine inspiration, foretold conditions of the last days:
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power (II Timothy 3:2-5a).
But in the last days, God sent His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to a lost world already condemned, already marked for eternal destruction. As Jesus told Nicodemus, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son (John 3:16-18).
To all who receive Jesus Christ as Savior He has promised the Holy Spirit. On His departure, Jesus ordered His followers to go back into Jerusalem and tarry (wait before the Lord in prayer) until you have been clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). His final words were: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
Throughout the book of Acts we see a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit in the church that was filled with the Spirit as it spread the Gospel in power—winning thousands to Christ, working miracles of healing, raising the dead, casting out demons, and demonstrating the plan of God for advancing the kingdom of God throughout the world.
But the most tragic sin of the church across the centuries has been its failure to remain empowered by the Holy Spirit. The strange cycle of the backsliding and renewing of the people of God through the centuries is a haunting phenomenon. Just as the Old Testament people of God failed to meet the conditions of its covenant with Jehovah, so the New Testament Church has also grieved, quenched, or ignored the Holy Spirit of power. The resulting apostasy has written tragedy into its history.
Our God of mercy has promised His people the miracle of revivals to restore His Church to new life, fresh faith, renewed vision, and amazing power for reaching a lost world with the transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As a God of Grace and Justice, He gives His people a choice—either Revival or Judgment. Revival is not only a means of preserving His Church; Revival is also a means of preserving the nations His people inhabit. Revival is not only the divine means of restoring Christian believers to New Testament life and power; with true Revival God brings a moral and spiritual healing to the land: 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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land (II Chronicles 7:14).
