How to Be Part of the Great Awakening

In this post we will be discussing a few ways we can be part of the Great Awakening.

It seems every day we get more bad news. If it’s not the looming specter of a super bug that will (supposedly) wipe out civilization, it is the screeching of a demonic cabal claiming dominion over the entire human race.

If this is all we hear, our outlook becomes dismal.

That’s why I live in His Word.

It may be great comfort to you that Jesus set up His Church in the midst of the pagan Roman Empire. Let me tell you, life in that era was no picnic. Idol worship involved more than a few prayers to a statue; child sacrifice and sexual immorality (including gender confusion and perversion–see Romans chapter 1) were all quite common during those times.

We think there is a disdain for life now, but we forget that back then infants were left to die from the elements or wild beasts on the word of an evil soothsayer or a bad omen. Virgin maidens were made to sacrifice themselves in pagan rituals. Men were brutalized as mere machines in armies, mines and on galley ships to do the will of the State.

Slavery was an accepted practice, and the slave owner was free to do whatever he wished with his “property.” Often those enslaved were guilty of nothing more than indebtedness, yet the entire family would find themselves parted out to different masters; fathers and mothers separated from one another, and children separated from their parents.

And yet it was here God chose to send Jesus. He came to us in the midst of a world of raw brutality under the fist of the Roman Empire. In such an atmosphere, it is no wonder His words were like a comforting balm to weary souls.

Today our problems, our threats, are of “Biblical” proportions. This is a bad thing, but it is also a good thing. It means that God is going to show up on a “Biblical” scale.

What happens when God goes Biblical? Let’s just look at the books of Moses.

First, God sent the plagues. These were massive! Each one was meant to destroy any confidence the Israelites may have had in the Egyptian gods (follow this link for a great pdf that gives the details).

Next came His deliverance and provision. He actually took a sea and parted it so that the Israelites could walk along on dry land (and don’t forget the way He kept the Egyptians at bay in darkness with His cloud of darkness and pillar of fire).

Then he drowned the Egyptians so they would not be able to bother the Israelites ever again:

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. And the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.

Now it came to pass, in the morning watch, that the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians. And He took off their chariot wheels, so that they drove them with difficulty; and the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen.” And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained. But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt; so the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses.

Exodus 14:21-31

He also brought water from a rock in the midst of a desert and fed over a million people from the dew every day. He sent so much quail that it was in heaps around the camp:

Now a wind went out from the LORD, and it brought quail from the sea and left them fluttering near the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and about a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the ground.

Numbers 11:31

THAT’s the Biblical we are talking about here. When God shows up it gets real serious, and real marvelous.

Paul the Apostle was part of the marvelous. He literally walked all over the Roman world spreading the Gospel, and God did lots of marvelous through him. The power rested on him so strongly that even handkerchiefs he prayed over would heal the sick. People who had been under the power of demons were set free.

It’s time for some Biblical interventions, and they are coming, believe me. If we look expectantly, we will be blessed beyond measure! Just like Esther, you and I were born for such a time as this.

And while we are waiting, let’s get ready. How do we get ready? Here are just a few Biblical suggestions:

Begin with the fear of the Lord.

For thus says the Lord,
Who created the heavens,
Who is God,
Who formed the earth and made it,
Who has established it,
Who did not create it in vain,
Who formed it to be inhabited:
“I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I have not spoken in secret,
In a dark place of the earth;
I did not say to the seed of Jacob,
‘Seek Me in vain’;
I, the Lord, speak righteousness,
I declare things that are right.

Isaiah 45:18-19

Oh, how my heart is moved when I read these verses. HE MADE IT ALL!

I have stood on a beach of the North Sea when it thundered so loudly I could not hear myself think, yet that was only a tiny bit of His creation. How could I stand before Him in defiance? How could anyone think to stand before Him?

And yet, He is humble. I can’t even comprehend that, can you? And He wants us to walk with Him. Too much, too much, I am overwhelmed…selah…

The marvelous is coming, count on it!

Grow in the fruits and operate in the gifts.

As we have discussed before, no more fooling around. The fruits come from the new creatures we become when we are born again, and when we live with them flowing from us, we align ourselves with God and our lives make an impact:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

And the gifts are not optional in these days. The enemy is coming at us full force, so we need every gift the Lord can equip us with. We need to be able to discern, to pray beyond our understanding, and get words from God, and speak in prophecy drenched in the anointing of the Holy Spirit (this link will shed more light).

Devote yourself to God’s original design.

The devil and his cohorts are dedicated to the devolving of mankind. This means that they are set against everything the Creator designed, including the institutions of marriage and family. We need to be walking, living examples of what God originally intended. This is where the spiritual meets the practical. We love our husbands and our children. We spend the greatest part of our energy on making our homes sanctuaries of peace where God can do His greatest works in our hearts and minds.

We do this by living the part–as women we develop our femininity. We dress becomingly, we cultivate beauty wherever we go. Our homes are like museums of the beauty of holiness.

We honor masculinity and we love our husbands. We work as unto our God. We forget about ourselves and live for His glory in our closest relationships.

And we embrace our role as mothers–conduits through whom God brings His children into this world.

Take charge of the education of your children.

Just think how differently the world would look if parents had taken charge way back in the 1920’s when they started stripping God out of education. Instead of a world filled with “educated idiots,” we may have had people who, even if they didn’t follow perfectly, understood the fear of the Lord. Corruption could be defined and morality would not be a massive sea of confusion.

But we don’t have the past, only the present and the future. This is our time and we are responsible before God to make sure our children understand the basics of God as Creator, sin, the infallibility of scripture, and redemption. The rest will be up to them, but if they have been taught properly, God will have much more to work with.

I know it’s being overlooked, but the education of the young is actually the foundation of a revival.

Let’s dig in and keep in until the job is done!

Finally, I leave you with a quote from a dear lady that survived a German concentration camp during WWII and lived to travel around the world testifying that there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still:

If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. If you look at God, you’ll be at rest.

Corrie ten Boom