262 ~ RECEPIE FOR REVIVAL ~ PART 1

We welcome you to the We Are Zion sermon podcast.

We are a church based out of Chennai, India.

We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will

be refreshed, revived, and energized by what you hear.

Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of

purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.

The year 2025 is 1 where we will be positioned by God to possess

our promise. We begin a new sermon series

called A Recipe for Revival when we look at different instances

in the Bible where God poured His spirit out on His people

leading to reformation and restoration.

We hope that through this series, God will fill you with a

holy fire so that you are blazing for Christ in a Dark

World. So Church, even as you just

watched, we are heading into a season of revival.

We believe that God is going to do great things.

He's already begun doing great things on the earth.

And so our series for the next 7 weeks is called A Recipe for

Revival. And we're going to be looking at

different revivals from the Bible that was facilitated by

the Holy Spirit but used ordinary men and women like you

and me. And we're going to look at how

God is going to do something on the earth in this time that we

live in. And he's going to bring about

such a change, such an overhaul that is going to blow our minds.

And there are certain things when I was just reading on the

revivals of the past, there have been revivals that have been

happening over thousands of years around the globe.

When the Holy Spirit was poured out over congregations, over

people, over communities, and things changed.

Signs, wonders and miracles broke out.

There was a powerful move of God.

There was, there was such a change in people's attitude

towards God, a fresh fear of God fell on them, but there was

always a common ignition point. And that's what we're going to

be looking at over the next few weeks.

And you know, for us as a church, we believe God is

bringing in a revival fire. We believe that God is going to

put, you know, the fire that the tongues of fire that came and

rested on the people in the upper room in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

We believe that that fire is accessible to each of us, that

our God who is a consuming fire, longs to fill us up with the

fire from heaven, a holy fire. And so we believe that we're

going to be in a season of of refreshing of a revival fire

being birthed in US. You know, when I was reading up

a bit about how fire actually comes about, right?

There's a three-part combo for the perfect fire.

They say 1 is oxygen, then there's the fuel and then

there's heat, right? And so I believe that even in

the in a spiritual realm, there is so many elements that

actually create that fire. But the truth is this, OK, the

truth is this fire, the fire of God is from God entirely, but it

requires willing sacrifices, those of us who know him to lay

ourselves before him and say, here I am, Lord, send me, here I

am, Lord, fill me. It requires that.

And I believe that the component of the oxygen is actually the

breath of God. When God breathes upon us, when

he, when he actually speaks over us, I believe that that fire

just, you know, moves from being an ember to a full-fledged

flame. And it's so important because I

feel like we know in conversation with a lot of

people, you know, people at church, people outside

believers, we notice an overall dimming of the flame.

There are very few who are still on fire for God, for his

Kingdom, for a hurting world majority.

Because of the stuff that has happened even in the last four

months, the kind of heaviness and the struggles we've had, it

is easy to come to a place of let me just live for myself.

Let me just concentrate on my family.

Let me just do the things that make me feel comfortable and

safe. It is so easy to go into this

place of just comfortable, laid back spirituality, which is

actually no spirituality at all because like we saw Jesus, God

us to daily take up our cross and follow him.

So it is a sacrificial life. It is one that requires us to

lay down things. But how do we do it unless the

Spirit of God enables us? And when he does that, when he

does that, I find that even the the most dim embers come alive.

Right when you look at the the Tabernacle in the wilderness,

right in the wilderness season in the Exodus, we see how the

Tabernacle was set up and they needed to be these lamps and the

lamp had to be kept burning throughout night and day.

It could never go out. And the priest's job was to trim

the Wicks, feed it oil, and make sure it was a flame.

Leviticus chapter 6, verse 13 says the fire must be kept

Leviticus 6:13

burning on the altar continuously.

It must not go out. When we look at the New

Testament, Jesus is calling us into a place where we are a city

on a hill, a lamp that is kept on a high place so that everyone

can see. Now this lamp, as we all know,

with wind, with storms, with, with being hidden, sometimes

just goes out. And maybe you are in this place

of saying, you know what? My fire for God has dimmed

because God allowed all these things to happen to me because I

went through these hardships because of this sickness.

And maybe you feel completely rightfully allowed to have this

flame go dim. But I want to encourage you that

we are the royal priesthood or chosen generation of people

selected by God, who have been taken out of the Kingdom of

darkness and placed in the Kingdom of light.

Our job is to burn bright. Our job is to make sure that the

lamp never dims. Our job is to make sure it

doesn't go out. Yes, the storms are real.

Yes, the rain fell hard. Yes, the floods came.

But if you made it with a flame still flickering, there you are.

OK. And I want to encourage you

today that revival happens when we open ourselves up to the move

of God, when we are hungry and passionate for more of Him.

I want to ask you a very personal question.

What is your opinion of God? Four months past, what have you

been thinking of God? Have you been like God enough?

I'm good with what we have this, this relationship, this is

enough? Or have you come to a place of

saying, God, I need more of you. I need more discernment, I need

more insight, I need wisdom. I need to lead by revelation,

more of you, God. What has your stance been when

you read about the the revival movements in the past hundred

years or so? It's very interesting.

The common ignition point for most was a deep hunger for God.

It was saying, God, we want more of you.

We are not content with what we have.

It also came from a place of deep humility and deep

repentance of saying, God, I know I'm so sinful, I don't

deserve more of you, but yet I know through Jesus I have access

to you and I want more of you. And so these were the common

ignition points of these revivals.

I was reading recently about the Asbury revival.

It just happened when there was a college Chapel.

They'd LED worship. They had the word.

The pastor LED in a short devotion.

He just talked about being of humility and repentance, LED

them in a prayer, moved off stage.

The Spirit of God just took over.

Young people walked in hours and hours, days on end, just coming

there, falling before God and saying here we are, forgive us.

The air of repentance and humility was so strong that

nothing other than a revival could have happened.

And yet, sometimes we think a revival has to look a certain

way, sound a certain way. I'm believing that revival

starts in the hearts of each of us before it starts spreading to

others. Like a flame that needs a bit of

fresh breath on it. Our flames are going to increase

in size and eventually it's going to spread into the

different places we walk into. That is what our belief is.

That is what we're trusting for. And so I really believe that God

is going to shift things in the season.

God is going to move it from complacency.

The complacent Christian, the selfish Christian, the one who's

self obsessed, the one who thinks, you know what?

I have a fire in my belly for my work, for my job, for my

business, for my child, for myself, for my marriage.

He's going to move that fire further up from your belly to

your heart so that your heart is burning for Jesus.

And when it's burning for Jesus, it'll start burning for his

Kingdom, and then it'll start burning for the world that

you're placed in and the things that you must do, you were

created to do, to bring heaven to earth.

That's how this is going to work.

So I want to ask you, do you want to check yourself out right

now? You could or you could sign up.

You could say I'm all in, I'm all in.

We're starting to see these trends come up where people want

the best for themselves, the best house, the best car.

They want the best experiences for their children, the best

sports coach, the best experiences, the best travel.

Do you want the best of God for yourself?

Do you want your children to experience God and all His

greatness and His glory? It will require a revival

because it cannot happen on our own.

We can hunger for it, but it's the Holy Spirit who meets us at

that place of hunger. It is the Holy Spirit who will

do His work in US. I love this quote that Pastor

Ruben Pradhan, he was part of a revival in 2009 which happened

in the northeast part of our country and when they asked him

what happened, why did the revival decline after a year or

so, he replied Although the revival made a huge impact on

the churches, it wasn't visible enough in the various strata of

society. Towards the end of the revival,

man made traditions, rules and regulations began to creep in

and children and youth were discouraged from going to these

revival meetings because their studies were being neglected.

Eventually I believe the Holy Spirit was quenched and the move

of God came to a stop, although some embers still seem to spark

here and there. Maybe you are saying I'm just an

ember right now. I have this, this small little

passion to know God more, to maybe tell someone about him.

We are going to believe that in these seven weeks, God is going

to breathe a fresh breath upon that ember, making it into a

roaring flame. We're going to believe that that

flame will be visible for miles away.

We're going to believe that when you sit on meetings, on calls,

with your business partners, with your bosses, that that fire

is going to spread across oceans.

That's what we're believing for. That's the kind of revival we're

looking for. And today we're going to be

specifically looking at the revival that Elijah brought

about on Mount Carmel, right? He faced off 850 false prophets.

These are prophets of Baal and Ashtarith.

And these guys come up there, they're invited by Ahab, whose

wife hosts them regularly. And Elijah challenges them

literally to a duel. He says, come up here.

We prove to the people who's the real God.

And if you have to understand, these people of the land, the

Israelites were being led by a king who had no convictions

whatever whatsoever. He was on the fence permanently.

He he worshipped a bit of the living God.

And then he also caved into his wife's demon gods.

He was married to a woman who came from the land of Sidon,

whose name was Jezebel. And she had this penchant for

for idolatry. She persecuted the innocent.

She she was wickedness Incarnate because of the demon gods she

sacrificed too. And so Ahab was in this love

relationship with a woman who had brought this whole system to

ruin. Israel was in shambles.

Apostasy, you know, a prostitution, temple

prostitution had been brought in.

All kinds of immorality had crept in, all because of the

rulers being in such a bad position and that's when Elijah

came in. Elijah's ministry was such a

powerful one. I love 1 Kings chapter 17 was

1 Kings 17 · chapter mention

one and one line. It describes who Elijah was.

It says now Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbi in Gilead said to

Ahab, as the Lord, the God of Israel lives whom I serve, there

will be neither do nor reign in the next few years except at my

word. Elijah was a prophet.

He heard from God and he communicated what God gave him.

Lot of times he made certain declarations which there's no

direct implication that God asked him to say it, but he and

faith made those declarations and God reinforced it, right?

It's such a powerful problem. He was as human as we are.

He went through a season of severe depression.

Like literally he, he had just won this huge battle.

And yet when he gets threatened by Jezebel, he runs and hides,

much like us. He declared things that God

directed him to say and it happened.

God would say go and tell Ahab Rain's coming.

He would go and do it and eventually God would come

through for him. He was a much needed pain in the

behind of Ahab and Jezebel. Ahab and Jezebel, if they didn't

have an Elijah would have just gone off the rails.

But Elijah brought truth to them, brought heaven's truth to

them. And I want to read a passage of

Scripture, 1 Kings chapter 18 if you could turn to it.

1 Kings 18 · chapter mention

Verses 20 to 30 it says so. Ahab sent word throughout all

Israel and assemble the prophets on Mount Carmel.

Elijah went before the people and said, how long will you

waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him,

but if Baal is God, follow him. But the people said nothing.

Then Elijah said to them, I am the only one of the Lord's

prophets left. But Baal has 450 prophets.

Get 2 bulls for us. Let Baal's prophets choose one

for themselves and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the

wood, but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull

and put it on the wood, but not set fire to it.

Then you call in the name of your God, and I will call on the

name of the Lord, the God who answers by fire, He is God.

Then all the people said, what you say is good.

Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose one of the bulls

and prepare it first, since there are so many of you, call

on the name of your God, but do not light the fire.

So they took the bull given them and prepared it.

Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon.

Baal answered as they shouted, but there was no response.

No one answered and they danced around the altar they had made.

At noon Elijah began to taunt them.

Shout louder, he said. Surely he is a God.

Perhaps he was deep in thought or busy or travelling.

Maybe he's sleeping and must be awakened.

So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords

and Spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed.

Midday passed and they continued their frantic prophesying until

the time for the evening sacrifice.

But there was no response. No one answered, no one paid

attention. Then Elijah said to all the

people, Come here to me. They came to him, and he

repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down.

You look at this passage and you see a land that is ripe for

revival. How do you know that a place or

a person or a thing needs revival?

2 signs that a place or a person or a situation needs revival.

First thing is you're on the fence with God.

You're on the fence. What does that mean?

You have not picked a side. You're in the world and off it

where we are clearly said to be in the world, but not of it.

When you when you can't, you're not able to pick between the

Kingdom of light and the Kingdom of darkness.

You want the best of both worlds.

And here he says, why are you limping between two opinions?

Why are you wavering and message it says why are you on the

fence? Why are you on the fence?

Make up your mind is that you? I want to ask you, is that you?

The Kingdom of the earth beckons with its baubles, with its

lustful desires, with the pride of life and all these things

that are dragging us down. But then the Kingdom of light

beckons us with its its promise of abundance, its promise of

godliness and contentment being the greatest gains of our life.

And it's so hard to choose sometimes.

But I want to ask you, you can't be on the fence forever.

How about choosing a site? How do you know you need

revival? If you're on the fence, If you

say, well, I love Jesus, but I need this as well.

I love God. I know what he expects of me,

but this particular relationship is important to me.

This way of life is important to me.

I can't help but like God understands I'm human, on the

fence, on the fence. That's a sign that you and I

need revival because it's so interesting.

There are so many other no gods, money, fame, sex, religion, so

many of these things call us and beckon us to a prosperity that

seems long lasting, but it isn't.

But Jesus is calling us to eternity and he's saying I will

give you a full life. Now, should you choose the

narrow way, right? And so which side will you

choose? The narrow way or the the

Broadway? Will you choose the way of the

cross or the way of the world? Will you choose Jesus or will

you choose the enemy side? Because there is no

Demilitarized Zone, Everything is marked in black and white.

For too long we're thinking, you know what, I can be in the

shadowy light part. No, I can be in the diffused

light region. You're either in the Kingdom of

light or you're in the Kingdom of darkness.

The beautiful thing, as the apostle Peter writes, is you

have been rescued from the Kingdom of darkness and brought

into the Kingdom of light. You don't get to be on the wall.

As we mature, our position has to be very clear.

We're living in times where people are longing for us to

make that complacent choice, to compromise on things that fit

their itching ears so that you know we fit in with them.

But Jesus is calling us to a life that is set apart and

consecrated for him, one that is holy and righteous.

He says in Matthew chapter 6 verse 24, he says you can't

Matthew 6:24

worship 2 gods at once. Loving one God, you'll end up

hating the other. Adoration of 1 feeds contempt

for the other. You can't worship God and money

both. Let's replace it with all the

other things. You can't worship God and sex as

well. You can't worship God and your

ego. All of these tend to take our

own spaces up the altar in our lives.

Seems crowded because as Jesus plus all these other things that

I need, wealth, networks, fame, fortune.

What are the things that are occupying substitutionary gods

in your life? You can't be on the fence for

long. If you are on the fence, it's a

surefire way of knowing you need revival.

The second symptom of needing a revival, if you look at that

passage, was living an unaltered life.

What does that mean? Living unaltered?

Meaning in this situation, the altar of God was broken down

there. There was literally a broken

down semblance of an altar, but it was no longer being used.

It was obviously in disrepair. And the problem is, many of us

are living unaltered because the minute we come to Jesus, our

life changes. Let's not kid ourselves, it

should change. Transformation looks like that.

But many of us choose Jesus and live an unaltered life because

there is no altar to the one true King in our hearts.

Like I said, we have all these other things.

We're on the fence and our life hasn't transformed.

We're still indulging in the things that we used to, except

that now we have we say we have Jesus seal of approval on us.

But how does that work here? It was very clear.

It says that Elijah said to the people, come here to me.

They came, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had

been torn. This is a high place.

Mount Carmel was a high place and actually speaking these high

places were not allowed. But a lot of kings didn't pull

down the high places. God didn't punish them for it.

But the high places were not the allowed places to offer these

sacrifices. Jerusalem, the temple of

Jerusalem was the place where it was supposed to.

Elijah is making an exception because of his a close communion

with God. He knew he could do this.

He was actually bringing the people to something relatively

familiar because the high places was where a lot of idolatry and

and paganism was happening. He brings them there and shows

them the broken down altar which is symbolic of a need for a

restoration. I want to ask you, what does the

altar of your life look like? When I talk about an altar, I'm

not talking about an actual altar made of stone or brick or

wood. No, I'm asking you what is your

personal prayer and worship and those other spiritual

disciplines that should be under guarding your life?

How does it look? Is it as regular as it was in

the early days of your finding Jesus?

Is Thanksgiving something that you know is permeated into your

everyday? It is important to understand

that an altar is actually a point of connection between God

and man. It is where heaven invades

earth, right? And an altar requires us to move

here and focus on the one we worship.

So if you're living unaltered, it means the altars of your life

are broken down, and God is calling us into a place of

rebuilding those altars. So what do we need to do?

We know the symptoms now, and I'm guessing that most of you

fell under one of the categories, right?

I know I did, but I'm coming to 1 Kings chapter 18 versus 30 to

1 Kings 18 · chapter mention

39 to understand what the solution is because there's no

use knowing the the signs of a problem unless we have a

solution, right? And this is where the solution

comes one Kings chapter 18 versus 30 to 39.

Then Elijah said to all the people, come near to me.

So all the people came near to him and he repaired the altar of

the Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took 12 Stones

according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob to

whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, Israel shall be

your name. Then with the stones he built an

altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench around the

altar large enough to hold 2 seers of seed.

And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces and laid

it on the wood and said, fill 4 water pots with water and poured

it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.

Then he said, do it a second time and they did it a second

time. And he said do it a third time

and he did it a third time. So the water ran all around the

altar and he also filled the trench with water.

And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening

sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came here and said, Lord

God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day

that you are God and Israel, and I am your servant, and that I

have done all these things at Your word.

Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that these people may know that you

are the Lord God, and that you have turned their hearts back to

You again. Then the fire of the Lord fell

and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and

the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.

Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and

they said, the Lord he is God, the Lord he is God.

This is the the recipe for a revival.

There was fire which fell from heaven, convincing the people

that Elijah was a spokesman for God himself, the living God.

Hours on end. Bal never responded.

A living God should respond. Our God, the living God

responded with fire. And the interesting thing is it

required something from Elijah. It was not the people.

Elijah responded, he did three things.

And I believe that these three things are very important for us

to actually wait on God for this revival, for us to ask Him.

Lord, put your fire on me. Put your fire in me.

And the three things that is the first thing is we need to

rebuild our altars to Christ alone.

Like I explained this altar here was it was broken down.

So he actually arranged 12 Stones and then he laid the

sacrifice on it. When we look at Exodus chapter

Exodus 20:22–26

20, verses 22 to 26, it talks about the actual making of an

altar. And I want to just read it says

here verse 24, an altar of earth you shall make for me, and you

shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace

offerings, your sheep and your oxen in every place where I

record my name. I will come to you and I will

bless you. If you make me an altar of

stone, You shall not built it of built it of hewn stone, for if

you use your tool on it, you have profaned it, nor shall you

go up by steps to my altar that your nakedness may not be

exposed on it. It's very interesting that an

altar is representative of the object of our worship.

So I want you to first of all, understand you don't need an

altar to be built at home. You don't need to create a

specific niche place for that altar, but it's a position and

posture of your heart wherein you're saying God here I am, I

am focused on you. The reason why Abraham, Isaac

and Jacob built altars as early as they didn't even Noah built

an altar was because it focused their attentions on the one who

had saved them, the one who had called them.

It brought them into sharp focus as the one as to the one who

needed worshipping. If there was no altar in a

multi, in a polytheistic culture, it's very easy to get

distracted. Now we live in such a time.

I have experienced time during worship.

Instead of closing my eyes and actually worshipping God, I'm

looking around. I'm observing others.

My mind wanders. I start to think about my week.

I start to think of the week ahead.

I start to think of all the things I have not done.

I start to think of the things people said.

And before long, on the altar of my life, I am no longer the

sacrifice. My focus is no longer Jesus. 10

other things are sitting on that altar, and God is calling me to

focus on the object of my worship.

It's important to know when my altars are broken down, it means

that I have put the wrong things on the altar many times.

I have. We have worshipped our spouse,

We have worshipped our children, our friendships, religion, the

things that drive us, our passions, our careers, our

dreams, our ambitions. And somehow Jesus doesn't have

the prime focus through my altar.

When God is calling us back, it is representative of the

worship. Who receives my worship, who

receives the praise, who receives the glory.

Up until recently, I had a a simple method of just connecting

with God, which is I would go to a particular place in my in my

home and would connect with God through worship.

And I'm a dancer, so I worship with dance with flags.

As the summer in Chennai started, I found that it was

just too hot to do anything outdoors.

So what I would do is just completely cut that part of my

life out. I would spend the evenings

indoors with the AC on right. And I found that this vital bit

of connection was missing. I found it harder to pray.

I found it harder to worship. I realized that my altar, I had

torn it down to choose comfort, to choose what worked for me

because oh, it was summer season and the Lord reminded me and

said, who is the object of your worship?

It feels like on your altar is comfort.

Would you worship me even if sweat was streaming down your

back? Would you worship me even if the

climate and the temperature soars to the high 30s?

Would you still choose me? Was the question he asked me.

And I, I believe each of us have chosen something instead of

Jesus because the truth is this. The fire of God cannot fall on

an empty altar. On the altar is our sacrifice

and the sacrifice is ourselves saying, Lord, here I am, fill

me, use me, do with me as you will.

But many times when the altar is misplaced, when it's, it's

serving my own agenda, there is no sacrifice there.

It's all about my comfort. I'm protecting myself.

I'm safeguarding myself. The altar is empty and a fire

cannot fall on an altar that is empty.

I love what the Passion translation talks about.

Psalm chapter 5, verse 3. In the Passion translation it

Psalms 5:3

says at each and every sunrise you will hear my voice as I

prepare my sacrifice of prayer to you.

Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on the altar

and wait for your fire to fall upon my heart.

Every day, unless the altar is prepared and my worship is tuned

to Jesus alone, there's a huge propensity that I have not laid

the pieces of my life on that altar because I'm so busy

safeguarding and keeping it for myself.

But God is calling us to a place of laying it on that altar to

rebuild the altar, to position myself to worship him.

So often we're so, you know, direct.

We're so transactional. Anytime we sit down to pray, be

like God. These are the things I need.

Sometimes we even start by saying Lord, you already know

what I need, so I'm just going to worship you.

But in 5 minutes, we're back to asking Him for the things that

we want. While it's not bad to us, He is

our Father. We can ask Him for anything.

I believe that when we rebuild the altar in our lives as

families, as individuals, we are saying God, we choose to focus

on you in the season. An altar takes the focus of our

situation. It takes it back to God.

An altar takes the heat of my the other parts of my life and

allows me to focus on who I worship.

And I love that these altars were slightly elevated so that

when you looked at it, when you worshiped, you know, when you

worshiped God through it, you had to look up so you couldn't

be so caught up with what was happening down here.

You had to lift your eyes like the psalmist says, I lift up my

eyes. Where does my help come from?

The altar enables us to lift our eyes and place it on the one

that really matters. The second thing, the second

remedy. The first thing is we need to

rebuild the altars of our life. The second thing is that we have

to soak our life in the water of God's world.

If you noticed, Elijah did this very anti science thing where he

said we're waiting for fire from God, but he drenched the place

in gallons of water. It was like he was setting God

up for a miracle. He was setting the scene for

something supernatural because we know that anything that is so

drenched with water, soaked and running with water cannot be

flammable. There is no possibility.

And yet he was saying, God, you can do anything.

Prove to these people that you will work against nature, and

that's what God did. Isn't that amazing?

In Ephesians chapter 5, verses 25 to 26, I'm reading from the

Ephesians 5:25–26

Passion translation, it says and to the husbands, you are to

demonstrate love for your wives with the same tender devotion

that Christ demonstrated to us his bride.

For He died for us, sacrificing himself to make us holy and

pure, cleansing us through the showering of the pure water of

the Word of God, showering us with the pure water of the Word

of God. In other translations it says by

the washing of the word. If you and I choose to look at

the Word of God as optional, this revival fire will not

actually take root, will not actually pick up because the the

Word of God is so powerful. It is living, it is active, it

is dividing our motives, our hearts, our agendas.

It's revealing the things of our heart.

It is moving to actually convict us.

When I'm soaked in it, it is doing its work.

It is purifying me so that when the fire of God falls, it

doesn't consume me, but it only fills me many times.

Many of us are not living in the wholeness of God's Word.

We are not soaking in it. It's just like this side piece.

It's just there. I have a Bible, I have my you

version. I look at the worst of the day.

I'm good. But God is saying you need to be

soaked in the Word of God. What does soaking look like?

Reading it, meditating on it, knowing it.

If you have to put up worst, 'cause you have to put the

scripture up on your, on your home screen, whatever it is,

when He gives you a word that you would cling onto it and use

it for the weapon that it is, because it is the only weapon in

our arsenal which is an offensive weapon.

Everything else is passive. It holds us, it protects us, but

the Word of God goes against the enemy.

And I believe God is calling us to use the Rhema word, the word

that is revealed to us for what it's worth, but it will not give

room for a revival unless you and I are soaked in it.

Because as we are soaked in it, the word begins to work in US.

Every season of my life, God has given me a different scripture,

something different to actually note down and study.

And off late because I'm more intentional about noting down

what He's showing me. As I noted down, actually read

these scriptures every day just to remind myself of the season.

I mean, because sometimes it feels like a crushing season.

And unless you have the word of God to cover you and protect you

and cocoon you, you'll be devastated.

The season will shake you and rattle you.

So it's important that the Word of God is something you're

soaked in through the day, all day, every day, so that when the

revival fire comes, you're not left standing there like ash,

but you're glowing a flame and ready for the purposes of God in

your life. So that's the second thing,

being soaked in God's Word, being soaked in God's word, the

third thing I believe that remedy for us to actually

experience this revival fire, to actually, you know, experience a

rehydration so to speak, of our spirit man of our soul is to

pray fervently. It's easy to just pray.

Many people have learnt that it's just a conversation, it's

OK. But do you pray fervently?

What is praying fervently mean? What does it mean to ardently

pray until something happens? What does it look like?

James chapter 5, verses 16 to 18 says this.

James 5:16–18

The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed

earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the

land for three years and six months.

And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth

produced its fruit. It's so interesting.

He was a man like us, which means he was ordinary like us,

but he had the Spirit of God so powerfully at work in him that

when he prayed, God answered because he was praying in

alignment with God's will. He was not declaring things out

of the side of his mouth, things he just felt, but he was

actually praying alongside God's will.

So God's will was happening and it's very interesting because

when you're reading the whole passage of 1 Kings chapter 18,

1 Kings 18 · chapter mention

when you come further down, it's talking about how he tells Ahab,

go back to the city, take your chariot and go because rain is

coming. There hasn't been rain for 3 1/2

years. The land is dry, crops have

died, livestock are struggling. People are looking for water.

And so God has said, tell Ahab to go, rain is coming, right?

But the interesting thing about Elijah, which which surprised me

and also spurred me on, was he knew rain was coming.

He knew that God is faithful to his word.

But it says that he knelt down where he was, he put his face

between his knees like a woman in labour that the, the position

in those days for, for a woman to actually give birth was on

her knees on her, on her hands, right?

And he's bent down and he's travailing in prayer.

He's fervently praying. Why should he pray for something

that's promised? Why is he praying for something

that he knew is going to come? If God said rain's coming,

rain's coming. But that's Elijah for you.

He was a man of fervent prayer. You and I have promises that God

has kept for us. I'm sure you're waiting on a

promise for marriage, for a child, for that dream job, for

that move to another country, whatever it is.

But God is saying in the wait, in the interim, what you do in

your prayer life is very important.

The word for prayer in this context, the Hebrew word, is

tefila. Tefila, which means connecting

intimately and communicating your heart with God.

Prayer is not a monologue. Prayer is not just unloading

something on God and walking away.

Prayer is communicating intimately with him, telling

him, Lord, this is what is on my heart.

I know you promised this, but I'm going to wait.

Lord, what do you want to do in me while I wait?

Lord, what is coming? What should I be prepared for?

And it's such a beautiful two way communication.

If you don't know how to pray, you know what, just take the

Lord's Prayer. Pray that out.

You know, the theologian Dallas Willard says this of the Lord's

Prayer. He said in our petition to

deliver us from temptation and evil.

That is a vote of no confidence in our abilities, which means

you and I are basically saying when we, when we pray these

prayers say, Lord, let your will be done.

Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

I'm basically saying I have no capacity, Lord, without you I am

nothing. And that's when God moves in

with all his power. In this story, when he is, he's

on his knees, he's praying. He sends his servant and says go

check if the rain clouds are coming. 7 times he goes, there's

no rain cloud. The 7th time a small cloud lifts

off from above the sea and moves towards land and he knows his

prayer is answered. What if when you are praying,

you're still in the fifth cycle and God is saying don't give up,

pray, pray fervently because you never know when the breakthrough

is about to come. Sometimes some of us are on the

cusp of the breakthrough and the problem is sometimes we give up

just a little bit too early. And I want to encourage you to

pray till something happens. Still, there's an evidence of

God more and for this revival fire to really burden us, we

need to be praying fervently. It's a very interesting concept.

I'm sure all pastors will agree. When we organise a gathering

over food, everybody turns up. When you organise something for

prayer, there are 10 faithful putana.

This is a symptom of the times we live in.

If you don't pray, you're not going to see your revival.

If you don't pray, you're not going to see a sustained change,

change in the situation you're in.

We want immediate results, but God is interested in eternity.

God is interested in generations to come.

What are you doing in the interim?

What are you doing with the promise?

He said it will rain, but Elijah got on his knees.

Elijah bent down and travailed in prayer, prevailed till God

came through. Will you and I be caught being

so persistent in prayer? This is what Jesus talked about,

about that persistent widow. She went to that judge who was

unrighteous and waited till she got her justice.

He says how much more will your heavenly Father do for you, for

those who wait on him? God is calling us into a season

of prevailing prayer, persistent prayer, fervent prayer,

travailing prayer. That is what he's calling us

for. So if you're saying, well, I

haven't seen revival, I should probably.

Maybe you're still on round 4? Maybe you're still in the early

stages of the travail. God is calling you to travail in

prayer because even before something happens there in the

supernatural realm, God is working in you through every

prayer you pray. He's teaching you to listen.

He's teaching you what His will is.

He's teaching you how to intercede in alignment with His

will for your life. Revival happens basically when

heaven meets earth. And the only one who can

facilitate this is the Holy Spirit.

Revival requires that there's a rebuilding of broken down

altars. It requires that we soak in

God's Word and that we pray fervently.

And that's how heaven comes to earth.

You know, when Pastor Reuben Pradhan said that, you know, as

to why the revival actually died on one particular line caught

me, he said it was not visible enough in the various stratas of

society. And you know, I wonder whether

sometimes we limit revival to the church.

But I believe God is saying each one of us in the body of Christ,

each one of us, we as representatives in the real

world. You could be a businessman, you

could be a school teacher, you could be a college lecturer.

You could be an entrepreneur, you could be an IT specialist.

You could be a doctor or a or a healthcare professional.

You could be a student, you could be a homemaker.

Whatever you are, when God fills you with his Spirit, you are a

direct transmitter of that fire to others in your world.

As a homemaker, you have access to the ones who come to help

you. You have access to your

neighbors. The fire has to spread and it

spreads through each of you college students, but don't let

the fire die down with you. Ask God, help me spread this

Lord. That's how revival reaches the

ends of the earth, because each of us are faithful carriers of

the fire within us. The problem is I remember my

college days. I didn't have a fire for God.

To be very honest, I didn't have a fire.

I had friends who had a fire for God.

I remember the way they lived. I remember the way they carried

themselves. They were a class apart.

They lived in such a God honouring way that people took

notice. They never cheated in exams.

They were loving to all they met.

They worshipped God with abandoned in our class

assemblies. They were unashamed of Jesus and

the fire in their hearts began to spread 1 by 1 to others.

I for one didn't carry that fire.

A little too late that I realize I should have been a better

witness for Jesus. But I can tell you this at the

stage I'm at now. My desire is that the fire in me

will pass to all I meet, to my house, help, to my neighbors, to

church friends, to friends outside, to acquaintances, to

neighbors, wherever I go. God, you spread this fire.

I can't do much. I can be the one God's asked me

to be, but it's His job that makes others catch the fire of

me. But my question to you is, will

you allow God to fan into flame what is within you?

The baby life has been so hard that you've allowed the flame to

completely die down. It's OK, it's OK.

Let God breathe afresh upon it. Maybe you've said I felt like I

was on the altar, but I decided to protect myself.

I've been through that as a pastor, as a pastor's wife.

The times when you feel completely unsafe around people

and you feel like God, I've exposed myself to people.

I'm all up for grabs. What to do now?

And God has said when you're on that altar, you're so safe.

When you lay the pieces of your life on the altar, you're the

safest because I've got you. And so I have personally seen

the power of being soaked in God's word.

It protects you like nothing else can.

And I want to encourage you, don't go to a place of such self

preservation that you don't allow God to work in.

You go to a place of saying, I'm on this altar, God, here I am.

Climb on that altar. Don't wrestle your way off it

and say I'm here, my eyes are on you.

I will worship you alone. Soak in His Word.

Don't be content with reading it for 5 minutes and just going

about your day. Allow the Word of God to

resonate with you. If you're driving, put on the

audio Bible. If you're in work, you finished

work. Don't, don't listen to the Word

of God during work. Concentrate on your work.

But when you're driving back when you're heading home, read

the Word. If you're a reader, read it.

If you're a listener, listen. If you need to write down the

scriptures that you remember to, do it, but allow yourself to

soak in it so that the Rhema word is what you're soaked in.

It is what carries you through the seasons of your life.

And finally, pray fervently because the promise is real.

He who has promised is faithful. But in the interim, we must

travail till we see the promise come through.

He brings it about. My job is to get on my knees and

to wait in prayer. So even as we close, I want to

just pray with you. And can I ask you to repeat what

the psalmist prayed in Psalm 5 At each and every sunrise?

Lord, you will hear my voice as I prepare my sacrifice of prayer

for You. Every morning I will lay out the

pieces of my life on the altar and wait for your fire to fall

upon my heart. Father, we just make this our

prayer. We pray that each one who has

prayed this prayer will experience the fire of God in

their heart, that their hearts will be ablaze with a passion

for your name, a passion for your Kingdom, a passion for the

world around them. God, I pray for those whose

fires have gone out because of grief, because of hard seasons.

Father, today we pray that a fresh fire will be lit in them.

I pray for those whose flames are dangerously low because of

apathy, because of the need for comfort, for safety.

But God, today I pray they will say yes to you again and that

the flame will burn brighter than ever before.

Father, I pray for those who are on the fence, who have not taken

a stand thus far. I pray today, Lord, today they

will take a stand. Today they will choose you.

Today they will choose the Kingdom of Light.

Father, I pray for those whose altars have completely been

demolished because of a lack of prayer, lack of worship, a lack

of community. God, I pray in the name of Jesus

they would rebuild it with your help, that they would encounter

you on a daily basis. I pray for families, Lord, to to

establish times of seeking your face together, worshipping you

together. God, I pray for couples to

reinstitute these times of prayer.

We pray that you would be a wall of fire around your body, around

your bright help us and keep us. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. Amen.

Even as you get about your week, I just pray that you will

experience God in the small and the big things and that you will

anticipate revival. Maybe you've been really dull

and down in your soul. I just believe that God is

reviving you so that you will be a carrier of revival into every

space that you go into. Remember that whoever finds

Jesus finds life. God bless you.

Thanks for listening to this message.

We hope you were blessed to hear more messages like this.

Make sure to subscribe and check out our podcast channel for past

episodes. If you like what you are

hearing, consider rating us, subscribing and even sharing it

with friends. That would really help us.

For more content from Via Zion and to connect with us, go to

Via Zion dot in. Remember, whoever finds Jesus

finds life.