By Carol Madison
I’ve edited more than 50 issues of Prayer Connect magazine, and the consistent, underlying themes are bold and confident prayer, hope for the revival of the Church, and a vision for spiritual awakening in our nation. Throughout more than a decade of publishing this magazine, we have invited godly, discerning prayer leaders to write on the topic of revival, with the hope that the Lord will “do it again” in our day.
That’s the name of a new 30-day prayer guide from PrayerShop Publishing. Do It Again, Lord! features excerpts from some of our best revival-focused articles, combined with hope-filled prayer points for revival. The following is a sample of two days in the prayer guide.
When God Doesn’t Respond
By Bill Elliff
Many believers today are getting desperate. Seeing the moral and spiritual free fall in the world around us and the declining condition of the church in our land drives us to cry out to God. We need Him. We need revival in the church and spiritual awakening among the unbelieving. We need our nation to be restored to its Kingdom calling as a mighty, gospel-sending station to the world.
According to Scripture, the precursor to any great movement of God is always humble, repentant prayer. We thank God that people across the country are praying in record numbers.
While Scripture contains hundreds of positive promises regarding answered prayer, God also outlines many things that will hinder our prayers. No one prays perfectly, and God is not playing with us. He does not make intercession so unattainable that only the super-spiritual can be effective. He understands our weakness.
Are we willing to evaluate the effectiveness of our prayer lives? And when God shows us areas of need, we can turn to Him in repentance and take the necessary steps to adjust our lives to encounter Him afresh in prayer.
Prayer Points:
- Praise God that He established this nation with a Kingdom calling to spread the gospel to the world.
- Praise God for how the Spirit is calling more people to pray for revival and spiritual awakening.
- Pray for evidence of revival in your church that causes people to pray with greater faith and belief.
Ripe for Revival
By Bob Bakke
Troubles are buffeting our nation. Respected voices say that our nation, as it was conceived, is lost, and the American Church forever diminished.
In spite of these voices, I count myself among those who see the U.S. as ripe for revival and spiritual awakening. I’ve studied the often-horrific stories of Church history. I personally experienced the riots, the burned-out cities, the assassinations, the threat of nuclear war, and massive political upheavals of the 1960s. Yet, in the midst of tragic times throughout history, we have had many awakenings in our land.
God’s people are being rattled from their small, distracted, complacent, and lackadaisical faith. They are being confronted in their sin, perhaps as a separating of the wheat from the chaff (Matt. 3:11–12).
While God’s people need a fresh wind of the Spirit to enliven, embolden, and refine their faith, an unbelieving world is realizing they need God. This sounds like a confluence ripe for God’s intervention. I think we are seeing evidences of such.
There are hopeful signs of a coming spiritual awakening. We should be deeply impressed with the quantity and quality of prayer being mobilized across our nation. The bride of Christ is waking up to the dangers in front of her. A unity, unlike any in previous generations, is forming. This unity is diverse, multiethnic, and multinational. The one thing missing, however, is vision. I believe God will provide it, but we must pray for that united vision.
I believe we are, indeed, ripe for revival and spiritual awakening. Let’s ask God to give us the vision to see what its fulfillment would look like. And let’s ask God to give leaders the wisdom to embrace it.
Prayer Points:
- Praise God that there is always hope for another Great Awakening in our nation! Ask God to inspire your prayers with belief that it is His heart to do it again.
- Pray through Acts 1–2 by paying attention to the ways the Holy Spirit poured out life and power to the Church. Ask Him to do it again.
- Pray that your church will be inspired to lift up hopeful prayers that go beyond distracted and complacent faith.
Do It Again, Lord! can be purchased individually or in quantities for your church from prayershop.org. Consider calling your congregation to a united and strategic season of hope-filled prayer for revival.
—Prayer Connect magazine. To subscribe, click here.
