by Pastor Mark Cowart
It is critically important for us to realize that the harvest of souls is now, not in the distant future. The harvest is ripe and abundant. The problem is the labor force – it’s insufficient, because many believers are not responding to the call to share the gospel of the Kingdom. So, we are instructed to pray for laborers to be sent into this harvest.
However, the motivation to effectively witness Christ to the lost must be compassion, not duty. It is time for another great awakening of the Church to meet the needs of the masses who, surveys tell us, think about eternity quite often. The harvest is out there waiting for us.
Have you ever resisted waking up, just wanting to stay comfortable a while longer? The Lord is waking us up. He is reviving His Church, as He has in times past. When we zoom out and look back with a deeper perspective, we can see people like George Whitfield used by God, coming to America in 1739 to preach the gospel.
I think it is likely that George Whitfield was not aware that he led the first Great Awakening in this country. While it is happening, revival is messy, contentious, and divisive. In the middle of the chaos, it can be difficult to see God. But we need to read our Bible. Jesus said He came not to bring peace but a sword. He came to divide, to set people apart.
We are in this revival right now. You may struggle to come awake when you hear your alarm in the morning, but once you get invigorated, life flows through you. Similarly, we have been passing through a semi-conscious state of awareness. It is time to become alert and fully awake to what God is doing.
How do we do that? We need to realize that revival is about God awakening His people, and reformation results in God transforming the culture through His people. We cannot transform the culture before we have been fully awakened and transformed ourselves.
Revival, in a purely spiritual sense, is internal. It happens on the battleground of your thoughts – your imagination and your emotions. The soil of your heart can get hard through the pressures of life, and that ground needs to be broken up by conviction in order for growth to happen. All the conditions portrayed in the parable of the sower (or the soils) can exist in your heart.
In all but one of the “soils” discussed by the Lord in this parable recorded in Luke 8:5-8, the seed of the Word was unfruitful. Your heart can be hard and stony, it can lack depth, and it can be choked with thorns of the worries and desires of the world. The good soil comes from being broken up, turned, and renewed.
As you allow God to do that in you, by responding to trials and pressures according to His Word, and receiving all that He has for you, you will come into your full authority. You will want to be in the full armor. The power of God transforms you and everyone with whom you come into contact. This is revival and reformation.
Some of what we thought we knew from past “awakenings” is simply not scriptural. You need not “tarry” or wait around expectantly for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Ask, and you shall receive immediately. Also, a myth has developed that God would send the mysterious visitation of revival at random, when He was ready.
The truth is, he is always ready. Faith is required on the receiving end, the kind that moves mountains. The increase of your faith is your responsibility. We know that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Charles Finney told us that “Revival is no more a miracle than a crop of wheat.”
Certain conditions must be met for it to happen.
I believe we are in the midst of a great awakening right now, and God is moving by His Spirit, as He always is. C.S. Lewis said, “There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split second is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.” So, what makes the difference?/
That’s you and me. Press into the Lord today. Invite Him to plow up your fallow ground and root out your double-mindedness, so that pure faith can be activated.
DIG DEEPER
- Matthew 9:35-38
- John 4:35-37
- II Corinthians 3:2-3
- I Corinthians 13:1
- Ephesians 5:14
- Matthew 10:34-36
- Jeremiah 4:3
- Luke 8:5-8
- Luke 11:9-13
- Mark 11:22-25
- Matthew 17:20
- James 4:7-8
PRAY
- Praise and thank God for the many times He has come through for you.
- Ask Him to bring conviction where needed, to search your heart for hard, dark places and to light them up and break them up with His Word and Holy Spirit conviction.
- Pray and believe for revival and reformation in and around you.
REFLECT
Think about times when the power of God was manifest in your life, remembering in detail how He made a difference for you and yours.
Ponder the types of soil the Lord describes in the parable and consider what types might exist in your own heart.
