An Article of Faith

God has revealed in Scripture His pattern for using His people to bring about the kind of spiritual awakening the early church experienced. The problem we face in our day is that God’s people have departed from God’s standards, and we are no longer the kind of clean and faithful instruments through which He works to bring spiritual awakening.

In Scripture we’ve seen a cycle of departure that brings God’s discipline and a call for repentance. When His people have returned to Him, He has revived them and restored life and vitality, together with a manifestation of His presence and power. By understanding the pattern and God’s requirements, we can seek the Lord together for such a day in our own land.

There are seven phases in God’s pattern for revival and spiritual awakening:

•Phase 1 – God is on mission to redeem a lost world. He calls a people into a relationship with Himself, and He accomplishes His work through them. As believers in Christ our mission is to be on mission with God in making disciples for Christ: “Go therefore,” commissions Jesus, “and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19a).

•Phase 2 – God’s people tend to depart from Him, turning to substitutes for His presence, His purposes, and His ways. The departure begins with a shift of our hearts that cause us not to love God as we did at first: “‘But I have this against you,” warns Jesus, “that you have left your first love” (Revelation 2:4).

•Phase 3 – God disciplines His people because of His love. God disciplines wayward believers and churches to bring us back to Himself: “My child, don’t make light of the LORD’s discipline, and don’t give up when He corrects you. For the LORD disciplines those He loves, and He punishes each one He accepts as His child” (Hebrews 12:5b-6 NLT).

•Phase 4 – God’s people cry out to Him for help. “Your wickedness will bring its own punishment. Your turning from Me will shame you. You will see what an evil, bitter thing it is to abandon the LORD your God and not to fear Him” (Jeremiah 2:19 NLT).

•Phase 5 – God calls His people to repent and return to Him or perish. “Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place – unless you repent” (Revelation 2:5).

•Phase 6 – God revives His repentant people by restoring them to a right relationship with Himself. “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,” cries David, “And sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You” (Psalm 51:12-13).

•Phase 7 – God exalts His Son Jesus in His people and draws the lost to saving faith in Him. “And I,” declares Jesus, “if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself” (John 12:32).

Pray that God’s people will have a growing awareness of our need to return to the Lord and a willingness to do so. Pray that God will speak to you and to those with whom you meet to seek the Lord together. Ask God to help you understand the way to revival for His glory.

“Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me,” says the LORD, “and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:12-13).

(Jessie J. Charpentier Sr. is pastor of Jenkins Memorial Baptist Church in St. Martinville.)