REVIVAL (Part III)

In the book of Ezekiel chapter 37 God showed the prophet Ezekiel something. In the valley there were bones and they were dry. The Lord showed Ezekiel these facts. Later there was a wind coming, this wind made the bones come together to become a whole army. I won’t talk about that because we talked about it 2 years ago. This whole army was strong and it was in front of Ezekiel. Ezekiel saw it and believed it, although no one else could see it. This wind is what we call the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit that gives revival. If the Holy Spirit doesn’t revive you you’ll never live in peace. After receiving the truth you must make an effort. Suppose I tell you I will run for 5 minutes and after 40 metres I start to breathe quickly because I’m not used to it, but if you ask Peter who does sport everyday to run, 40 metres for him it is nothing. Why is that? Because he practises it everyday to the point where he becomes strong; he is able to do the impossible.

In my country there is a tribe, they see who can go underwater and stay there for 3 hours. For example if a boat sinks, he can plunge and go into the boat and gather things or people and take them back. When a submarine flees they can go under and they wear no oxygen, nothing. I thought it might be because of sorcery, but I was told it was not that. From an early age they train the children, for example they put water in a tank and put the head of a child in it and start counting the seconds, after a certain time they pull it out. When a child grows up it can go easily underwater. As for me who has never swum, even if you put 10 kilos of gold 2 metres deep and you tell me, “take this it is yours”; I will never risk my life and I’ll say, “you can keep it”.

I remember one day when I was swimming I drank the water and I nearly died and so I said goodbye to swimming. So for those who train all the time they will easily go under 2 metres and get the gold. So what does this teach us? It teaches us that we have to practise the Word of God all the time. If I pull a 40-kilo load and I’m not ready to lift this, but I train everyday with weights, after a certain time I will be able to lift 40 kilos of weight. If I keep training I will be able to lift 80 kilos. Participation and practise make people perfect. Unfortunately for us Christians we never participate in the Word of God and never put it into practise. We say God give us strength, we want to be strong so when we pray for the sick people they may be healed, or when we pray for the dead they might find back their life. Put the gospel into practise first and then strength will come.

God is there and it’s your part to make an effort to accept what God gives you. Unfortunately we don’t do it.

The army that Ezekiel saw was a big army. God is able to change the life we have, from bones only he can make bodies that are strong, and the flesh and the eyes and the skin will be there. Everything is possible for the one who believes. Everything is possible for God. God is able to do anything. You may say, “I can’t I can’t”. Who told you that you can’t? Ask God and he will give you an answer. There are many servants of God in this world who wouldn’t even dream that one day they would serve God and live a normal life as before. But the day they made up their minds God used them, and why not us?

In a place where I used to live in Kenya there were birds called Ostriches. We know what an Ostrich is, they are big birds with a long neck and are very strong. When they run you can hear a noise, when they make steps it is not easy to catch them. All the other birds respect this bird, even the eagle would not easily attack an ostrich; they respect them.

When an ostrich is walking, small animals like dogs flee. If you go hunting with a dog and they see an ostrich the dog will curve his tail and put it in between his legs to say I’m not going after that. You will tell your dog, go attack and the dog will come behind you. Why is that? It is because the dog fears the bird. The bird is strong, but there is something, when this bird sees a man coming it starts running. After 2 metres it stops to look at you and tilts it head, it says if you’re strong follow me. It starts running and after 20 metres looks at you as if to say come on and after 2 kilometres you’ll be tired. The bird will try to take you far away. When this bird is tired, what does it do? It runs to find a small hole somewhere and puts its head in the hole. The bird thinks it is hiding his whole body, but the bird only hides its head in the hole. Man can come closer to the bird and say it is not very clever; I will take the machete and cut its head, the body will keep moving but life is not there anymore, life will be gone.

Why is that? Because the bird made a mistake, although the bird knows he is strong, he knows he can run well, but he forgot where he could hide. As for us who are in Christ we have to hide under the rock who is Jesus Christ. We cannot hide behind Michael or Sylvie’s back or anyone else, but we have to hide under Jesus Christ the rock. An arrow will never pierce this shield; no man or even the forces of darkness will ever be able to catch us. We have this opportunity only if we believe that we have revival.

One day there were four hens, and these hens were together. They would eat maize, one of these hens looked at the other and said how good it is to eat together, but the other one said that’s good but who knows what is going to happen soon. The other one said of course, that is why I said it is good that we eat together. A lady who was beside them said cast them away from the maize, because they are eating my maize. A child shooed the hens away. The hens said, “you see, man never allow us to eat together”. Another one answered, “it is because we are weak, if we were as strong as the wind we could change everything, maybe we could declare our rights. Men fear the wind, it takes off rooftops and people tremble in front of the wind”. You see, even the birds need strength.

So what is your strength in the Lord? Maybe you are strong at maths, or English, or sport but what is your strength in the Lord? Is it only to carry your Bible?

One day I asked a group of people, tell me after the book of Nahum what is the next book? Everybody looked at me, Nahum? Umm…Joshua. No. Umm Psalm. NO. Micah, people would start giving any sort of names from the books. Then I asked who is the 3rd child in the royal family of England? Everybody knew. Then I said who are Diana’s children and everybody knew they would even give their date of birth. But when it’s the Word of God things become more and more heavy. So who is going to help us to carry it? We are called to live in the truth and the spirit and without the truth the spirit will not be able to work and without the spirit, truth doesn’t have any value. That’s why Jesus gave us an example; one day while he was walking he saw a tree without fruit and he wanted to eat the fruit but unfortunately there was none on the tree, this tree was cursed and the next day it was dry. You and I today might know the Word of God, we might recite the verses, and we might associate them to other people’s lives.

If people say I’m really hungry; man won’t live only by bread but by the Word of God. If he will say I’m sick, by the name of Jesus Christ we put our hands on all the sick people and find healing and find all the possible references for people’s lives. But when it’s about me I don’t even know what reference I can find for myself in the Bible. Between us lets be sincere, we have a disease us Christians. When you tell a Christian, my brother you are a thief, it will be better to stop what you do. Automatically this Christian becomes angry. If you were friends you become enemies. Although you talk to him in truth because you live in the truth, he will find it’s something that goes against his will. He will always say, this man is not good, always he thinks he is someone while he is nothing, so he gets more further away from the Word of God.

So this was the introduction to Revival. If you want to know more on revival read Ezekiel 37, read John 3 and 5:2 and Ephesians 2 can help. I believe I soon will touch these verses more. So you know how to glorify God, you know what the truth is, you know what to practise the truth means. So today we see how revival will be something important in our lives. If you want to get anything, respect the Word of God and everything will be better. If you don’t respect the Word of God be sure that God won’t respect you either. Whoever comes to Him, he will accept easily, but if you reject Him you’ll be lost. So we are going to pray altogether and everyone has to pray for his own personal life. Ask God to help you to find strength that is revival, strength that will help you to progress in the Bible.