Friday May 3, 2013 Aeron went to heaven
Part 5 (Final) Continued from Part 4 - The Imperative of Effectual Payer!
Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yes, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps - Psalm 85:10-13.
There’s an air of positiveness, of assurance, a confession of trust in the faithfulness of God to His people despite their former unfaithfulness; but know this that the pledges of God to His people must never be permitted to breed any unholy presumption that God HAS to do it, for so very often there are conditions that must be met. In Daniel 9 we observe Daniel reading
the Word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He (God) would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem” (verse 2).
Israel had provoked God to anger, and His chastisement of His people saw them in Babylonian captivity; and this prophecy of Jeremiah reveals it all. Then, a quick calculation tells Daniel, himself one of the captives, that some sixty-eight years have passed, so only two years remain. Surely this was a time for celebration, a time to rejoice, a time to relax and just watch God doing it all. Was that the response of Daniel to this reassuring prophetic word? NO! Daniel’s response should be ours:
THEN I set my face toward the Lord God, to make request by prayer and supplication, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said.....We have sinned - Daniel 9:3-6.
The prophet dared not overlook what had brought about the nation’s captivity.
O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us confusion of face to this day...” verse 7.
He then continues, pleading with God:
According to all Your righteousness, I beseech You, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem. Your holy mountain, because for our sins... And cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary which is desolate, for the Lord’s sake - verses 16-17.
Read through that agonizing prayer of God’s prophet. O what passion, and urgency, and sincerity, and honesty, and longing that God’s people would be spiritually renewed and that they should be restored to favour with the Almighty; and God answered his prayer.
It is notable that the Welsh revivals, indeed all revivals, are marked by the same disposition of earnestness, humility and repentance. So the message is clear: if we desire a Revival, we must pray. There is no other way to Revival. When we do not pray, there is NO revelation, NO direction, NO unction, and NO visitation from on High. My humble plea is that we might urgently and fervently seek the LORD. Will we do it, knowing that Revivals are not without their cost? What does this mean for us in practical terms? Let me briefly suggest the following:
In Exodus 19:3 Moses is in sensitive conversation with God, and he is serious about His Holy Ways. God had called him up into the mount to speak to him, and He tells him, “I’ve got a word for My people”. Then verse 4 has a striking word: it is NOT simply “You know how I dealt with the Egyptians, bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you out...” But rather, God says, “and (I) brought you TO MYSELF”.
The revelation of God’s mind and will for His people was to the effect that they might be “a peculiar treasure to Me above all people ... a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation” (verses 5-6). When Moses received this Divine WORD he immediately called the nation’s elders, and delivered God’s Word to them in the face of all the people. Then the LORD came down upon Mount Sinai (verse 20) and called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up. For the next 12 chapters Moses is there in the Mount receiving the revelation of God and the requirements of God he in turn must convey to God’s people. It’s certainly NO fun-time! That awesome narrative is followed by a revelation of the heart of the people, which God well knew. They had come out of an idolatrous world in Egypt, but sadly that world was yet in their hearts. Note it, in Exodus 32:1-6.
And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what is become of him. And Aaron said to them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me. And all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, “These be your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.” And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
They couldn’t wait for GOD. They had to produce something. O, what a time they were having. It was out of sheer joy that they acted knowing they were no longer in captivity to Egypt! Do not miss this: there was the ‘form’ of worship, the external ingredients of what constitutes religious worship, lavish and luxurious, and a participation in a ritual that was enterprising, entertaining, and enthusiastic; but unfortunately it was willfully corrupt and wholly blasphemous (verses 7-8).
Sincerity is NOT sufficient. Striking and appealing displays are not what God calls for or looks for in His church. There must be conformity to truth, integrity of heart, reality of intention, and purity of desire. We must be serious about our relationship to God and our responsibilities before Him as His people. We must be prepared to address every matter we know is NOT pleasing to the Lord. This will mean dealing drastically with known sin, and besetting sins (Hebrews 12:1) – sins of the flesh and of the spirit cf. Psalm 14:3-6. 139:23-24. 2 Corinthians 7:1.
It is time to seek the Lord... - Hosea 10:12.
This may well require adjusting our personal pursuits, priorities and pleasures. I am calling you to pray for revival, even as I am stirred in my own spirit.
Yes, but why should we pray for revival? The answer that is first given here is this: it must spring from a deep concern for the glory of God. You will find it at the end of verse 13, as Moses pleads with God:
Now therefore, I pray you, if I have found grace in your sight, show me now your way, that I may know you, that I may find grace in your sight; and consider that this nation is your people – Exodus 33-13.
That is the motive. That is the reason. Moses was concerned primarily about the glory of God. Everything we engage in must be for His name’s sake. You find this over and over in the Word of God. Is not this the supreme task of the Church, her reason for being? Here it is:
That we may show forth His praises, {His excellencies, His virtues} - 1 Peter 2:9.
How often do you hear from our pulpits any expression of concern about the glory of God, and the honour of His Name? O that God would restore to us something of a concern for His Name. Our worldliness dishonours Him; our apathy disgraces Him; our sins grieve Him. Does that not weigh heavily upon our hearts, and minds? How does it affect us when we see all the godlessness that surrounds us, and the name of God taken in vain? Is there a holy zeal for the Name of God? When we fail in this we are surely in need of revival. For revival is a manifestation of God in His Glory; it is a confrontation with God in His Holiness. Revival will bring back the Holiness that should characterize God’s people in a world of sin cf. 1 Peter 1:13-19.
Revival will rectify the state of the Church, as every Divine visitation in Church history testifies. Revival is God coming down to bring His people back into line with His Holy Will, to where it should be, a people separated to Himself through whom He can manifest His life and power and glory.
We might well despair when we look around and see the condition of things, so unlike the Church as represented in the book of Acts. What it all reveals is this, that compromise is death; sin is death; ungodliness is death cf. Romans 6:20-23.
Holiness is life, true life; dignified spiritual life – it is the glory of God. This is the reason why we pray for an awakening: to arise from the shackles of Egypt and the stench of Babylon, restored and released to serve and fulfill His purposes in our generation. It’s a movement toward God’s holy purposes within His Church. Out from that we will see His power; and in consequence of that we will inevitably and truly praise Him cf. Exodus 15:11. One further reason why we must pray:
In Revelation 3:4-5 Christ gives a promise to a decadent church that if they would repent, know a ‘revival’ and come into line again with His will and His Word they would become over comers. There is something for NOW, as well as for the FUTURE. Our Lord impresses upon us that He wants us to walk with Him NOW as He seeks to touch lives, and save the lost in our world. He wants a pure, powerful Church today, alive with His life, dynamic by His power, effective through His Word and by His Spirit. He wants a Church that truly represents Him. A Church where there is REALITY, DIGNITY, TRUE SPIRITUALITY, DIVINE ENERGY, VICTORY.
Pretence and unreality is deadly. Artificial and superficial Christianity is deadly. Unholy and compromised conduct is deadly. The mere form of godliness is deadly. Fleshly, orchestrated, choreographed worship is deadly. Prayerless, ritualistic religion is deadly. Unctionless and aimless preaching is deadly.
Such was the church in Sardis (Rev.3:1), and in such a condition, whatever the reputation before others, the church would achieve nothing. It’s useless. That’s why at Sardis, should they ignore the Lord’s loving appeal Christ would speedily visit them in judgment (verses 3-4.) Someone has said: “Better be dead, and know it, and wear no disguise, and practise no hypocrisy, than clothe the ghastly skeleton with the semblance of vitality, and be dead indeed while in name you live.”
A dead Church doesn’t trouble the world, far less the demons of darkness; it serves their purpose. We are not ignorant of Satan’s devices, and we will not give room to him to operate in his insidious ways. May we stand replete in the armour God provides, hold fast what He has graciously deposited within us, and contest all that ruinous, evil activity of the enemy. We’ll cry to God, call on His name, draw on His grace, depend on His power, and ever be jealous for the honour of His majestic Name.
Thank God, there can be a revival! The Spirit of God and the Word of God are as effective today as at any time since the Day of Pentecost. We have a place in our world by divine decree, to serve God in an increasingly evil generation, but not in our strength or by our puny wisdom. “They who wait upon the Lord (in prayer) will renew their strength and rise up on wings of eagles” to perform His will cf. Isaiah 40:31.
Duncan Campbell has related the thrilling account of the Revival in the Hebrides in 1950. He tells of two elderly women, sisters, Peggy and Christine Smith living in a small cottage by the roadside in the village of Barvas. They were eighty-four and eighty-two years old respectively, and spoke only Gaelic. Peggy was blind; and Christine almost bent double with arthritis. They were unable to attend public worship, but their humble cottage became a sanctuary, and there they met with God. To them, as they waited on God in prayer, came the reminder of the promise of God: “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground” (Isaiah 44:3). This became the burden of their prayers as they pleaded with God day and night for such a visitation. One evening dear old Peggy had a vision. She saw the Church of her fathers crowded with young people; and she saw a strange minister in the pulpit (i.e. not the then-present regular minister of that church). So impressed was she by this revelation she sent for the Church minister, who came, and to whom she told her story.
The minister was the Rev. James Murray MacKay, a God-fearing man, who longed to see God working. He had tried ever so many ways to get things going in the parish, especially to get hold of the young people, but not one single teenager attended the church. That was the situation. What was this dear old lady to say to him? Peggy Smith said, “I’m sure, Mr. MacKay, that you’re longing to see God working. What about calling your office-bearers together (meaning the deacons and elders) and suggest to them that you will spend two nights a week waiting upon God in prayer. You’ve tried missions; you’ve tried special evangelists. Mr. MacKay, HAVE YOU TRIED GOD?” He meekly obeyed saying, “Yes, I’ll call the session together; and I will recommend that we meet on Tuesday nights and Friday nights, and we’ll spend the whole night in prayer”. Here were men that meant business.
Peggy said, “Well, if you do that my sister and I will get on our knees at 10pm on Tuesdays and 10pm on Fridays, and will wait on our knees until 4 o’clock in the morning;” and they did. They went to prayer, having that one promise from God, and that promise they presented before God – “I will pour water on him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground”.According to Mr. MacKay, in those prayer meetings, they would be heard crying to God, “God, You are a Covenant keeping God; and You must be true to your Covenant engagement.”
The praying and the meetings continued for several months, until ONE NIGHT, a very remarkable thing happened. They were kneeling amongst straw in the barn of a farmhouse, when suddenly one young man rose and read part of Psalm 24:
Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord; who shall stand in His holy place; He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to vanity nor sworn deceitfully; for he shall receive the blessing from the Lord....
He then shut his Bible and looking down at the minister and the other men who were kneeling there, he said:
Brethren, it seems to me just so much humbug to be praying as we are praying and to be waiting as we are waiting, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God.
O, dear brethren, let’s take that to heart!
Lifting his hands toward heaven he began to pray:
Oh God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?
That dear man got no further. He fell on his knees, and then on his face among the straw; and within a matter of minutes three of the elders, like Peter on the rooftop, fell into a trance.
And when that happened in the barn, a power was let loose in Barvas that shook the whole of Lewis. God stepped down.
Oh that God would do it again for us! Will you resolve to be more in prayer, seeking God for a visitation in this needy hour? God will reward us if we will do that.
Revelation 14:13 Aeron is resting from from his labours, but his works follow - though dead he speaks - cf. Rev. 14:13 & Heb. 11:4 - see Philip Powell's tributes to Aeron and Dave Hunt in this issue.
CWM recommends http://www.revivals. org/docs/index.html - Click on 'audio/ video' for testimony of Mary Peckham. Also check out "The Revival Hymn" on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec5dJHtMTSg
Before God can do much through you He must do a great work in you. What counts most is not quantity but quality, not so much your outward effort but your motive within—the purity of your heart rather than your visible accomplishments or prominence with men....The martyrs could have chosen the ecumenical path of compromise, of avoiding controversy and affirming the “common beliefs of all religions,” and thus have escaped the flame, drowning, or the sword. They chose instead to stand firm for the truth, to contend earnestly for the faith. Christ calls us to do the same. Will you? One day we will give an account before God for the path we choose. What joy there is now and will be eternally in being true to Him.
Dave Hunt - from Seeking and Finding God, p 122-23).
