If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14).
“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” (Psalm 85:6).
We are continuing our thoughts on the need for a Holy Spirit empowered revival. When it comes to reaching the multitudes without Christ, business as usual, is not enough. I am convinced that God is looking for whole congregations to pour out their lives in dedication for the salvation of those who have yet to know Christ. Do you know that it was not until 1830 that the earth's population reached 1 billion people? From that point, it took 130 years to the year 1960 to add the second billion to planet Earth. Now in 2021, the whole earth's population is 7.9 billion and increasing by a billion approximately every eight years. God visited us in powerful revival in the days of Charles Finney, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, and George Whitfield; why would he not similarly powerfully visit us in our day? More than half the amount of people who have ever lived are now alive.[1] Because of the population increase, if we don't have a move of the Spirit and a visitation of God in our day, more people will go to a lost eternity without God than in all previous generations put together. I can't see God allowing that to happen.
Do we believe what the Bible tells us about eternal life, heaven and hell? If God can work in whole communities to bring people to Christ in the 1830s, why would He not do the same now with your city? If God so loved the eastern United States that He would visit in power in the 1830s, why not now when there are 6 billion more people than in Finney's day? Our faith and expectation of God's power at work through us needs to be strengthened and exercised. Faith is like a muscle; it needs to be fed and exercised. To add to our churches 20 or 30 people in a year is not enough. The population growth is higher than the rate of growth of our churches. But God has not left us without hope. He has promised that there will be a tremendous outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days to fulfill the task of reaching the world for Christ.
Does the Bible Prophesy an Outpouring in the Last Days?
17" 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved' (Acts 2:17-21 Emphasis mine).
There is going to be a tremendous outpouring of the Holy Spirit coming in these last days. It will not be without persecution, though. Persecution of the church often brought revival in the Scriptures and history. I don't know about you, but for years I have longed to see our young men and woman prophesying with the Holy Spirit resting on them—as an 'old man,' I can take just the dreaming of dreams! But God's powerful moving among us doesn't come without prayer. It's time for the people of God to cry out to the Lord to pour out His Spirit. Keith Thomas
Taken from the series, On Fire with the Spirit. This study is, If My People Who Are Called...
[1] John Dawson, Taking Your Cities for God, Page 65, Word Publishing.