BYM ONLINE DESK Blessing Jan 2020 English Emagazine | Page 11

January 2020 | www.bymonline.org | Page 11
now. Immorality, indecency, infidelity are rife. How we
need to expose the rottenness, the evil, the corruption in
the hearts of all the people! We go on day after day, month
after month, year after year, in the even or uneven tenor of
our ways. Sin becomes so common, so prevalent that we
pay no attention to it. We have every sort of philosophical
and psychological explanation. “Everybody does it.” Our
consciences are dead. Our minds are befogged by Satan.
We have grown fat and sleek in our souls. We love to hear
soft, warm, perfumed platitudes. We need a shock of
terrific dynamite to blast us out of the rut into which the
Devil has thrown us. The only kind of explosion that can
accomplish this is a Holy Ghost revival.
The second purpose of a revival is to enlist souls.
First we must seek to enlist God's people. Why are our
churches half empty? Why do not souls come to Christ?
Because Christians are not sufficiently concerned about
the work of the Lord. We have to enlist God's people. We
must enlist those who are twice born, who are washed in
the blood, who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit,
who claim the Lord as their personal Saviour.
We must enlist also the unsaved, bring them out of
darkness into light, lead them from hell to heaven, from
sin to salvation, from iniquity to righteousness. We must
win them for the Lord Jesus Christ. The majority of
people who have been saved since the beginning of
Christianity have been reached and enlisted during
revival meetings. The majority of those who will be saved
in this dispensation of grace will be reached for Christ
during revivals.
The third purpose of a revivalthe chief purpose,
God help me to tell it, the noblest motive, the highest
passion, the only purpose God can really bless, God will
bless, God has blessedis to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. I
am very much afraid that one, if not the chief, reason why
God is not blessing our efforts more is that we are selfish,
that we have no thought for the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That is why many of us are not doing anything.
Many of us are not in love with Jesus. We have no
compassion for the lost. We work for each other, for our
churches, for our pastors, but the least little thing throws
us off balance.
If we are in love with Jesus, if we have a passion for
Jesus, no matter what the difficulty, no matter what
anybody else does, our passion for Christ will drive us to
give, to pray, to do. We need to exalt Christ. “And I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” Only
by enthroning Christ can we claim the promises of God,
the fullness of His Holy Spirit and the answers to our
prayers.
Personnel of a Revival
Consider also the personnel of a revival. Most
important, of course, are the Three Persons of the Trinity:
God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. There are many things
we can do in our own strength. We can visit, advertise,
invite, attend services, but, my friends; we are utterly
unable to bring about a revival. We need God. We need
Christ. We need the Holy Spirit, to convict, to constrain, to
convert, to consecrate, to attract. Thank God, I can tell
you, dogmatically, positively, assuredly, beyond doubt or
peradventure, that the Holy Spirit is eager, longing, and
able to bless us if we will but give Him the opportunity.
A revival is also composed of church members:
Christians you and I. Give me three hundred people
dedicated to God, surrendered to Christ, submitted to the
Holy Spirit, who will say, “You can count on me”give me
even two hundred who will go the limit for Jesus, for the
Gospel, in the Holy Spirit, for the souls of menand we will
take a city for the Lord Jesus Christ. I have been in
campaigns when the people were hot, when the people
were cold, when the church was big, when the church was
little; I have conducted meetings in the North, East, South,
West, from one end of the country to the other. There is, I
believe, only one unknown equation in a revival, only one
thing that can stop us from having a victory, only one
thing that will keep God from giving us a revival. Would
you like to know what it is? I will tell you. Look in the
mirror. There between the frames of the mirror you will
see the only thing that can stop us from having a spiritual
upheaval. God is ready, willing, and able to bless us.
Christ will deny us no good thing. The Spirit's power has
never abated.
A revival is also composed of unsaved souls,
backsliders, those out of Christ for any reason. If we pray
for them, if we go after them, they will come by the scores,
by the hundreds. It has been so everywhere. But they will
not come unless we go after them. I have heard people say
that in olden times sinners came to church. That is not
true. It is not in the Bible. The Lord Jesus Christ went after
them. He sent His disciples after them. It is so in Christian
history. It has always been difficult to reach sinners. They
have never come of their own free will. The Devil had