What in the World Is God Doing?

Without doubt, the Lord has always wanted His people to pray. However, there are seasons when prayer seems to be highlighted by heaven itself. We seem to be living in such a time.

Since the 1980s, prayer has become more and more the focus of churches, ministries, and events. One of the best trends I’ve noticed in this regard is that the Lord’s people are turning their prayer focus from themselves and their own needs and beginning to pray kingdom prayers. We are shifting from our agendas to God’s agenda. Across the globe, the church is praying for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven!

As we pray the Lord’s will, we find ourselves naturally moving toward the next of the three areas: revival. This is close to God’s heart! He wants His people spiritually awake, filled with zeal, eager to do His will.

One of my favorite definitions of revival comes from Pastor Ray Ortlund Jr.:

Such a vision for revival should bring us back to prayer again and again. It is critical for us to understand the role of prayer in revival. Whether you look to the great revivals in the Old Testament or to revivals down through the centuries of church history, one thing is consistent: Prayer precedes revival!

A. T. Pierson makes this point:

From the day of Pentecost, there has been not one great spiritual awakening in any land which has not begun in a union of prayer, though only among two or three. And no such outward, upward movement has continued after such prayer meetings have declined. It is in exact proportion to the maintenance of such joint and believing supplication and intercession that the Word of the Lord in any land or locality has had free course and been glorified.

As we pray and long for revival, it is critical to understand that revival isn’t just for us. It isn’t about the church having better meetings or boosting its budget. Revival readies us for the third thing God is doing today: the completion of the task of world evangelization.

South African pastor and writer Andrew Murray said it this way:

There is need of a great revival of spiritual life, of truly fervent devotion to our Lord Jesus, of entire consecration to His service. It is only in a church in which this spirit of revival has at least begun, that there is any hope of radical change in the relation of the majority of our Christian people to mission work.

Time and again, a major fruit of revival has been evangelism. An awakened church begins to move in the power of the Spirit to share the gospel in fresh ways. The radically changed lives of believers attract attention and draw unbelievers to Jesus.

What is so exciting is that the Lord has graciously allowed us to be participants in His eternal plan and purpose. And all of this begins with prayer!

Dr. Robert Coleman has powerfully described the day in which we live:

Something great is on the horizon. You can almost feel it in the air. Though forces of evil are becoming more sinister and aggressive, there is a corresponding cry for spiritual awakening. Across the world never has there been more yearning by more people for spiritual reality, nor has the Church ever had the means it now has to take the glad tidings of salvation to the lost, unreached peoples of the earth. What a day to be alive! Certainly this is not a time for despair. The King’s coming is certain. And in preparation for His return, we may be the generation that will see the greatest revival since the beginning of time.