The Word: 2 Chronicles 7: 12 – 13 (KJV)
12 And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. 13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;
Dig Deeper: 2 Chronicles 7: 14(KJV)
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Think about it
PERSONAL REVIVAL
At the onset Solomon was hungry for God. He was passionate for God. It’s a beautiful place to be when our hearts pants or seeks after God. When we look forward to spending time with him, when he is No 1 in our lives, when his opinion is the most important, when everything else is secondary. So Solomon started in this beautiful place of loving God. His love for God was passionate. So he offered a sacrifice of twenty and two thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep. That is a lot! But when you are in love, sacrifice becomes easy. You don’t even think too much about the inconvenience. Infact being able to sacrifice is usually a joy… Solomon so loved God he desired him more than wealth or riches. When you truly love, sacrificing comes naturally. The scenario after was that God became very impressed with Solomon. May God be impressed with you! So God also fell in love with Solomon. Now God loves all of us generally. According to John 3:16 – God so loved the world that he gave….. So God loves man deeply already but there is another dimension where God falls in love with a man. You become his favourite out of many others. That was what happened with Enoch. God couldn’t wait for Enoch to die and be in paradise / Sheol until Jesus came to resurrect the saints. God felt he would have missed Enoch too much, So God suspended the death rule for Enoch, he didn’t die, he was just taken straight to heaven. When God is in love with you, protocols can be suspended or broken on your behalf. It’s a fantastic place when you are in love with God and God has also fallen in love with you, so much so that you have now become his favourite.
Solomon then made some prayers after the sacrifice, God responded and gave certain instructions:
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
In this our 7th season, amongst other things God is calling us back to a time of personal revival, one on one closeness, a place of hunger for Divine fellowship. If we ever go through a rough patch where we are no longer as connected as we used to be, God is saying there are about 4 steps to take to light again the fire of revival:
1. Humble ourselves – It starts in our minds. The prodigal son needed to come to the place of humility
2. Pray – We need to verbalise our thoughts and speak to him
3. Seek his face: We have been talking about waiting and loitering around God.
4. Turn from any wicked ways: Repent from anything God is not happy with
What will be the result?
There will healing, restoration, God will draw us back to himself, our lives will be transformed
Nuggets:
When God is in love with you, your destiny is secured
Our memory verse for May 2018
Ecclesaistes 3: 1
1. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
Let’s take a few moment to learn our memory verse for this month by heart. It can be memorised in 2 lines:
Line 1: To every thing there is a season,
Line 2: and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
Once you say it a few times it will stick.
Prayer focus: Our next level prayers:
Lord, let the the fire of personal revival be on in my life….
On the word: Recommended book
The Bible Study Methods – Rick Warren
