Why Revival Tarries 1
Devotions:
In the history of the world since Jesus Christ came, died for our sins, was buried, rose the third day and ascended into heaven, sending the Holy Spirit we have had periods of revival. Revival where the Spirit stirs up the godly and the ungodly. We have yet to sustain a revival for more than a few years. Usually the second generation after a major revival rides on the coat tails of their parents who experienced revival. And the third generation is just as far away from God as when the revival started. Why does revival tarry? This has been a question asked by many and most of the time they will say that it is because the church is in sin. We need to fast and pray and cry out to God to send the move of God again. But this is the Old Testament model and does not apply today.
God's desire is to always have a move of the Spirit where people are saved and set free. It is His will that none perish and that all come to the knowledge of the truth. There is a place for fasting and praying and repenting. Most of the time those are wasted efforts because we try to twist God's arm to make Him do what He really does not want to do, but He wants to do it. So the hold up is not on His end. If revival tarried because of sin in the camp, this is also Old Testament. Paul tells it is the goodness of God that brings us to repentence not repentence that brings us to the goodness of God. Many will focus on Acts 3:19 as a formula for revival.
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;” Acts 3:19 KJV
What Peter talking about? Who was he talking to? He was talking to the Jews who had just rejected the Lord of glory and had Him crucified. He was telling them to turn from rejecting Him to accepting Him and their Messiah. Many were strict keepers of he Law. There was only one sin that it had to do with, rejecting Jesus. So here he is talking about getting saved and revival comes from getting saved not our works.