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A. W. Tozer wrote, “Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late–and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work. To pray for revival while ignoring the plain precept laid down in Scripture is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble. Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience.”
The above quote by Tozer on the topic of “revival” made me think that maybe we are approaching this all the wrong way. Prayer is a very important part of revival, but have we thought about what needs to come before prayer and the revival we so desperately seek?
We have been praying for a revival in all the HMCC churches, even here in Jakarta, but maybe we need to be more diligent and vigilant in the area of obedience. But why obedience?
The more I think about it, revival is something that has to be “stewarded” by God’s people; therefore God is always looking for “vessels” that will carry His revival. Even though God always uses imperfect people, I am wondering if God is looking for people who have their hearts set on obeying Him passionately.
We have been praying for revival for such a long time. But maybe we should stop praying for a revival and start focusing on our obedience. Or better yet, we should pray for God’s grace to help us to obey His Word.