Seven Marks of a Revival

Pastor Daniel Ho, 10/10/2010

Pastor Matthew told us the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations to eradicate poverty by 2015. He told us about the Micah Challenge which is set up to hold governments accountable to the goal to halve poverty by 2015. We have five years left, how are we doing? He then led us in prayers concluding with the Micah 2010 declaration prayer. Wait a minute. Extreme poverty is a sin? And we are repenting from this ‘sin’?
 
This is the first of the Revival Series (TRS).

Act 3:16-26  And his name--by faith in his name--has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.  (17)  "And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.  (18)  But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.  (19)  Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,  (20)  that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus,  (21)  whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.  (22)  Moses said, 'The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.  (23)  And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.'  (24)  And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days.  (25)  You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.'  (26)  God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness."

The church started following the Holy Spirit falling on the believers. One of them deeply touched was a lame from birth. He was brought by his friends to the Beautiful Gate everyday. He depended on the alms given by others. Peter came one day. He prayed for him and he got up and walked.
Sever Marks of Revival:

1. Repent of sins (v19)

There will be sorrow and grieves for the wrong things we have done and cry to God. In the book the Barrio Revival, the co-author, Lilian Bulan shared an experience she had when she was 9. In the primary school, students were confessing their sins. The school teacher came and led them in prayer. All 200 students cried and asked God for forgiveness of their sins.

Pastor Daniel said Pastor Ling could not preach in the Chinese church last Sunday and she just led the congregation to pray and some of them cried. In the Malay service, when the pastor prayed, people spoke in tongues and there was manifestations he has not seen. In the Tamil service, the wife of the new pastor preached and the presence of God was felt. Pastor Daniel said the presence of God extended from the English service.

2. Return to God (v19)

If we don’t return to God, our lives will be disjointed. Do not be deceived by the world. We must demonstrate to the people around us that we need to return to God. If we don’t, we will miss out on the best of the best.

3. Remission of sins (v19)

“that your sins may be blotted out.”
One backslidden Christian was challenged not to box up God and not set any boundary for God. He took up the challenge. He missed the prayer conference last week. On Sunday night, he has a dream where he saw a great light. He felt inadequate and cried out. A transformation took place. He felt that his friend was praying for him. He jumped out of bed and went to the room of his friend and asked if he was praying for him but he was in deep sleep. Pastor Daniel then said God is good all the time and all the time God is good. (How is this connected to one another?)

Today is the day of deliverance. Pastor Daniel said God doesn’t want us to carry our sins and shame anymore. God wants to remit our sins so we can walk clean and clear before the Lord. There are sins in our land. All kinds of nonsense is being done. We need to pray for the remission of sins for our land. Full blown revival will take place in the nation and it will begin from the church.

Pastor Philip wrote and email to Pastor Daniel telling him he sensed something is about to break out in DUMC.

4. Refreshing from the Lord (v20)

“times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” This is verse 20 in ESV but v19 in NIV and TNIV.
Pastor Daniel said God wants us to be supernaturally naturally and naturally supernaturally. A sister felt very strongly that revival is happening in KL. She was going through a dry season and God encouraged her to stay in KL following a call 4 years ago.

God doesn’t want us to touch our feet in the water of revival. God wants us to put both our feet in. God wants to work in us in a deeper way. Pastor Daniel encouraged all to sit in the first few front rows where there are more grace of God.

5. Receive Christ (v20)

If we have known Jesus, we need to, otherwise we don’t even know what we are missing. One brother came to Christ last year. He said he has been missing Genting. He was given a RM5k voucher. But he had no desire to gamble anymore. He has been betting for decades.  He was touched by the Lord. When a friend asked him whether he wanted to buy 4D, he said no mood. Pastor Daniel was upset because that suggest he might want to gamble if he was in the mood. He thought the brother should have said no more.

A non-Christian came to a cell meeting last Wednesday and became a Christian. Non-Christians will come to a cell groups to become Christians.

6. Restore everything (v21, 26)

God wants to restore all we have lost – marriages, business, friendship, opportunities, years, dogs (Pastor Daniel earlier shared a testimony of a man who found a exact replacement of his dead dog.) God can restore to us what the locusts have stolen. Don’t shortchange ourselves.

God is going to put back in our lives what we have lost. That’s what happens in a revival. He gives us new joy, deep peace and abundance in life.

7. reform society (v25b)

Revival is not just for us, it’s for the communities around us, the nations around us. Abraham is the father of faith and a friend of God. The community of faith is the descendants of Abraham. The blessings of the world, the transformation and restorations alike are found in the church. They are not found in any institutions like political parties. God is concerned about more than us. God is concerned about the world.

The problems of the nations sadly often have to do with political parties. We the church can prevent that. We must believe that God has chosen us to bless the nations and not just ourselves. God is concerned that the world can be saved and transformed. We must first be touched by God. The revival fire must first burn within the church.

The theme of DUMC until the Lord comes is the Leap Forward: Transformation of Society.
Pastor Daniel and sister Doris led 13 people to the Lord personally in their recent 2-week trip in Beijing. People are ready to receive the Lord. Revival is happing in both the three-self churches and the house churches, more so in the house churches which represent 80% of the Christians in China.
Pastor Daniel felt for the house churches. He felt that they should engaged the authority and tell them what they are doing is good. One more Christian means one more good Chinese citizen. 多一个基督徒， 多一个好人。(Personally, I think this is not the time for this. It will not work.)

Pastor Daniel observed that even the number of the Kelabits are small, many of them are involved in transformation of society. They are agents of transformations. One prominent leader in Malaysia is touched by God during the Barrio revival.