Why God Will Not Revive Us Again

Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation. I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly. Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land. (Psalms 85:4-9)

We discovered that revival comes from God. Now we want to consider what would keep God from sending revival. Revival is a restoration of consciousness or life.

As already stated I want to see real revival in our church. It may not come all at once. It may be a gradual thing. Indeed, real revival will continue and grow.

Let me give you another illustration of revival. The lady, whose dog was the father of some of our puppies from the past, had a young female. Without her knowing it, the female came to be in a motherly way. She was not sure when they would be born, therefore, the puppies came when she was not there to assist in their birth. This being the first litter, the mother did not know what to do, besides she was busy. She was in a cage with another cage next to it, as well as, being on top of other cages. Three puppies were born by the time the she arrived. The weather was fairly cold. One pup had crawled into the next cage, one was trying to go out the back of the cage, but the wall kept it from falling and the other one was still partly in the birth sack, motionless. She began to work with the puppies, but the one in the birth sack did not seem to respond, so she put it in a plastic bag with some other items and placed it in a trash can. Later she needed to call a vet about another dog’s reaction to a shot. She was asked what she had used and it was necessary to look at the labels on the shot bottles. So she took the bag out of the trash, laid the puppy on the table and as she talked the puppy moved ever so slightly and she saw it. Her husband thought she just imagined it, but she began to work with it again. That was in the morning. I held it in my hands later that day as it moved about trying to find its mother. THAT’S REVIVAL!

I. WHAT WILL KEEP GOD FROM REVIVING US?

1. Sin.
   

   If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: (Psalms 66:18)

2. Regard means to pay close attention to.
3. Another word we might use is admire.
4. Sin will stand in the way of our prayers.
5. If God does not hear us, He will not send revival no matter how loud we cry.
6. Revival is a heart matter.
   

   For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. (Proverbs 23:7)

II. WE NEED GOD TO TURN US.

Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease. (Psalms 85:4)

1. We need the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin and draw us to God.
2. Sad to say, but sometimes it takes God’s judgment to get our attention.
   

   Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. (Hosea 6:1-3)

   O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. (Habakkuk 3:2)

3. We cannot live as we please and please God at the same time.
   

   For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

4. If God does not send revival it will not happen.
   

   A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. (Psalms 127:1)

III. WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO?

1. We need to hear God.
   

   I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.(Psalms 85:8)

   While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. (Matthew 17:5)

   Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. (John 5:39)

   But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:22-27)

2. The Bible is God’s Word, we need to read it, we need to heed it and we need to live it.
   

   Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25)

   Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. (Matthew 23:23)

3. We need to fear God.
   

   Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land. (Psalms 85:9)

   Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:28-29)

4. We need the grace of God to enable us to serve Him acceptably.
5. Habakkuk heard God’s Words and was afraid.
   

   O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. (Habakkuk 3:2)

6. Are you afraid? I am!