Archive for the 'Spiritual Awakening' Category
United, Prevailing Prayer for Awakening in America
As the United States of America nears celebrating her 241st birthday this July 4, it should serve as a spiritual wake up call to every follower of Jesus Christ. Now is the time for the entire church of Jesus Christ in this nation to unite in prevailing prayer for spiritual awakening. There is no greater need in America.
There is no great movement of God that has ever occurred that does not begin with the extraordinary prayer of God’s people. The time is now for us to come together before God in clear agreement, visible union, and in extraordinary prayer for the next Great Awakening and for the world to be reached for Christ. This must be the united, prevailing prayer.
We Cannot Ignore Our History
Jonathan Edwards was a man who believed in the absolute sovereignty of God. As a catalyst for America’s first and second Great Awakenings, Edwards called upon God’s people to act. He believed God would listen to the promptings of His people. Edwards called for prayer and fasting, both in secret and with one another.
George Whitfield was used by God to shake America. His powerful preaching of the need to be born again was used by the Lord to bring thousands to Christ. God used both Whitfield and Edwards in a supernatural way in the mid-1700s. In the early 1800s, the second Great Awakening occurred, and God used men like Charles Grandison Finney, Timothy Dwight, and others who became instrumental preachers of the gospel.
Then in 1857-1858, Jeremiah Lanphier was a layman who had a burden to pray. Eventually, thousands were praying daily for a mighty move of God in the land, and our God shook America. In a two-year period, 1 million Americans came to Christ and another 1 million converted to Christ in Great Britain and Ireland. The church was revived and the fires of evangelism were burning brightly. Missions exploded with the Student Volunteer Movement, where 20,000 young people surrendered their lives to missions.
God used these great movements of God to further impact leaders like Charles Haddon Spurgeon, D.L. Moody, and William Booth. These men and others were shaking the world for Christ.
Sadly, it has been since the Jesus Movement of the 1960s and early 1970s since we have seen such a movement of God upon our land. Thousands were being saved as churches were exploding, and many were called into gospel ministry.
Interestingly, in each of these great movements of God, united, prevailing prayer was occurring.
We Must Prevail In United Prayer
It is time for churches to unite as the Church of Jesus Christ. If we cannot unite to pray in an ongoing way for God to bring spiritual awakening, we have far greater issues. It is time we stop ignoring our history, but learn from it; then, take action to pray for awakening in a compelling, united way.
James 5:16 (CSB) says, “The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.” This is prevailing prayer. This is what the Church must learn to do together. Regardless of what we see with our human eyes, we must be faithful to cry out to God in our desperation, appealing to Him with all we have: God, we cry out to You with all we have and are: Give America a mighty spiritual awakening. Yes Lord, may You give us the third Great Spiritual Awakening in our nation’s history.
Let’s take these three actions beginning today:
- Pray Extraordinarily: This means praying more now than you have been for spiritual awakening. Create ways to unite with other people, leaders, and churches in prevailing prayer for spiritual awakening in America.
- Awakening Brings Evangelization: Billy Graham asked the question, Can Revival Come? He believed firmly that “An awakening can bring about evangelization of the world in our generation.”1 While denominations and churches try to fix their lack of genuine evangelism, they need to realize that a true spiritual awakening is the ultimate answer to this problem. While we must equip others and practice evangelism personally, we need to believe that God can do more in a moment than we can do in a lifetime. This is why we must prevail in united prayer for spiritual awakening.
- Maximize Prayer and Minimize the Rest: As we maximize the need to unite in prevailing prayer for the next Great Awakening, we need to minimize the rest. This is not a call to dumb down politics or stop speaking to the issues in our world today; nor is it a call to make simple our uniting in prayer. It is a call to understand that only God is the One who can change the hearts of Americans from the inside out.
A Final Appeal
The church of America needs to unite humbly in prevailing prayer for spiritual awakening in America. As we come together in clear agreement, visible union, and extraordinary prayer for the next Great Awakening and for the world to be reached for Christ, we need to believe our God is able to do it!
I believe God can do it. I am trusting God to do it.
Keep your perspective: Our greatest need is the next Great Spiritual Awakening in America.
Now is the Time to Lead,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
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Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the Senior Pastor of Cross Church, Immediate Past President of the Southern Baptist Convention, founder of the Cross Church School of Ministry, and host of the Ronnie Floyd on Life and Leadership Today podcast.
To request an interview with Dr. Ronnie Floyd
contact Gayla Oldham at (479) 751-4523 or email gaylao@crosschurch.com.
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1 Graham, Billy. “Can Revival Come?” Sermon, Inauguration of Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Louisville, KY, October 14, 1993. http://equip.sbts.edu/article/can-revival-come/
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
The #1 Obstacle to the Next Great Move of God in the Church and in America
Unforgiveness is the #1 obstacle to the next great move of God in your life, your church and our nation. Almost every person has been affected by unforgiveness in some way or another. Either we have held a grudge or known a relationship hindered by someone who refused to forgive. Churches, friendships, and fellowship have been ruptured by wounds, unforgiveness, and bitterness.
For many years, I have pastored local churches, and am convinced that the #1 obstacle to the next great move of God in the church and in the nation is the sin of unforgiveness. Nothing has built a taller, deeper, and thicker wall in the hearts of people and in the churches of our land.
God Does Forgives Us
Human relationships fractured by unforgiveness are damaging, to be sure. What about our need for God’s forgiveness? Is God forgiving? Can anything be done if we have offended Him?
Thankfully, God has not left us in the dark. Yes, we have offended God, and yes, He will forgive.
The Bible is clear in both the Old and New Testaments that we have sinned against God. Jeremiah laments on behalf of his kinsmen in Israel, “Let us lie down in our shame; let our disgrace cover us. We have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our fathers, from the time of our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”1 The Psalmist wrote even more broadly, “The LORD looks down from heaven on the human race to see if there is one who is wise, who seeks after God. All have turned away; all alike have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one.”2
Yet, God forgives us. We are grateful!
How Can God Ever forgive?
We are not let off the hook in the New Testament. “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned.”3 Humanity has a problem, and that problem is the sin that separates us from God.
How can God ever forgive? Only through the sacrificial death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. As Peter and John told the religious leaders of their day, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people, and we must be saved by it.”4
What about those who have already accepted Christ? Is there forgiveness for the many sins we commit between the time we are saved and the time we leave this earth? Does God forgive the forgiven? Thank God, the answer is yes.
The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 5 Those of us who have believed in Christ are forgiven at salvation and forgiven as we are made more and more like Christ. This is one reason we are encouraged to forgive others. We need to experience the ongoing forgiveness of God that restores our fellowship with Him.
Therefore, Forgive Others
Since God so freely and sacrificially forgives us, we should forgive others. Friends, never let anyone outside of your circle of love. Forgiveness is imperative in the life of a Christ follower. Therefore, walk in forgiveness toward others.
Refuse to Let Unforgiveness in the Church
I realize calling upon us to refuse to let unforgiveness in the church is a big request. But if we let unforgiveness abide in the church, we are telling God we do not want Him to intervene in His church. We need to call people to account to one another, even pastors to their people, and the people to the pastor, if any unforgiveness is prevailing.
Call Upon Our Nation to Forgive Each Other
It is very concerning to think how much unforgiveness is prevailing in America presently. It is just wrong. Anger is raging and criticism is never ceasing. We need our nation to live with forgiveness toward one another.
Now is the Time to Lead,
Ronnie W. Floyd
1 Jeremiah 3:25
2 Psalm 14:2-3
3 Romans 5:12
4 Acts 4:12
5 1 John 1:9
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.