Have you prayed for God to bring revival recently?

            Not long ago, prayer leaders, pastors, common people and even young people were calling others to call upon God to bring down a fresh movement in the church.  It wasn’t just in a particular denomination, or vein of belief, but everywhere!  I too was captured by it. 

            I remember a prayer conference we held called Something’s Happening USA. We put our focus squarely on God to change us, and then asked Him to sweep a generation off their feet and into the church.  After those events, our evangelism numbers would always spike, because students found themselves face to face with God, and more willing to obey Him as He led their mission at school and home.  Back then it wasn’t uncommon for us to “waste” entire days on our knees crying out to God. The days after would be filled with stories of how God parted the sea in student’s hearts. It wasn’t our great skill or insight that made the difference, it was those confounded hours we spent with empty stomachs and aching knees.

            I also remember reading stories that made me desire more from God. One of my favorites was from the world wide revival of 1904, which began in Wales.  During prayer men saw the floor opening up, and they being pulled into a fiery hell!  It had them running out of the meeting, only to return several hours later to give their lives to Christ.  In one South African town, children were seen with fire over their heads, a Pentecostal outpouring that had spectators running for buckets!  This seems absurd, doesn’t it?  To my shame, there’s a part of me that thinks it’s an urban legend.  But then another side of me hungers for such an outpouring. 

            2 Chronicles 7:14 begins with, “If my people, who are called by my name would humble themselves and pray…”  That’s God’s A game.  But I admit, I get caught up in the B game all too often.  What’s the B game you ask? It’s the sum of our collective toil to bear the kingdom of God on our own shoulders.  Asking God for the outpouring of His Spirit puts the weight firmly on His.  The B game has us busy, productive and barren. It hinders us from being silent before the Lord of Heaven’s armies. It takes us away from looking into the condition of our hearts, and weeping over the pride we find there.

            When was the last time you humbly and desperately cried out to God?  That’s the A game, and that’s God’s recipe for revival.