WHY PRAY AND SEEK FOR REVIVAL? IS THERE ANY HOPE?

WHY PRAY FOR REVIVAL?
IS THERE ANY HOPE?

There are some things in answer to these two questions that I moved to answer and explain.  This is, perhaps, in answer to my accusers of why I promote prevailing prayer and revival.  Many have quoted to me the Scriptures, 'in the last days there will be a great falling away'.  And they declare that we are in this time now.  Leonard Ravenhill answered these critics with this answer: 'Was it any different in the day of Jonathan Edwards?'  'Does God love the world less now than He did years ago?' 

God is immutable, He changes not in all His Divine ways.  His Divine love for lost men remains the same.  'I would, that none perish'.  His desire is always that His glory would be manifest.  He remains jealous for His Name's sake.  Since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eve, God has made a way to redeem lost mankind.  His Son paying the price for an atonement for those that would receive it; His Word for instruction to those that would beleive it; and His Spirit to draw the hearts of His elect unto Himself.

Deuteronomy 4:29, 'But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. v. 30 When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto His voice; v. 31 (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) He will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which He sware unto them.'

And even though, so many will be quick to jump on this portion of Scripture to say that it is to the Jews, not to the church or the people of today; can we not say that this same hope and message is found throughout all of Scripture?  Is God not merciful throughout all His ways?  and in all times?  Is grace and mercy not apart of His Divine nature?  Yes it is!!  Is God's promise that, if men seek Him with all their heart they will find Him, not found throughout all Scripture?  Yes it is !!  And is God's promise not to all that He has promised to not forsake nor forget His Own?  Yes it is !!

If then, this covenant keeping, immutable God is still the same in all these ways for the Israelites as for the chruch today, then can we not turn to Him for His mercy?  Absolutely we can and should!  But the defeated, comprimising, carnal Christian will not attain to the power of God but to the power of humanism.  Relying more on the circumstances of the world around them than the power of God within them.  It may be as simple as this:  in all honesty, what is the chruch looking at for help and and what is the church doing to secure it?  ARe we "looking unto Jesus"?  Are we resting and trusting in His mighty hand?  Or are we looking to the hand of man?