Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. This is Jim Van Gelderen, and I am podcasting from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Yes, my wife and I had the privilege of flying into Halifax yesterday, and now we are about to begin meetings here in Yarmouth, which is down on the southern end. It took about three hours trip yesterday. The pastor picked us up and brought us down here, and as we were traveling down here, he said something to me that kind of stirred me. kind of reminded me that there’s a history of God working in many places that you wouldn’t know about unless somebody told you or you ran across some research. But he said the Second Great Awakening, which was a remarkable awakening, really framed America as a nation and as a Christian nation. But he said the Second Great Awakening got to this province and got all the way down to Yarmouth, where he now ministers. And if I’m remembering what he said correctly, he said 80% of the people were touched by that revival. So I’m assuming about 80% of the community were believers when that was all done. And he said one of the main churches, unfortunately now, is a parking lot. Pretty much now forgotten what God did here over 100 years ago, but it stirred me. And as I went into town today to get a cup of coffee at Tim Hortons, I thought to myself, man, does this community need what God sent over 100 years ago now in the hearts of many people. And so I want to just talk to a young person about praying for revival. just recently I had a correspondence with somebody I lost track of for a while I think he got away from the Lord came back to the Lord and just kind of a back and forth and today one of the email he sent to me said this that stirred my heart he said my heart has always been kindled by hearing about the revivals of the past it blesses my heart that the very same God lives in us to this very day I’m personally believing him for the biggest revival we’ve ever seen. And I know that he is more than able. Well, you know, when somebody writes that, you know, that comes from a heart that has been stirred by the Lord Jesus, stirred by the reviver, by him who is revival. And it just brought my mind to that wonderful verse in Psalm 85, right there in verse number six, will thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee and it certainly is that heart cry to God God will you do it again will you revive your people again you know young people you know might want to read some books on revival perhaps here in the future we need to talk a little bit more about what God has done in the past to stir us to pray for what God wants to do in our lives right now and in the future. And so just want to talk a little bit about that and trust your heart would be stirred. Young person, do you pray for revival? You pray for it for your Christian school or your church youth group if you don’t have a Christian school or for whatever community you live in. And it’s easy, very easy to get dull and to get a little bit, maybe even sometimes just, well, maybe it happened back then, maybe it couldn’t happen today, that’s a little caustic, unbelieving, which is a dangerous thing. Those things around us sometimes can just get us distracted. Technology distracts us, so many things. But young person, God wants to use each one of us when it comes to his reviving work in our day. And the thing I want you to be encouraged about is revival. We often think of it in the corporate sense, and I started this podcast thinking of it sense. But it actually begins with individual believers. I remember the little anecdote of a man who heard about the Welsh Revival, which was one of the great last corporate revivals that would touch a nation. But he arrived in the country of Wales looking for the revival, walked up to a policeman evidently in one of the main cities and said, sir, can you tell me where the revival is? And it is said the policeman cocked back with a big smile and pointed to his chest and said, ah, the revival is in here. And friend, that’s where the revival is. It begins in individual believers. The very word revive, the word vive, viva, you perhaps have heard that in Latin, long live the king, but that’s life. I know sometimes I joke and say people think viva has paper towels. No, it’s not paper towels. It’s life. So what is revival? In a personal sense, it’s life. Again, Jesus said, I am come that you might have life. That’s eternal life. That’s talking about revival right now, abundant life. It’s living with the reality of Christ’s life in you and through you. And friends, that’s the normal Christian life. That’s the way God intended it for to be. That’s not supposed to be something abnormal. It’s supposed to be something that is normal. But unfortunately, we live in such a subnormal state that we think revival is abnormal when it really isn’t. It should be what we live in from day to day. So Purse to Revival begins in your own heart with two things. Number one, I’ve got to want it. I will pour water on him who is thirsty, Isaiah 44 and verse 3. You’ve got to have a thirsty heart, a heart that wants it. And then secondly, you’ve got to believe it. You’ve got to trust him for it. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. You know, trust him in whom we have access by faith into this grace. So you access supernatural work of God in your heart by just believing God, believing what his word said, believing his promises. And so when we are living in that personal revival, there are going to be effects. Here in the book of Psalm 85, will thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice? Yes, indeed, there is rejoicing. The revivals I’ve seen, there’s always rejoicing in what God is doing and has done in our hearts. This passage of scripture here in Psalm 85 also points out that one of the other issues of revival is there in verse 11, truth shall spring out of the earth and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yeah, there’s a revival of truth. When people are living in revival, truth is important. And righteousness, there’s supernatural enabled righteousness in their hearts and in their lives. Revival always produces holiness, righteousness based on truth, not just externals. Now, externals aren’t wrong, but externals that come from internals. In other words, God has done such a work in a heart that it’s lived out. It’s supernatural righteousness. It’s not someone who is trying to just conform externally for whatever reason, maybe get some compliment or because it’s in a rule book, which is not a bad thing, but it’s just external. And that’s not what revival produces. It produces an internal passion for Jesus Christ and a dependence on his grace and his righteousness, but of him we are in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. It’s that supernatural righteousness, and it produces externals, but it comes from a reviving work inside. And so there’s that work in the heart where a young person, he doesn’t want to look at things that grieve the Lord. He doesn’t want to waste his time on technology. He doesn’t want to get distracted by things that will sully his conscience. No, he really lives with a heart toward the Lord Jesus Christ and lives for truth and righteousness. That becomes a part of his passion. So that’s the result. Boy, rejoicing, a revival of truth, righteousness, boy, those are things we desperately need. But I want you to notice that revival is not earned. As I mentioned a moment ago, revival comes because there’s a thirst you wanted, and then there’s a rest or a trust in Jesus Christ to do it in your heart first, and then the heart and lives of others. And even here in the book of Psalms, he cries out in prayer, the psalmist does, turn us, O God, of our salvation and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Wilt thou be angry with us forever? Wilt thou draw thine anger to all generations? And then verse seven, right after that, wilt thou not revive us again, please? Show us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant unto us thy salvation. In other words, they knew they were under God’s wrath. God was angry with the sins of his people and they cried out not for what they deserved. They realized they didn’t deserve it. That’s why they cried out for God’s mercy. Revival is God’s mercy. It’s not getting what we deserve. It’s getting what we don’t deserve because God is a God of mercy. And so we come to God and we deal with our sin. We come thirsty for his presence, his burning in our hearts to burn away the dross. And we rest in him to do it. There’s many different things I could say about revival, but as Jonathan Goforth basically said, there’s one thing that hinders revival, and that is sin. And certainly I think he’s probably not too far from having some truth about that. So obviously in our thirst for God, you’re gonna deal with what God shows you to thoroughly biblically. And as your passion continues, you’ll grow in your trust and resting in God to lead you to enable you and God to guide you and God to just do the miraculous in and through you. Yeah, revival is just a constant moment by moment trust for God to do what he said he’d do. Because we’ve had a thirst for him, thirst and trust are two very important truths, seem to be somewhat contradictory. I think I’ve talked about this before, but both are important. Boy, I mean, God wants a thirsty heart. You’ve got a hunger for God, want him. Pant your soul after God. At the same time, come to a point where you’re really resting, trusting, expecting might be a good word, God to do what he said he’d do. Now, friends, are you hungry for God to do a reviving work first during your own heart? And it takes revival in our own hearts to get to the point where we can touch other people with the revival that God’s brought to us. But would you have a heart for revival? I remember back when I was a teenager, probably what I would consider to be the first exposure I had to a teenage revival. I was a senior in high school at our Christian school. Our Christian school had not been around long. Maybe I have to think about it. I just, um, four or five, six years, something of that nature. And I was, um, I was, uh, a senior at the time and our school definitely needed revivals, a large school. And my brother had just come back, uh, pastor Wayne van Gelderen. And, uh, he had just come back from Bible college at the time. he was young, and he was preaching our school camp. And he tells the story about how God dealt with him. And really, revival came to him first, I can say that. He went out by the dock and spent the day praying as the hardness of the kids was just bearing in upon him and his own need. And God revived him. He stood in the pulpit weak. I think he had a cold, didn’t even preach that long. But I’ll never forget that invitation when the whole school just largely the whole school cleared out and got right with God. And there was a move of God. And I remember down by the lake, there was rejoicing going on. One of the teachers just led them in rejoicing. And it was a revival that I would say, even though it, you know, 50 plus years ago, that it has affected people to this very day. I know that God lit a fire in my heart as a 70 year old. That’s what I want to give my life to. I want to see God do reviving in the hearts of young people. And of course, now I’ve been in the ministry for over 30 years called War of Special Forces, where our burden is to see God do reviving work in individual Christian school students, but also corporately. And thank the Lord for the personal revivals we’ve seen. Most every week, we see somebody, probably several, really experience God’s reviving work. But oh, What a blessing when it turns to corporate nature and you see a whole Christian school touched by the reviving presence of God. You see those tears. You hear those heart cries. You hear those prayers. You see the burden. You see young people burdened about lost kids. They could care less about their souls before they got right with God, but now they’re burdened sometimes weeping for the lost. Those are remarkable things. Those are moments when God has moved, when his presence, his life is being manifested. and I’ll just conclude with this. I remember several years ago in South Carolina being in a Christian school and really needy school and I remember God did a work and we had a prayer meeting. I’d say at least half the kids, probably two thirds would be my guess of the students we had a prayer meeting with and started slow. I was a little concerned about it, but I don’t know how to explain it. God just stepped in the room. You don’t have to worry about it. When God steps in the room, we had a prayer meeting, 45 minutes of prayers, heart cries. It was wonderful. and I remember at the very end, we stopped praying and a senior looked at me and said, Brother Van Gelderen, can I say something? And of course, I said, sure, go ahead. I’ll never forget what he said. He had deep awe. I wish I could have recorded it, but he had deep awe in his voice. His face, you could say, had wonder on it. And he turned to his fellow students and he said, God was here. You know, truer words were never spoken, have never been spoken more true than that because God was there. And that’s what revival is. It’s the presence of God. It’s life again. And he is the life, the resurrection and the life. He is the bread of life. He is life. And he’s come that we might have life, but have it more abundantly. And that’s what revival is. It’s abundant life. It’s his life living in us and through us. Are you hungry for that friend? Have you gotten content with just getting by? gotten content with the last lack of the moving of God. I know my own heart was stirred with that pastor talking about the second great awakening and how it’s needed in this community again. And would you pray for revival? Will you pray? Will thou not revive us again, O Lord, that thy people may rejoice in thee? Pray for God to do a reviving work in your own heart. I believe you can expect it because he does. He does. Isaiah 57, he does revive the hearts of the contrite ones, humble, and He’ll revive your heart. So let’s ask God for a hunger and a thirst, and let’s ask God to burden our hearts, and let’s get resting and believing and expecting Him to do a great work in our heart. And may we be able to see God’s reviving work in our day, first in our own hearts, and then in the lives of those around us. God bless. May a young person be a young person who is looking to the Lord, depending on Him every day, and surrender to His will for your life.