A Word for the Asbury Revival – “Your Work Shall Be Rewarded!” - Purity 970

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a quaint decorative well standing over a lush green lawn, yet shrouded in shadows, comes to us from yours truly, as I took this shot while surveying the property at 1788 State Route 9J in Stuyvesant, New York, way back on April 17th, 2016. 2020, approximately 2 months and 5 days before I would sign the final paperwork to make it my place down by the river. You can't tell from this photo that we were in the midst of a global pandemic. The sun, the sun still shined and the grass still grew and life went on. I didn't know it at the time that I would make this property my river house when I took this photo of what became my well, but man, was I praying for it and seeking it. And now I can tell you that I was rewarded for my faithfulness. While most people were huddled indoors during the winter and spring of 2020, I was out in the danger zone working two essential jobs and trusting the Lord to keep me alive while I earned enough money to support my family and to get a new home for my children and I after a messy divorce. In those days In those times, I went to work for 16-hour days, but I also grounded myself in my daily spiritual practices of Bible study and prayer and continually staying in the Lord's presence. Those were hard and lonely times, but the Lord was with me and He did not forsake me because I sought His presence and His will for my life every day. So, I know that the Lord is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. As the Word says in Hebrews 11:6, where it says, "Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." Well, since coming to the Lord in 2010, I have been seeking the Lord and have been rewarded by Him time and time ever since. One of the prayers that I and many others have made through all those years of following the Lord is for there to be a revival of the body of Christ, for the lost to be found, and for the hearts of our nation to be turned to God. I and many others have prayed that the Lord's presence would come to our country in a mighty move that would reap a harvest for his kingdom, and it appears that our prayers may have been answered through the revival that is happening at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky. As a chapel service that began on February 8th has turned into a revival as students and faculty from 22 schools in Hawaii, Massachusetts, Illinois, Minnesota, Tennessee, Indiana, and other states have made the trek to Asbury. 10 days later and the event is still going on, uh, still going strong, and is expected to continue as travelers from as far away as Canada and Singapore are expected to arrive soon. Yesterday I texted Arthur Sincotti, my brother in Christ and the author of our weekly Bible study podcast, encouraging him to take a road trip to Asbury to join the revival, and he confessed that he was thinking about it as he and his wife Susanna have been watching it online. Arthur stated that it was a 12-hour drive, and I suggested that could be broken up into two 6-hour shifts and could be done all at once or with an overnight stop in between. I'm not sure if Arthur or I will go, but we are both excited by what is happening in Asbury. I'm on vacation this week and already have plans to go to Williamsburg, Virginia, and Myrtle Beach, uh, South Carolina. It's paid for and non-refundable, so I'll be headed south come Sunday. As of this writing, I am toying with the idea of diverting my return trek home from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to go to Wilmore on Friday and then come back to New York on Saturday or Sunday. And that's 9 hours— 9 hours to Kentucky, 13 hours to New York from there. But we'll have to discern whether or not the Holy Spirit is calling me there. I have experienced the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit before, more than once, in mighty ways. So it's not like I have never experienced an outpouring of his spirit before. And I need to chase him and experience— and the experience of a revival to know the Lord. So we will pray and see what happens. But I would like to send my warmest regards to the people gathered at Asbury and would offer the following passage of scripture as a word for Asbury if I don't make the trek there to try to offer it in person. This morning's Bible study brought me to 2 Chronicles 15 and the words of the prophet Azariah. I know that many a Bible scholar may pile on condemnation from drawing from a very obscure Old Testament prophet to the kingdom of Judah to encourage us for today, but I found the words that the Lord spoke through Azariah and all the text of 2 Chronicles 15 to be an appropriate parallel to our present times and a word for the body of Christ and those outside the body for for all times. I believe that the prophet Azariah's words can be used to encourage the revival at Asbury and all of us in all seasons because they call us to repentance and warn that we will be forsaken if we don't seek the Lord. Big pause for an edit. I share the text in its entirety but would ask you to consider whether or not the words spoken to the Kingdom of Israel and Judah could be applied to the nations of the world today as a challenge to turn to the Lord. 2 Chronicles 15:1-7 says, now the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded, and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law. But when in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel and sought him, he was found by them. And in those times there was no peace to the one who went out nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands. So nation was destroyed by nation and city by city, but God troubled them with every adversity. But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded. The world is never without adversity or turmoil because of sin. And the hard hearts of men that refuse to make Jesus the Lord of their lives and to follow Him in spirit, truth, and repentance. But I want to echo Azariah's encouraging words that insist that if we seek the Lord, we will indeed find Him. And although the work we have to undertake when we decide to seek the Lord's will for our lives may weary us at times, we can be assured that our work shall be rewarded. The prayer warriors of our nation have prayed for revival, and that work seems to have been rewarded in Asbury, and we should rejoice. And while I am not sure if I will be called to make the trip to Asbury to be a part of the revival experience that is happening there, I know that I am already a part of the mighty moves of God on this earth because I have experienced my salvation and freedom in Christ and have been repeatedly revived and rewarded because I have been faithful to continuously seek God and His will for my life. Whether you run to the revival experience in Asbury or not, let me encourage you, as I always do, to keep seeking the Lord by walking and talking with Him every day, and to follow His wisdom and ways with the way you live your life. As the prophet Azariah has encouraged us, when you decide to surrender to, seek, and follow the Lord, you shall be rewarded. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verses are James 4:6-7, uh, and they say, but he gives us even more grace to stand against such evil desires As the Scripture says, "God opposes the proud but favors the humble." So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Today's Bible verses encourage us that we can overcome our evil desires when we humble ourselves, submit to God, and resist the devil. The wisdom of today's verses, particularly verse 7, are repeatedly used in spiritual warfare teachings because they speak of the reality of the spiritual forces of darkness that need to be resisted. The enemy's tactics are to deceive and to tempt us, and so the Word of God teaches us the one-two punch that will give us success over sin. We must submit to God first, and we must resist the devil. In order to overcome temptation, to receive the power and authority to tell the enemy to take a hike, we first must become members of God's royal family by putting our faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, and then also decide to submit to God in the ways we live our lives. We are to repent and turn from our former ways and abandon our evil desires. So step one, submitting to God, or humbling yourselves, is one thing we must do But there are— is some false teaching, ignorance, and confusion in the body of Christ that would teach that repentance is optional, that it is enough just to proclaim Jesus as Lord and Savior, and that repenting could be done later, if at all, if you want to. So some poor Christians— and I put that in quotes— will actually tell you that they just want to be a believer in Jesus and don't want to be— and don't think it's necessary to be a disciple of Jesus. So it's because of attitudes like this, this easy believism, that can explain why the body of Christ struggles to have victory over the enemy. They have difficulty resisting the devil because they haven't completely submitted to God. You have to do both to be free. To fully submit to God and resist the devil, I recommend going through the Steps to Freedom in Christ, the tool that Dr. Neil Anderson has developed that is based on the work truth of the word of God, uh, that the Lord has been known to bless as a means of repentance, to repentance and freedom. So be assured that we have victory over sin and the devil, but we must be sure that we are, are both submitting to God and resisting the devil with the way we live to experience it. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Sovereignty of God, and today we begin chapter 7, which is God's Sovereignty and the Human Will. So if you want to know about what A.W. Pink has to say about the sovereignty of God and the free will of man, uh, go to m.tforchrist.org to check out, uh, that resource at the end of today's blog post. As always, we encourage a life of Christian discipleship, uh, not just believism. Um, we do believe in Jesus, we put our faith in him, and then we follow him, and we learn from his teachings and apply them to our lives.

That's what being a disciple is all about—

being a student, and a student that actually applies the teachings of, of of the teacher in a real way. And so that's what we do because, because I believe this, the easy-believism. I am a victim of the ultra-grace gospel that tells you that you just have to say the sinner's prayer and that'll be enough. And I believe that is enough, but there's more to it than that. That's enough to put our faith in Christ, But after we put our faith in Christ, he calls us to follow him. Um, and putting our faith in Christ, we make the decision to, to become slaves to Christ. That's why he's Lord. He's, he's our Lord. He's our master. He's the one we follow. Um, we don't make him our master and decide to do whatever we want.

Um, that's, that's not it.

We're either a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness.

Jesus Christ.

So by becoming a Christian, you know, we're making the agreement to, to be his slave, and we're supposed to act like it. So I encourage people to learn the truth about their faith and to apply it to their lives, because when we don't, when we have the half-brained or half-other things Christianity, we lived half other things' lives, if you know what I mean. I'm so Christian I can't say what I'm thinking. Basically, yeah, if you want a lifestyle of victory instead of compromise and confusion, you have to give everything to the Lord.

Now believe me, that's a process that requires practice, patience, and endurance and humility because we're not going to do it perfectly. But that's our intention, and that's our mission, is to continually seek the Lord and to follow him in the ways we live. And we will have varying degrees of success, but the more we follow and abide in Christ, the more success we'll have. We're not giving a foothold to the enemy by sinning. And we're seeking the harmony and peace of the Lord at all times, well, you know, we'll, uh, we'll find victory and freedom because God gives it to us, not because we earn it. He gives it to us, and it's us to live it. It's up to us to live it out, to experience it.

So we encourage everyone to do that.

Um, sort of in a scramble mode, we're running really late this morning because I woke up a later than I normally would because I'm on vacation, and because I was thinking about—

I was looking at maps from South Carolina to Kentucky, and I honestly don't know if I'm going to Asbury or not. But wouldn't that be something? So we'll see.

I'll run it by my traveling companions and to see if they're up for taking a much longer route home and getting back later than we expect, and I gotta ask the Holy Spirit and myself, you know, do we want to do this? Unfortunately, I can't just make these decisions for myself. I have people traveling with me, and I have to be be open to all the possibilities and, uh, try to be true to, um, maintaining peace, um, and not forcing my will on something. That's part of our walk too, is, uh, yeah, we know what the word of God says and we know, um, what's right, um, but are we going to force that on other people? And, you know, actually hurt our testimony for Christ by doing so. You know, we can get caught up in following the Lord and, you know, push our will to the point where we break things, um, all in the name of the Lord. But is that what he would have us do? Um, that's, that's what we do. Yeah.

And we, and we weigh that out.

I can run the scenario a bunch of different ways and, you know, come up with different things, but I won't know what happens until you do it. And that can be for better or worse. And, you know, we shall see. So, um, we're gonna, we're gonna try to be wise and discerning and figure that out and not be so impulsive.

But guess what? Uh, I am pretty impulsive.

Um, I do just make quick decisions.

This trip to Williamsburg and South Carolina sort of as a quick decision.

If you, you know, I wanted to go somewhere with my vacation, um, was given an, you know, just happened to be given an offer for South Carolina and off I go. And Williamsburg is the stop in between to make it a little more, uh manageable and not rushed. So, you know, should I, should I jump, jump to Asbury? I don't know, but we'll see. We'll run it by my wife, who's very wise and also a Christian, and we'll see what she has to say. We'll pray on it and see if we'll want to force her teenage children to go to a Christian revival. And I would say their faith is lukewarm at best.

I think any kid really, you know, if we're going to be honest, with the exceptions of some on-fire Christians like the ones at Asbury, most of our kids are along for the ride when we bring them to church, and we can't make them believe.

Only the Lord does that. And, you know, I don't know. You can't make somebody believe.

You can't make someone follow, and you certainly can't make someone go to a revival. Um, or you could, but we'll see. Anyway, that's a lot of pondering for something that may or may not happen.

I don't know.

But anyway, it's on my thought.

This is why the podcast is so delayed today, because I've been thinking about this. I got other things to do before we leave, so let's pray.

Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for all the blessings and all the rewards you've given us through our life of faith. Lord, thank you for the faith in itself. Um, you know, we know what it's like not to be a Christian.

We know what it's like to be confused and lost and evil desires of the flesh.

And we rejoice over, over the truth that you've shown us and the life that you've given us in Christ.

And, uh, Lord, we just pray for anyone who's out there who might be listening or reading this message, that they be encouraged in their faith and to make a commitment to always seek you, even after they find you, um, to, to do your will rather than their own in life. And Lord, we just pray for you to come alongside them to guide them in wisdom and their journey, as we need it. We need your wisdom, we need your guidance, and we need your strength to follow you, Lord. And we thank you for bringing it to us. Oh Lord, we pray for, um, their prayer request as well. We don't know what they're praying for, but we're praying for different things.

And we've prayed for things in the past, Lord, that are still unresolved., and we're going to put those, you know, right now.

You know what we were talking about, and we want you to come alongside our prayer request to help heal people and help people in difficult situations that we're— we've experienced and witnessed over the last year or so. Um, you know who I'm thinking about right now in my mind, so that's who I'm praying for. Um, Lord, we just pray for you to go before us today.

Help us to see the things you want us to see and do the things you would lead us to do.

Thank you for all the good things you've done for us, Lord, and all the things you've shown us through our lives.

Oh Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all this stuff in the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen.