When I was about sixteen, I would often walk across the street to the Nazarene church my dad was pastoring and put in two hours cleaning the church. On one Saturday I didn\u2019t take a key because my dad was already over there preparing for Sunday. Before knocking on the door, I paused for a few moments because I could hear a voice. I couldn\u2019t make out the words, but I knew Dad was praying. When he came to the door, he had tears in his eyes. I got a glimpse of his heart.<\/p>\n
Years later, the summer before he died, he and I were talking about the things of God and he shared that one of the things he wanted to see before he died was a real revival\u2014an outpouring of God\u2019s Spirit. He said he had\u00a0seen God move in a service, but hadn\u2019t seen the kind of revival that changes whole communities. He really wanted to.<\/p>\n
I too have been praying a while to see revival. I began praying for Myrtle Point in high school while helping run a Christian coffeehouse. The coffee house operated for about two years. The sign for it, \u201cFort Agape Coffee House\u201d is still in the attic of my garage. After my first real job out of graduate school, I began going to prayer meetings where we prayed for real revival to come to Olathe, Kansas. After moving from Olathe to Kansas City, my prayers expanded to prayers for God to pour out his Holy Spirit on Kansas City. Twenty years ago we moved from Kansas City back to Myrtle Point and, coming full circle, I am still praying for community transforming revival here.<\/p>\n
I will turn sixty next year. I haven\u2019t seen real revival yet. It makes me sad. I worry that like my dad, I may die before seeing a real move of God in the places for which I have prayed. Yes. I know there have been revivals and visitations of God in other places. And I really do rejoice in all God has done elsewhere. I think it is okay that I\u2019m still sad. But I am encouraged by Jeremiah.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scholars aren\u2019t sure where the prophet Jeremiah died. It was probably in Egypt where he was taken by the king and his court when they fled the Babylonians besieging Jerusalem. For long years Jeremiah had stood pretty much alone as a prophet calling Israel to repentance and warning of God\u2019s coming judgment.\u00a0 They did not listen. Even after he was taken to Egypt, he prophesied the destruction of all those had sought refuge there. No one listened. He did not have a \u201csuccessful\u201d ministry in many ways.<\/p>\n
Of course, Jeremiah also prophesied God\u2019s saving of a remnant and their glorious restoration to the land of Israel. But Jeremiah never saw this. He died. Before Jeremiah was taken to Egypt, God told him to buy a field in Anathoth. As a prophetic testimony that God would someday return a remnant to Jerusalem, Jeremiah summoned witnesses, bought the land, and signed the deed.<\/p>\n
I am not good at praying. I don\u2019t have much faith, but try to use all I do have. Certainly I should pray more and harder, and fast more often. I actually have heard really good teaching on intercessory prayer. I have even taught on it (pretty well I think) myself. But it is easier to teach about it than do it. So I just keep asking, and every Christmas my heart is pierced a little because it hasn’t come yet.<\/p>\n
But every time I drag myself to a prayer meeting and cry out for revival, I am buying a field in Anathoth. Like Jeremiah, I may not see the fulfillment of\u00a0my vision, but I am signing a deed for revival in Myrtle Point. I also own land in Kansas and Missouri\u2014and now that I think about it\u2014Africa , China, and Israel. And of course, I have inherited vast holdings from my mother and father.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was about sixteen, I would often walk across the street to the Nazarene church my dad was pastoring and put in two hours cleaning the church. On one Saturday I didn\u2019t take a key because my dad was … Continue reading