Devotions

How is the last revival going to happen? It requires something powerful, something world-shaking to precipitate it. Isaiah tells us this shaking will happen in one day. In chapter 47, he says the spirit of Babylon must be dealt with. Throughout Scripture, Babylon has always represented a spirit of prosperity, ease and pleasure and the Babylonian spirit is the same in every age.

In short, Isaiah says there can be no widespread, last revival until the spirit of greed and false security is brought down. We can pray for revival, we can cry out to God to pour out His Spirit, but it is impossible unless the Lord first shakes all things: “Hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me. . . . Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know” (Isaiah 47:8, 11, my italics).

God is not going to overlook sin, but He will strike down the devil’s strongholds. He’s going to sound a wake-up call to His Church with a “sudden desolation.” Indeed, this will be an act of great love on the Lord’s part. He so loves His Church that He refuses to allow ease, pleasure and apostasy to blind and ruin the object of His love.

“Let favor be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord” (Isaiah 26:10). Here is proof that revival is impossible in a time of ease and prosperity. Isaiah says in plain terms, “In a time of blessing, the people will not turn.” Nothing is going to happen until the pocketbook is affected. Only “when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:9).

Many are familiar with the passage where Paul equates marriage to God’s relationship with the Church: “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:31–32).

Now note what Isaiah says: “Thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called” (Isaiah 54:5). Who is the Maker here? It is Christ, creator of heaven and earth. And Isaiah tells us God is our husband. However, the wife has separated herself from her husband: “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).

Where do we see this separation today between the Church and God? I see it most obviously in compromised mainline churches. Yet I also see it in the soft-pedaled gospel of post-modern churches. It is evident that there has been a separation from God’s manifest presence. Indeed, it has happened just as Jesus and Paul prophesied. Many have become lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God—having a form of religion with no power; despising the gospel of their fathers; tearing down the old moral landmarks; changing God’s infallible Word to suit the times.

I challenge you to go to any city, from church to church of every evangelical persuasion. Try to find one where you recognize the awesome, manifest presence of Jesus, where you encounter His heart-melting conviction. When the Lord is truly present, you recognize it, whether in the singing, the preaching, or the fellowship. Something stirs your soul, and it produces an awe and a reverence. In my experience, this is rarely found.

I am not condemning modern-day churches; God forbid. But may the Lord help us if we don’t have His manifest presence in these last days. And because of the compromise of such churches, He has had to hide His presence from them for a time.

Everywhere we turn in the last days, we will see God’s glory breaking forth in a last revival. Christ’s Church will stretch beyond all former limitations to spread the good news.

“Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited” (Isaiah 54:2–3). Simply put, the Church will gain strength and raise up multitudes in Christ.

As we look more closely at Isaiah’s prophecy, we see it is meant not only for the Church Body but also for individuals. I know godly servants, friends of mine, who have laid hold of this prophecy as a personal word from the Holy Spirit. And they have built up their faith by its promises: “Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more” (Isaiah 54:4). Isaiah makes it clear in this verse: God’s Church will not go out under reproach.

Yet just a few verses down, we read this warning to the last-days Church: “O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires” (Isaiah 54:11). We are told that we will be afflicted and storm-tossed. Yet we are also promised a foundation made of sapphires. What does this mean, exactly?

When God declares, “I will lay thy foundations with sapphires,” His message is, “When everything in the world is being shaken, you will not be moved. The foundation I’m laying underneath you is as solid as these stones. What I’m doing in you cannot be shaken.”

These sapphires represent spiritual knowledge and wisdom, insights into the very heart of God. We know that those who endure suffering come out armed with greater insights into God’s mercy. You may be tempted, tossed, afflicted and alone, but through it all He is forming underneath you a rock-solid foundation. It is all so that you may comfort others in their trials.

Here’s the really good news! Jesus wants to put in you the same Spirit that lives in Him — the same Spirit that gave Him the power to pass right through the enemy’s plans to cast Him off the edge of the cliff (see Luke 4:29-30).

Perhaps addiction has crushed you; the habits of sin have led you to failure; fear and anxiety have caused you to fall into despair. But when Jesus puts “the same Spirit” within you, you can pass right through and declare, “This thing won’t touch me. I might be in a fire but I won’t be burned. I’m coming out alive. I’m coming out on the victory side. I’m not going to be pushed off into things that God doesn’t have for me. I’m going to stay in the firm place where He has set me.”  

You may feel pressure all over you but the Lord has given me a word to give to you. And attached to it is a prophetic promise. I said to the Lord, “I’m going to be very cautious about this because sometimes false prophecies come forth that say everything is going to be rosy and bright.” So I’m not saying that to you. There will be difficulties and pressure. There may be plans formed against you, pushing you toward the cliff, toward the edge, but I have an assuring word for you.  

If you trust in Jesus, if you wait upon the Lord, if you will hear His message and not listen to the enemy’s voice, you will pass right through the storm in complete victory. You will pass right through the fire. You will pass through every pressure, everything that comes against you — in the name of Jesus.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you” (Isaiah 43:2, ESV).

God’s covenantal promises are as real and secure as any truth we can imagine. When God makes a promise to us, it is not only certain but irrevocable. And He loves making covenants with His children.

But God’s promises demand action on our part. He doesn’t make covenants with idle, double-minded people. He wants people who will trust Him, obey Him, engage with Him on a daily basis. God wants to speak with us, and He wants us to speak back. To listen, to ask questions, and to answer when He speaks. God isn’t passive, and He doesn’t want passive followers!

If we listen we can hear God talking, trying to engage us. Trying to get a message through and a response back. But so often we miss it. Either we are not hearing, or we don’t believe that God is really interested in talking with us.

When God speaks, He wants us to respond. To do something. To acknowledge His voice and speak back.

And He only speaks to people who are willing to listen.

Too often we spend our days in lifeless, passionless pursuits. We live day to day, aimlessly waiting for God to give us some direction, some guidance, some word of prophecy. We want to follow God, but we have no idea where He is leading us.

I see this every day—in people, in churches, in businesses, in ministries, in every area of life. So many long to hear God and to engage with Him in a covenantal relationship, but nothing ever happens. God’s voice never comes. His leading never becomes clear.

We serve a God of passion—a God of action. A God who longs for servants obsessed with obedience, preoccupied with discovering His will, completely enamored with the thought of living and dying in God’s holy presence!

That’s what God is looking for. And when He finds it, He always takes notice!

 “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13, NIV).

Nicky Cruz, internationally known evangelist and prolific author, turned to Jesus Christ from a life of violence and crime after meeting David Wilkerson in New York City in 1958. The story of his dramatic conversion was told first in The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson and then later in his own best-selling book Run, Baby, Run.