In this series of blogs entitled "Unbridled Revival," I have encouraged you to think back to when you first fell in love. Before you ever said anything to her, before you ever asked her out, as a matter of fact before anything went on between the two of you, you did something you need to imitate to help bring unbridled revival. YOU MEDITATED ON IT. The more you meditated on asking her out, the more desire you had. The more you meditated on it, the more joy you had. The more you thought about it, the more boldness you got to finally ask her out. You did the same thing when you wanted to hold her hand or kiss her. You actually pictured yourself doing the very thing that you had never done before. Every time you thought about it, desire was stirred.
Here's what the Bible says about meditation.
Joshua 1:8-This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Psalm 1:2-But his delight [is] in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Psa 1:3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Phil 2:5-Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
In Joshua chapter 1, God gave specific instructions to Joshua as they were about to conquer and inherit the promise land. God said to talk about the word and think about the word day and night. He said if you did that then you would make your way prosperous and have good success. David said the same think in Psalm 1. He said that if you think about the word of God day and night, you would be like a fruitful tree and prosper in everything you do. Paul encouraged the Phillipians to think like Jesus did. If you read the New Testament at all, you have got to believe that Jesus thought it the normal thing to reach the lost and heal the sick. Revival happened everywhere He went.
The secret to great success is thinking about it instead of thinking you're a loser all the time. What does a pimp or aprostitue think about? He/she thinks about what can they do to attract more business. What does a drug dealer do? He thinks about how he can get somebody else to try his product. What does a bar owner think about? He thinks about how he can attract new business. The same can be said for any business whether it is ethical or not. Thriving businesses gather themselves together into "Think Tanks" and try to come up with ideas about how to improve their business.
What have we Christians done? We spend more time meditating on how much somebody hurt us. We waste time thinking about how bad off the church is. We slap God in the face by thinking that people don't want to come to Jesus anymore. The list could go on and on and on. How much time do we think about souls being saved at our alters? How much time do we spend thinking about people being healed? How much time do we spend thinking about our prosperity? The answer is---very, very little. That is why we are not walking in His life-changing unbridled revival.
We spend our time meditating on blaming the pastor, worship team or the town we live in. We spend our time meditating on how rough conditions are. We spend our time meditating on how bad the politicians are. We spend our time meditating on how bad everything is.
Jesus would come into a town and reach the lost and heal the sick. Things would be going along pretty good. Then He would say that they needed to go into the next town. Why leave a good revival? Because the next town needed what He had. He never thought about failure. When He stood at the tomb of Lazarus, He said one of the most fascinating things I have ever read about Him. John 11:41-Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me. Say, what? Jesus hadn't said anything yet and He was thanking the Father in advance. Why? Because all He thought about was God answering His prayer to bring Lazarus back to life. He never doubted that He could do it because He followed the commands of Joshua and David as mentioned above.
Our success does not depend on the church we go to, the poor pastor we have or the goofy congregation we are forced to worship with. Our success depends on how much we meditate on God's Word, the Word of our Lover. John 3:16 tells us that God loves the whole world and that anybody who believes would be saved. 2 Peter 3:9 says that God is not willing that any should perish but that ALL should come to repentance. That means everybody from your mean relatives too those dumb politicians across the nation. ANYBODY that is a sinner is a candidate for salvation. There is no life that God can't turn around.
The challenge is to change our meditation. Begin picturing people coming to the alter at church. Begin picturing yourself leading someone to salvation. Picture your loved ones coming to Jesus. Picture the folks in Congress coming to Jesus. When we change our meditations to where we think more about the Word of God than we do the horrible conditions we live in----Life-Changing Unbridled Revival will come. Constant meditation on revival will stir desires and motivations deep inside you. You will begin to think about the endless possibilities that God can bring about instead of thinking about how bad things look like they are going.
Life-changing unbridled revival begins when we change our thought pattern and bring those thoughts into captivity of Jesus Christ. You've already brought defeat by thinking about it all the time. Let's change our thoughts until revival sweeps through this great country of ours.
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