REVIVAL

05/06/07 Bro. Lee Dotson

Nehemiah 9:1-3, "Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them. And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the LORD their God

The first step that we all must take before a revival of the presence of God in our hearts can take place is that we have to learn to humble ourselves, and confess our sins in true repentance. This is more than just a confession of guilt and sorrow at being caught; it is a heartfelt sorrow for having failed in the first place, coupled with a decision and a determination to never fail again by God’s help and grace.

Before we will ever experience the revival, we must call the solemn assembly, with sackcloth of humiliation before God, humbling ourselves in His sight. Then we must "heap ashes" upon our heads, ashes of the fires of repentance; ashes of the sin that has been burned away; and ashes of our self centered and rebellious attitudes.

That’s the kind of revival we need right now; one that will cut us asunder from the world of sin and the things of this life that have us so entangled that we serve them instead of God.

This was no shallow repentance. The process of separation was very costly to many of them. Some of the Jews had married wives of the Gentiles, strangers to the commonwealth of Israel, in direct disobedience to God’s Law. Every one of them was convicted in their heart for their failures when they heard the Law they began to separate themselves from these ungodly marriages. They considered this act of separation as the greatest proof of the truth of their repentance.

Separation from the sin of the old life in the world is one of the primary signs of true repentance..

If you come to God at an altar of prayer, wherever that altar may be, seeking God’s forgiveness and repentance for sin, and then get up and go back to doing what you were before without experiencing a change in your heart and life, then there hasn’t been a true repentance at all. Repentance means changing what you think, how you think, what you do and where you will go, so that your life will be an example of obedience to the Word of God and the Law of God. Your whole life will reflect the change.

Pray and repent seeking revival.