Paul Jehle - Psalms 85

Search with me if you can psalm 85, it is a psalm that was written as an intercessory prayer and specifically intercession to receive revival. In the Bible we find a pattern to follow to pray for revival. God gives us a pattern, a blueprint for how to pray.

How many agree that there is a rising tide of revival here in this state? In New England, imagine, and in Boston. The wave is rising, the tide is rising but we must be responsible to be able to pray and understand God's order and how God brings revival. And that's critical because the Bible tells us that we can pray wrongly. We can pray for the wrong things, or we can pray for the wrong reasons. We can pray at the wrong time, in the wrong way.

God wants us to pray according to his will, according to his word, that we pray with him. You see, the definition of prayer that many times is understood by believers, goes like this more or less: 'it is our responsibility to pray in order to get God to do something. And maybe God doesn't want to do it, but when we pray and use the name of Jesus, God has to. This is how we understand it many times, we believe that it is so. So when we pray, if we pray using the name of Jesus and we twist his arm, then we believe that we are going to force God to do something in our time, our schedule.

But that is not true prayer. The real meaning and purpose of prayer is to ask God to do a job first in me so that I can decrease and decrease and He can increase and increase and that I can then align myself with God's time. I report then for duty and I do not use the name of Jesus, but I would be inside, in the name of Jesus, in his nature, in his will. Prayer changes us first, so that God can move through us and change everything else.

We need revival because we first need revival and that is the main focus of prayer. When Psalm 85 begins to outline what prayer for revival is, we need to see it in its entirety, in its full perspective. Again the Bible tells us in the New Testament that every believer is being progressively sanctified. That means that from the moment you are born of us, when you meet Jesus, from the moment you meet Jesus you begin to be changed into the image of Christ, every day, every hour, every week. You are supposed to be the same today as you were yesterday or last year. If you are sanctified it means that every day you must become more and more like Jesus. But God tells us that the way for us to become like Jesus is for our spirit to be sanctified, for that deep part of our heart and also our soul to be renewed. Spirit, soul and body are also changed. In fact, in the Bible there are three times that are used to refer to salvation.

When I am born again my spirit is saved, my spirit is regenerated, my spirit comes to be indwelled by the power of God. My soul then, my mind is being saved, that is to say regenerated, it is being renewed. That is, it is the present progressive, continuous change. And when the Bible says that I am being changed into a new creature, the tense is that I am being changed daily. In fact, then your soul is being progressively changed. And then there will come a day when the trumpet sounds, that my body will be (future) changed from corruption to incorruption. So we recognize that sanctification is a triple process, of three phases.

We need to understand this when we pray for revival to come, because we need to focus on the fact that true revival involves all three of these areas: spirit, soul, and body. It begins in the spirit, enters the soul, and then leaves us to where we live.

When we define the word culture, the culture of something, anything, is the atmosphere that is created as a result of relationships between human beings. Each culture is above all the religion expressed abroad, externalized, be it Christianity or any other religion. The dominant religion in any society will be reflected in the culture of that society. There is no area of life that is truly neutral, there is no such thing, no law is neutral. Every law in every area of life expresses, like it or not, some kind of premise or religious principle. So what needs to happen if the culture is to change, then the philosophy, the dominant religion of that culture has to change, or be changed. And that means that the people of God are then the first to have to change, because the culture merely reflects the temperature of the church.

Throughout church history we have seen movements that have emphasized one of these 3 areas, spirit, soul, body. Some, for example, have emphasized the external, the exterior, and believe, for example, that if we change the culture, the exterior, then we will change the heart, the interior. So then what we do is clean certain areas socially hoping that in this way, the heart will then experience changes. But if we only focus on the external, then we miss the main thing about the phenomenon of a revival. Because the Bible tells us that one is changed from the inside out.

The word says that we are not supposed to be conformed from the outside in, we are supposed to be transformed from the inside out. Now there are also others, and other movements that have only focused on the soul, for example, the intellect, the mind that is part of the soul, and so what they want is an intellectual revolution. That is, if we only change education, if we change, say, only what people are taught and focus only on that aspect of the soul that is the mind, then what we will have as a result is an intellectual revival because our main problem it is then what people understand, know, their mind. So if we teach enough about drugs for example, and we teach enough about sexual promiscuity, then we think the more people know, the more they can control themselves.

We have decades that show us that this system does not work, just as we have centuries that show us that the so-called Gospel, the social Gospel, does not work either. Now there have been movements of Christians who want to see revival and so they focus let's say on the spiritual only and the goal is to see the spirit experience revival. Amen for that.

But truly the goal then becomes to have mere spiritual experiences. And I once asked someone, what does revival mean to you?, and that person answered me 'more church meetings, more time at the altar', or as a person once said to me 'time on the folders, on the carpet', more time, according to him, before God. And sure, we need more time before God, but that's not the whole of a true revival. Christians who have focused merely on the spiritual in order to have an experience have discovered that this river that God begins to flow does not touch the soul nor should it touch the culture. So it becomes a kind of superficial revival phenomenon. Because, you see, God's goal is for revival to take place in the 3 dimensions, spirit, soul, and body, and it has to be in his way, his order, and we need to obtain a vision, a design for our intercession so that we can start praying for the 3, that they arise according to God's design and order. We have to realize that the revivals that have occurred in the history of America manifest these truths that I am referring to.

For example, in the second great revival that began in the year 1800 here in the United States and reached its climax in the year 1806, two hundred years ago, it began with the phenomenon of revival touching the hearts of the people. . The worldview, the vision of the world, the perspective in the minds of believers began to change, to shift, and they began to believe that the purpose of revival was to revive the church but not to touch society. And it was written on behalf of revivalist preachers like Finney, for example, and also as with Moody later, it is said that they cried out and pleaded with the church 'don't let, they said, let revival stay only on the walls of the church, let's go beyond the church, these men said, let's go to the body, let's go to the soul of society', but the church as a whole did not listen to these great men because what happened was that kind of superficial phenomenon of revival began to be so nurtured in the bosom of the church that the monuments to the second great revival to which I have just referred, all that was left of that were large camp meetings and many little summer houses that were built in different rural parts of the country. . People went to those rural places to experience the presence of God, the same God, the same river of revival, but the mind was not touched, and then what happened was that that river of revival just began to go inward, to flow into. And there were even brigades in the civil war that were called 'revival meeting children' because they were born in those places where people went to vacation. These were the individuals that were born out of wedlock, listen to this, during that time of revival. While the parents were going to the services of these camps and they were under the power of God, they were out there in the woods and the mountains having a good time and what happened then was that we sold the next two generations after that revival into slavery because our concept revival was just selfish. And that we cannot afford to repeat it again.

The church needs a new vision for revival so that on that day, when it comes, the US Congress, for example, in the 1850s, will turn to the church and speak to the church and told him 'you have not confronted the phenomenon of slavery. You are not preaching against slavery. You as a church have not disciplined slave owners. You have not called this phenomenon 'sin', and because the church was not willing for this revival to touch the culture, the society, what could the civil government do when the church fails? Because they recognized that this nation was divided within the church itself before it was divided in society as well.

What the church does is a model for society. We must repent and say 'never again', not in our time. We let the river flow into every area of life, we have to allow it to enter all areas of society. You and I have to say 'Lord God, revive my spirit, renew my soul and change my body, change my mind, how I live, and how I work and may your word, Lord, guide every part of how I see all things. areas of life'. It starts with regret.

Here we have in Psalm 85 'Lord, you were kind to your land and you returned the captivity of Israel, you forgave the iniquity of your people and all their sins you covered, you suppressed all your anger and you turned away from the burning of your anger Restore us, O God, from our salvation and have your wrath upon us cease. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger from generation to generation? Will you not bring us back to life so that your people may rejoice in you? (Psalm 85)

We see here in this part that revival begins with God, God moving in our heart and spirit, bringing us to a repentance, that we repent of our sins, repenting of our iniquity which is in the culture itself, as a consequence of the lack of repentance of sin. Iniquity is the collective expression of unrepentant, unrepentant sin; the sin that the church refuses to acknowledge, then becomes the slavery of iniquity of society out there. We need to understand, brothers, that it is very important that we repent because God begins a revival in the hearts of the people. What one wants to change in the culture has to start with a personal change, I have to change.

When the Church of Jesus Christ came together because the Massachusetts Supreme Court gave its ruling, its ruling on gay marriage, there was great concern in the church that the Massachusetts Supreme Court was no longer following normal rules of law. His opinions were already becoming laws. The Massachusetts constitution clearly states that every decision of the Supreme Court is an opinion. No court has the right to write law or make law, that is reserved for legislatures.

The word opinion is a legal term and means an opinion, an opinion only in that specific case to which it refers. So when the Christians began to understand, what is happening? And so we got into prayer, and we began to pray, 'Lord, Jesus, change the Supreme Court, change the judges, let them start ruling according to the law.' And you know what God does in that case? He begins to put pressure on the church because the church for 100 years has not liked the law.

We think that God has freed us from the law, we have said that the law is our enemy, grace is our friend. But the Bible tells us that we were delivered from sin, not from the law. The law is holy, the law is just, the law is just, the law speaks and declares the truth. What the law does is expose what is in the heart of the believer. The law does not save you, but what the law does is convince you that you need salvation. And we have, we need the law to convince us of sin. Why in our culture are there so many young people, and so many adults who are not afraid of God, there is no fear of the consequences? And the reason is that Christians in the church no longer fear God and consequences. We need revival first in our hearts instead of pointing fingers at people, we recognize that the culture has to be changed but it will only change as the body of Christ is first transformed. And that is why God says that He will change the hearts of God's people and says here that He will restore us to our original destiny. Restore us, Lord.

Here it says in this section, 'I'm going to return the captivity of Israel, Jacob, and bring them back to their land,' because God has a covenant and God has a purpose for every inch of this land. land. We need to be brought back to our spirits to this central fact: God is sovereign and owns the earth. The devil does not own the land, the devil does not own your neighborhood. The devil does not own your street, nor does he own the land. God owns the earth and God owns the fullness of the earth. That literally means everything that comes out of the ground, all technology. God is the owner, He is the one who causes it, makes it possible to advance his kingdom. The people who invent technology, perhaps they don't know or recognize it, they don't know who the owner is, the Lord, but that doesn't change reality. God is still sovereign.

You and I must reach a destination because we were saved with a purpose, we were born again for a time like this. You do not live in your neighborhood by accident, the apartment in which you live, the house where you are, the street where you are, the very name of that street is by design, God's design, by purpose because God is the owner. of everything.

And then you begin to recognize, realize and ask, Lord, why am I here? Take me out of that captivity, you tell him, in my spirit, so that I know why I am in this place, why you saved me. And then we immediately thought 'well, I am saved to simply go to heaven and glory to God that, of course, we are going to heaven, and the first awareness we make is, well, I want to go from earth to heaven. That is our ultimate destination, but it is not the primary purpose for which we were born again. If that was the main purpose of God, since a person comes forward to be born again, immediately what he would do is that he would vanish, they would be taken to heaven. Where did they go? They were saved and God's purpose would simply be to send them to heaven. So the moment they're saved, they just disappear. But that's not how we know.

When you got saved it was just a start. Now, you get a vision of why you were saved: and it's to make a mark, to have an impact here before you go to heaven. This very place where this church is located, it's called Roxbury, was founded in the year 1630. It was founded by Christians who walked three miles from Boston where they were and came to this thin neck of the earth here at that time. This strategic place that is now called Roxbury, one could not enter the city of Boston unless one passed through this space that is now called Roxbury. It was the neck of the city of Boston, which in 1630 in a sense allowed Boston to turn its head, turn it around, it was a tremendously strategic place. The Christians came together and made a pact to follow God in all his ways and to fulfill his callings, his purposes.

And I believe, brothers, that none of God's gifts and calls change throughout history because He is the owner of the earth and what happens providentially on the earth, happens so that the God's purposes are accomplished on earth. And when the enemy ratifies, confirms a pact, the people of God can annul it, destroy it and erase it. I have already understood that the devil's pact is a false version of what God intends. The devil does not create anything, the devil does not have sovereign powers, he is bound. He is simply the tools that God uses.

When I was in Guatemala, in Nicaragua, we were in places where the enemy had established a pact. When we examined the covenant we could hardly see in that false covenant the original intention of God. In the case of you as a church, let's see what Roxbury has become: the center of crime, the center of darkness, that demonic neck that in a sense rules the intellect of Boston, because you understand, this church, it is not Now that it's here, but the first church founded in Roxbury was one of 6 churches that Harvard University founded, because that original church recognized that they needed to raise up people with a vision for the Kingdom of God. The preamble to Harvard University declared that all knowledge, all creation, all things must rest on the foundation of Jesus Christ; the word of God because they did not know this, they were the neck that was turning its head. The city of Roxbury was a spiritual fervor that brought intellect to life symbolically throughout the city of Boston.

Did you know that the first church in Roxbury published the first hymn book, the first hymnal, in the year 1640? He started the first school within the church to train young people so that they would not stray from the God of their fathers. And it was also the first church to become bilingual, and that of course is a mere coincidence. No, on the contrary, in this we see a divine purpose.

The pastor of that early church, John Elliot, became the first apostle missionary to the American Indians. He learned to speak the indigenous language and translated the entire Bible into the indigenous language as early as 1663 without a computer, imagine. The first Bible to be published in this colony came from the Roxbury church.

God's destiny has not changed, brothers, and you are not clear, the only church in Roxbury, but God has a destiny, he has a purpose, because you know, these purposes in our spirits. You are not here by accident. You do not come to this church by accident, you are here by design, God has something with you, in you, through you.

Therefore, your educational programs that you have here to train working-class or lower-class youth, to give them a purpose, a destiny, to let them know that the lies they have heard from birth are lies. and that's it. This is more than just a Band-Aid for a problem, you are following in the footsteps of God's original plan, which is far greater than any of you.

No church can do it all, but I believe, brethren, that what God is doing here is once again going to be effected prophetically, the neck that gives direction to the city of Boston. You and I need to recognize that by repenting of our sins and for the iniquity that is part of carelessness, of repentance, when there is no repentance it becomes iniquity, we have to repent of both so we ask God: Lord, unify these three aspects; the spirit, the mind and the soul, and we can scream here, we can be filled with spiritual fervor, but the spirit must touch the soul, touch the mind, we have to start thinking in a different way. Our will, which is also part of the soul, also needs to be changed. Sin has covered the mind.

The Bible tells us in verse 7, here "Show us, O Lord, your mercy and give us your salvation." I will listen to what Jehovah, God, will speak, for Jehovah will speak peace to his people and to his saints; and to his saints that they do not return to madness. Surely near is salvation to those who fear it. Mercy and truth met, justice and peace kissed. We will surely know that the revival has arrived and in fact I believe that the revival has already arrived, it has begun but we will know for sure by the mark of the revival, when we see people excited and passionate with the idea of a new way of thinking and as passionate about the way of thinking, as about the way of living.

For example, if I told you, we are going to have a healing service and come because the power of God is going to move and that everyone who has a disease is going to be healed by the power of God , and anyone who is oppressed by the devil, those demons are going to flee in the name of Jesus. I am sure that the people would come, they would be hungry because it is a revival of the spirit.

Now, if I were to say, for example, I call you all for a 6-hour seminar on how to think biblically; bring your notebooks, a very thick one, bring your pens, 3 different colored pens, sit down and we will discover together what God is saying in his word about all areas of life. What is God saying about civil government, or what about the economy? What does it say about how to train your children? What does God say about music? What does God say about the arts, or literature, and science or math? I'm sure as many people would come as for the former. Amen.

No, we say, that's too hard. The spirit, yes definitely; but the soul, no.... don't make me work. I want God to do everything. Oh, just pastor, lay hands on me. Take out that old mind and invent a new mind for my brain. But God says 'I do that with your heart, but not with your mind'. Your mind has to be renewed, because you see, that mercy that is in your spirit: Thank you Lord for forgiving me. Thanks for saving me. That is mercy. Oh yes, now I have peace with God. Thank you for your peace, Lord.

But God says, that here in this prayer for revival that mercy and truth are going to meet, because in the soul we need there in the mind, the emotions, the truth of God, the truth of his word. The word of God is true in every area on which it addresses and speaks to all areas of life. Therefore we have to tell the Lord 'God, I want to be the place where these two rivers, truth and spirit, meet, the river of the spirit, of mercy, of peace, but also the river of truth, the river of justice in things that never change, God's point of view. Oh Lord, make me zealous for your truth in the same way that I am zealous to experience your grace, your spiritual move.

It is not that God is bothered by the hunger that you have for his presence, but that hunger, that spirit part must kiss and meet his truth. That was what happened on the cross of Calvary when Jesus, the perfect God, united the abyss and made it possible for those two rivers to meet: justice and grace. On the one hand, the justice of God that declared that no one could comply with the law unless they did it perfectly. And if one sinned, he immediately had to die. But the mercy of God dictated 'no, let there be liberation, freedom for the sinner', but his law could not be revoked, it could not be eliminated. So Jesus didn't come to revoke the law, so what could God do?

One man, fully God, walked this earth perfectly, without sin, therefore he fulfilled God's demand for justice. And that same man said 'I will die as the wages of sin on the cross,' he said. Justice and peace kissed each other and now forever those two rivers can meet: truth and forgiveness, justice and mercy.

We must pray, brethren, oh Lord, let your church be the place where those two rivers meet. May we hunger for your word, whatever it says. And then, Lord, change me, temper me so that when I walk with that truth, that same mercy emanates from me that you once gave me when I was a rebel.

How many agree that we need those two rivers? Hallelujah! We can't just stick with the one we want and just start giving bibles to people's heads, or what's wrong with you? Rebel! This is what the Bible says. Look at the terrible way you're living, you don't even come close to what it says here. That's true, but you weren't a follower of that word either.

We need both rivers, brothers. We also can't be the individual who just tells people, 'Oh, I love you. I don't care what you do. That we definitely know doesn't work with kids. Oh son, I love you. I know what you just did, you ruined your room, you hit your sister, you hit your sister over the head with the toy, but we love you son, and because we love you, there will be no consequences for your bad behavior. Because, son, we tolerate all things. It's okay, because we are sensitive people and we don't want to hurt you in your mind or how you see yourself in your self-esteem. So, it's okay, son, don't worry. Of course not.

We need both rivers at home, we need both rivers at home. Son, don't you dare do that ever. But son, even if you do, my love won't change. And because my love will not change, there are consequences to your bad behavior, with a smile we tell them. God bless you, but go into your room right now, so that when I calm down I'll deal with you biblically. Amen.

When these two rivers meet, there is an explosion on earth, in culture, in the atmosphere. Something is produced when those parts of God that coexist mutually: law, grace. Grace is the ability of God assigned to us so that we can keep and keep the law, we need both. When those two things come together then we can see what happens.

Come, brothers, in this chapter the Bible tells us that God's goal is for his glory to fill the whole earth. The word glory means to wait. The glory of God is heavy and its current meaning is simply this: if the glory of God comes into your life, God's ideas are going to carry far more weight than anything else. No other idea has the weight of God's ideas, God's ideas simply blow on the husk of wheat.

We need the glory of God to enter the church and that divine glory is not only his presence that attracts us, but when we arrive here it is God's ideas that should be weighed more than any other idea. So when the wind blows and a stir comes, only the ideas of God remain. Amen.

Let's finally look at the final three verses of this text. This is what is going to happen: truth will spring from the earth and justice will look down from the heavens. Jehovah will also give good and our land will give its fruit. Justice will go before him and his steps will put us on the way.

Come, brothers, God is telling us, when we intercede for revival we will be asking God, we will not be giving an order to God, but we are saying to the Lord 'revive our spirit, make us sensitive to repentance '. Let's not start targeting people: oh, the culture is messed up, it's a mess because of those bad people or those over there, or the Supreme Court or the Legislature. No, God, the problem is me, it's my heart that needs to change first. Lord, before the culture changes, change me first. Do a deeper work in my life, and then we begin to intercede. Lord, God, make my life the place, the fortress, the fort, or rather the meeting place of two rivers. Build a mill where your word can be finely ground and sifted, so that I decrease so that your Lord may increase. The ultimate goal of all this, the result of that process, the effect will be on the culture out there.

The Kingdom of God does not enter through politics, if it were so then the kingdom would enter from the outside in. But when the Kingdom of God enters, politics changes as an effect, as a result of the entrance of the Kingdom of God. We do not get involved in the community so that the kingdom can then enter, but we get involved in the community as a result of the entrance and the opening of the Kingdom of God, because God is the victorious one and He is the one who reigns over all.

The Scripture says that then justice will look down from heaven. Justice means everything that is right. Everything in heaven is fair. There is nothing unfair in heaven. And here is the goal: God says 'the goal of all revival is for heaven to penetrate and fall on the earth.' Before we go to heaven, the Kingdom of God, bigger than any church, sprouts from the earth. Oh, may the Kingdom of God with all its aspects spring forth from this land, and from this land also in Roxbury, for it has sprung up because we have been interceding, we are putting our shoulders, enduring the way that God.....and you will make it happen as you want. If you want the kingdom to come, it will begin first in your heart. It is God moving within us.

I close with this. The church I am in is actually spiritually related to this church. John Elliot planted 15 Indian prayer villages here in Massachusetts, and so many thousands came to know the Lord that he found himself in need of help. So he trained two disciples, and their names were Thomas Tupper and Richard Borne, and these two men worked with John Elliot, learned the Indian language, and were sent to Cape Cod, where we are, and began preaching there, and came to a indigenous tribe that was committing human sacrifices. A white person was being at the time, was being tied to a stick and ready to be sacrificed. Richard Borne, this disciple of John Elliot, came and found this scene and stopped and said to those Indians 'Stop, in the name of Jesus. They looked at him and said 'get out of here'. And he said 'in the name of Jesus, stop that act. And they continued. Then he looked up, into a completely clear sky, and said, 'Lord, God, King of heaven and earth, I call upon you this day. intervene on this occasion. Stop this act.', He said this with a completely clear sky and suddenly a bolt of lightning came out of the sky, hit the rock, split it into several pieces. The whole tribe was saved that day and after they were saved they had their own pastor, an Indian pastor, discipled by that man Richard Borne, and that Indian pastor passed the inheritance from one person to another for 150 years, the Indians were in revival . And in 1880 they came to the little town of Cedarville, where we are, and they found some fishermen there who had turned away from God and they preached the Gospel to those white people out there and there was a revival there in 1880 that lasted for 25 years. and the result of that revival was the birth of the church that I currently pastor. Hallelujah!

So as you can see, now actually, all these centuries later here we are relating. And do you know why? Because his kingdom is coming progressively and we are going to see more of us, one another, not only our two churches, but all the churches because God is bringing down his kingdom.

Therefore, Lord Jesus, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Hallelujah! Glory to God. Amen. Go to Spanish Version