Paul Jehle - Intercede for Revival

I want to talk to you about interceding for revival. There is a rising wave of revival in New England. There are more prayer meetings everywhere, more believers who are hungry for revival. We are in a great flood of holy spirit but we need direction in our prayers. Intercession needs to acquire a strategic dimension. We can't just keep praying randomly and just ask the Lord to flood the culture. What we need is we need to take his plan and locate and direct it, and once we are channeled with his desires, then we can pray according to his will, his designs, for this culture, at this time for what he wants to do. And that is why we need direction to begin to understand what prayer is.

The Bible tells us that we can pray wrongly. We can pray for the wrong things, at the wrong time, in the name of Jesus. And that is why we need to learn to pray not using the name of Jesus, but praying in the name of Jesus, in the very nature of Jesus, in the will of Jesus, in the spirit of Jesus, and therefore we need direction from the word of God about what it means to intercede for revival.

The Bible tells us that when the holy spirit comes to sanctify us, there in the First Book of Thessalonians, you don't have to look for it, but First Thessalonians, Chapter 5 tells us the following “that true sanctification, true holiness, the true movement of the holy spirit involves your spirit, your soul and your body.

Revival is simply taking the body of Christ and bringing it to a greater measure of sanctification and this has to involve all three of these areas, not just one. There are many people and many believers who have caught up with the wind, have heard the sound of revival and have merely focused on the revival of the spirit and this brings greater zeal, greater enthusiasm, but by itself, by itself, it is just a renewal of the spirit will leave us merely mystical. And then we start talking about revelation, we spend hours praying in the prayer closet, but God's desire, God's design, when he revives our spirit is for us to move outward. It is not designed to stagnate us. It is not designed to simply stand there.

You and I need to realize that God renews your spirit for a purpose, for a strategy, for a specific design and it is for us to move outwards, not just to be revived simply to revive. You were born again for a purpose. You were saved for a destiny. God has a plan: you were born at this specific time for a purpose, for a reason. You were not born again by accident. You were born again by design.

We need more than a simple revival of the spirit, we need the revival of the soul, the mind, the will, the emotions, all those things need to be renewed, they need to be revived from the spirit to the soul. And for the following reason: in our present day, we need a revival in the renewing of the mind. We need to think like Jesus, think like the word of God. We need our thought patterns altered so that we can see the world as God sees the world. We need to see everything as God sees it because the soul is the container of the spirit, it is like taking water and pouring it into a cup. Then it becomes useful, it can be handled, it can be understood and it can be poured out. But it's spirit without soul it just spreads the water everywhere and it just slides off quickly and it's not that useful when we're going to start using it to focus the river of God and really have an impact.

Sanctification is more than just the spirit, it is also the soul, but it is more than the soul, it is also the body. You see, God is concerned with the internal and the external and therefore everything that has to do with your body is also ordained by God to be sanctified in the spirit, but externally to reveal, to appear, to emanate or project an uncertain sound that does not appear to others to be truly hallowed. Therefore the external is not able to testify to what is happening internally when it is a merely simplistic revival. The entire process of sanctification on God's part moves from the internal to the external. It involves your spirit, your soul, your mind, your intellect, the way you think, and it also involves your body and everything that comes out. You see, culture is religion manifested externally.

All culture is simply an atmosphere that is created in relationships of people, with each other, for example the economy is a way of people to relate to each other. Civil government is a way for people to relate too. Every aspect of society is simply an expression of the body, how it is used, and how it relates to others, which then collectively produces an atmosphere that becomes an expression of what is inside people.

At any time in history, in any area of the world you want, society is a reflection of the heart of God's people. Do you realize that God has put us here as stewards? So when we pray and we see something we don't like happening in the culture and we start interceding, then we start asking God to change things. But if we do not find ourselves praying according to the word of God, what is going to happen is that we are simply going to be disappointed in our prayers, because we are going to start asking God: change the legislature, change the state house, remove the humanists and socialism. But God is a God of order and He doesn't answer prayers that way. He answers them according to his word.

Well, then where does God go to answer that kind of prayer? Right here. Because the internal is a reflection of what is happening inside of us and if the external, the social conditions are going to change, the hearts of the people of God have to change and that is where the holy spirit works.

We ask God: change the culture. And what He does is start putting pressure on us and we say, 'God, I was asking to change the culture, not me. What I was asking is for them to change. Why are you putting so much pressure on me? Because God says 'if you want the culture to be sanctified you must first be sanctified'. And that's why God puts that pressure on us.

Now in Psalm 85 we have three areas, there we are illustrated three things in a biblical prayer issued by the psalmist. It is a biblical prayer for revival. It is an intercession in favor of revival. And we need the 3 areas that are mentioned here: the spirit, the soul and the body. We need the holy spirit to move over our personal spirit, we need Christ, the living and written word to renew our mind and we need God, the Father to bring his kingdom to the culture and it is in this way that we have to pray .

God does not give us the specific words of our prayers, but He does give us the principles that should govern our prayers. In Psalm 85 he says the following: Lord, you have been favorable, you were propitious to your land and you returned the captivity of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people and all their sins you forgave them. You have removed all your anger and turned away from the fierceness of your anger. Give us God your salvation, make your wrath cease upon us. Will you be mad at us forever? Will you prolong your anger from generation to generation? You will not give us life again, so that your people may rejoice in you.

We immediately notice certain things in this intercessory psalm. It is a cry to receive spiritual renewal. And that is the first aspect of revival. We need to intercede, pray for others, ask for deep repentance from sin so that God can then renew us. Repentance, that cleanses the spirit so that we can then come and be under the blood of Jesus, then be renewed, revived, from within, from the depths.

All revival begins with God. Revival does not start with us. We can't declare revival, we can't order revival, we can't just ask God to do it tonight for example. What we need is to listen to God. We need to repent and ask the Lord to make revival possible because we did not cause it, but it comes directly from Him.

God also tells us that the renewal of our spirit is a renewal of belonging Who really owns it. God owns you and God owns the earth. The Bible tells us in the first verse here that God released the captivity of Israel, his people, the land was then blessed as a result. It says the land belongs to the Lord, the land does not belong to the devil, every inch of this land belongs to God, every place the devil has, he has illegitimately taken simply because God's people have given it to him. Because the earth belongs to God and all the fullness of the earth. The place where you live, your apartment, your house, your room belong to God. You don't live there by accident, you live because God wants it that way. The very street where you live is not an accident.

In your mind you live there, simply because it is the right price, the right place for example where you need to go to work and what you need to do. But that is not God's perspective. God says 'I put you there because I have a plan for every inch of the earth and because I love the earth I put you in that specific place and to manifest my grace and to inhabit the earth.

This church is not here by accident. You are here by design. God brought you here, to this very street, specifically to this place in Roxbury, because the call of God in different aspects of what is happening on earth is going to be fulfilled in his providence because God has a global purpose for the earth.

You see, Roxbury where we are, originally one of 7 villages that were founded in the year 1630, here we are now, 400 years ago, and those 7 villages were founded on the same spiritual vision, from being a city set on a high mountain to being a beacon for the Gospel in order for the light of Christianity to defeat the kingdom of darkness. Now, that original vision hasn't changed in the mind of God, it's still here.

You see, this town here in Roxbury, this place, was originally founded by a church and when the people came together they started the first school within a church to train the next generation throughout the colony. new here European in the US, right here in Roxbury. You see, the vision that you have for education to equip the youth is from God. God has that desire to equip in your heart even before you came here to Roxbury. Glory to God.

You see, God has a special call, unique on each part of the globe. And it's also the first church that was founded here in Roxbury in 1630, it was one of 6 churches that had a vision to unite, be in unity, together and also founded the first university in the entire colony that started here in the US, the Harvard University came out of Roxbury. Glory to God. Hallelujah!

Not only were you going to be training the young, but you were also going to be training those who were going to be in the universities, and I want to remind you that the preamble to the founding of Harvard University your purpose, in his own words was to 'lay Jesus Christ and his word as the foundation for all knowledge'. That was the original pact from Harvard University.

The first church in Roxbury was also the first church to send its pastor as a missionary to the Native Americans, the American Indians. That pastor arrived in the year 1631, his name was John Elliot, and when he arrived in the year 1631, he trained his congregation for 14 years and after those 14 years, he felt a great hunger in his heart to convert the church. in a missionary movement and he was willing to go. And it became the first church that was bilingual. And do you know why? Because that pastor studied for 25 years the language of the American Indians and he published the first Bible in all of New England in the language of the American Indians; the entire New Testament for the year 1663.

I tell you this, we're not here to give you a history lesson, we're giving you a prophecy lesson. God has not changed. You are not a bilingual church by accident. From all eternity God is restoring his covenant, renewing his spirit, renewing his purpose here where God did before you got here.

Because you see, this 1630 church began to understand the Native American language of the Indians and John Elliot preached to the Indians in their own language and every time he preached he would stand on the platform and he said 'these platforms have been made by God', they were actually rocks his platforms and they came to be known as pulpit rocks because that was the way he preached. Roxbury's original name was actually spelled R O C K, because it had been founded on rocks. It is the word rock in English. Later it was shortened with x. In fact you are founded on rocks.

John Elliot loved the Indian language and also helped publish the first book of hymns. The Book of Psalms 1640 and it was also here that William Dose began his midnight march to warn the people that the enemy, the English, were coming towards Boston. And Paul Revere was in Charleston, another part of here from Boston. When he was there in Charleston, William Dose also started the first church in Roxbury because each church had a corps of deacons who also kept the ammunition and kept the rifles in the basement for the war against the English.

Now I want to tell you something you must realize the following that when we repent of our sins, we must also repent of iniquity. There is a difference between sin and iniquity. When I am sorry for my sins, I am sorry for the bad things I have done. But when I repent of my sin (singular) I want to die to myself, tie myself to the cross, embrace it and start walking with God.

Iniquity is the result of unrepentant sin that resides in the general culture. The iniquity of Boston, the sins of Boston, those corporate sins of Boston are the result of sin that the church has not repented of. If we don't repent of our own sins, then that unrepentant, unrepentant sin that God does is that he carries it to the third and fourth generation and becomes something cultural and becomes what the Bible calls iniquity, it is a collective, social manifestation of sin.

Because in fact when we repent, the repentance is deep and we are asking God 'help us to have it right now in our spirits so that, we say to the Lord, the unconfessed sin, that we refuse to confront does not turn into collective regret and then drag others down as well.

Slavery in America was the iniquity of unconfessed sin in the church. The church did not solve the problem and so the society suffered and many people suffered as a consequence. It was a spiritual issue because the church does not repent.

Therefore, because there is no repentance in the church, we have abortion in society for example and people collectively suffer. It is not the fault of the unsaved. Yes, they will have to give an account to God but we must recognize that the first step towards revival, the first place to intercede in prayer is for God to deal with us and ask God, we ask God to 'restore our vision of why we you put here Restore our vision for the earth. Restore us Lord, we say. But it does not end there, we go from the spiritual, from repentance, we go to the soul then.

In verse 7 ‘show us your mercy O God and show us your salvation. Verse 8, I will listen to what Jehovah will speak, God who will speak peace to his people and to his saints so that they do not return to his madness. Certainly his salvation is near so that glory may dwell on our earth. Mercy and truth met, he says. Justice and peace kissed.

You see, it is the design, the intention of God to bring that zeal of the spirit that unites the soul with the spirit. His soul is sinful. You were conceived in sin. For example, your mind, which is part of your soul, is actually at enmity against God. His will, which is part of his soul, is stubborn against God. And her emotions, which are part of her soul, are out of control. We laugh when God is crying. And we cry when God is enraged, angry. We were conceived in sins and do not naturally reflect our true image, since we were made in the image of God, because we are in sin. But when we repent and ask God, 'Lord, give us a new vision,' God then takes that river of his spirit and that river begins to flow and it is a flow with the soul.

The original Greek word for soul and the word for mind refer to a channel, they are the thought patterns that flow like water in a channel to the river of the spirit, but all our mental channels are flowing in different opposite directions. So God needs to adjust that channel of the mind, the body of Christ cannot take that natural mind and intercede and ask God to anoint that carnal mind. God does not anoint the flesh. God anoints that which operates in alignment with his spirit. So our intercessory prayer should be 'God show us why we are here. We repent, Lord, of all the things that our stubborn heart has produced out of neutrality, even when we did it unintentionally. Lord, we repent for the collective wickedness of society. Now we ask, Lord, change our minds. May justice and truth unite with mercy and peace.

When Jesus died he was man and God at the same time. God's law, God's truth, God's justice had to come together, those three things: justice, mercy, truth. Because God does not compromise his justice, but we needed mercy, we needed peace with God, we needed the power of the spirit, so God had a problem. The law of God and his mercy.

And the law said, you have to pay for your sin with death. But the mercy of God said, be free. And then what was the solution? That eternal bridge between the soul and the spirit, between the law of God and the mercy of God. That was the man of God, soul and spirit, the truth, Jesus Christ on the cross. He is the mercy of God also fulfilling the law of God. Jesus said, it is consummated, it is fully accomplished, then, he said, be free because justice has kissed peace in a sense too, there they kissed on the cross of Calvary. And that is why we can now think as God thinks. We can reason as God reasons. We can proclaim what God proclaims. We can change our way of thinking by his power.

And the Bible tells us, they will know when revival comes when they see God gathering the justice of his word the way he designed for society to work, the culture, the plans he had for his land and the power of God, the mercy of God. When those rivers come together then you can already say that the revival came because those streams come together.

Now, the union of these two things, soul and spirit, the spirit and the soul are expressed through the physical body, the results are then very clear, you see a vision, worldview, a vision of the Biblical world, unifies the head and the heart. When you have a merely humanistic point of view, what you do is rebel against God, the mind rebels against God when it is humanistic, that is why we have to intercede that each member of the body of Christ become an apprentice of what What does God say about all areas of life, because each area of life must be submitted to the word of God.

We have to ask God to give us more and more believers who want their minds renewed so that they can then be prepared to express the river, God's intention. And that is what constitutes interceding for revival.

Because the psalmist says 'let justice and peace kiss', and see what the result of this is.

Verse 10 and 11: ‘truth will spring from the earth and justice will look down from heaven. God will give what is good on earth and our earth will bear its fruit. Justice will go before him and his steps will put us on the way.

Christians need a new vision, they need a new mind, and they need an emphasis on the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is bigger than the church, the church gives rise to the Kingdom of God but the kingdom of Christ, over all the earth, says the word, will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

This last part that I just read of this psalm cries out that the heaven that looks over the earth rain down justice so that it rises on the earth, so that justice then, which looks down, can then fall and reign over the people of God whose steps are ordered by the justice of God.

When you are renewed in your spirit, when you are born again then you are filled with encouragement and joy that the fact that you go from earth to heaven. But when you get a vision of the Kingdom of God then your heart wishes that something from heaven would also descend on earth.

The word says that your kingdom come, that your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. That is what the soul is crying out to God: 'Oh Lord, we intercede, renew our vision, give us that new vision. Oh Lord, help us to sit at your feet, learn your word, study what it says about all areas. Change us Lord, we say. May your river touch your word in me. Straighten me up so that I can become a vehicle for the Kingdom of God, so that that kingdom descends from heaven to earth and that I can then see the general culture, the atmosphere, my relationships change so that people be blessed that the Kingdom of God has descended. Hallelujah! Glory to God. Glory to the Lord. amen. Amen. Go to Spanish Version