MEMORY VERSE:

“Break up your fallow
ground, for it is time to
seek the LORD, till He
comes and rains righteousness
on you”
(Hosea 10:12, NKJV).

The revival we will be talking about in this study is for God’s people....those who by faith in Jesus Christ have received salvation and belong to Him. (People who do not belong to God cannot be “revived”; they first must be regenerated!) Since the days of Adam and Eve, God’s people have often chosen to resist His will and rebel. Because of His great love, God keeps calling them back to intimate fellowship with Him. God’s grace....the desire and power He gives us to return to Him....always accompanies His call to revival.

Day 1: Faith-Builder Story 1.Why did you decide to do this study? As you begin to seek God in a fresh way, what are some of your hopes? Your fears?

Read the following story of one self-made man’s realization. Then answer the questions that follow. I was a man who truly had everything I ever wanted....a beautiful family, lovely home, several successful business ventures, and respect in my community and church. Like the foolish rich man in the parable Jesus told, my “barns were full and overflowing” and I felt pretty good. I certainly didn’t see any need for “revival” in my life.

But God knew my true condition, and He loved me enough to do something about it. I attended an extended series of special revival services held at my church. Through the Bible teaching, God began to show me how blind and spiritually bankrupt I was. I was being confronted with truth from God’s Word, and the Holy Spirit was convicting me. I found this very uncomfortable. In fact, when I had to go on a business trip for three days in the middle of the crusade, I was relieved; I thought I was going to get away from the Lord! But wouldn’t you know, the Spirit of God went right along with me. Those were three miserable days of conviction.

The next Sunday morning the speaker shared the Bible story of Naaman, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian army. He was a wealthy leader who had it all together....except that he had leprosy. Naaman wanted to be healed, but he didn’t want to do it God’s way. So he approached it the way I would have: he loaded up six hundred shekels of gold and ten talents of silver, and went down to buy his way out of his problem. Right in the middle of this story, God’s Spirit said to me, “You’re just like Naaman! You’ve got spiritual leprosy, and you need to be healed. You can be restored, but you’re going to have to do it My way.”

I realized that I was proud, rebellious, ungrateful, and unyielded. I fell on my knees and cried out to God as best I knew how, asking what He wanted me to do. In my heart I heard Him say, “I want two things: submission and obedience.” Those were strange words to me, but I put myself at His mercy, confessed my sin, and repented.

God slowly showed me that I was trying to hang on to all the “things” I was accumulating instead of trusting Him to provide for us. He began to deal with me about my business and financial affairs, which resulted in a freeing, radical change of values for my family.

2. Identify some of the outer and inner factors that brought about spiritual change in this man’s life.

3. Have you ever experienced the kind of encounter with God that he described? What was the message you needed to hear?

We are hardly the first human beings to discover our need for personal revival. Listen to the ancient cry of the psalmist’s heart:

Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
Show us your steadfast love, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.
Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;
but let them not turn back to folly.
Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land. (Psalm 85:6–9)

5.What are some of the results of revival among God’s people?

Day 2: Truth Encounter

BREAKING GROUND

To begin our study let’s look at the Old Testament, where we clearly see God’s desire to restore His wayward people. Consider, for example, the prophet Hosea.

God sent Hosea to prophesy to the nation of Israel. Though they were God’s chosen people, the nation was in a sad state of spiritual and moral decline. For years they had enjoyed God’s blessings....material bounty, military strength, peaceful relations with neighboring nations....yet they still turned away from Him. They stopped viewing God as the source of their blessings and chose instead to credit themselves. They put off worshiping God. They ceased loving Him. They replaced Him with idols, worldly pursuits, and earthly wealth.

It was to these confused fellow countrymen that Hosea delivered repeated rebukes and appeals. If they did not return to the Lord, he warned, judgment would surely come. Here is the essence of Hosea’s message:

Sow for yourselves righteousness;
Reap in mercy;
Break up your fallow ground,
For it is time to seek the LORD,
Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.
You have plowed wickedness;
You have reaped iniquity.
You have eaten the fruit of lies,
Because you trusted in your own way,
In the multitude of your mighty men. (Hosea 10:12–13, NKJV)

7.What do you think it means to “break up your fallow ground”?

The condition of the Western church is remarkably similar to that of the nation of Israel. In many ways we too have forsaken God and attempted to replace Him with other gods (idols). If Hosea were preaching now, he would scarcely need to alter his words! He might tell God’s people today:

• Return to your former lifestyle of righteousness, to a time when you were close to God and obeyed His Word. 
• Accept God’s mercy and forgive those who have wronged you.
• Allow God to “plow up” the hardened ground of your hearts, especially in those areas where you have long neglected His will.
• Grieve over your sins.
• Ponder the consequences of sin that you are experiencing.
• Accept responsibility by admitting you have brought these consequences upon yourself.
• Make seeking God your highest pursuit.

Day 3: Truth Encounter

GOD’S LOVE DRAWS US

Why does God want to revive our hearts and restore us to a closer relationship with Him? One major reason is that He loves us! We need to beware of misunderstanding the heart and ways of God when we study His dealings with His people, especially in the Old Testament. Due to the numerous accounts of God’s judgment recorded there, we might get the impression that God was eager to punish or that He is harsh, demanding, and impatient. But really the opposite is true. Times of judgment usually came after years of pleading with His people to come back to Him.

Look again at the book of Hosea. God said:
When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
The more they were called,
the more they went away;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals
and burning offerings to idols.
Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;
I took them up by their arms,
but they did not know that I healed them.
I led them with cords of kindness,
with the bands of love,
and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on
their jaws,
and I bent down to them and fed them. (Hosea 11:1–4)

Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God,
for you have stumbled because of your iniquity
Take with you words
and return to the LORD;
say to him,
“Take away all iniquity;
accept what is good,
and we will pay with bulls
the vows of our lips.
Assyria shall not save us;
we will not ride on horses;
and we will say no more, ‘Our God’
to the work of our hands.
In you the orphan finds mercy.”
4I will heal their apostasy;
I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned from them. (Hosea 14:1–4)

After they “cleaned up their act.”
After He vented His anger on them.
When they were young, at the beginning of their existence.

Yes, at least for a while.
No. God always loved them, even when they needed discipline.

The passages from Hosea 11 and 14 provide “before,” “during,” and “after” snapshots of how and why God revives and renews His people. The constant in all three stages is His love. God loved them when they were newborns (“child” in Hosea 11:1 literally means infant); He loved them after they returned to Him from a season of rebellion; and He loved them throughout the whole process of correcting them.

It was His love for them, in fact, that caused them to want to return to Him. It wasn’t that they suddenly “felt” love for Him again, nor that they somehow remembered how wonderful it was to live with an awareness of God’s love. It was that God caused them to desire that love relationship again. He enabled His people to see not only how wrong they had been and why His discipline was necessary, but also that He would welcome their return because He had never ceased loving them.

Perhaps your own heart is hungering for intimacy with God....an intimacy that you haven’t enjoyed for a long time or perhaps have never known. That very desire is God-initiated. He wants you back! Why? Because He loves you and knows that you cannot experience all He has for you in your present condition.

11.Write a prayer thanking God for His faithful love and for His desire to restore His people when they have wandered away from Him.

Day 4: Truth Encounter

RETURNING TO OUR FIRST LOVE

The need for believers to return wholeheartedly to God....to be revived....is also addressed in the New Testament. The book of Revelation records the apostle John’s vision. In this vision, Jesus speaks to seven churches. The church at Ephesus had once been a vibrant group of believers, deeply in love with Jesus. They had maintained their doctrinal purity and their separation from evil practices. They had worked hard and persevered, and they had a zeal for service. Yet something was wrong. After commending their strengths, Jesus addressed a matter of grave concern to Him:

Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place....unless you repent. (Revelation 2:4–5, NKJV)

13.What three verbs do you note in Jesus’ command? What light does this shed on the process of revival?

Over the years, the Christians at Ephesus had somehow lost sight of the Savior. Their love for Him had lost its fervor. They had transferred their affection elsewhere, and this deviation threatened to cost them dearly.

God wants us to love Him first and foremost. When we find ourselves trusting in people instead of the Lord, this indicates that our heart’s focus has shifted from Him (Jeremiah 17:5). Love for people....friends, family members, or even ourselves....can compete with our love for Him (Matthew 10:37). Other substitutes for a God-centered love relationship may include money, pleasure, friends, work, ritual in worship, the teachings of respected leaders, or Bible knowledge without a relationship with Christ.

Revival does not begin when a struggling, wayward person decides to return to the Lord but rather when the loving heavenly Father, wanting His people to enjoy the safety and security of His love, calls him or her back to Himself. God is the initiator; the call to revival is a plea of love from the heart of God.

14. Have you transferred your love for God to some other place? What are some things that may be competing with your love for Him?

Day 5: Making It Personal

Revival is the sovereign work of God. He chooses when and to whom He sends it. It is also true, however, that there are things we can do to prepare for revival in our lives. Being prepared for what God has determined to do is a pattern we see throughout Scripture. For example, on the eve of their passage into the Promised Land, Joshua charged the children of Israel, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you” (Joshua 3:5). In the same way, we can prepare our hearts for spiritual renewal.

The following questions are designed to reveal specific areas of which to be aware as you prepare for personal (as well as corporate) revival. They are not meant to be guilt-producers, just a helpful tool. Answer each question as honestly as possible....not as it once was in your life or as others think of you, but based on what God reveals to be the current condition of your heart.

Read the Bible passages if time allows. Agree with God about each need He reveals. Confess each sin that He exposes. Praise Him for His awesome love and power to forgive. Don’t be in a hurry; give God time to speak and give yourself time to respond.

Preparing My Heart for Revival

1. Genuine Salvation (2 Corinthians 5:17)

a. Was there a time in my life when I genuinely repented of (was aware of and turned away from) my sin?
b. Was there a time in my life when I placed all my trust in Jesus Christ alone to save me?
c. Was there ever a time in my life when I completely surrendered to Jesus Christ as the Master and Lord of my life?

a. Do I love to read and meditate on the Word of God?
b. Are my personal devotions consistent and meaningful?
c. Do I apply God’s Word to my everyday life?

a. Am I quick to recognize and agree with God in confession when I have sinned?
b. Am I quick to admit to others when I am wrong?
c. Do I rejoice when others are praised and recognized and my accomplishments go unnoticed by people?

a. Do I consistently obey what I know God wants me to do?
b. Do I consistently obey the human authorities God has placed over my life?

a. Do I confess my sin by name?
b. Do I keep “short sin accounts” with God (confess and forsake as He convicts)?
c. Am I willing to give up all sin for God?

a. Do I consistently seek forgiveness from those I wrong or offend?
b. Is my conscience clear with every person? (Can I honestly say, “There is no one I have ever wronged or offended in any way and not gone back to that person and sought his forgiveness and made it right”?)

a. Does my schedule reveal that God is first in my life?
b. Does my checkbook reveal that God is first in my life?

a. Do I love what God loves and hate what God hates?
b. Do I value highly the things that please God (for example: giving, witnessing to lost souls, studying His Word, praying)? 
c. Are my affections and goals fixed on eternal values?

a. Am I willing to sacrifice whatever is necessary to see God move in my life and church (time, convenience, comfort, reputation, pleasure, and so on)?
b. Is my life characterized by genuine sacrifice for the cause of Christ?

a. Am I allowing Jesus to be Lord of every area of my life?
b. Am I allowing the Holy Spirit to “fill” (control) my life each day?
c. Is there consistent evidence of the “fruit of the Spirit” being produced in my life?

a. Am I as much in love with Jesus as I have ever been?
b. Am I devoted to Jesus, filled with His joy and peace, and making Him the continual object of my affection?

a. Am I more concerned with what God thinks about my life than with what others think?
b. Would I pray, read my Bible, give, and serve as much if nobody but God ever noticed?
c. Am I more concerned about pleasing God than I am about being accepted and appreciated by others?

a. Do I keep my mind free from books, magazines, or entertainment that could stimulate fantasizing or thoughts that are not morally pure?
b. Are my conversation and behavior pure and above reproach?

a. Do I seek to resolve conflicts in relationships as soon as possible?
b. Am I quick to forgive those who wrong or hurt me?

a. Do I have a burden for lost souls?
b. Do I consistently witness for Christ?

a. Am I faithful in praying for the needs of others?
b. Do I pray specifically, fervently, and faithfully for revival in my life, my church, and our nation?

Remember that all responses need to be respected and held in confidence. The point of meeting together is to learn from one another and to encourage each other to seek God more fully.

Opening It Up

1.Why have you chosen to participate in this study on seeking God and personal revival?

Talking It Over

2. Before beginning this study guide, what did you think “revival” was? How has your view of revival changed thus far?

3. If you read the passages in Going Deeper in the Word, what parts encouraged you? What, if any, questions did they raise?

4.What did you learn from the Faith-Builder story of the self-made man? What things do you tend to hold on to for security, even though they could be easily taken away?

5.The prophet Hosea was sent to the nation of Israel. They had turned away from God and replaced Him with other things. What are some ways that Christians today replace God with other things?

6. Read Hosea 10:12–13 aloud. Review the seven-point summary of Hosea’s message on page 6. If you’re willing, explain to the group how one point of the sermon applies to you personally.

7.Tell the group about someone you know or have heard about who has unselfishly loved another person, even though that person was not worthy of it. How does this real-life example help you understand God’s love for His wayward children?

8.What does the idea that God initiates revival in His people tell you about God? What does it tell you about yourself?

9.“Preparing My Heart for Revival” (Day 5) was a spiritual diagnostic tool provided to help assess your own need for personal revival. If you feel comfortable, share a specific way that God used this exercise to bring conviction or to reveal an area of need in your life.

Praying for Revival

There are countless joys and rewards of walking closely with and seeking God. Below are eight specific benefits or results of personal revival. Have one person or several people read these aloud.

1. Revival restores first love. In times of revival, the love we once had for God is rekindled.
2. Revival rebuilds a desire for God’s Word, prayer, praise, and obedience. As we experience greater intimacy with God, those spiritual disciplines and activities that we once dreaded become a delight.
3. Revival resolves conflicts. God’s grace enables us to humble ourselves, admit our sinful attitudes, forgive those who have hurt us, and seek the forgiveness of those we have offended. Reconciliation....with God and others....is a mark of true revival.
4. Revival repairs broken marriages. Do you know any “hopeless” family situations, such as couples on the brink of divorce or perhaps deeply embittered toward one another yet staying together for the sake of appearance? When real revival comes, no situation is hopeless.
5. Revival removes bitterness, fear, and worry. “We have seen more take place in her life in four days than we have in four years of counseling.” This is how a father and mother described the drastic change in their formerly rebellious and immoral teenage daughter. As often happens in revival, this young woman came under deep conviction over feelings of bitterness that she held toward someone. The reasons for her rebellious behavior became obvious as she began honestly to admit her hurts and accept responsibility for her wrong responses and actions. Anger and bitterness soon lost their grip, and she was set free.
6. Revival refreshes the spirit. Do you live with nearly constant pressure and anxiety? Have you discovered that the things you tend to turn to for relief neither satisfy you nor remove the stress? According to Acts 3:20, “times of refreshing” come from “the presence of the Lord.” What an apt description of revival! God invites us to come to His presence. There....and only there....will we find genuine rest.
7. Revival renews the mind. A revived life is marked by God-centered thinking. We begin to view things from His perspective rather than from our own limited and natural vantage point.
8. Revival reforms the life. Someone has described revival as a “complete takeover” in which God is returned to His rightful place as Lord of our lives. Old habits are put away, and new ones are established. Resentment and despair are buried and replaced with contentment and hope. Forgiveness flows freely.

Break into groups of no more than four or five individuals and take time to pray for each other in one or more of these areas:

• PRAY that Jesus Christ will become the first love in each heart.
• PRAY that you will have an increased desire to read and obey God’s Word and to worship Him.
• PRAY that any outstanding conflicts would be resolved.
• PRAY that any family conflicts represented in your group will be reconciled.
• PRAY that you would be set free from any bitterness, anger, and worry, and that each life would be characterized by love, forgiveness, and God-centered trust.
• PRAY that each one will cultivate a habit of turning to God first when faced with any kind of trial.
• PRAY that God will renew your minds.
• PRAY that each member of your group would experience true revival as you “Seek Him” together in the days ahead.