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The Movement We So Desperately Need · First15 Devotional

• 0:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: For our final day of this week, we're going to ask God to awaken the hearts of our nation and our culture.
• 0:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: The need for a move of God has become more obvious than ever yet he often moves in response to the faithful prayers of his people.
• 0:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let us be those people today and ask for the great awakening our world so desperately needs.
• 0:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our Scripture for today is second Chronicles 7 verse 14, Scripture says, If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've often heard people pray for God to bring revival to our nation.
• 1:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yet rarely have I heard prayers for a great awakening.
• 1:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: But throughout its history, the Western world has actually seen four great awakenings.
• 1:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, what's the difference you may ask?
• 1:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Revivals change people and churches.
• 1:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: The first great awakening happened in 1734 under the teaching of pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards in the British Evangelist George Whitefield.
• 2:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Before it began, only 5% of colonial Americans identified with a Christian church.
• 2:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: At its height, 80% were active followers of Jesus.
• 2:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: The next great awakening was in 1792 and was sparked by a prayer movement led by a Baptist pastor named Isaac Bakus.
• 2:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: This movement led to more than a thousand large gatherings called camp meetings held across the country.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Churches doubled in tripled in membership and William Carey began what we now consider
• 2:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: The third great awakening was in 1858, resulting from a businessman's prayer meeting movement that began the previous year in New York.
• 3:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Out of a national population of 30 million people, more than a million came to Christ in a single year.
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And at one point, 50,000 were turning to Jesus for salvation every week.
• 3:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: This revival even continued into the civil war when more than 100,000 soldiers came to Christ.
• 3:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the fourth great awakening began in Wales in 1904.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: This awakening impacted every sphere of culture and industry.
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Police formed barbershop quartets to sing in churches because there was no one to arrest.
• 3:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Saloons went bankrupt, and this awakening spread to the US, for example, out of 50,000 residents in Atlantic City, New Jersey, only 50 were unconverted.
• 4:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: 200 stores in Portland, Oregon closed every day, so people could attend prayer meetings.
• 4:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I share all of this because now, today,
• 4:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: More Muslims have come to Christ in the last 15 years than in the previous 15 centuries.
• 4:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: China's underground church is exploding in growth.
• 4:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Churches are growing exponentially in Cuba in across Latin and South America.
• 4:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: And Sub-Saharan Africa is witnessing a remarkable advance of the gospel.
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: What we see this awakening happen in America is an awakening of this magnitude even possible today.
• 4:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: We believe it is, and we are praying that first 15 can be one such catalyst in the movement we so desperately need.
• 5:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: So today, would you join us in this prayer?
• 5:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: God's promise is clear in our scripture for today.
• 5:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: We must humble ourselves in meeting we need the transforming movement of God's Spirit.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then we must pray passionately and collectively.
• 5:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: God says we must seek His face, which in Hebrew means to run hard after personal intimacy with the Lord.
• 5:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then when we do, we must turn from our wicked ways as His Spirit reveals them to us.
• 5:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: If we will, our Father promises to hear us forgive us and heal our land.
• 6:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: As we begin, meditate on God's gracious desire to heal our land.
• 6:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Psalm 33, 12 says,
• 6:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: And next, pray for the Lord to bring the fifth great awakening to our land.
• 7:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ask that God would move powerfully in our nation and our world.
• 7:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Matthew seven seven says, ask and it will be given to you.
• 7:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Seek and you will find, knock and it will be open to you.
• 7:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: The last.
• 8:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ask God to show you how you can participate in his plan for renewal.
• 8:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: First Peter 410 says, As each has received a gift, Use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.
• 8:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: James 4-8 promises,
• 9:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: drawn near to God, and he will draw near to you.
• 9:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: So let's close this week with a practical way to accept his invitation.
• 9:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Rodney Smith was an evangelist in the U.S. and Great Britain for seven decades.
• 9:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was once asked how revival begins.
• 9:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: is answer, go home, lock yourself in your room, kneel down in the middle of the floor, and with the peace of chalk draw a circle around yourself.
• 9:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: There on your knees, pray perfectly and brokenly that God would start a revival within that chalk circle.
• 9:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: As we go today, let's draw that circle around our hearts.
• 10:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening to today's podcast.
• 10:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Josh with verse 15.
• 10:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: To be a part of a great awakening, we must first experience an awakening in our hearts.
• 10:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: May today be a step toward that.
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Have a wonderful rest of your day today and may God bless you as you seek him.