WHERE IS THY GOD, O CHRISTIAN?

TEARLESS, PASSIONLESS, BURDENLESS

Many people believe there is no need for revival in our day. Yet those that claim this are in most cases of the most apathetic in the church and have not shed a tear for the lost millions that will spend a eternity apart from God. Tearless, Passionless, Burdenless are most that do not claim the need for revival. Sadly many in the world agree that revival is needed in the Church. You hear the taunting cry from the heathen: "Where is thy God, O Christian?" Can you live in coldness? Can you live in blindness? God wants to come and strengthen His Church but on His terms. God is not liable to bless and honor our worldly methods and Church plans. God is looking for those that will cry out to Him to work for only He can. We need God to work on His behalf. The prophet cried out over 3000 years ago: "Where is thy zeal and thy strength?" He was desperate for God to work. This is revival, God working in the midst of His people. The great preacher James Stewart said: "The burden of my life is that God will revive His work. I believe that the days of revival are not past, that the church's potential is the same as it was in apostolic days. When a preacher says that revival is impossible in these days, he will never see an extraordinary move of the Holy Spirit in his life and ministry."

A DISTURBING QUESTION

Roger Ellsworth in his book "Come Down, Lord" gives us a very strong picture of the state the Church finds itself in today: "The people of God have often heard the world tauntingly say: 'Where is thy God?' But it is a sad thing when the people of God have to ask themselves that question. We are happy if we can answer skeptics by pointing to present indications of God's power. But what are we to do when God withholds His power from us and there are no evidences to point out? The church, in order to maintain credibility in the world, has to have the power of God. She is involved in a great spiritual warfare, and only God's power will enable her to prevail. Human ingenuity and wisdom are simply not equal to the task. Trying to do this kind of work without the power of God is like trying to break huge granite boulders with our bare hands."

"The problem, as I see it, is the church is trying to subsist on her own power. She is relying on her own abilities. Human wisdom can produce many things, and the church is trying to pass these things off as the hand of God at work, but the world is not buying it. They still bombard us with the disturbing question, 'Where is thy God?' And if we will get alone and examine our hearts, we will be drven to admit that the many things we are producing are cheap and shabby substitutes for the real power of God, and we will be compelled to cry out to God: 'Where is thy zeal and thy strength?'"

A SIGN OF REVIVAL

"A spirit of lawlessness and deadness is about us. The prevalence of lawlessness in the world and deadness in the church is often an indication of impending revival. "It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law." (Psalm 119:126) When the night is the darkest, the dawn is on the way. It is a mistake to always expect to see revival heralded by a decreasing of wickedness, or by marked and widespread improvement in the spiritual state of the church. The reverse is often the case. We must know this, or we will be discouraged, especially in these days in which we are living. Mr. Finney noted this all through those times of revival. Prevailing deadness among believers and abounding lawlessness in the world are not an indication that it is impervious. It is time for God to work. The hopelessness of the situation was, to the Psalmist, one of the strongest arguments in favor of divine intervention, for he saw those conditions as a challenge that an omnipotent God could not ignore. To him the very need of the hour cried out, 'It is time for the Lord to work.' So that is one of the real signals and sounds of revival."

"Another sign of revival is a spirit of dissatisfaction. This second factor may be widespread among people of all classes, or it may be confined to a few people of God who are being prepared for what God is about to do. Though this widespread dissatisfaction is there in measure, it cannot always be discerned until the movement is underway. A sure place of impending revival is where the spirit of dissatisfaction becomes apparent among believers. God places this spiritual restlessness, this holy dissatisfaction in the heart. Many of you know what I am saying. There is in the heart this spirit of dissatisfaction. That didn't come from your flesh, it didn't come from the devil, it was placed there by God. It is the birth pangs of that new thing God is about to do. It is the travail out of which revival is born. "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon dry ground" (Isaiah 44:3). "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled." (Matthew 5:6). The profound dissatisfaction with which these believers view themselves and the work of God around them is actually a thirst for God. "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for the living God," cries the Psalms 42:1-2. There is a thirst for the holiness of God, for the power of God, and for the truth of God. In times of impending revival, there comes to hearts that are hungry especially, a thirst for the holiness of God. A longing fills the soul for victory over sin and deliverance from the corruption of this carnal mind. The cry is for hearts of flesh instead of hearts of stone. The desire is to be broken before God, to be wholly sanctified and conformed to the image of God's Son, to be like Enoch and walk in unbroken fellowship with God. That's a real mark of revival; a thirst for the holiness of God."

"There is also this thirst for the power of God. Believers begin to view with growing concern the ineffectiveness of their own efforts to serve the Lord. They become conscious of the reproach of the ungodly that God is not among them. David said, "My tears have been my meat night and day, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God." (Psalms 42:3). The more we examine the pages of the New Testament, and the lives of those whom God has used, the more convinced we become that we ought to be clothed with power from on high. A thirst is born to be filled with the Spirit and to speak the words with boldness. There is a thirst for a holiness, a thirst for the power of God. Then there is a thirst for the manifestation of God, to see His power and glory displayed before the eyes of men. David expressed his thirst in another Psalm. ", my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and glory, " (Psalms 63:1-2) Another place David cried out to God. "Don't let me die until I've shown this generation thy power." There is a longing for Christ to be vindicated, for Him to stretch forth His hand to heal, that signs and wonders may be done in the Name of Jesus for one reason, that Jesus Christ may be glorified. Before revival will come, such a thirst must come to the elect. There is also a thirst for truth birthed when revival is impending; not only a thirst for holiness, for power, for a manifestation of God, but for truth. It's always prevalent, when the church has lost her identity, that there is a downplay of truth. This pursuit of unity on the grounds of something other than the truth of God becomes a prevalent thing. In times of impending revival, there comes this thirst for truth. There is born a healthy unwillingness to accept without question all that is taught as truth."

WHERE IS HE?

Oh we hear this "taunt" in everyplace we turn in our day. Even those in the Church have realized that God is not in the midst. When men can speak blasphemies and preach that God has come to give you financial gain and not fall dead we know that God has left his Church. Can God be prostituted with the world? No! God forbid. His character has not changed from the Old Testament. When Israel fell away from God and worshipped idols He left them to their devices. Has the Church stopped being the Church? By no means, but it is obvious that God has taken his immediate presence from His people. When people can walk in unashamed sin in the Church and not be convicted by the Spirit we know that the Spirit of God as departed. God's manifest presence has left the Church in North America and how we need to have God come back in revival.

Hear the cries of the psalmist:

"My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?"

"As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?"

"Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God?"

The prophet Joel cried out:

"Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?"

The prophet Micah declared:

"Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God?"

May we cry out to God, "Come Down, Lord." Come to your people we miss you God. Let us weep and mourn. Are we hungry for a manifestation of God Himself in our midst. The world is walking over us, trampling over us. We need God to move! How long Oh Lord. Duncan Campbell said once: "My dear people do you good folk understand what revival means? Have you a conception of what it means to see God working? The God of miracles. Sovereign. Supernatural. Moving in the midst of men and hundreds swept into the kingdom. Oh that we might see it, that we might see it." Oh that we might see God come down to His Church and work on His behalf for His names sake.