Experiencing God

"I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord." Ezekiel 22:30-31

 

Like many of you, my life has been impacted by the teaching ministry of the late Henry Blackaby. Little did I know when I first walked through the Experiencing God Bible study, that I would one day get to spend time with him when I served as a trustee of the International Mission Board. As a leader on our Prayer First Committee, I had invited Dr. Blackaby to come and lead a Prayer Summit for all of our trustees and executive staff. It was a very special time of getting to know more personally one of my spiritual heroes. As I have pondered upon my faith journey, I realize that many of those who uniquely shaped my life have now departed this temporal life for eternity. Below is a powerful statement concerning revival that Dr. Blackaby wrote quite a few years ago as a foreword to a book on revival. I have edited his words just a bit for this post. I pray that his words will inspire and challenge you to seek Him in these days in which we live...

Our nation stands on the brink of the Judgment of God. Many sensitive leaders believe we may have "crossed the line" and judgment is inevitable. God's people no longer possess a holy fear of God. And when God's people no longer fear Him, they no longer fear sin. When they no longer fear sin, they are of no use to God for the redemption of the nation or the world. God's blessing and often His Presence is removed. I believe we are at this point now.

I grew up in Western Canada, with an awesome sense of the lostness of the nation. When I mentioned my burden to God's people, I would consistently hear, "Don't expect God to do in Canada what He has done in other parts of the world. Canada is different. The people just don't respond the same." My heart would sink, and I would cry out to God, "But Lord, You are the same! Would You not show me and Your people Your heart's desire to bring the people of this nation to Yourself."

God opened my eyes and my heart, and I became aware that my relatives had graduated from Spurgeon's College in London, England, seeing waves of revival constantly. My uncle and aunt were missionaries in China during the great Shantung Revival and sent home glowing letters and pictures of that mighty move of God. Then, God let me pastor in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada during the great "Canadian Revival" in the early 1970's, where I witnessed the Mighty Hand of God at work, first among His Own people, then among the lost. My life was forever changed. I was later asked to direct the office of Prayer and Spiritual Awakening for the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, where I traveled across the nation and around the world bringing the message of Revival. I have seen some amazing moments of a "deep touch of God." But my heart is deeply grieved over what I see among the people of God today, in the midst of an escalating moral and spiritual decline in the nation. This nation is heading toward the judgment of God, and God's people, especially our spiritual leaders, are "asleep," as were the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Now I am sending out an urgent plea, for God's people seem disoriented to God: to His Voice, to His Presence, to His Activity, and especially to His Warnings in the Scripture. They are disoriented to His Word and to His Ways. They are unaccustomed to prayer, the urgent prayer that is needed for Revival. And they are far from the holy people of God He intended us to be, especially in our relationship to Him, and therefore to His people. For these reasons, I offer these urgent pleas:

• Pastors must turn now to an intimate relationship with God, and live holy lives before Him.

• Deacons/elders must return to a vital relationship with God that allows Him to work through them to bring spiritual unity, peace, love, healing and fellowship to God's people.

• Other leaders (Bible study teachers, youth leaders, music ministers, men and women's group leaders) must return to the Scriptures as the absolute necessity of instruction for God's people.

• Denominational workers must return to the heart of God for His people and stop "using His people" for their purposes, and then assist them to "practice everything that I have commanded them."

• Evangelists and missionaries must give attention to the spiritual condition of God's people, to assist them to be holy, as He is holy, so God can fill them with His Presence, Power and Glory, and work through them to touch a lost world with His great salvation.

I am pleading with God to raise up and thrust forth true prophets, who will fearlessly proclaim His message to His people, regardless of the cost to themselves, and it will be costly (Matt. 5:10-12). I plead with God to raise up "spiritual prophets" who long for a display of the glory of God, and not merely "spiritual politicians" who are looking to maintain a comfortable and financially rewarding ministry position.

Now is the time for God's people to (1) return seriously to God's Word, with the heart intention to live it out in life, radically; (2) return to serious, urgent prayer, the kind of prayer that will move the hand of God; (3) a return to the eternal intention of God for the corporate life of His people, as a "royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. (1 Peter 2:9-10)

Thank you, Dr. Blackaby, for being a unique vessel of grace to touch countless lives as you taught us how to Experience God. And I simply say, "Amen, and AMEN!"