Revival, the West, and the Developing World

When revival breaks out, it won’t likely be in America or Australia – at least not according to texts like 2 Chronicles 7:14. We all know this passage, we say it a thousand times a week, yet very few Western believers really believe a word of it.

If we did, we would be down on our faces before Almighty God crying out in tears of repentance, pleading with him to have mercy on our lands. And this would not be a ten-minute affair, but an ongoing practice – a way of life. Yet I am not aware of much of this going on anywhere in the West.

Sure, there are pockets here and there of godly people seeking God, wrestling with him in prayer, confessing their sins and pleading for his grace. But they are few and far between. In the US there may be anywhere from 80 to 100 million evangelicals. What percentage of these people would even care about revival?

Most are just as much sucked into the world and its values as any pagan is. They are just as consumeristic, compromised, carnal, and contaminated as any heathen is. And they have baptised their decadent lifestyle in the name of a thousand false gospels, such as the prosperity gospel, the gospel of self-esteem, or the gospel of cheap grace.

These gospels will lead their devoted followers to a false eternity. And millions of Western professing believers fall into this camp. No wonder we are not having revival. We simply are too busy being selfish, greedy pigs to even think about it.

So revival is not likely to break out here. But if it does, it is far more likely to erupt in the developing world. While the West is going down the tubes fast, God is raising up a new witness for himself in Africa, Latin America and Asia. While the West may have given up on God, God has not given up on the world.

Indeed, revival is most likely to break out in places like Uganda. There we are seeing texts like 2 Chron. 7:14 springing into action. Consider this: “At the National Jubilee Prayers in Namboole, President Yoweri Museveni made history when he openly repented his sins and the sins of Uganda, a move that has excited many religious leaders.”

Here is his prayer of repentance:

Father God in heaven, today we stand here as Ugandans, to thank you for Uganda. We are proud that we are Ugandans and Africans. We thank you for all your goodness to us.

I stand here today to close the evil past and especially in the last 50 years of our national leadership history and at the threshold of a new dispensation in the life of this nation. I stand here on my own behalf and on behalf of my predecessors to repent. We ask for your forgiveness.

We confess these sins, which have greatly hampered our national cohesion and delayed our political, social and economic transformation.

We confess sins of idolatry and witchcraft which are rampant in our land. We confess sins of shedding innocent blood, sins of political hypocrisy, dishonesty, intrigue and betrayal.

Forgive us of sins of pride, tribalism and sectarianism; sins of laziness, indifference and irresponsibility; sins of corruption and bribery that have eroded our national resources; sins of sexual immorality, drunkenness and debauchery; sins of unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred and revenge; sins of injustice, oppression and exploitation; sins of rebellion, insubordination, strife and conflict.

These sins and many others have characterised our past leadership, especially the last 50 years of our history. Lord forgive us and give us a new beginning. Give us a heart to love you, to fear you and to seek you. Take away from us all the above sins.

We pray for national unity. Unite us as Ugandans and eliminate all forms of conflict, sectarianism and tribalism. Help us to see that we are all your children, children of the same Father. Help us to love and respect one another and to appreciate unity in diversity.

We pray for prosperity and transformation. Deliver us from ignorance, poverty and disease. As leaders, give us wisdom to help lead our people into political, social and economic transformation.

We want to dedicate this nation to you so that you will be our God and guide. We want Uganda to be known as a nation that fears God and as a nation whose foundations are firmly rooted in righteousness and justice to fulfil what the Bible says in Psalm 33:12: Blessed is the nation, whose God is the Lord. A people you have chosen as your own.

I renounce all the evil foundations and covenants that were laid in idolatry and witchcraft. I renounce all the satanic influence on this nation. And I hereby covenant Uganda to you, to walk in your ways and experience all your blessings forever.

I pray for all these in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Wow, would you ever hear such a prayer coming from the lips of Obama or Julia – or any other major Western leader? Not likely. They are really anti-Christian leaders who are doing everything they can to drag their nations down into ruin, depravity and debauchery.

I document this downward slide every week on this website. If all the examples I provide have not convinced you yet, then let me offer you just one more. It is a UN proposal which comes straight out of the pit of hell. The headline says it all: “U.N. Report Advocates Teaching Masturbation to 5-Year-Olds”.

The West is racing towards oblivion, yet most of God’s people don’t even give a rip. How could they? They are too busy living in sin themselves. In fact, name any sin out there in the world, and you will find the church full of it, be it easy divorce, greed and materialism, homosexuality, pornography, abortion, and so on.

Like Josiah of old, we need a national time of repentance – big time (see 2 Kings 22–23 = 2 Chronicles 34–35). The West is well overdue for the just judgment of a holy and righteous God. But judgment must first begin with the household of God as Peter informs us (1 Peter 4:17).

The church is largely in a state of backsliding, lukewarmness and disobedience, if not outright apostasy. It is time for real repentance and real confession of sin. But how very few believers are even thinking in these terms. Sure, as always God has his remnant – small groups of committed believers who are sick and tired of playing games and playing church, who are fed up with the celebrity and entertainment culture of the mega-churches.

But the church as a whole is mainly stagnant, lifeless and completely apathetic. In such a condition we will not likely see revival breaking out any time soon. We are not seeing revival because we do not really want it. We are certainly not willing to pay the price for it.

I can do no better than to close here with the words of some great saints of recent times:

“There never has been a spiritual revival which did not begin with an acute sense of sin. We are never prepared for a spiritual advance until we see the necessity of getting rid of that which has been hindering it, and that, in the sight of God, is sin.” W. Graham Scroggie

“If you want revival, let me remind you that God only plants the seed of His life in soil which has been broken up by repentance.” Alan Redpath

“My own view is that many are wishing for a revival but do not want it deeply enough to pay the price in fervent believing intercession and pray. And generally speaking we are far too easily intoxicated by our successes and thus less dependent on the Holy Spirit than we ought to be. The key word for the life of the church nowadays seems to be ‘organize,’ rather than ‘agonize’.” Selwyn Hughes

“All the true revivals have been born in prayer. When God’s people become so concerned about the state of religion that they lie on their faces day and night in earnest supplication, the blessing will be sure to fall.” E.M. Bounds

“Revival is a renewed conviction of sin and repentance, followed by an intense desire to live in obedience to God. It is giving up one’s will to God in deep humility.” Charles Finney

“Does it grieve you my friends, that the name of God is being taken in vain and desecrated? Does it grieve you that we are living in a godless age…But, we are living in such an age and the main reason we should be praying about revival is that we are anxious to see God’s name vindicated and His glory manifested. We should be anxious to see something happening that will arrest the nations, all the peoples, and cause them to stop and to think again.” Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“I offer it as my considered judgment that the main reason why we do not have heaven-born, Spirit-operated revival in our day is that we are content to live without it.” Leonard Ravenhill

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/636533-for-the-sins-of-uganda-i-repent-museveni.html
http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/ugandan-president-repents-of-personal-national-sins/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,543203,00.html

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11 Replies to “Revival, the West, and the Developing World”

  1. Thanks for another challenging post, Bill. I don’t think anyone who watches what goes on around them could honestly disagree with you.

    As a very first step in taking action, I’ve written to my MP about my thoughts on our Government’s intention to redefine marriage. Just a small thing, but it was an action I could take. (Suddenly, all the distractions of recent weeks just melted away…)

    Sue Dallibar

  2. It’s early morning and my sadness is very much along the lines of your message. I grieve over my arrogance and intercede for the arrogance of others, grieving over my adult children who have turned from God after seminary training….
    Ilona Sturla

  3. Thank you for these soul-searching words. I am encouraged by Jesus’ words to “pray in secret and God will reward you openly”. God has always worked with a remnant, so, even if there are only small pockets of believers praying in the manner you described, or even individuals, God will hear and answer.
    We may never hear the words of the Ugandan president from Julia or BHO, but the church is not or should not look to political leaders for an example of godliness. I have mentioned my desire for a day of repentance on this site before and I shall continue to pray that God would raise up prominent church leaders to lead in such an event that will hopefully not stop at one day, but bring lasting results and changes towards godliness in individuals and the life of communities.
    Many blessings
    Ursula Bennett

  4. Dear Bill, our nation is indebted to you for your unflagging challenge to sustained intercession for God’s mercy poured out on undeserving church.
    Count Zinzendorf called a prayer meeting, continuing non-stop for 100 years. From that prayer retreat, the Lord sent His ambassadors to many countries. Two went to the united States of America; one enriched Jonathan Edwards, preeminent theologian, and another pleaded with John Wesley, whom the Lord used to preach salvation to our ailing United Kingdom. God give us praying men cleansed by the precious blood of the Lamb, activated by the Holy Spirit.
    Harrold Steward, Christian Family Bible Studies.

  5. What a wonderful, glorious prayer of repentance!!!! God be praised for this just man! If we sincerely desire it, pray,fast and become politically active in pursuit of it, each according to our circumstances, we too can have such a leader. That we do not yet have such a leader is entirely our own responsibilty.
    Anna Cook

  6. Remember our recent lunch discussion, Bill. There will be many, besides me, who will walk all the way with you. Please prayerfully consider.

    Eddie Sim

  7. Dear Bill,

    Thank you for being the pusher of the pen, that confirms what the Lord has given me, over this past few weeks.

    I have been first of all, humbled – by this collection of truth as you describe; and secondly uplifted and encouraged in my spirit, to continue to seek, find, and share, as HE gives me instruction – in obedience.

    And I owe a deep gratitude to a dear friend, who shared your site with me. My apologies for my ignorance to date; but this was the time the Lord wanted us acquainted.

    Thank you, and continued blessings be yours. I am the richer for this experience.
    Most sincerely,
    Leila Nord.

  8. Amen thank you so much for hearing the truth. From the beginning of this year. God said watch 2015 there is going to be a shift and change and I see it every day. Amen for the word Amen again.

  9. Dear Bill I know South Africa is in trouble. Please pray for my country. There hearts are heart and they keep on holding on to there own ways of doing things. At table they don’t pray any more and the Bible they hardley read if they ever read the word of God. Please pray Amen

  10. Bill,

    I wonder if you have ever read Carlos Botero’s ‘The ecology of religious beliefs’ published in the 2014 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences??

    Whilst the article has major flows – including studying a Europe that imported its Christina faith from Southwest Asia rather than the beliefs of pre-Christian Europe which are vastly more likely to actually reflect European environments (even Botero himself admits this) – it is nonetheless somewhat revealing about the origins of modern atheism in Europe and East Asia. In East Asia, of course, moralising religions never evolved and Botero, along with fellow ecologist Dustin Rubenstein, gives a clear explanation why in terms of East Asia’s superabundant fisheries and reliably seasonal climate. With growing comparative disadvantage in food production and high resource security as seen in Europe, East Asia and the Americas today, Botero seems to demonstrate atheism as inevitable.

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