A revival is defined as the experience of God’s people why prayers are answered, and their growth and effectiveness are both renewed. If we want our growth and effectiveness to be renewed then we need to prepare ourselves for revival. It won’t just happen automatically.

Upon reading 2 Kings chapter 23 we see some universal truths and/or characteristics that must take place if you want personal spiritual revival, these truth’s also apply to a congregation as a whole, because

you will not be able to have any sort of corporate revival until you first have a revival as an individual.

The first truth that we see here is that revival is necessary for everyone, regardless of their actual or supposed position

And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the Lord.

2 Kings 23:2

The second thing that we see in this passage, is the fact that all obstacles to true worship need to be removed if we expect to have real revival. They removed the instruments that were used in false worship, they removed the teachers, or influencers that pulled people away from the Lord, they took action to ensure that those things and people could not reappear in their lives.

Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the Lord in Jerusalem. Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord.

2 Kings 23:22–24

The third thing that we notice in this passage is that if we want revival, we need to involve the whole person. The heart, soul, and might are all involved in personal spiritual revival

And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.

2 Kings 23:25

Preparing for revival through sensitivity to the Holy Spirit

To achieve personal spiritual revival you need to start preparing yourself by ensuring that you are sensitive to the Holy Spirit. This is more than just following the command to not grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30), you can avoid grieving the Holy Spirit, but still not achieve sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. You need to be intentional when it comes to your sensitivity to the Holy Spirit by desensitizing yourself to everything else that typically absorbs all of your focus and energy.

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

John 16:7–14

To be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, you need to limit your exposure the the things that would distract you from doing so; do not allow things like the news and social media to distract you from the things that the Holy Spirit would want you to pay attention to. Most Christians these days either turn on the news as soon as they wake up, or they start scrolling through social media to get updates on what is going on with their friends and in the community.

Instead of following the unfortunate norm, start your day with prayer and bible reading. This will start your day off on the right foot and will enable you to become more sensitive to the things that the Lord is doing.

Preparing for revival by appealing to God

To experience individual or corporate revival, you will always need to prepare yourself by appealing to God for revival. You will not be able to create revival on your own, you need the Lords help to experience revival. We will look at two basic ways to appeal to God for revival.

appeal to God through prayer

Prayer is our opportunity to speak to God and to allow him to speak to us. Now I do not mean to say that you will hear the Lord audibly, but if you are ensuring that you are sensitive to the Holy Spirit that alone will allow you hear the Lord when he speaks.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, And blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; And take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; And uphold me with thy free spirit.

Psalm 51:7–12

When preparing yourself for personal or corporate spiritual revival, ensure that you are praying every day leading up to the meeting and throughout the meeting for the meeting itself, as well as for wisdom and discernment for yourself, so that you do not miss what the Lord wants to deliver to you through the revival meeting. Of course, you should also already be praying for the forgiveness of sins on a daily basis whether you are preparing for a revival meeting or not.

By the way, you can experience revival with the Lord, especially personal spiritual revival, whether the local assembly that you attend, are having a “revival” meeting or not. You can and should experience personal spiritual revival more often than the once per year revival meeting that most churches schedule.

Appeal through personal devotions

Personal devotions should already be an intrigle part of your Christian life, but unfortunatley my experience tells me that this is not the case with the majority of professing Christians. When preparing for a revival meeting, if you want to achieve personal spiritual revival, you must recommitt yourself to spending some quality time in the word of God.

Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; Yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; For therein do I delight. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, And not to covetousness. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; And quicken thou me in thy way.

Psalm 119:34–37

The best way that I have found to ensure that I do not miss my daily quiet time with Lord is to execute this first thing in the morning. All to often people think that they will read the bible and pray at lunch time, or after dinner or some other “convenient” time, but if you do not make this time a priority, something else will always come up.

I find that it helps to keep a journal of your quiet time. I personally use a few different methods of recording what I read, but I believe that the H.E.A.R. method is useful, which I will briefly describe below:

H.E.A.R. Devotional Method

H. Highlight the passage by giving the passage a title that describes the main points that you personally derived from the passage.

E. Explain the passage, to explain the passage you basically just want to record what is being communicated. In most passages (depending on how big of a section) you will notice multiple things that are being communicated. You can either dive into each one, or you can pick the big idea of the passage and keep it more focused on that.

A. Application of the passage, in this step you want to ask yourself a few questions. How can this help me? What does it Mean? What is God saying to me? By asking yourself these questions you can determine how you can apply the passage to yourself, and how it applies to what you are currently going through in life.

R. Respond to the passage, I usually use this section to create a call to action for myself. What will I change? What will I continue to do? What improvements do I need to make in my attitude or actions? You get the idea.

Preparing for revival by taking personal responsibility

The third thing that you need to do in preparation of personal spiritual revival is that you need to take responsibilyt ofr your own revival experience.

Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.

2 Timothy 1:6

Personal spiritual revival is your responsibility, too many times I hear people complaining about bible meetings and saying that they just couldn’t get anything out of it because of outside factors. Do not rely on good music, good preaching or a good atmosphere to secure your opportunity for personal spiritual revival. Instead, it is up to you to make those things happen. Your preparation and attitude affect all three of those things, if you do not participate in the music program, it won’t have an impact on you, if you do not prepare your heart ahead of time, it won’t matter how “good” the preaching is, you won’t get anything and if you fail to prepare yourself for the meeting, your attitude won’t just magically change because you walked in the doors.

Prepare to respond to revival

In this final section, we need to discuss something that should be a no brainer for someone who desires personal spiritual revival, but it needs to be said. You need to prepare yourself to respond.

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13–14

It is surprising how many people fail in this last element. We need to make a conscious effort to respond to revival. So many times, I think people go to revival meetings out of a sense of obligation, or they just don’t believe that they personally need to be revived. In the Christian life, we all suffer for a sort of slow fade, where we don’t even realize that we have lost some of our zeal, or effectiveness and growth.

When the Lord deals with you in a revival meeting, or anytime at all, follow the lead of the Apostle Paul from above. Get things right with the Lord, and promptly put them in the past and put your focus on pressing toward the mark, and moving forward with the Lord.

Our hope at Irvington Bible Baptist Church is that this podcast provided some encouragement and has helped you to develop a closer relationship with the LORD Jesus Christ.