Harvest International Church

A Great Awakening Cont'd

“And He shall be the stability of your times, a wealth of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is His treasure."

Isaiah 33:5-6

There is Good News

However, there is good news, and there is hope! Our hope is in Jesus Christ, and He promises to be our stability at all times. Isaiah 33:5-6 says, "The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness. And He shall be the stability of your times, a wealth of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is His treasure."

Jesus told the disciples that in spite of everything He taught them, they were not prepared to fulfill the Great Commission until they had been touched with His supernatural power! In other words, spending time with Jesus is only preparation for what God has planned for us. We need to spend time with Him with the expectation of a spiritual explosion in our lives.

Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now (Acts 1:4-5)." On another occasion, Jesus said, "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth (Acts 1:8)." If God is to work in our midst, we must have His touch like we have never had before. God does not want us to be lukewarm Christians. He wants us committed and passionate about a cause that is greater than ourselves! Therefore, we must get our eyes off ourselves and on Almighty God! We are not here for our sake. We are here for the glory of God and to carry out His overwhelming, great, sovereign will for mankind.

We must intentionally position ourselves to encounter God and His power. God’s supernatural power only comes in one type of atmosphere. That atmosphere can be found in Acts 2. God is looking for a group of people who are willing to become part of a divine, supernatural act of God, whereby He alone can be glorified. Before that happens, God’s people must learn the essential importance of praying as a corporate body–not somebody praying over here and somebody praying over there. It’s time that we stop meeting together just to pray for the sake of saying we prayed together. Our seasons of prayer need to be with full expectation that the Holy Spirit is coming to do a great work in our midst.

With all of the immorality that is rampant throughout the world, we have only two choices. As believers, we can gather in groups to pray and intercede for our country, or we can sit back and allow the enemy to dictate how we live. If we will take prayer seriously, God will bring a great awakening to our land. Second Chronicles 7:14 says, "If my people which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

As we serve Him, worship Him, praise Him, and petition Him together in prayer and faith, God begins to unleash His supernatural power in our midst. It was this same power that was unleashed in the first New Testament church. People began to pray and their prayers were preparation for every single thing that God did in and through them. We pray that you will allow the supernatural power in our midst. It was this same power that was unleashed in the first New Testament church. We pray that you will allow the supernatural power of Almighty God to be released in your life and that you will allow Him to do His awesome work in your life. May He use you to effect change in your family, church, community, and country.

This article was written by Pastor Shelby C. Grant in the November 2000 edition of the Intouch Ministries Prayer Touch newsletter.