Covenant Prayer #1 for Revival and Spiritual Awakening, January 4-10

1. Plead for God’s Merciful Grace on a Nation and Many Churches that are Under His Righteous Judgment — (2 Chronicles 7:14; Nehemiah 1:4-9; Psalm 85:4-7;Micah 6:8; Lamentations 3:22; Ezekiel 36:19-23; Daniel 9:18-19; Hebrews 4:16,10:30; James 4:8-10; 1 Peter 4:17)1

“Father God, our hope is Your mercy and grace in Jesus. We understand we pray only by the covenant of grace in Christ’s precious blood. Lord, we desperately humble ourselves and acknowledge Your righteous judgment upon our land. Rather than blaming the lost, we acknowledge that judgment and spiritual responsibility begin at the house of God. Lord, please forgive us for substituting endless activities and programs for Your manifest glory and presence. Forgive us for lukewarmness, sin and compromise with the world. Forgive us for shaming Your name and robbing You of glory. Lord, help us come before You with awareness we deserve Your judgment far more than Your blessing. Savior, for the glory of Your holy name we humbly plead for Your mercy upon our churches, nation and world. By Your blood alone, we plead for merciful grace to revive and turn our hearts to You. Lord, for the sake of your great name, turn our hearts to Yourself and convert the lost. Be glorified O God and Christ — be glorified in all the earth!”

Reflections for Prayer and Repentance — Am I fully mindful of the fact the nation and many churches are under serious signs of rapidly increasing judgment? ___ Have I truly humbled myself in deep brokenness, fasting and repentance? ___ Do I neglect regular times of deep cleansing and repentance? ___ Has my church embraced times of deep cleansing? ___ Do I fully recognize that revival requires phenomenal mercy and grace from God? ___ Am I approaching God solely on the basis of the blood and name of Jesus? ___ Do I have the appropriate humility and urgency in approaching God for revival? ___ Does my church exhibit deep contrition, humility and urgency in the way it corporately seeks God’s face?___ Prayerfully reflect on any steps for specific repentance. Please list your specific steps.

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“Lord, thank you for grace to help me repent in true humility. I now repent of complacency and cry out for Your mercy in deepest humility. But rather than just saying “I repent,” I commit to embrace significant daily prayer with deep heart examination. By Your grace, I trust You to fill me with a spirit of deep brokenness, humility and contriteness of heart. As a church, we commit to humble ourselves in true brokenness and fasting for our land. Forgive us for focusing on personal needs and business as usual while our nation and many churches slide into further judgment.”

[1] Frizzell, Gregory Reed. Praying God’s Heart in Times Like These. Master Design, 2009. Used by permission

Introduction to Covenant Prayers for Revival and Spiritual Awakening

Greg Frizzell, the BGCO Prayer and Spiritual Awakening Specialist and member of Village Baptist has given us permission to reproduce and to use his Covenant Prayers for Revival and Spiritual Awakening. But why would we want to do that?

Over the years I have advocated many church programs. Most of them were very good and accomplished good in people’s lives. Programs have their place. Yet I found myself at a place in  life where what I needed was not necessarily another program. I need a fresh touch from God!

I have been reading, almost insatiably about spiritual awakening and revival during the last two months. I have downloaded and listened to more than a dozen sermons on revival and revival praying. One thing that has been distressing in all of this is the lack of practical help in these books and sermons. They tell of many great prayer meetings and of great movements of God, but they do not tell how to pray, that is, how to pray for revival.

Enter the works of Dr. Greg Frizzell. Greg is a man who understands people need help when it comes to prayer and revival. Greg knows how to instruct a willing soul in revival praying. He has done the larger body of Christ a great service. But Greg has also done a great service to us, if we will use what he has offered.

What Greg has done for is is to instruct us on how to pray for revival. From his study in Scripture and in the history of awakenings he has compiled 21 different prayer topics along with reflections for revival.

Each Wednesday night we meet at our mid-week service along with our current study, I will cover one of the 21 Covenant Prayers for Revival. You will receive a handout with the covenant prayer reflection and a commitment. We will walk thorugh this and pray this together in groups. I challenge you to take this home and pray it during the rest of the week.

On the following Sunday, I will take time to talk about this covenant prayer and we, as a congregation will pray together for God to fulfill this prayer, to change our hearts and our ways. In short, we will pray for God’s powerful manifest presence to be with us.

I’ll post the Covenant Prayer for that week here on the blog. You can download the full document with all notes here.

To the glory of God.

Sermon Q and A from the message: A Vision for the New Year

Q1. Can we look at getting a wireless access in the building so it will be easier to use these resources in church?

A1. Yes, we are going to look into that. Thanks for the request. An initial look has already been done. That should be something we can do in the first part of this new year.

Q2. How do we position Village Baptist to receive revival?

A2. This is a question that could be answered in a number of ways. First we need to come to a common understanding of revival. It is not an evangelistic outreach, as much as that is needed. It is not a series of meetings. It is not an emotional service. I like Duncan Campbell’s definition the best. Revival is a people saturated with God. So the question comes, “How do we become saturated with God?”

There are several means that God has made available to those who wish to seek him and have him near. First is repentance. There must be a deep repentance of sin. There should be severe personal accountability before God in our deeds, our lack of deeds, our words, thoughts and attitudes. That is the first step.

Second there would be a genuine humbling of ourselves before God. Pride was the first sin. It should be dealt with first as well.

Third, a full confession of Christ open and public. It will need to be unashamed. The follower of Christ has nothing to be ashamed of, Christ will come back and those who do not confess him will be the one’s ashamed.

Fourth, heart-crying prayer for revival. it is not just prayer for revival, but revival praying. Praying and not stopping until God draws near and the whole community is changed. Praying for the things on God’s list of eternal matters.

Fifth, instant obedience. There must be a commitment and a follow-through of your instance and full obedience to God. Nothing is off limits for God to call you to do. No task to high or low.

Sixth, uncompromised holy living. There must be a constant vigilance against sin in the life of the believer. That that is just half. There has to be this love of righteousness that overcomes temptation to sin.

These are the things that will bring God’s notice to our cry for revival. Without these, our prayers are just words in the air, ringing and then silent.

Jimmy Kinnaird Blog 2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,900 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 32 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

The Courageous Life…Is Without Avarice, Application

Avarice is an excessive desire for money or material things.

Vision

Suze Orman, the popular financial expert, says that when she was a little girl, her father’s business caught fire, and she remembers vividly her father dashing inside the burning building, grabbing the hot metal cash register with his bare hands and running out. He fell to the ground, writhing in pain with scorched and seared hands.

That moment changed her forever, she said. She was too small to process it all, but a narrative emerged: money is very valuable, worth endangering your life by rushing into a building to save. Therefore, you must never be careless about money. She credits that moment as making her into a “saver,” a diligent money manager. Reflecting, Suze said, “From that point on, earning money, lots of money, not only became what drove me professionally, but also became my emotional priority.”

 Opening Question:

If you could have one thing that would make you feel happy and secure, what would it be and why?

Scripture:

Have someone read Matthew 6:19-24.

Discussion:

1. What is a treasure?
2. Why does Jesus say to not lay up treasures on earth?
3. What does it mean to “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven?”
4. What needs to change in your way of thinking for your treasure to be in heaven, your eye to be clear (generous) and your master to be God?
5. What one thing will you need to do to start this? Will you do it?

 Challenge: Give something away. Give several things away. Not junk or worn out clothes, but good stuff. If you have a nice looking pair of shoes, take them to Goodwill. If you have a painting or lamp in your home that is nice and you don’t need it because you have 3 others like it, give it to someone who may use it. Give away some books, CDs or DVDs. Deaccumulate yourself. It will help you get your treasure in the right place and it will help another who may need it.

Q & A from The Courageous Life…Is Without Self-Importance

Q. How do you do things for the kingdom with confidence without stepping over the line of thinking we are more important than we are? Seems there is a fine line here.

A. I think you have a good grasp on the issue. When you “do things for the kingdom” the motivation of of exalting God. Your focus will naturally not be on yourself but on God. Thoughts of your own importance will not enter your mind. With that said, if our security and significance are derived from our relationship with God through Christ, our self-importance will be as it should because we are not trying to impress people if our focus is on God. God is impressed by different things.

 

The Courageous Life…Is Life Without Self-Importance, Application

This is the application handout for Sunday evening, November 6, 2011.

Vision

All pride is not bad. The problem we have as human beings, even humans who have been redeemed by Christ’s blood, is that we can easily be seduced with this bad kind of pride. Pastor Jimmy used the term “self-Importance” as another description for this kind of pride. The ancient church used the term “vainglory,” which meant making empty God’s glory by transferring it to us. Of the seven deadly sins, pride or vainglory is considered the worst.  Andrew Murray wrote, “There is no pride so dangerous, so subtle and insidious, as the pride of holiness.” According to Scripture, it was the sin of pride that turned Lucifer, the most beautiful of all God’s creatures and the chief of all the angels into Satan, the devil (Isaiah 14:12-14). He began to promote himself above God.

Opening Question:

Why do we feel it’s necessary to promote ourselves?

Scripture:

Have someone read Luke 18:9-14.

Discussion:

1. What is unappealing about this kind of pride when you see it in some else?
2. What does it say about a person when they use good and private spiritual disciplines such as giving, prayer and fasting to call attention to themselves?
3. Last week’s lesson was “The Courageous Life…Is Without Retaliation.” we asked a question like this: “What specific thing can you do this week that will move you in the direction of loving those who take advantage of you?” Were you able to do that? If you did, can you tell us about it? If you didn’t what could you do this week?
4. In our day, what are some ways a person could practice giving, prayer and fasting without calling attention to themselves? (have group members name some for each of the three disciplines).

Challenge: Don’t tell us, but will you do at least one secret activity in each of the three disciplines of giving, prayer and fasting before next Sunday? Next week, when we come back, tell us how you felt and if you believe you received a blessing from the Lord. Don’t worry, it’s not pride if we ask you and you focus the activity and results on God.

Q & A from The Courageous Life…Is Without Retaliation

Q1. What does a life living with a rightly ordered heart look like?

A1.To answer this question, I’ll quote a section out of Dallas Willard’s book “Renovation of the Heart.” There are six components of our being when ordered together produce a rightly ordered core, or heart. These include a thought life that has a default setting on God, an emotional life deeply characterized by love, a heart life that is attuned to doing what is right and good, a body life that is poised to do the right thing without thinking, a relationship life which is transparent and non condemning, and a soul life that has a unified internal flow of natural integrity.

Thought life: Perhaps the first thing that comes to our attention when we get to know their inner life is what they think about, or what is on their mind. Simply stated, they think about God. He is never out of their mind. They love to dwell upon God and upon his greatness and loveliness, as brought to light in Jesus Christ. They adore him in nature, in history, in his Son and in his saints. One could even say they are “God-intoxicated” (Acts 2:13; Ephesians 5: 18), though no one has a stronger sense of reality and practicality than they do. Their mind is filled with biblical expressions of God’s nature, his actions, and his plans for them in his world. They do not dwell upon evil. It is not a big thing in their thoughts. They are sure of its defeat, but they still deal with it appropriately in specific situations.

Because their mind is centered upon God and oriented to all else with reference to him, all other good things are also welcome there. Again: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise,” their mind ponders those things (Philippians 4:8). They are positive, realistically so, based upon the nature of God as they understand it. “I have set the Lord continually before me,” the Psalmist says, “Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” (16:8)

Feelings: And then perhaps we notice—and small wonder given what has already been observed—that the emotional life of these children of light is deeply characterized by love. That is how they invest the emotional side of their being. They love lots of good things and they love people. They love their life and who they are. They are thankful for their life—even though it may contain many difficulties, even persecution and martyrdom (Matthew 5:10-12). They receive all of it as God’s gift, or at least as his allowance, where they will know his goodness and greatness and go on to live with him forever. And so joy and peace are with them even in the hardest of times—even when suffering unjustly. Because of what they have learned about God, they are confident and hopeful and do not indulge thoughts of rejection, failure, and hopelessness, because they know better.

Will (spirit, heart): Looking a little deeper we find that these children of light really are devoted to doing what is good and right. Their will is habitually attuned to it, just as their mind and emotions are habitually homing in on God. They are attentive to rightness, to kindness, to helpfulness, and they are purposefully knowledgeable about life—about what people need, and about how to do what is right and good in appropriate ways. They are not obsequious, but respectful of the rights and responsibilities of others.

These are people who do not think first of themselves and what they want, and they really care very little, if at all, about getting their own way “Let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not look out for your own personal interests, but for the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4). These are easy and good words to them. They are abandoned to God’s will and do not struggle and deliberate as to whether they will do what they know to be wrong. They do not hesitate to do what they know to be right. It is the obvious thing to do.

Body: That, of course, involves their body. Their body has come over to the side of their will to do good. It is constantly poised to do what is right and good without thinking. And that also means that it does not automatically move into what is wrong, even contrary to their resolves and intentions, before they can think not to do it. It is no longer true of them that their “spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 20:41) They know by experience that those words of Jesus are not a declaration about the inevitable condition of humans, but a diagnosis of a condition to be corrected. The Spirit has substantially taken over their “members.” (Rom. 6:13)

Consequently, we do not see them always being trapped by what their tongue, facial expressions, eyes, hands, and so on have already done before they can think. For their body and its parts are consecrated to serve God and are habituated to be his holy instruments. They instinctively avoid the paths of temptation. The bodies of these people even look different. There is a freshness about them, a kind of quiet strength, and a transparency They are rested and playful in a bodily strength that is from God. He who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead has given life to their bodies through his Spirit that dwells in them. (Rom. 8:10-12)

Social relations: In their relations to others, they are completely transparent. Because they walk in goodness they have no use for darkness, and they achieve real contact or fellowship with others—especially other apprentices of Jesus. “If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:7). And “The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause of offence in him” (2:10, PAR). They do not conceal their thoughts and feelings (nor do they impose them upon everyone). Because of their confidence in God, they do not try to manipulate and manage others. Needless to say, in their social contexts they do not go on the attack or on the hunt, intending to use or to hurt others.

Moreover, they are completely noncondemning, while at the same time they will not participate in evil. They pay it only the attention absolutely required in any social setting, and beyond that, patient and joyful nonparticipation is the rule. They know how to really “be there” (wherever “there” is) without sharing in evil, as was true of Jesus himself. (Of course, as with him, others may disapprove of their “being there,” and there are always some occasions where one should just step away.) But they do not reject or distance themselves from the people who may be involved in such situations. They know how to “love the sinner and hate the sin” gracefully and effectively.

Soul: Finally, as you come to know these people—though those who know only the human powers of the flesh will never be able to understand them (I Corinthians 2:14)—you see that all of the above is not just at the surface. It is deep, and in a certain obvious sense, it is effortless. It flows. That is, the things we have been describing are not things the children of light are constantly trying hard to do, gritting their teeth and carrying on. Instead, these are features of life that well up out of a soul that is at home in God.

This, then, is the outcome of spiritual formation in Christ likeness. Again, it doesn’t mean perfection, but it does mean we have here a person ose soul is whole: a person who, through the internalized integrity of the law of God and the administrations of the gospel and the Spirit, has a restored soul. The law and the Lord have restored it. (Psalm 19:7 & 23:3) Such a soul effectively interfaces God with the full person and enables every aspect of the self to function as God intended.

Q2. Please explain Proverbs 25:22

A2. “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; for so you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the LORD will reward you. Proverbs 25:22. The “coals of fire on his head” is a term used to describe the humiliation of having to eat bread that is offered by a rival. It is a metaphor for their humiliation due to their evil actions in contrast to your good treatment of them. Shame and humiliation have a way of reddening the face in embarrassment.

The Courageous Life…Is Without Retaliation, Application

Vision

We live in a world that believes force and violence should be met with force and violence. The standard rule of society was called Lex Talionis, meaning Law of Retaliation. In its written form, it first appears in Babylonian law, the Old Testament Scriptures and in Roman law. The “eye for an eye” in most cases was settled with property or money. The offender and the one offended would settle on an amount that was acceptable to both. This law of retaliation was actually a good thing for as far as it went. It helped to keep people from excessive retribution.

Opening Question:

Have you ever offended someone or been offended and a retaliation took place? Why do we feel like we need to “get back” at people who harm us? Does inflicting suffering on another person because they hurt you really change your situation?

Scripture:

Have someone read Matthew 5:43-48 and 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.

Discussion:

1. Why is it hard to love our enemy?
2. What is the nature of agape love? Is it hard for a person full of agape to love their enemy? Why or why not?
3. Jesus is not telling us to do these things as rules, but describing the kind of person we are to become. Then we will naturally live in this way. What will it take for you personally to live in agape love?
4. What specific thing will you do this week that will move you in that direction? (Leaders: Get their name and write down what they say they will do this week. Save it for next week for follow-up)

 

Challenge: Name someone who is your enemy or at least a competitor. Spend a few minutes each day this week praying for them. Pray for their success and for joy and peace to be in their lives and in their families lives.

Text Q & A on The Courageous Life…Is Without Deception

Q. What should we do when someone lies to us? Confront them with love?

A. Sometimes love overlooks a lie and sometimes there needs to be a confrontation in love to seek the good of another person. Proverbs 19:11 says, “…it is a glory to overlook a transgression.” This proverb is directed more at an interpersonal relationship where you are insulted. The person my lie and deny the insult when confronted. At that point it may be best to overlook it, especially if there are family relationships involved. This of course should be qualified with what the lie concerned. Our level of relationship with a person will determine the level of confrontation. A business relationship is one level. A marriage relationship is another and both of these have different consequences for their outcomes.

God overlooks our sin at one point and He confronts us about them at another. There is a proper time and place to intervene for the good of God’s plan and the good of others.  Whatever we do, it should not be in response to anger or revenge. That would not be the way of the kingdom. That is why it is sometimes good to step back from a heated situation and reevaluate it after you have had the opportunity to reflect on it and even gain some perspective with another person. We don’t always have that opportunity, but if you can it would be good to take it.

Q2. How does statement 1. and statement 6. go together if when you leave out some truth you know it will deceive?

A2. Good question. On the surface it looks contradictory. I was hesitant about even including point 6 in the message. Let me include both here in the answer for those who do not have access to these two points. Point 1 “A lie is a false statement made knowingly with the intent to deceive.” Point 6: “Honesty has a fence.” I think they can work together if we keep in mind the qualifier of love: “Willing the good of another.” If what you do is always will the good of another, you will be able to tell everything at one point, but at another it would harm for them to know everything at that time. You “fence” some of it.

God does not tell us everything about us, even about our own sinful nature. That does not mean He is lying. It does not mean that He will withhold that information forever either. He will reveal it as we are able to handle it. If the intent is not to deceive, but to protect, then there is no conflict. It is like the Hebrew midwives who lied to the Egyptian soldiers about the births of the baby boys they were ordered to kill. They were willing the good of another. It is important to remember that by doing so, they put their own lives on the line. It would have been safer for them  to not lie.

Q3. Is there a time when the truth might hinder a person in coming to Christ?

A3. Jesus said that he was the “Truth” (John 14:6). I don’t think there is a time when the truth would keep a person from coming to Christ. I think a misconception of the truth could. A search for truth will actually lead a person to consider Jesus Christ. A rejection or misunderstanding of truth would then keep a person away. Truth, by definition is what corresponds with reality.