We don’t typically think of the birth of Christ as a revival, but studying the Advent of Christ provides us with useful lessons and encouragement as we seek revival in our days. 

First, the Church (which in those days was Israel) had not exactly donned their Sunday best. God did not choose that particular time to act because the land was overflowing with justice and righteousness. Although the nation groaned under the subjugation of the Romans, this did not drive most of them to waiting humbly upon God. Most Israelites in those days at settled into the status quo and were just going with the flow and trying to manage some kind of faith in God at the same time.

Sound familiar?

Next, the religious leaders were not necessarily on board with the Lord’s program. Rather, as a group they offered far more resistance than support to God’s plan of redemption. Jesus said they were even barring people’s entrance to the Kingdom of God! Opposing Christ and envious of His ministry, they failed to acknowledge the abundant good God brought about through Him. They were more concerned about maintaining their traditional programs and places of privilege than of welcoming the new day of Messiah’s Kingdom.

Sound familiar?

Lastly, God did not operate the way people expected. Or where they expected. Or when. Instead, He did the opposite of what the people of that day would have supposed. He would not be programmed, and He would not be constrained. He would do what He had promised, and when, and how.

Now, as we look back on the fulfilled prophecies, the purposefulness of His actions, and His plan for salvation, we realize those former mysteries have now become revelations fraught with promise and hope.

The underlying principle in all of this is that God will move according to His plan and His purpose. God acts according to His purposes, as revealed in His Word, and it is to Him that we lift up our prayers.

And God has promised, if we will pray, He will show us great things and mysteries we’ve never seen before (Jer. 33.3).

So brothers, let us pray expectantly that God will move. Let us plead with Him and expect Him to move in ways that will surprise us. Who knows? The astonishment we feel during Advent may become the astonishment we are living as the Lord breaks out in revival, renewal, and awakening in response to our prayers.

Ralph Lehman, Men’s Prayer Coordinator
T. M. Moore, Principal

Download “Men of the Church: A Solemn Call” for free by clicking this link. Make copies for all the men you know, and urge them to join you in this movement of Men at Prayer. Order your copy of Restore Us! and start your own regular Revival Prayer Group.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.