Focus: Humility
Focus: Revival
Isaiah 57:15 (NKJV) For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, Whose Name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
You might be wondering what God can do with a life like yours. You might have the feeling that your best days are over and that you will never be able to accomplish much because of the broken road you have traveled. You might have stopped thinking about success and finishing well in this life a long time ago—figuring God doesn’t use people who have done the things you’ve done.
Maybe the thought of being ‘called’ by God is frightening to you. Maybe it’s something you’ve never considered could happen to you. You might feel like you wouldn’t know the first thing about serving God, if He did call you. Possibly you would be afraid of failing, if you tried.
Throughout history, God has called the humble. The unlikely. The ones who were broken…and those who had failed. Many people failed while serving the Lord and He restored their life and ministry and gave them a better end than they ever hoped for. Ask me how I know…
When Jesus called His disciples, He chose common, ordinary men…not necessarily poor materially, but definitely poor in spirit. Someone who was too proud wouldn’t have been willing to follow Jesus—so He chose the humble. Jesus preached the importance of serving others and on many occasions, He portrayed a servant.
God loves those who are empty and at the end of themselves. His specialty is revival—breathing the breath of life into those who are all but dead. If He was able to raise the dead, He can surely raise ‘you’. If your heart has been hurt to the point of being broken—He can heal it. He made man and woman out of the dust of the ground—He has the ability to make a broken heart brand new.
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If you are broken today, you are a perfect candidate for the service of the Lord. He uses people who can barely talk. He uses imperfect voices to speak His words. He uses those who have no strength of their own so that His strength and power will be seen in the weak and broken ones He chooses.
Maybe there was a time when you thought about being in the service of the Lord—but now you think it’s too late. As long as you are still alive, it’s not too late. Maybe you were in His service at one time, but things changed and you lost that ministry. I am here to tell you He still has plans for you. It’s not over.
There is a wind of revival blowing all over the earth. God is calling people from the north, the south, the east, and the west. He is saying, “Come, will you follow Me?” He is saying, “Will you allow Me to breathe new life into your nostrils?” He is asking you, “Are you willing to believe that I have a use for you? Can you allow Me to fill you and revive you?”
God is longing to use you in a specific way. Everything in your life has prepared you for this moment. He has been working through all of the trials you have suffered—none of them were by accident. Each one of them has made you just a little more humble and contrite—just a little more like the person He wanted you to be.
You might think such treatment to be cruel and harsh. No matter how you feel about what you’ve been through, each trial was specially designed to bring about one of the attributes of your character.
When you are called into the service of the Lord, the testing doesn’t stop. But testing never stops, whether you decide to say ‘yes’ to His call, or not. Even after you say ‘yes’ to Him, God will not stop working on you.
Imagine God as a sculptor. Imagine yourself as a big rough piece of marble. To begin with, you have no form, beauty, or usefulness—but God wants you to be outstanding and magnificent. The shaping will be painstaking—requiring much time and effort on His part—as well as yours.
God has a vision in His mind as He places the chisel on the stone and starts hammering. The way He gets you into the shape He wants you, is by chipping away everything that doesn’t resemble the results He’s working toward. Throughout the process of shaping you, He will use many tools and techniques, and in the end, He will have made a masterpiece. Something uniquely beautiful and useful.
Declaration: I will find new strength by humbly allowing God to revive me and by embracing His desire to use me.
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