从天上赐下的复兴
不要失去平衡

经文
提摩太后书三16-四5
16圣经都是神所默示的(或作:凡神所默示的圣经),于教训、督责、使人归正、教导人学义都是有益的,
17叫属神的人得以完全,预备行各样的善事。
1我在神面前,并在将来审判活人死人的基督耶稣面前,凭着他的显现和他的国度嘱咐你:
2务要传道,无论得时不得时,总要专心;并用百般的忍耐,各样的教训,责备人、警戒人、劝勉人。
3因为时候要到,人必厌烦纯正的道理,耳朵发痒,就随从自己的情欲,增添好些师傅,
4并且掩耳不听真道,偏向荒渺的言语。
5你却要凡事谨慎,忍受苦难,作传道的工夫,尽你的职分。
信息分享
我们讨论复兴这话题已有好一段日子,前几天我们谈到有些宗教人士并不认同复兴出现时信徒的情绪反应,而今天,我们会探讨有些人认为复兴是不需要的,和无关痛痒的。我们看其中一人的理论。他说:「鼓励大家相信复兴,只会令他们在属灵上感到不满足;他们变成只专注为复兴祷告(而这是很少发生的事),以致未能完成手上的事工。」我对这看法有点儿认同,因为这么多年来,我也注意到有些基督徒常常大谈复兴即将来临,但是逃避了基督徒日常生活上的责任。
多年前,我在威尔斯牧养教会,知道当时有一间教会的领袖认为他们应该取消其他一切活动,只在每天晚上举行祷告会,直到神给他们的会众赐下复兴为止。当他们决定全情投入这个看似属灵却是错误的意念以后,就只能继续下去。他们每天晚上的祷告会维持了一年之久,后来会友们纷纷感到厌倦和迷惑,祷告会才被迫终止。直到今天,那间教会的元气仍然没有恢复过来。
那教会由于对复兴持有不平衡的观念,而错过了很多布道和宣教的机会。他们以为得到引导,但是看不到每天晚上的祷告、等待复兴的来临,是一种沉溺的需求过于属灵的渴望。当对复兴的渴求变成一种沉迷,导致我们失去属灵的平衡时,那就是问题所在了。
「我们不能忽视手上的事工」
进深研究
路十一1-13;代下七14;申四29;赛五十五6
1. 真诚寻求的人能得到甚么应许?
2. 耶稣如何说明这一点?
祈祷
天父,求您帮助我懂得分辨哪些是我自己本性的要求,哪些是您所激发的属灵渴望。因为我知道其中一条是出路,另外一条却是死胡同。奉耶稣的名祈求,阿们。
Heaven-Sent Revival
Don't get tipped off balance

Bible reading:
2 Timothy 3:16-4:5
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:
2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Message
We look now at another argument advanced by those who see the issue of revival as unnecessary and irrelevant. It goes like this: "Encouraging people to believe for a revival serves only to make them spiritually discontent. They become so preoccupied with praying in a revival (which happens. only infrequently) that they fail to get on with the task at hand." I have some sympathy for this argument as I too have been concerned for years over those Christians who talk a lot about a coming revival but avoid the day-to-day responsibilities of Christian living.
Many years ago, when I was a minister in Wales, I knew a church whose leaders believed that they should cancel all their activities and hold a prayer meeting every evening of the week until God sent revival to their community. Once committed to this seemingly spiritual but rather misguided idea, they simply had to keep going. They continued holding prayer meetings every evening for over a year, after which the congregation were so tired and bewildered they were obliged to call a halt. The church has never recovered to this day.
Think of all the opportunities the church missed in evangelism and outreach because they had an unbalanced view of the subject of revival. They thought they were being guided, but they failed to see that their commitment to pray every evening until revival came was more an obsessive demand than a deep spiritual desire. When the issue of revival becomes an obsession that tips us off our spiritual balance then there is something seriously wrong.
"We must not overlook the task at hand"
Prayer
O Father, help me differentiate between the demands that arise out of my own nature and the spiritual desires which arise out of Your inner prompting. For I see that one is an open road; the other a cul-de-sac. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.
Further study
Luke 11:1-13
2 Chronicles 7:14
Deuteronomy 4:29
Isaiah 55:6
1. What is promised to those who sincerely seek?
2. How did Jesus illustrate this?
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