这几天，我们都在探讨一个关于复兴的题目：复兴是始于神的主权。今天，让我们继续来思想：若复兴是神主权的行动（事实是如此），这是否表示神的子民没有任何角色需要扮演？我的答案绝对是「否」。复兴是神主权的行动，意思是祂按自己意愿的时间及地点赐下复兴，但从研究过去的复兴，包括圣经及教会历史，都显示复兴是在神百姓广泛的祷告后发生的。

我们今天所读的经文提到一个很主要的条件，那就是：「我名下的子民，若……祷告……」。有一次，有人向复兴领袖罗伯斯（Evan Roberts）问及复兴的秘诀，他说：「没有秘诀，只要祈求，你就必得着。」著名的圣经注释者亨利（Matthew Henry）写了很多关于这一点的论述，并以一句有力的话作总结：「神想要向祂的百姓大施怜悯时，祂第一件要做的事就是令他们祷告。」只有神才能燃起复兴的火焰，但祂的百姓那热切及毫不犹豫的祷告，则是复兴力量流入教会的桥梁。

我们必须明白，神的主权不是在复兴中唯一发挥作用的，爱也同时在发挥作用。我们是与一位既恩慈、又无所不能的神交往。当我们看见复兴一个更广阔的意义──爱的意义时，我们就会明白神为甚么要在复兴前，触动祂的子民的心，促使他们为复兴作出充满力量的祷告。神就是喜爱祂的儿女共同参与实现祂的旨意。

「神是一位既恩慈、又无所不能的神」

进深研究
约十五1-17；耶二十九13；可十一24；约壹三21-22

1. 我们甚么时候可以为自己的意愿祈求？
2. 祷告蒙应允其中的一个条件是甚么？

祈祷
天父啊！我感谢您，因您不单是一位聆听祷告的神，也是一位乐意回应祷告的神。求您让圣灵引领我们祷告，使我们可以正确地祷告，从而协助建立您的国度。奉耶稣的名祈求，阿们。

Heaven-Sent Revival

Day 340

The wider context of revival

"...if my people...will humble themselves and pray...then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin..." (v.14)

Bible reading:
2 Chronicles 7:12-22

12 the Lord appeared to him at night and said: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.

13 "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,

14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.

16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

17 "As for you, if you walk before me faithfully as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws,

18 I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, 'You shall never fail to have a successor to rule over Israel.'

19 "But if you[a] turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you[b] and go off to serve other gods and worship them,

20 then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples.

21 This temple will become a heap of rubble. All[c] who pass by will be appalled and say, 'Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?'

22 People will answer, 'Because they have forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why he brought all this disaster on them.'"

Message

We continue meditating on the question: If revival is a sovereign act of God (and it is), does this mean that the people of God have no part to play in it? My answer to that question is a categorical "No". Revival is a sovereign act of God in the sense that He sends it where and when He wills, but a study of revivals of the past, both in Scripture and in the history of the Church, shows that revival always follows the prevailing prayers of God's people.

The central condition of the verse before us today is, "if my people...pray...". When Evan Roberts was asked the secret of revival he said: "There is no secret: ask and you shall receive" Matthew Henry, the renowned Bible commentator, wrote a good deal about this particular point and summed it up in this powerful statement: "When God intends a great mercy for His people, the first thing He does is set them a-praying." God is the only one who can produce revival, but the fervent believing intercession of His people is the ramp over which it flows into the Church.

It must be recognised that sovereignty is not the only thing at work in revival - love is also at work. We are dealing with a God who is beneficent as well as omnipotent. Once we see revival in this wider context - the context of love - we begin to understand why God inspires strong intercessory prayer in the hearts of His people prior to revival. He just loves His children to be involved with Him in bringing about His purposes.

"God is beneficent as well as omnipotent"

Prayer
O Father, I am grateful that You are a God who not only hears our prayers but delights to respond to them. Cause our prayers to be Spirit-inspired that we may pray aright and help build Your Kingdom. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.

Further study
John 15:1-17
Jeremiah. 29:13
Mark 11:241
John 3:21-22

1. When can we ask for whatever we want?
2. What is one of the conditions of answered prayer?

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