If you pray for personal revival, you are a faithful believer. Usually, only believers who are serious about their faith ever see the need to pray for personal revival.
Getting to the point where you feel you need revival takes the conviction of the Holy Spirit. I understand that praying for personal revival can be a challenge.
The fact that you need revival means you are weak spiritually which means you are unlikely to pray. But despite the paradoxical nature of praying for personal revival, God has provided a way for us to ask for personal revival.
How to Pray for God to Revive You
1. Prayer for Personal Revival begins with asking God to purify you
When we get to the point where we feel we need revival, it is because we have defiled ourselves so much that we can’t get close to God.
The Bible tells us in the book of Isaiah 59:1-2 that the hand of God is not too short to save us nor His ear dull to hear us but it is our iniquity that separates us from Him.
With this being the case, it means for us to be revived, we need to start by asking God to forgive us our sins and turn away from our iniquity.
Asking God to forgive us is straight forward; you acknowledge your sin before God and ask Him to forgive you. We are assured in 1st John 1:9 that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Confession is the key to getting forgiveness from God. If you hide your sin, you will perish with it but if you confess it, you will find mercy.
In your journey of personal revival, start by asking for forgiveness and purification then turn away from your iniquity.
Sin is what we did wrong in the past but iniquity is the state of our hearts. Sin comes as a result of our twisted desires.
The Bible explains to us in the book of James 1:14-15 that we sin when we are enticed by our evil desires and when those desires conceive, they give birth to sin and when sin matures, it brings death.
Repenting of the sin you have done is only half of the work. You need to ask God to help you turn away from your evil desires as well.
2. Prayer for Personal Revival should lay a Foundation
After praying for purification, you need to lay a foundation. Without a foundation, the personal revival you crave for won’t last.
The Bible tells us in 1st Corinthians 3:11 that no other foundation can be laid other than the one which has already been laid which is Jesus Christ.
We all know that salvation is the work of Christ; without Him, we can’t be saved.
This means that personal revival is incomplete unless we put Christ as our foundation. Jesus withstood all temptation and we can only withstand temptation if we follow His example.
When praying for personal revival, make a covenant with Christ. Confess that you are weak on your own and that you need Jesus to help you in your walk of salvation.
This step will determine if your personal revival will last or it will be passing wind.
3. Prayer for Personal Revival should end with the Infilling of the Holy Spirit
When you ask God to purify you and ask Jesus to be your foundation, you will need one more person; the Holy Spirit.
As God ordained, the Holy Spirit came to continue the work that Jesus began. Jesus Himself testified of the coming of the Holy Spirit saying it was better for Him to leave so that the Holy Spirit would come.
From the book of Acts, we see that the church began growing after the Holy Spirit came. Before the coming of the Holy Spirit, the apostles of Jesus were fearful and had locked themselves up in a private room.
Personal revival includes growing boldness to do the work of God. That is only possible if you are filled with the Holy Spirit.
The world we live in is full of evil. The endless sea of temptations will drown you if you don’t get self-control from the Holy Spirit.
Nobody can walk uprightly in this world without the help of the Holy Spirit. That is why you should not count your prayer for personal revival complete before you ask for the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit comes into our lives with gifts that help us operate in the fullness of the power of God.
Personal Revival takes Time and a lot of Praying
You are not going to make one prayer and be fully revived. There are many areas that need to be revived and it will take time and consistent prayers to get all those areas revived.
Of course the personal revival will begin by the purity of your soul then it will spread to other areas. There are other areas such as purity of your tongue, purity of your eyes, purity of your thoughts etc.
As the purity work goes on, God will begin laying foundations in your life. The goal is to have every area of your life reflect Christ.
At this stage, you will be required to read the word of God and get to know the character of Christ. Once you read about the character of Christ, you will grow a desire in you to be like Him and God will enable you through the Holy Spirit to achieve your desires.
To move through this stage, you will need to read the word of God and pray for its fulfillment in your life. The word of God is the building block that God uses to build us up.
When you are pure enough and well built, the Holy Spirit will start manifesting His power through you. You will be able to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit such as healing and speaking in tongues.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit will automate the process of personal revival. The Bible tells us in 1st Corinthians 14 that whoever speaks in tongues edifies himself. That edification includes personal revival only that it is automated.
Therefore, embrace the entire process of personal revival. Going through the process of personal revival halfway won’t give you a sustained walk of salvation.
Until next time…Peace!