By Adrian Warnock – churchleaders.com
Suddenly the Psalms take on a whole new meaning. Smart pastors are reminding their listeners it is OK to bring your emotions to God and engage with him honestly. We can come to God with gritty realism, tell him how we feel, but know that ultimately he is sovereign and just as he has delivered us before, he will deliver us from Covid-19 whether he uses a vaccine or by turning back the advancing tide of disease.
There are challenges ahead but we are not facing them in a random universe but one ruled by our loving Father. Yes the suffering we see raises questions for us. But without any hope or God in this world our culture is far less prepared to handle such suffering.
With many people reporting challenges sleeping due to Coronavirus anxiety, perhaps you yourself are using meditation tools like the SoulTime app which will gently read out psalms to you to help you find the peace you need to sleep.
It is vital to recognise what is happening in front of us. A massive doorway for the gospel has opened up in this nation. We really must step through it with both feet and with prayer.
It seems almost 60 percent of churches ARE praying for people to come to know Jesus. However, fascinatingly only 7 percent of churches have made adjustments to their services to have them focus primarily on unbelievers. It seems we are a bit unprepared for God to listen to us, and perhaps haven’t recognised our prayers are being answered in bucket loads. It is like the Early Church, praying earnestly for Peter to be released from prison, when he came knocking on the door they were so shocked they thought he had already been executed and they were seeing his ghost!
It does seem that we get what we pray for but also what we prepare for and provide for. If you look only at those few churches which are focusing on new people in their meetings as their top priority a whopping 88 percent have seen an increase in people wanting to understand more about the Christian faith. If your congregation can see and hear that their pastors want newcomers and won’t make them uncomfortable they will invite their friends.
If we are serious about wanting to see a revival, then we must not only pray for one, we must expect one, and we must start to act as if we are already in the middle of a revival. Because when the history of this remarkable and in many ways terrible year is written, perhaps it will be said that this was the start of one of the greatest Awakenings this country has ever seen.
“It is amazing to see that those who think the most important aspect of their Sunday service is providing a place for people to encounter Jesus are more likely to see people make a first-time commitment to follow Him. Imagine the difference it would make if 100% of churches made that a priority on a Sunday, rather than just 7%”
Gavin Calver, CEO, Evangelical Alliance
If we are about to enter a revival, this requires Christian’t to be spiritually awakened. And we are seeing a stirring among the hearts of many back towards their saviour. One mouthpiece that God has been using to deeply stir thousands of Christians in their personal times during this season of lockdown is Tery Virgo.
Terry has been prompted to share almost daily brief video devotions. These mini revelations will cause your own heart to burn anew within you. A man who has walked calmly with his God for decades provides us a glimpse into his relationship with God that is inspiring and encouraging.
As we refresh ourselves in the love of God, and enjoy the peace, hope, and sense of presence that he brings us, we will find that we want to share this joy with others. Here is one example of Terry’s brief talks, I encourage you to find the rest. It won’t take long to catch up on all of them:
To move from being a bit over-familiar with Jesus to being white hot for him is the fist step in experiencing revival. It seems that the second involves being intentional about how you plan your services and urging your whole congregation to engage with their friends and talk with them about faith, or simply invite them to watch church online.
This sermon from Tope Koleoso was designed to spur the church family that I am part of to actively represent Jesus online at this time. Why not ask your church family to watch and be inspired as we were. These days of course if you do invite a visiting preacher, you can simply play a YouTube video over your own feed.
What I liked about this message was the way it demystified evangelism. We just need to find or create an environment online where we can befriend people, offer them compassion, support, and gently talk about the reason for our hope. Some online forums are not open to conversation about faith but you can still be a witness in such an environment and you can also potentially create a new website forum where discussing our deep struggles and inner journey is actively encouraged.
This message directly inspired what I have been trying to accomplish with my own such venture, bloodcanceruncensored.com. By connecting with people at a point of our shared need, I hope and pray that some of them will also be introduced to Jesus. Let God inspire you through this message from the man I have called pastor, friend and brother for 25 years:
To move from being a bit over-familiar with Jesus to being white hot for him is the fist step in experiencing revival. It seems that the second involves being intentional about how you plan your services and urging your whole congregation to engage with their friends and talk with them about faith, or simply invite them to watch church online.
This sermon from Tope Koleoso was designed to spur the church family that I am part of to actively represent Jesus online at this time. Why not ask your church family to watch and be inspired as we were. These days of course if you do invite a visiting preacher, you can simply play a YouTube video over your own feed.
What I liked about this message was the way it demystified evangelism. We just need to find or create an environment online where we can befriend people, offer them compassion, support, and gently talk about the reason for our hope. Some online forums are not open to conversation about faith but you can still be a witness in such an environment and you can also potentially create a new website forum where discussing our deep struggles and inner journey is actively encouraged.
This message directly inspired what I have been trying to accomplish with my own such venture, bloodcanceruncensored.com. By connecting with people at a point of our shared need, I hope and pray that some of them will also be introduced to Jesus. Let God inspire you through this message from the man I have called pastor, friend and brother for 25 years:
This article about the COVID-19 Awakening originally appeared here.