“Return, faithless Israel,” declares the Lord, “I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful. … I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt—you have rebelled against the Lord your God, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed me,” declares the Lord. —Jeremiah 3:12-13
Hell is a true reality. And we experience real loss in our spiritual lives and in the fullness of our earthly ministry by not fully responding to the Holy Spirit during revival. Shame and embarrassment lead to genuine pain when sin is exposed. All these arguments have their place. There is a time to warn people of hell or to warn them that they may lose out and be disqualified in terms of their earthly mandate and ministry. There is a time to exhort people to leave their ungodly ways because of the public and private humiliation they will taste if they don’t. Yet the primary and most effective method is the way that the Lord Himself spoke through the prophet Jeremiah. The Lord is crying out “Return! Return!” to the backslidden children who have found their pleasures elsewhere. He is calling to the redeemed who have lost their way and whose hearts have grown cold. He is ready to “wow” them with a revelation of His heart that will cause true holiness to spring up like a geyser from within their spirits.
{ PRAYER STARTER }
Father, I long for a new revival of Your holiness and power upon this broken world. I want to warn others of the realities of hell and tell them of the wonders and majesty of Your heaven.
The Lord beckons us to do away with compromise
and leave our backsliding because He wants us
and desires us.
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