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Fasting for Revival

The Urban Alternative / Tony Evans, PhD
The Truth Network Radio
January 17, 2025 5:00 am

Fasting for Revival

The Urban Alternative / Tony Evans, PhD

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January 17, 2025 5:00 am

Sometimes it can feel like there isn’t as much life in our Christian walk as there used to be. In this message, Dr. Tony Evans shares ways to reignite our spiritual passion to bring about a revival in us and through us.

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The reason why we don't witness is we're not revived. Dr. Tony Evans says when Christ comes alive in you, you've got to say something. I don't need the pastor to tell me to tell me.

I'd just be so overwhelmed I can't keep it to myself. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Sometimes it can feel like there isn't as much life in our Christian walk as there used to be. Well, today Dr. Evans shares ways to reignite our spiritual passion in order to bring about a revival not only in our lives, but through our lives as well.

Let's join him as he begins. Let me just say a few things about fasting for revival. Remember, our theme is fasting. And we're not only concerned about what happens with us, but what happens through us to others in reaching others.

Because you see, it's hard to talk about stuff you yourself are not excited about. The reason why we don't have much to say about Jesus is because we've lost our excitement. And so there is a need for a freshness, a fresh move of God that's called revival. One of the great illustrations of revival really doesn't have anything to do with people, but it has to do with creation. All the way back in the book of Genesis chapter 1, the very first book in the Bible, we read about revival. We read in verse 2 of chapter 1, And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was upon the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water. And God said, let there be light, and there was light. That's revival. Revival is when God breaks through the darkness of your life and says, let there be light. You know, there is great concern when metal workers work with metal, they have this thing called bellows.

You've seen them. Bellows are these things that they squeeze together over fire. That's because if they don't do it, the fire will get dim and weak.

It won't be as hot. And so, in order to keep it hot and alive, they press the bellows to heighten the flame and to make the flame more exuberant. That's revival. Revival is when God comes into your dry spirit and bellows it. When God comes in and squeezes new life.

A lot of couples want to get out of marriage when what they need is not a new home, they need a remodeling job in the home they live in. First place is they want to go to greener pastures, only to discover that when winter time comes, it doesn't matter where you live. Grass is going to get brown. When winter time comes, it doesn't matter where you live. Something's going to go wrong there when winter, and I've never yet seen a Christian or a physical or human relationship where winter time didn't come. You don't live on cloud nine for the whole of your Christian life because we live in a sinful world. We live in a world where circumstances, sin, people, and most certainly the devil can take the energy out of your Christian walk or out of your Christian relationship. The first thing people want to do is leave.

You don't need to leave, you need some bellows. You need something to reheat the flame. That's revival.

The reheating of the flame. Now, coupled with this reality is the nature of God. God must judge sin.

Must. God does not have temper tantrums. He does not go off the handle. He doesn't just get ticked off like we do as humans. Romans 1 says the wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness. Or to put it another way, God's judgment is his necessary response to sin, not his emotional reaction to it.

It's not just that he gets upset because he saw you do this, but it is just the natural response of his holiness to anything that is unlike himself. So when staleness sets into our spiritual lives and that leads us then to begin to live independently of God on whatever level that takes its place, there is always a divine response. And when that divine response comes, what we begin to discover is God seems further and further away, and the further God is away from us, the more deterioration sets in.

The law of thermodynamics. Well, that means there's a need for revival. You don't have to get saved all over again, you just need to get renewed.

You need a new excitement. And that's why the passage in Joel is our passage today, related not only to our own lives but to our emphasis of reaching others, because it's a call for revival. The people of God, the Israelites, had departed from God. They had left God. They had walked away from him and walked away from the dynamic of the relationship. They were not willing to keep the love affair going on. And they were paying a heavy price for walking away from God. You always pay a heavy price for walking away from God.

What was the price? Verse 4 of chapter 1. What the loin locusts have left, the swarming locusts have eaten. And what the swarming locusts have left, the creeping locusts have eaten. And what the creeping locusts have left, the stripping locusts have eaten. Awake, drunkards, and weak, and wail, all you wine drinkers, on account of the sweet wine that is cut off from your mouth. For a nation has invaded my land, mighty without number.

Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of a lioness. Now, God is referring here to the locust invasion that he allowed as the necessary response to the people's rebellion against God. The people had gotten used to God. God had become taken for granted, and as a result, God did not hold back judgment. Now, the reason why you and I don't get what we deserve is because God holds back judgment. Many of you in this room right now know you should have been dead now.

If you would have gotten what you deserve for the mess you put yourself in, you wouldn't be here today, but the grace of God has allowed you to remain here today. When the locusts come, they eat up your food, they eat up your fruit, they destroy your productivity. God has allowed the locusts to come because of our departure from him.

Dryness sets in, staleness sets in, emptiness sets in. So what does he say in verse 14? Consecrate a fast. Proclaim a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord, alas for the day, for the day of the Lord is near and it will come as destruction from the Almighty. So this takes us to our theme, doesn't it? It tells us that one of the ways you get revival is through fasting.

He says consecrate a fast. When staleness sets into your spiritual life, or when the Doppler radar lets you know that judgment is near. You all know what the Doppler radar is, don't you? You listen to your brother report, they give you the Doppler radar report. The Doppler radar report is a sophisticated meteorological surveillance system that lets you know trouble is on the way. It lets you know a storm is coming from the west, or a hurricane is coming from the east, or major weather changes are coming from this direction or that direction. Why do they give a Doppler radar report?

They give you a Doppler radar report so you can get ready, so you can prepare. God will say consecrate a fast because the Jehovah radar report says that judgment is on the way. It is time to get you to be serious about God. But many of us are watching the locusts eat up our lives. Everything we touch gets eaten up. We try to save money.

God keeps letting stuff get broken down so we don't save a thing. We try to make ourselves happy, come up with pseudo-happiness. This has created happiness. You always know people who aren't happy because they're always having to spend money to get happy. Pseudo-happiness.

See, if you have to spend money every day to get happy, that's because it means nothing is happening on the inside. If you always need the external to make your internal happy, rather than the internal making your external happy, you don't need a new movie, you need a revival. You don't need a party or a club, you need a revival.

You need something light bursting forth on the inside to give fresh aliveness there, which means that you're not dependent on the outside and you can save some money all at the same time. Let's look at it a little closer, the nature of this revival. Chapter 2, verse 12. Yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, and with fasting and weeping and mourning, and rent your heart, not your garments. What he says is, this is a very serious exercise.

And since we want revival, or should want revival, it's a very serious thing. He says weeping and mourning, or to put it, if I were to put it another way, coming to the end of yourself. Here's what brokenness means. It means God stripping you of your self-sufficiency.

See, God created you to be dependent upon him, yet it's very easy as human beings to become independent of him, so what God must do is break you. Dr. Evans will have more on fasting for revival when he returns in just a moment. First though, I want to let you know that the lesson we're hearing today is part of an enlightening series exploring what the Bible has to say about fasting. The complete collection of all 14 full-length messages in this two-volume series on fasting is available as our thank-you gift to those who make a contribution to help support the ministry of the alternative. This offer will only be available for a few more days now, so visit us right away at tonyevans.org to request your copy of Fasting, The Key to Spiritual Victory. You'll receive all 14 audio messages on CD or digital download, along with an extra bonus, our Cultivating a Year of Kindness Perpetual Flip Calendar, featuring daily prompts, prayers, scriptures, and words from Dr. Evans that will help you develop a passion for the simple fruit of the Spirit, kindness. Visit us at tonyevans.org before this limited-time offer runs out, or call 1-800-800-3222 to get some in-person help from our resource team. I'll have our contact information for you again after part two of today's lesson and this.

It was my first time meeting Jesus in the Bible. That's what one student is saying after studying bibliology through the Tony Evans Training Center, taught by renowned theologian Dr. Tony Evans. These online courses feature compelling and exclusive video and audio teaching, plus an interactive scripture-based curriculum you can access online or through the mobile app. Sign up now at tonyevanstraining.org. Take a course with Dr. Evans and explore the kingdom anytime, anywhere.

tonyevanstraining.org. Some years ago, my wife and I were trying to decide. We were debating about maybe moving or maybe remodeling, and we went back and forth of moving versus remodeling, moving versus remodeling. We decided to remodel, and so we remodeled our home. That was an inconvenient thing.

I'm going to tell you now, that's a very inconvenient thing. One of the things we got remodeled was the kitchen. The process of remodeling, or let's call that reviving my kitchen, meant things got worse before they got better. Are you praying with me? If you fast and go before God, don't be surprised if things get worse before they get better, because in order for God to make you new, He's got to rip out the old.

He's got to tear out that old way of thinking, that old way of walking, that old way of talking, that old way of acting. So don't be surprised if your world crumbles and you say, but I was fasted for revival, but He can't remake your kitchen till He tears down the one that's there already. In fact, the only reason you're coming is because the one that's there already doesn't look good anymore. The one that's there already isn't working anymore.

And I like this because the text says that when He does do this, who knows, verse 14, whether He will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind. When they tore down my kitchen, they didn't put back up the cabinets if they tore down. My wife got blessed with new cabinets. We don't have the same refrigerator anymore.

We don't have the same stove because, of course, as ladies go, you don't remodel the kitchen and repaint it and put in the old stuff. You want new stuff. The point is, He says, not only might God relent, but leave you some bonuses behind.

But make no mistake about it. If you need a revival, things may get worse, remodeling, before they get better. Now, how would you feel about a construction person and you want to remodel the kitchen or remodel the living room or whatever, and all they do is put something on top of what you already have? See, a lot of us don't want a revival, we just want a coating. We just want to put another coat on top of this.

In fact, a lot of us have been coating for years. And all we got is stacks of stuff on stacks of stuff when what we need is something to be torn out, ripped apart, ripped to shreds. Let me tell you a secret. Everybody who God ever used in the Bible in any great way, everybody who God ever let him see in a deeper level got broken first. There's no way around it. I wish there was an easier way, but there is no way around getting to the next level through brokenness. God had a strip of them.

Bring them to themselves. Peter said, I'll never leave you. Jesus said, you're going to leave me before tomorrow morning. And the Bible says, and Peter ran outside when he denied the Lord twice, and he wet a broken man. Then Jesus said, now I can use you. Paul in Romans 7 says, the things I don't want to do, those are the things I do.

I don't want this problem in my life. He was a broken man. God gave him a thorn in the flesh he couldn't shake. And he said, the reason I'm going to give you this thorn is so that you stay humble. God is going to break you.

That's good news. God says, fast and pray and throw yourself and weep and wail and rinse your heart, not just your garments, for this revival, for this new awakening of God, for this fresh experience of God. So what does this require of you? Well, this whole concept of fasting for revival is fasting for repentance. It has to do with the repentance. Repentance is the restoration of fellowship, the renewing of fellowship.

Let me make sure we're on the same page here. There is a difference between relationship and fellowship. When you trust Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, as Savior, you enter into a formal legal relationship. But when you are intimate with your Savior, that gives you a relationship. You can have a relationship and not enjoy fellowship. You follow me now? What you need is the renewal of fellowship.

And what's the result? What can I expect? This is good stuff. Back to Joel. What can I expect if I fast for revival, if I give up the physical to gain the spiritual? Verse 18 says, the Lord will be zealous for His land and He will have pity on His people. That's mercy. Mercy. Mercy is when God doesn't give you what you do deserve, which is His justice and His just retribution for sin. Verse 19 says, I'm going to send you grain, new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied and full with them.

I'm going to give you new stuff. Now, we just read in chapter 1, He took away their grain. He took away their oil.

He took away their grapes. But the same God that took it can replant it. But oh, do I like verse 25. And then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locusts have eaten. Some of us in here today have lost many years of life, fooling around, wasting time, not serving God. God says, if you get right with me, I'll not only give you new stuff, I'll give you the old stuff that you lost when you should have been home.

Isn't that good news? I will give you what the locusts have taken. I'll plant new stuff, but then I'll also give you what the new.

I'll make up the oil. That's how much God wants to have a revival in our hearts. He wants you so bad, He'll make a promise to give you what they took and to make up what you lost. Isn't that something? That if I lost ten years with God, and I get right with God today, He will not only replant my life for tomorrow, but start working on retroactive goodness. Retroactive blessing. Retroactive grace.

That's what I need. I need retroactive grace. Then look at verse 28. And it came about after this, that I will pour out my Spirit on all mankind, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.

I will pour out my Spirit in those days. Now you know where this was quoted, right? It's quoted in the book of Acts. It's quoted in the book of Acts when they were waiting on the Spirit to come. And Jesus said, and when my Spirit comes, you shall be my witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. Now watch this then.

Watch this. God says, when I revive you, you will have a new experience of my Spirit. I will become alive in you, and my Spirit will bring not only His presence, but His power. You will have a power in your life operating that was not there before.

How do you know when that power is there? Let me tell you what Jesus told His disciples, and you will be my witnesses. You will be my witnesses.

You will be my witnesses. When you've been revived, you're going to talk. When you've been revived, you're going to have something to say.

The reason why we're not witnesses is we're not revived. When Christ comes alive in you, you've got to say something. They try to shut you up because He's too real. He's real, real in my soul today. And when He's real in my soul today, I want to know, do you know Him?

I want to know, have you met Him? I'm going to want to tell it, and I won't need the pastor to tell me to tell it. I'd just be so overwhelmed I can't keep it to myself. Because that's what happens when you fall in love.

You can't keep it to yourself. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Before Tony returns with a final story, don't forget that today's lesson is part of a series called Fasting the Key to Spiritual Victory.

You can get the full-length version of all 14 lessons in this series on CD or digital download, along with our Cultivating a Year of Kindness Perpetual Flip Calendar when you make a donation to help us continue this ministry to a world desperately in need of biblical wisdom and renewal. Call us to make the arrangements at 1-800-800-3222. Our Resource Center never closes, so you can reach out any time of the day or night. That's 1-800-800-3222. Or visit tonyevans.org to take advantage of this special package.

You'll find the details right on the homepage. Again, that's tonyevans.org. We often admire those whose talents are easily recognized, but Dr. Evans reminds us that God has given each of us unique gifts.

On Monday, we'll explore how to identify those gifts and discern the best ways and times to use them. Right now, though, Tony's back with these final comments for today. I love the story of the prodigal son. He got lost and he needed remodeling jobs. He got tired of the pig pen and came on home. He said, my father's servants do better than this. Let me go home.

But you know what I like about it? It says, while he was a far off, while he was way out there, hadn't even seen Daddy yet, Daddy was at the front door looking. Because when you draw near to Daddy, Daddy draws near to you.

Daddy runs and meets him along the way. And that should have been enough. It should have been enough that Daddy hugged him and kissed him and said, welcome home, son, and I'll accept you. That would have been enough. Oh, but that's not the end of the story. The story says, somebody bring out the fatted calf.

We're going to party. Bring out the golden ring. Bring out the sandals and give him the robe of dignity. He gave him a blessing that he wouldn't even had if he stayed home. Now, that doesn't erase the misery of being in a pig pen. But it does say, if God needs a pig pen to bring you home, He'll bring you that low. He'll bring you as low as you need to go to see there's no place like home. There's no place like home.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-17 11:06:46 / 2025-01-17 11:16:00 / 9

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