TO PRAY OR NOT TO PRAY
(Selected Scriptures)

 By Lasaro Flores

There are those that believe that we are not to pray for Revival and Spiritual Awakening; and they base this on that the New Testament doesn’t teach that we are to do so. It is true that the New Testament writings do not indicate that there will be a general Revival and Spiritual Awakening in the last days ­­before the Lord Jesus Christ returns for His Church and for Judgment. On the other hand, it does show that there will be a great “falling away” (2 Thessalonians 2:3), i.e. an Apostasy; for in “the latter times some will depart from the faith” (1 Timothy 4:1) in that “the time will come when they (i.e. professing Christians) will not endure sound doctrine… And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3, 4). Therefore, because of this, we are not to pray for Revival and Spiritual Awakening (according to them), since it doesn’t seem there is one promised for the future. Now, if there is one, please let me know; for I am willing to be corrected by the Word of God. Amen.

It is true that we don’t find the words “revival” or “spiritual awakening” in the New Testament; but that doesn’t mean that true believers may not need to be Revived, Renewed, Restored or Reformed because of backsliding or a declension of their spiritual life as a Christian. There is no true believer that can ever claim they have never had times of spiritual dryness, hardness of heart; and for that fact, deliberate rebellion against the will of God. I would daresay that if there is such a one that says this is not true of them, that in itself indicates that they are already backslidden. Furthermore, I would add that it would be dangerous for a professing Christian to be in such a depleted spiritual condition and having to give an account of their life to Him who “knoweth the secrets of the heart” (Psalm 44:21); “for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

Now, the Old Testament makes much about Revival, not only for corporate revival but also for personal revival. The Psalmist prays: “Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?” (85:6). “And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage” (Ezra 9:8). (This may be applied to spiritual Revival). “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isaiah 57:15). In fact, 2 Chronicles 30:1 to 31:1 is a very good example of Revival in the Old Testament. Of course, much more could be presented of Revival in the O.T.; but for now, let it suffice what I have shown to be so.

Nevertheless, as I stated before, that although the New Testament doesn’t utilize the terminology for Revival and Spiritual Awakening as the Old Testament does, yet we can find many instances in the New Testament referring to them. It is inconceivable to think that once a sinner is converted to the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and is baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ, they will never have the need to be Revived, Renewed, Restored and Reformed in their lives as Christians. To believe otherwise, is to claim that a born again believer will always be filled with the Holy Spirit from the moment of conversion to glorification. But as we will note there are many Scriptures in the N.T. that at least imply Revival for a backsliding Christian___ that are times that true believers can, and will, fall from “walking in the Spirit” to “walking in the flesh”. What saint of God can claim that has never happen to them?

First, let us note some Scriptures that give the idea of Revival for the believer; and the implication is that either they have fallen into a backslidden state, or are in the danger of backsliding. The first one that comes to mind is Ephesians 5:18, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit”. Note the contrast between walking in the flesh and walking in the Spirit. Why the exhortation if it is not possible for the believer to backslide and would need Revival? Then we read “that now it is high time to awake out of sleep”; and “ put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof” (Romans 11-14). Here again we see the contrast between a carnal walk and a spiritual walk. A spiritual walk indicates for one to “be filled with the Spirit” and to be “awake out of sleep” having “put on the Lord Jesus Christ”. The absence of these things in one who professes to be a Christian is for one to be “drunk with wine”, making “provision for the flesh” and is ‘fulfilling the lusts thereof”; and therefore, to be in a backslidden state!

Can this be true of one who is a true believer of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, consider what the apostle Paul says in Romans 7. Here we are given a graphic picture of the believers’ daily struggle with indwelling sin! “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me” (verses 15-23). To the degree that a child of God has grown in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will determine how victorious they will be over sin in their life. But alas! There will be times when a saint of God will succumb and be defeated by sin; and sadly, may continue in it unless God of His grace will Revive, Renew, Restore and Reform His erring child from his backslidings. Do you know of any that find themselves in such a state; and won’t you pray to Him who ALONE can bring him back to Him?

Secondly, we look at two instances of the horrific condition of backsliding; and this in the church! These two examples may be taken individually or corporately. The first one is in Revelation chapter 2 where the Lord speaks to the church in Ephesus: “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent” (vss. 4, 5). This, of course, is a very sad picture of backsliding! This church, or individuals in the church, had done a very horrible thing. 1) They had “left (their) first love”; and what is “(their) first love”, if not the Lord Himself? Stop loving the Lord as your “first love” and everything else will be very easy to fall away from; especially those things that have to do with our Lord and His Gospel. 2) As a result, they have “fallen”; or as the Greek means, to drop away; specifically be driven out of one’s course where Christ is their “first love”; and therefore, loving Him and following Him as at the beginning. 3) They are exhorted to “remember” from what they had “fallen”, and to “repent”, i.e. to think differently about how they are now living. For sure, they are no longer living for their “first love”! 4) The proof of a change of mind, i.e. repentance is that they will “do the first works” when Christ was their “first love”, which works are produced by the love, in the faith and of the grace of God in us. Anytime we cannot say that this is our mode of living in Christ Jesus, definitely we need to be filled again with the Holy Spirit in Revival!

Now, consider the seriousness of this in case we are not brought back from our backsliding: “Or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent” (v.5). Note that the Lord is very serious about us turning back to Him, which if we are revived, renewed, restored and reformed by the grace of God, it will definitely take place as the prophet Jeremiah puts it: “Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old”, i.e. as it used to be at the beginning in our walk with the Lord (Lamentations 5:21). But note that He warns us that if we persist in our backsliding that He “will come…quickly” to deal with us in our rebellion. And, what is it that He will do? He says that He “will remove thy candlestick out of his place”. In other words, since in a backslidden state, we lose His light of witness, He’ll take us out the way “except (we) repent”; and for that to happen to a church, or even an individual Christian, truly that is tragic! In backsliding, we are no longer walking in the light and in fellowship with Him; therefore he has to remove us. That doesn’t mean we lose our salvation, but simply He can no longer use us for His cause and glory. This removal may mean various things, perhaps even death, but simply it means that we will no longer be a witness for the light of the Gospel of Christ Jesus if we persist in our backsliding. Do you think that calls for much prayer to call upon God’s mercy for an individual Christian or a particular church that He of His grace will bring revival to them?

Oh, beloved people of God, do we have eyes to see this persistence of backsliding in much of what is called “Christianity” today? It’s everywhere: I’m afraid that multitudes of professing Christians, and even churches, have lost their “first love”; you compare their lives with the Holy Word of God and all you see is love for the world and for the h\things of the world (1 John 2:15); holiness is just a Bible word for them; and as far as sin is concerned, oh, no big deal, “All of us are sinners; and besides, God loves sinners”, they say. Try to show them what God says about backsliding in His Word; and they’ll argue that we’re just being too legalistic! Yes, I’m afraid we have lost our witness for the Light of the Gospel and for the Lord Jesus Christ according as it is written in 1 Peter: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (v.9).

Oh, Lord God, what can we say but to humbly confess that we have sinned and rebelled against you. And in spite that You have been  patient and longsuffering, and slow to wrath; and have not dealt with us according to our sins and rewarded us according to our iniquities, yet, O God, we have persisted in our backslidings. O Lord God, remember to have mercy on us; for we are Your people; and if You of Your grace do not command the clouds to rain upon us once again, we will be of no use to You. Hear, O Lord and see, we need for You, not only to forgive us, but also to revive us, to renew us, to restore us and to reform us in Christ Jesus. Do it again as so many other times You have done so for Your beloved Son’s sake. We cry out to You, O God of all grace, to do it in the glorious Name of the Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Now, in continuing, secondly, we look at the Laodicean church of Revelation 3, where we see a very severe case of backsliding; and that for sure, they stand in need of Revival. As we consider the spiritual state of this particular church, should we pray that God of His grace and mercy be pleased to sent them Revival and Spiritual Awakening? As I stated before that there are those that claim that we have no Biblical basis to pray for revival since there is no indication that there will be a great general Revival and Spiritual Awakening in the last days before the Lord Jesus Christ returns. Of course, if this is true, then there is no need to pray for a fellow Christian that might have fallen into sin; or that there is every indication that that particular Christian is spiritually depleted. Such an idea, of course, would be totally contrary to, not only the Scriptures, but especially to Christian love! Could you really say that if you see your brother in Christ who is in a backslidden condition, you wouldn’t pray that God would bring him back in Him, i.e. to revive, to renew, to restore and reform him in his walk with the Lord? I don’t believe that any one of us would do such a thing in Christ, unless we are told specifically not to pray for them as He does with Jeremiah. Ref. to Jeremiah 7:16.

But here we see a church that had so backslidden that they had, in a sense, cast out the Lord from their presence, as indicated by verse 20, in that He was standing outside the door knocking in case someone would open the door so that He could come in: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me”. Of course, the problem with this church is their arrogant attitude in that they had come to the point of self-sufficiency and indifference; and the Lord accuses them of this when He tells them in verse 17: “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing”. This had caused the Lord to become nauseated and sicken with them that He told them: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (vv. 15, 16). Oh, can you imagine that the Lord could get disgusted with one of His churches that He would cast them away as vomit! Beloved, that’s the danger of backsliding! Do you know of any church that is in this horrible type of spiritual condition? Well, perhaps you might not, but the Lord does! And woe is it to that church that finds itself like this!

Another thing about this type of severe backsliding is that it blinds them to their spiritual state: They have so deceived themselves that not only they can’t see their condition, but think themselves to be all right with the Lord. This typifies so many churches of today that have become so successful and so big that they boast of being so blessed by God, that they ignore that they are actually under a curse; and this they can’t see as the Lord tells them: “And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (v. 17). This is what backsliding does, beloved; and the more severe it becomes, the harder the heart becomes and the colder one becomes towards the Lord. Perhaps at the beginning a simple exhortation may restore the backslider; but if it gets to the point as this church became, there might no longer be any hope for them! Could this happen to a backslidden church? Yes; for once vomit is expelled, there is no ingesting of it again.

Yet, beloved, we see in verses 18-22 that in spite of how this church had treated Him, He stills gives a word of hope. Oh, the greatness of God’s mercy that instead of casting out His rebellious people, He “spreads out (his) hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts” (Isaiah 65:2; cp. Romans 10:21). Yes, our Lord would be just if He were to just cast us into hell for our many backslidings; but on the contrary, He calls us in our backslidings: “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings” (Jeremiah 3:22). And so to the Laodicean church He tells them: “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see” (Revelation 3:18). In other words, He gives them advice, i.e. recommends what they need to do! Note that the “gold”, the “white raiment” and the “eyesalve” they are to “buy of (the Lord)” is in total contrast to what they thought they had (previous verse). All these three things have to be considered in the spiritual sense; for the “gold” is to be rich in the faith and blessing in the Lord (Proverbs 10:22; James 2:5); the “white raiment” is to have their nakedness covered with the righteousness of Christ (cp. Revelation 19:8); and of course, the “eyesalve” is that which would enabled them to see their true spiritual condition. But how can they “buy” these things if they are in such spiritual poverty? What saith the Lord? “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness” (Isaiah 55:1,2). That is the only hope for the backslider: The Free and Sovereign Grace of Almighty God!!! Amen.

But then He also warns them what He will do if they reject His “counsel”: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten” (Revelation 3:19). In other words, beloved, there are those that He loves (“as many as” indicates that He doesn’t love everyone in that church; Oh, how that should make us tremble!), He will deal with them; and possibly severely, to bring them back to Him. This, of course, is proof of His love for His people, as He Himself declares! You can believe that He will not leave His people in their backslidings; or He will not just wink His eye at their sins and tell them, “Oh, I understand!” No, as Jeremiah tells us: “Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised…turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God” (Jeremiah 31:18). But the purpose of His chastening of His people is to bring them to repentance: “Be zealous therefore, and repent” (Revelation 3:19). Beloved, keep this mind: All reconciliation with the Lord for having departed from Him in our backslidings requires repentance; for there has to be ‘a change of mind’ in our thinking. We cannot continue thinking the same way as in our backslidings and think we can be reconciling back to the Lord in that mindset; for His ways and thoughts are definitely not like ours! But notice the kind of repentance that is called for: Don’t waste time; be serious about it! Be fervent and ardent about it; no matter how much energy you have to expend, get right with God; or He will deal with you, and in such a way that will assure that the backslider will return back to Him in true repentance. Love will do that; otherwise “if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons” (Hebrews 12:8).

Furthermore, the persistence of the Lord to bring His backsliding children back to Him: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). You know, the Lord would have been just to leave this particular church as it was, and let them suffer what they deserved. But oh! The great love of our Savior… He doesn’t give up on those that He loves! Yet, notice what He doesn’t do: He doesn’t force Himself on this church. He’s outside the door and knocking! Remember, this is His church, but since this church had indicated they no longer wanted Him, He is ONLY knocking for those that will hear His voice! “If any man (i.e. any one) hear my voice…” Now, even if this invitation is made in a general way, it can still be limited to those that CAN hear His voice? Well, we read in John 10: “The sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice” (vv.3, 4). Therefore, beloved, the Lord is knocking for His sheep that are in that church; and in Him knocking indicates that there are some of them. But again, note He doesn’t open the door Himself; only those that hear will open the door to Him; and then He will come in and fellowship with them. But remember this: Unless God of His grace turns your heart back to Him, YOU will not turn to Him; and for sure, you won’t open the door to Him

Nevertheless, here’s a word of encouragement: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Revelation 3:21). In spite of the resistance and reluctance that is natural to a backslidden condition, it is still our responsibility, by God’s grace, to gain the victory over our backsliding; and that is to” open the door” so that our fellowship with the Lord may be restored; for it has been severed due to our backsliding. But noticed that a promise has been attached; and He is our example to do so: “Even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne”.  Oh, “what a fellowship, what a joy divine, Leaning on the everlasting arms; What a blessedness, what a peace is mine, Leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, Safe and secure from all alarms; Leaning, leaning, Leaning on the everlasting arms” (Leaning On The Everlasting Arms by Elisha A. Hoffman, 1887). Therefore, it is for our good if we hear as He exhorts: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (v.22). Amen.

Now, the question persists: Are we to pray for Revival or not? Do we have a Scriptural basis to do so? Yes, we have!!! Since the Lord Himself, in these two instances of severe backsliding in these two churches, intervened on behalf of His people, that found themselves in such a backslidden condition, in order to restore them back to Him, who are we not to pray and exhort our brethren whom we see in such a condition? May we learn to be like David when He prayed: “Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?” (Psalm 85:6). Yes, beloved, we have a responsibility to pray for revival, for renewal, for restoration and reformation in the lives of God’s people; and whenever possible more than just pray, as indicated by such Scriptures as Galatians 6:1 – “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted”. Furthermore, “Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins” (James 5:19,20); “And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (Jude 19,20).

So yes, brethren in Christ Jesus, let us pray for Revival and Spiritual Awakening; and let us do it TODAY! Look around, beloved, and see the terrible spiritual declination and backslidings of God’s people; but most of all, let us look at ourselves and sing with hymn writer: “Lord, send a revival, Lord, send a revival, Lord, send a revival, And let it begin in me” (Lord, Send A Revival by B.B. McKinney, 1927). May the Lord, who can raise dead bones, be pleased to do so for His glory and the good of His people. Amen.