Revival is a time of greater grace. Grace is the unmerited favor of God for everyone who believes. But what is the greater grace?
In a true move of God or a revival, grace increases to the point where it solves most of our problems!
What happens? INCREASE.
The spirit of God unifies people.
People begin to make greater commitments to God.
You start to feel better about yourself and find your destiny.
You’ll want to go to church and worship God.
In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus was in the Temple and read from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jesus did not continue the Scripture where Isaiah speaks of the vengeance of God. Jesus was announcing: this is the season of greater grace!
In Ezra 9, Ezra cries out to the Lord and acknowledges the Israelites’ sins. The Israelites had intermarried with (pagan) foreigners—disobeying God and going against His plan. Bad things start happening when the blessings of the Lord go away. Today we do the same thing: the people of God get soft, don’t care what the Bible says, just want what they want, and have little regard for God. That is wickedness.
In verse 9, Ezra says, “But now, for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm placein his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage.” Things may be going wrong, but when the people of God turn to the Lord and cry out to Him, God comes with relief. We are met by that greater grace.
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.
15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read,
17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
1 After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the neighboring peoples with their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites.
2 They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”
3 When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled.
4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.
5 Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God
6 and prayed: “I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.
7 From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.
8 “But now, for a brief moment, the Lord our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage.
Questions:
What is the “greater grace”?
What does the Bible say about the favor of the Lord?
00:48People are so afraid of a move of God, not knowing that a move of God will solve so many of the problems in your life. A true revival of God will solve most of the church’s problems.
05:25Get a move of God, and everything will increase! It’s a time of greater grace.
09:10Could it be that people of God have just gotten so soft, don’t care anymore what the Bible says, and just want want want, but have very little interest in God.
09:25Wickedness is when you just don’t care about God.
