How you personally could be the spark for the next great awakening

As a guy who has embraced the nerd within I sometimes enjoy my numbers. As I write this in 2016 I am entering a year of significant numbers. At the beginning of February I will celebrate 20 years since I was pastor of my first church. On Valentine’s Day it will be 20 years since I asked Jennie to marry me. A week later I will celebrate my 40th birthday.

But the number for this post that I want you to think about that has a powerful impact on your life is 40,000. I love the stories of the great awakenings that have happened in history. Even more interesting would be to be a part of the next great move of God. 40,000

One of fun stories of God’s activity in the last couple hundred years was something known as the Welsh Revival. God’s activity that started in this movement is still having ripple effects around the world. Wouldn’t it be fun to be a part of something that God starts which impacts the world 100 years from now? A number for you to think about is 40,000.

What is the significance of that number and what does that have to do with your ability to personally be the spark for that next great move of God? Well hang with this nerd for a moment and you will see. I asked one of my professors from college, who has studied the history of revival, about the numbers of the Welsh Revival. She told me that the numbers are all over the place. Some say 30,000 conversions in a couple months and others say 100,000 in 6 months. But for our purposes I want us to think about the number 40,000.

40,000 is a number that is important for a much more modern reason. Even a simple search will tell you that most people on Twitter have about 200 followers. Most people on Facebook have about 200 friends. If we use that as a baseline number math becomes our friend. If you share a post with your 200 friends and they share it with their 200 friends it could impact 40,000 people. Your tweet that is retweeted with their followers could impact 40,000 people. In the math of a revival that is enough people to start something that could have the impact on the world.

[tweetthis]We may be one prayer and tweet away from the next great awakening.[/tweetthis]

Imagine trying to touch 40,000 people in other time periods. It would be near impossible. We live in an time in history where a person with an internet connection can make a difference.

The key to this working is the activity of God in your own heart. Start by saying, “God start something in my heart that is worth sharing.” Then tweet by tweet and post by post share the goodness of God. Over time I think we will be surprised by our impact.

Your impact maybe won’t be seen till heaven. Or maybe someone will light a spark, one tweet/post/video/hashtag at a time, that will start the greatest move of God this world has ever seen. Will you be that person?

[tweetthis]Will you light a spark to start the greatest revival this world has ever seen?[/tweetthis]

A Good Complaint? (Updated)

 

Is there such a thing as a good complaint? Actually understanding the difference between a good complaint and a bad complaint can have a powerful impact on your life.

The Bad Complaint

Here is a good example of a bad complaint:

Numbers 11:1 Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.

Notice that this kind of complaining ticked God off. I am not sure about you, but that is not my idea of a good plan. You can also notice here that the complaining was among each other and God was just listening in to the conversation.

It seems from scripture that bad complaining is internal: person to person. Paul encourages people to avoid this. Philippians 2:14-“Do everything without grumbling or arguing”.

A Good Complaint

But there is another kind of complaining mentioned in the Bible that shows us a way out.

Psalms 142 verse 1-2 shows us the complaint of David:

I cry aloud to the Lord;
I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy.
I pour out before him my complaint;
before him I tell my trouble.

The key difference is where he brought his complaint. He brought it into the presence of God. And when he processed his emotions into his prayer time and his perspective was encouraged by the end of the chapter.

The encouragement of scripture is to not be going around complaining to others. We are encouraged to, “pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” (Psalms 62:8)

[tweetthis]Pour out your heart to God. You will find safety there! [/tweetthis]

So today rather than wandering to the water cooler to have a grumble fest, why don’t you take it into your time with God?

For more on Emotion and Prayer go here.

Short prayers: A small change to power your life (Updated)

pocket watch at 3:55

I love instigating things. It can be dangerous if I am daring my brother-in-law to climb through the McDonalds play land, but at the same time simple changes can make a big impact on our lives. This is true of short prayers. Short prayers become the punctuation of our life and the space that fills our moments with power. We can even make it a little game. Missionary Frank Laubach made the challenge to have a “Game with minutes.” The goal was to see if he could turn his thoughts to God even one second for every minute of the day. Do you think you could do that? Here are 3 quick ways to improve your score.

  • Shoot your prayers up.

Nehemiah was about to have an important meeting with the king and so he shot a prayer to heaven. As you go through your day try to bring every challenge that you face and launch it heavenward.

[tweetthis]Bring every challenge that you face and launch it heavenward[/tweetthis]

  • Shoot your prayers through people.

Author Mark Batterson in speaking of Frank Laubach brought up an idea I really like. He suggested as you go through your day shooting people with prayer in your mind as if they were arrows. Next time at the Wal-Mart checkout line send short arrows of prayer through the people in front of you or the person helping you check out. It might be the prayer that pushes them over the edge to run to Jesus.

  • Shoot Bible prayers inward.

In church history we read about what I like to call “breath prayers”. The idea is simply holding some scripture in your heart all day long as a source of prayer. For example I could pray the prayer Jesus taught, “Have mercy on me a sinner.” As often as it comes to mind pray that simple sentence over your life. Pick short prayers from the Bible or come up with your own like: “Lord help me to live today as if it was the Super bowl of my life.”

Each time you steal moments with God in prayer you are connecting to the source of true power. Today, how many minutes could you give God at least one second? Tomorrow you can try to beat your score from today. And I bet that if you ever get to a full day of minutes you would write to me to say thanks. Are you game?

[tweetthis]Each time you steal moments with God in prayer you are connecting to the source of true power[/tweetthis]