Many years ago I belonged to a group of ministers who were praying for revival. I finally quit going because the attitude was that if we prayed hard enough, God would send revival.
May I say that God is sovereign. We are not going to make God do anything. God has a program and He is not about to change it for you or me. The important thing is for us to get in step with God! I tell you, the will of God comes out of eternity, down through the centuries, and moves on through the centuries into eternity. God pity the little man who gets in front of that steamroller. It will go right over you, brother.
Someone will be sure to say he doesn't like that. May I remind you that we are the creatures. The creature does not try to get God to do something. It is God who is trying to get us to do something. That is the big problem. We tend to get things backwards. It is not God's duty to obey us; it is our duty to obey God. Does God want to send revival? Sure He does. And aren't we to meet His conditions? Yes, but I don't think they are meeting His conditions. It is interesting that the spiritual movement which has come about in our day did not come by these perspicuous theologians putting down conditions and the churches following them. The spiritual movement is not even in the church today. Most of the churches are as dead as dodo birds. The movement today is not among these brainy theologians. They have answers but no action — there's no spiritual movement.
My friend, we need to learn to bow to the will of God and to come in very close to Him, cast ourselves upon Him. There are certain men — even kings — whom God used in a marvelous way, because they were willing to take orders and not give orders. I believe that the biggest hindrance to revival is the church leadership. They are the ones who are holding it back — and have been for years. We don't bring revival by listening to the theologians. We need to listen to the Word of God. And that is the reason I am trying to give out the Word of God. Now let me confess that I have had some ideas myself. But I have discovered that the great ideas and programs that I had worked out were never used by God. I am beginning to suspect that revival could not come if God followed my plans, either! It is "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts" (Zechariah 4:6). It is not by brain nor by brawn, but by the Holy Spirit. It is hard to learn that, by the way.
—From Edited Messages on 2 Chronicles by Dr. J. Vernon McGee
