Echoes of penitence

Hey guys! Sorry for my long absence, I've been going through a time in my life where I really needed to just focus on the lord. But I'm back now and as yesterday marked the start of nanorimo (national novel writing month) I hope to be posting more frequently than I have been. I'm hoping to get at least one post off a day for the entire month of November, although that might not happen depending on my schedule. Also if y'all want me to write about a certain topic during this month please leave it in the comment section, the more the better cause sometimes I run out of ideas quick XD. 

2 Chronicles 7:14

if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Look around you, look at this world. Turn on the news, listen to all the stories of tragedy and catastrophe. This world is falling apart, morals and ethics are almost non existent. Almost nobody hears the whole truth, and those that do most of the time keep it to themselves. Look at the church. Look at how ineffective we are as the body of Christ. People are leaving the church in droves, and forsaking God entirely. We are as far from what God intended the church to be as we ever have been. We are a people called to passionately preach Jesus, and yet we are a people who passively live a lie. We are a people purposed by God for his glory, but instead of that we are people living a lie and calling it truth. 

But how do we change that? 

This verse is a call, a call not to battle or to take up arms, but rather a call to us to fall on our knees before God. To weep over the church and the thousands if not millions of Christians who are going to be surprised, when they stand before God, to find that they never truly belived. How little do we love the lord that we are not weeping over this, and weeping over the church that has lost its power? Our world is falling apart, it's so easy to see that it's actually scary how close we are to total chaos. And we as the church of Jesus Christ have done little to nothing to change that. We NEED more people who will fall to their knees, to their knees, and pray for revival, not only in the world but in their hearts as well, cause change starts starts with one. People who will humbly seek God, not as a magic genie but as The Lord and Master of their life. People who are ready to lay aside their pride and selfishness and seek only him in their lives! People who genuinely want to turn their lives around and who are tired of living in sin. I'm tired of waiting for the world to change, so...lets start changing it. 

But you may be asking how? How can I change the world? I can't even get past this sin I've been struggling with. I can't even find the courage to witness to my coworker. I feel awkward even praying before meals in public. And there are a million other excuses. But...what does Jesus say? 

Acts 1:8

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Think about what Jesus is saying here. Dwell on his words. We WILL receive power and we WILL be his witnesses. That is both truth, and a promise! We are promised the Holy Spirit alive and working within us sanctifying, empowering, enabling, changing the world through us and changing our hearts in us. That is a promise. It is not something that we have to work for, it is simply something that we have to surrender too. Recently I've realized and experienced this power that Jesus promised. It brought me to my knees in awe, joy, and repentance. God himself is living inside of us and if we humble ourselves, pray, seek his face and turn from our wicked ways. Then he will hear from heaven, will forgive our sins and heal our land. But he doesn't just wave his hand and make the world right. Instead he comes and he lives inside those who truly seek him. Who truly want him. He gives them power to fall on their knees and to pray, and to witness. Although sometimes it takes more power to fall on our knees in front of someone than it does to witness to someone. With the power he promised we can break the chains of even the most ground in sin! We can boldly witness to everyone in our lives! We can pray with passion and fire and not feel the slightest bit awkward. It is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, and I don't think anyone of us is going to experience anything that can test that power quite like raising a dead body. Please I implore you, by the mercies of God, to fall on your knees before today, and humbly, prayerfully, penitently, seek God and ask him to send revival, and to start a revival in your own heart. 

Hear the echoes of our Father, crying out to us to surender our all to him and to give everything we have and to fall on our knees in awe, joy, and repentance. 

Ephesians 1:18-20

having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,