Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, we cannot return expecting it to be church as usual. The global pandemic has brought about massive changes. Believers and churches around the world will need to take a hold of God’s divine plan in these times. Therefore, we should emerge from the lockdown with broken and contrite hearts before the Lord (Psalm 51:17). After a period where the church seems to be locked away, we must emerge expecting revival. Elijah and other prophets of Israel were hidden during three years of famine in Israel. But after Elijah emerged from hiding, he confronted the false messengers of Baal, and called for an abundance of rain, ending the famine. Even so, as we emerge from the lockdown, we come out expecting revival. To have revival, we must tremble and weep over our shortcomings for the plan and power of God.

Personal Revival 

Isaiah 6

The revival begins with you. We must realize God’s glory, and of our shortcomings, and the need to recommit to God’s mandate. Take, for example, the prophet Isaiah; he saw the glory of God, and then the sinfulness of his lips. As he cried out in repentance, the Lord purged him with fire. Then the Lord recommissioned him for service.

Starts with a Realization:

Isaiah 6:5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

Revelation

• Personal relationship with the Lord

• Knowing and enjoying the Lord

Repentance

• Your own sins and partaking in the sins of others

Recommission

• Realizing the need to recommit to God’s mandate, call, and commission upon your life.

Isaiah had a renewed realization of God’s glory, his own sinfulness, and the need for a recommission in his calling as a prophet; he said, “here am I, send me”. The revival begins with you seeing God’s glory, your sin, and crying out to God. Let there be a trembling and weeping for your soul to revive.

Household Revival

• Genesis 35:1-3 And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. 2Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: 3And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.

The revival begins with you, and then to your household. The patriarch Jacob had to return to the place where he first had a revelation of God’s glory. God was calling him to reconnect with Him and build an altar to seek Him. Jacob obeyed and told his family to clean up their act as he was rededicating himself to the Lord. In the same way, we must seek to rededicate ourselves and household to the Lord.

Recommitment 

• The leader of the house commits the house to the Lord.

• If you are not the leader of the house, then pray for the house to have salvation and sanctification.

• Pray for your spouse to walk in the will of God.

• Parents commit your children to the work of God.

Rededication - sanctify the house

• Prayer - house, a place of devotion and prayer. Do you have a prayer altar at home, a place where you regularly seek God in prayer? Do you have regular times of prayer and devotion with your family?

• Put away idols, which are all the things that distract the household from God, including ungodly entertainment, habits, and practices.

• Change your ways: put Jesus first in the home, and His will.

Church Revival 

Judgment begins in the house of God. For revival to happen, the church must come to a place of brokenness. God demands for our behaviors and norms to change. Revival begins with God’s reproval. God will correct his people for revival to take place. It is God’s reproval for revival.

Reproval

• Jeremiah 7:2-4  Stand in the gate of the LORD'S house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD. 3Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.4Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.

There will not be a revival in the church without thunderous corrective preaching, and prophetic calls for repentance. Pulpit preachers, pastors, prophets, and all Christian leaders must show the church their sins. Believers dabbling in sinful practice should feel uncomfortable in church, moved to cry out to God. The fire of God should burn in the house of the Lord exposing sin in the hearts of the people. Correction of sin in the church leads to repentance and revival. 

Repentance

• When we receive the reproval, it brings repentance. It is time for our hearts to break and melt before God as we tremble at HIs word, and his call so that revival could break out in our souls.

Refreshing

• As we seek God in repentance, God will refresh us in His revival.

Regional Revival

Jonah 3:5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 

Revival begins in you, your household, your church, and flows to your region - city, state, country, continent, etc. Take, for example, the massive turn of the people of Nineveh. God spared the city of Nineveh from judgment because they humbling came weeping before the Lord in repentance. We ought to preach the gospel faithfully and fully that the world may hear of their need to seek Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. Perhaps the people of your region will repent, and revival will flow through the land

Reception (of the prophet)

As God sent Jonah to Nineveh. God is raising up an army of lay prophets around the world with a convicting word in their mouth to call the people of their region to repentance. God will place words of warnings in the mouth of His people, and give them revelatory glimpses of the future to show to mankind his power. Many will turn to the Lord as these lay prophets speak with convicting power. When a region recipes the word of God’s messengers, it will have revival.

Corporate Repentance

When the president Trump, USA, called for a day of prayer concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, some mocked him. When Vice President Pence began holding coronavirus task force meetings, secularists ridiculed him for beginning the meeting with prayer, with some suggesting that Pence was trying to pray away the coronavirus (https://justthenews.com/). However, when a nation turns to God with trembling and weeping, it brings the mercy of God and ushers in revival. Now is the time for mankind to bow before the Lord in repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and salvation from judgment.

Remission

Like Nineveh when the region repents God will hold back his judgment and heal the region. The region will experience relief. The region will revive.

World Revival

• Habakkuk 2:14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

As the people of God rise up around the world preaching the gospel and reproving sin, repentance will take place, and revival will usher in worldwide. Let us believe for it to happen.

Joel 2 gives us a picture of how this world revival will take place. Joel 2:12 says Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:

So first, we turn to God with weeping and mourning. Then Joel 2:17 says Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD,

Then corporately the church cries out to God, including the ministers and leaders.  When this is done God will answer (Joel 2:19), and finally God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2:28), that is all people groups, so this is worldwide. As we come trembling and mourning, revival will usher in across the world.