I don’t have any institutional mantra to offer for the new year. I don’t have any new program or corporate vision statement that I want everyone to sign on to for 2013. What I do have is a burden that is on my heart – a burden for God to rend the heavens and come down. This is nothing short of the burden of God in Isaiah chapter 64 and verse one. The language is admittedly not very creative. It is the very language of the word Of the prophet Isaiah, which I prefer to creativity in this case. The Bible says that without a vision the people perish and that is obviously true. But when we exegete the Scriptures we also learn that without a burden — God’s burden lodged deeply in our spirits through prayer and the reading (and inward digesting) of the Word of the Lord and a heart-wrenching love for the lost – a “holy dissatisfaction” by the man or woman of God – a constant “divine discontent” that cries out for righteousness in the midst of the wicked and corrupt generation – we cannot cast a Biblical vision. Vision is the fulcrum that lifts Burden and brings redemption.
My burden is that God would come down and shake, first, the Church, then, the world. I love to hear about the revival that is sweeping the global South and the global East. But I am jealous unto the deepest core of my soul that such a heaven-born revival would sweep across Western Europe, Great Britain, Canada, and the United States (as well as Australia and New Zealand and the other English-speaking nations of the world as well as the industrialized countries like Brazil, South Korea and Japan). The message that follows on this Faith for Living video teaching segment seeks to unveil the “Burden” and the “Blessings” of true revival.
I pray you not only watch but seek God for His burden on your heart.
It is a good way to begin the year for our seminary. It is a good way to begin your journey of discipleship as a new believer. It is a good way to rededicate your life—right now as you read this—to the glorious missionary God whose own “burden” sent His only begotten Son to live the life you couldn’t live and die the death that should have been yours—and mine. This is the Story of stories that is enough to make you cry,
“Oh Lord, won’t you rend the heavens and come down?
Join us for “Faith for Living” and “The Burden for Revival!”
Revival Part 2: “The Blessings of Revival”