Thy Kingdom Come! From Revival to Awakening and from Reformation to Transformation

In this final devotion of Revival Breakthrough, our theme Scripture of Matthew 6:10 is the familiar but potent declarative pronouncement found in the Lord’s Prayer: that God’s kingdom would come and that His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. That is what revival breakthrough is all about!

Jesus’s Model Prayer: Heaven’s Rule and Reign on Earth

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught His disciples how to pray effectively and what basic elements to include in prayer. He didn’t give us a line-by-line, rote way to pray but rather prayer themes. It is also good to note that this is not as much a petition form of prayer as it is an imperative form of prayer with more of a command orientation. Thus, it is actually more like, “Kingdom, come! Father’s will, be done, on earth as it is done in heaven!”

Significantly, Jesus did not teach the disciples escapism (“Lord, get us out of here as soon as possible!”) but rather how to call forth the rule and reign of heaven on earth now. We need to grasp this truth.

When we pray for heaven’s rule and reign to come to earth, we need to seriously consider the following questions—studying the Scriptures, seeking the Lord, and searching our own hearts for the answers:

·What is the atmosphere of heaven?

·What occurs in heaven?

·What would heaven on earth look like?

·When are our prayers for God’s kingdom to come on earth to transpire?

·Do we honestly take time to meditate on what we actually believe when we pray?

As we collaborate with our heavenly Father for His kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, we also need to understand what it looks like to go from revival to awakening and reformation to transformation. We must learn to catch, survive, and thrive with every wave that crashes upon the shores of church history. This way, we will go “from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18) until Jesus’s model prayer is answered!

From Revival to Awakening

From my perspective, gained from years of study, prayer, and contemplation, as well as from picking the brains and hearts of many church leaders over the years, I see some overlapping principles between revivals and awakenings, as well as some distinct differences between them. Let’s briefly look at their main features.

Features of Revivals

1. Revivals return the church to its first love relationship with God.

2. They are works that restore the church to its place, fervency, impact, and influence.

3. They are often short-lived in duration and therefore emerge in cycles.

4. Many revivals end prematurely because those who are involved often lack a practical theology to guide them in what happens during revival and what is meant to follow after revival.

As we transition to the features of awakenings, let us recognize that every awakening begins with revival. While a revival typically lasts from weeks to several years, an awakening lasts from about ten years to five or six decades.

Features of Awakenings

1. Awakenings begin with the authentic fire of God reviving people.

2. They empower the renewed believers into societal transformation.

3. Historically, they are longer in length than revivals because the revivalists, who now become reformers, impact and change injustices in multiple realms of society.

4. They are sustained by waves of God’s renewing presence, with the participants having a long-term view of a kingdom mandate.

From Reformation to Transformation

There have been various “tipping points” in history that have carried societies and the world at large into significant change. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his famous 99 Theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany. This event became known as the beginning of the Great Reformation. Many forerunners served God’s purposes before Martin Luther, but his bold statements of faith propelled great change and created a chain reaction of convulsive transition.

Luther’s primary progressive revelation was based on a rhema, a revelatory word from Romans 1:17: “The just shall live by faith” (KJV, NKJV). This emphasis on a seemingly overlooked biblical truth renewed a core understanding of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of being based on human works, it was based on faith in the completed work of the cross of the “one man, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17 NIV).

We have lived in the wake of the Great Reformation for the past five hundred years. Many additional lost truths, all based on the Word of God, have since been illuminated and restored to the church in successive waves. We are now living in the period referred to in Acts 3:21 as “the period of restoration of all things”:

Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things, about which God spoke by the mouths of His holy prophets from ancient times. (Acts 3:19–21)

This passage states that Jesus Christ will remain in heaven until this period of the restoration of all things spoken of by the prophets of old fully occurs. Only then will He return to earth. Yes, this is an expansive subject, indeed. But it will be a glorious day when Jesus parts the skies and returns just as He left!

Could it be that we are now transitioning from the Great Reformation into the Great Transformation?

How much have you thought about revival breakthrough for your life, for the lives of your family members, your sphere of influence, and your city? What are you believing for? Are you living your life moment by moment, or are you building your life for a lineage and a legacy? It’s time for a Great Transformation.

Revival Is God’s Work

May we dedicate ourselves to being the answers to Jesus’s prayers as His model prayer is fulfilled in our world. Such an endeavor will take dedicated efforts in which we network with other believers to offer unceasing intercession to God to bring us revival, awakening, reformation, and transformation.

The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. You will multiply the nation, You will increase their joy; they will rejoice in Your presence as with the joy of harvest. (Isaiah 9:2–3)

I bless you and declare that these are the joyful days of the harvest. Put your hand to the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Rejoice in God’s presence. Your revival breakthrough has come upon you!

I pray that you will continue strong on your revival journey, building on all that you have learned in this devotional about creating an opening for God to intervene, engaging in earnest prayer and sacrificial fasting, experiencing the power in God’s presence, and living in expectation of the great harvest. Let the cry arise from glory to glory!