The stirrings of revival have begun—and can continue—when we recognize steps we must take to be vessels for His Presence. The Bible gives us action steps. Those we take and those God takes once we respond.
Prayer always precedes revival. So how do we make ourselves, our homes and our city ready to host His Presence and invite it in? Exodus 3 give us God’s instruction on how to prepare ourselves for His move. There are three important initial steps.
I believe these are our action steps outlined in Exodus 3 that give us God’s instruction on how to prepare ourselves for His move:
We Must Turn Aside to See What God is Doing.
There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up” (Ex 3:2-3 NIV).
What if Moses had not taken the time to investigate? The word “turn aside” is the word “sûrwûr. It means an intentional decision to turn off the road and take notice. What if Moses had simply seen the bush, realized it was an anomaly even a miracle, but simply moved on? How many times do we do that? We acknowledge that God has done something, but we don’t investigate why or how to know how it can continue.
It’s important to note that God didn’t respond to Moses until Moses took the time to take an intentional step to investigate what was happening.
Listen and Respond to His Voice
When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am” (Ex 3:4).
Once Moses responded, God responded. It was only then that God called out to Moses. Let’s consider what if Moses hadn’t heard God? What if he didn’t respond back to God? What if he hadn’t been listening for His voice? But he was—and so should we.
If we will take the time in this atmosphere of revival to turn aside from our regular activities and give God our time and attention, I believe He will call out to us when He sees hearts calling out to Him. But are we ready to respond, “Here I am?” That response suggests a level of sacrifice.
Repent & Purify Your Heart
Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Ex 3:5).
Moses was given a command that required a response to holiness. We each have that same action step, to repent and purify our hearts to be vessels ready to receive Him. Every revival from the past has been preceded by prayer AND repentance/confession. As we remove the unholy and fleshly aspects from our lives (as represented by Moses’ sandals) we step into the fear and reverence of the Lord to a place of expectation.
Once God had Moses’ attention, He immediately began to reveal Himself to him…and this is what He did next. (click here to read the remaining step and God’s response and don’t forget to pray for revival!)
Father, like Moses, we humble ourselves and repent. We confess our desperate need for You. We repent of any and all actions in which we have done things our way and brought dishonor to You. Forgive us Lord. We “take off our sandals” and kneel before You recognizing that in Your Presence we are on holy ground. Forgive us of all sin so that we can be vessels of honor for You. We choose to turn aside and wait on You. We lay down our schedules and routines to wait on You. We seek Your face and choose to listen for Your voice. Speak to us and reveal Yourself to us as you did back then.
Just as You heard the cry of the Israelites who had been enslaved, stolen from and used, we know You have also heard our cry Lord. You said You hear when we call and when we call on You in the day of trouble, You will deliver us. We will glorify You.
We pray for signs and wonders that will reveal Your glory. Pour out Your Spirit on our sons and daughters. Pour out your Spirit on all flesh. We declare our sons and daughters will
Will you not revive us again, that we may rejoice in you? We draw near to You, O God. Draw near to us we pray. We cleanse our hands and purify our hearts. May we not harden our hearts to You in this hour but see Your mighty hand.
We seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness, and all these things will be added to us. Add revival. Heaven come to earth. May we be vessels of revival and see Your signs and wonders poured out for all to see so that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that You are Lord.
Ex 3:2-5, Ps 50:15, Joel 2:28, Is 44:3, I Cor 12:13, Ps 85:6, James 4:8, Matt 6:33