2 Chronicles 7:14- “If My people who are called by My name…”
You are a child of the one true, living, almighty Creator of
the universe.
Have you ever stopped to attempt to fully understand the
magnitude of that truth?
All Christ-followers are identified by God as a son or
daughter. We’re not just people that try to please a ruthless deity. We’re not
just people walking around without a purpose. We’re not just people period. We
are the children of God! Does that not blow your mind?!
But what does being a child of God mean?
First of all, it means that he loves you. A whole lot. And
he loves you so much that when he looked down on our sin-sick state, his heart
was broken, broken so much that he devised a plan to win us back into the
kingdom of God. That plan was sending his one and only son, Jesus Christ, to
this Earth as a human, just like me and you, to live a perfect and sinless life
so that he may be able to represent the perfect sacrifice on our behalf. John
3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” When Christ died on the cross some two
thousand years ago and three day later raised again from the grave, he defeated
all of our enemies, sin, death, hell, everything! He defeated it with three
simple words: It is finished! He wasn’t saying that he was finished forever
with living on this Earth. He was saying that God’s plan of salvation is
complete and now he can offer a way back into his presence through his son,
Jesus! We now have a way to be forever redeemed and enter into the pearly gates
of heaven one day. That’s the great gospel of Jesus! That we were hopeless,
sinful, and without a way to heaven and then all of a sudden, we are saved,
forgiven, and with a ticket to paradise one day. Romans 6:23 proclaims, “For
the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
our Lord.” That’s how much God loves all of us. He was willing to sacrifice his
one and only son on the cross of Calvary, experiencing the worst form of
punishment ever conjured up for a human being, for you and me so that when
someone accepts Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, they are a
child of the one true king because we now belong to Christ.
Being a child of God also means that he is always by your
side no matter what. God takes his responsibility as being a parent to his
children very seriously, especially when it comes to supporting his children no
matter what. Deuteronomy 31:6 offers this amazing promise: “Be strong and of
good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them;
for the Lord your God, He
is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” Every
step you take, every breath you make, God is right there beside you to
encourage and strengthen, and just when you think that you can’t go on any
longer, he’ll reach down to you, pick you back up, and give you the strength to
keep carrying on. Even in the face of adversity, God is right there with you
every step of the way, and he is willing to battle our enemies no matter how
strong they may seem. Romans 8:31 poses the question, “If God is for us, who
can be against us?” Answer: no one. There is no enemy of ours that God can’t
defeat. That’s why he encourages us to go into battle against the enemies in
our own lives every day because he knows that he always has our back, and when
that happens, we can’t lose no matter what the outcome may be. The God of angel
armies is always by our side, through the highs and lows, to the mountain peaks
and valleys deep, he is with us all day, every day because he loves us so much.
He loves us like a child.
But what does being a child of God mean when it comes to
revival?
I don’t think it’s an accident that in 2 Chronicles 7:14,
God starts off by explicitly addressing his children. This verse is the very
recipe for revival, but before God can give that recipe, he’s got to make sure
the right audience is listening. “If My people who are called by My name…” He’s
talking to the Christ-follower. He’s talking to the church. Not only does God
loves us with an everlasting love, not only will he never leave us or forsake
us, but his heart absolutely breaks when the church turns their back on him. He
wants to revive us! Not out of a sense of obligation, but because he wants the
church to have a massive impact on this world for the cause of Christ.
Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears
My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he
with Me.” We often hear that verse when we’re talking about evangelism or if
we’re even witnessing to an unbeliever, but if you examine the context of this
passage, Christ himself is talking the church of Laodicea, a church is Christ
wants to “vomit you out of My mouth” (Rev. 3:16) because they were neither on
fire for Jesus or stone cold for the gospel, but they were lukewarm. Laodicea
had come to the point where they felt that they had it all worked out and they
didn’t need God to operate a world-impacting church. In other words, they asked
God to leave the church and stand on the outside. What they quickly found out,
though, was that a church without God is just a building with people inside.
Laodicea lost its fire, its impact, and its purpose. They had pushed God away,
and yet in verse 20, we still see that God hasn’t given up on Laodicea.
Although he wants to vomit them out of his mouth for being lukewarm, he offers
them a second chance. He’s simply standing on the outside of the church,
knocking, desiring to come back in and revive the church, and he’s doing the
same thing with the church of America. Have we become like Laodicea?
I think we have. The church has pushed God
away, and he, being a very kind God, politely sees himself to the door and
stands on the outside, knocking as hard as he can so that someone will open the
door and let him back in. And here’s where being a child of God comes in to
play. If you are a true, born again, follower of Christ, you should desire revival
because we should desire what the Father desires. Not only in the church, but
in your own life because the thing about opening a door is that you only need
one person to turn the knob. It only takes one member of one church to stand up
and say, “Enough is enough!” If revival is truly going to come to America,
Christ needs some warriors to step up to the plate and raise a great commotion
about the great commission.
Matthew 14 records one of my favorite stories in all of the
Word of God. Right after Jesus had just fed the five thousand, we find out in
verse 22 that the disciples and he were going to cross the sea to the other
side. But here’s the trick: Jesus sent the disciples on across the sea while he
stayed on shore to pray. Jesus had something up his sleeve. Then, all of a
sudden, at about three o’clock in the morning, a mighty storm arose and the
disciples were scared to death. Jesus wasn’t there with them to help. It was
all up to them. But in verse 25, we read about this amazing event: “…Jesus went
to them, walking on the sea.” The storm was boisterous, the waves were tossing
like never before, and then here comes Jesus just casually walking on the water
like nothing at all is going on. He didn’t get on another boat. He didn’t yell
for them to come back to shore and pick him up. He literally walked on top of
the water. But pay close attention to how the disciples responded. The same
disciples who just saw him feed five thousand people with five loaves of bread
and a couple of fish come to the conclusion, in verse 26, that Jesus was a
ghost. What the what? You think that a ghost is walking on water instead of the
Savior of the universe? But Jesus reaches out to them to hopefully calm their
fears in verse 27 when he says, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”
However, the disciples were skeptical. Then Peter, the oldest of the disciples,
speaks up in verse 28 asking, ““Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You
on the water.” Peter was probably expecting the “ghost” to prove that he is not
Jesus and the disciples would go about their way, but instead, Jesus tells
Peter to come out on the water with him. Picture this scene. This horrendous
storm is going on all around Peter and Jesus, and yet, both of them are walking
on top of the water. Amazing, right? As long as Peter kept his eyes on Jesus,
he was walking on water, but in verse 30, Peter begins to fully notice the
storm around him, and he becomes fearful again, taking his eyes off of Christ
and beginning to sink. Now usually, this would be the part of the story where
the teacher would reinforce the concept of always keeping your eyes on Jesus,
but I want you to notice something else. In verse 28, right after Jesus tells
the doubting disciples that it was him walking on the water, the Bible says, “And
Peter answered Him…” John didn’t answer him, neither did Mark, Matthew, Luke,
James, no one but Peter spoke up. Peter knew that if this being really was
Jesus, he truly could walk on water, so he spoke up and stepped out knowing
that Jesus would always take care of him. That’s what we need to do every day
as children of God: speak up and step out with reckless abandon for the sake of
the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ! Revival starts when we are willing
to risk it all for Christ with no regrets or apologies, and that only starts when we genuinely desire to see revival take place.
You are a child of the one true, living, almighty Creator of
the universe.
Now go win his creation back for him.
