Time for Spiritual Renewal

Time for Spiritual Renewal

by Patricia Dailey
Senior Pastor, Bethel Revival Center
43 Norwood St.
Everett, MA 02149

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I Samuel 10:1
Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the LORD hath anointed thee to be captain over His inheritance?

There were three different signs Samuel gave Saul to look for that would confirm the Lord anointing him to be captain over His inheritance.

I Samuel 10:2
When thou art departed from me to day, then thou shalt find two men by Rachel's sepulchre in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say unto thee, The asses which thou wentest to seek are found: and, lo, thy father hath left the care of the asses, and sorroweth for you, saying, What shall I do for my son?

The first sign: Two men would let him know that his father's asses had been found and that his father was sorrowing over him because he hadn't come back when he should have.

God had plans for Saul's life, calling him to become the first king over His people.

The second sign:

I Samuel 10:3,4T
hen shalt thou go on forward from thence, and thou shalt come to the plain of Tabor, and there shall meet thee three men going up to God to Bethel, one carrying three kids, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of wine: and they will salute thee, and give thee two loaves of bread; which thou shalt receive of their hands.

This is the second sign: Three men would meet him going to God at Bethel. One would be carrying three kids, one three loaves of bread, and the other a bottle of wine. They would give him two of the loaves of bread, and he was to receive it from them.

Then, when he came to the hill of God, he would find the third sign:

I Samuel 10:5,6
After that thou shalt come to the hill of God, where is the garrison of the Philistines: and it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp, before them; and they shall prophesy: And the Spirit of the LORD will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.

When this third sign came to pass, the Spirit of the Lord would come upon him, and he would be turned into another man.

All three of these signs came to pass, just as Samuel had said they would. They were laid out in a way where there would be no room to doubt that Saul was called to be king over God's people.

I Samuel 10:7
And let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee; for God is with thee.

There was a spiritual renewal that took place in Saul's life, and this is what we want to look at in this message.

Becoming Lackadaisical

There are times we need a spiritual renewal in our lives because we have become too lackadaisical about our experience with the Lord. In fact, I believe there are times when we really get lazy in serving God with all our heart, soul and mind: lazy in our relationship with Him in praying and getting into His Word, lazy in letting Him speak to us as we speak with Him.

David needed a spiritual renewal:

II Samuel 12:9,13a
Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon . . . And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD.

Now, when David repented of his sin, he asked God for forgiveness and a spiritual renewal.

Psalm 51: 9,10
Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

If we're not careful, we can get careless in our walk with God.

Sometimes we need to ask Him to renew in us a right spirit, because there are those times when we don't have a right spirit about things. When we slack off and get lackadaisical about our experience with the Lord, that is not having a right spirit. Certainly, it isn't God who is leading us to be that way. There's another spirit at work to take us away from the things of God and cause us to be lackadaisical concerning our walk with the Lord.

We have to be reminded from time to time that we need a spiritual renewal; times we need to ask God to forgive us for neglecting our soul, to forgive us for neglecting fellowship with Him, for neglecting His Word. And we need to pray for God to forgive us, cleanse us, and put a right spirit within us.

Present Your Body to God

Romans 12:1,2
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

If we want a spiritual renewal, this is what we need to do: present our bodies as a living sacrifice and be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

To be transformed is to be changed. And this is what we need: to be changed. When we get into a slump — into the doldrums, into a rut — and can't seem to rise up and get out of that rut, we need to do as Romans 12 would tell us to do: present our bodies a living sacrifice and be transformed by the renewing our minds.

When Brother Dailey and I visited Mom Dailey in Pennsylvania, we had to drive up a dirt road. During the winter months it would freeze over with ice and snow. There were power houses on the hilltop: The trucks would drive up this dirt road and the road would get deep ruts. You had to keep your car in those ruts to get up the hill, and it was very hard to get out of them.

In our walk with the Lord, we can find ourselves getting into a rut that we cannot seem to get out of. We need a spiritual renewal to get out of the rut we have gotten ourselves into. We need God to deal with us in such a manner that we can see how careless we've been with our Christian experience.

We should really want a spiritual renewal: presenting our bodies a living sacrifice (which is reasonable for us to do), holy and acceptable unto God. We need to not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. If we do this, we can prove what is that good and acceptable will of God.

We need this. We need something to jar us up that will cause us to be renewed and get on fire for God.

How can we do this if we just continue on in our lackadaisical ways, in our lazy ways? We seem to have so many things that are so much more important to us — things to fill up our time — to where we do not have time to spend before the Lord, making sure that our soul is on fire for Him.

We need to be on fire for God. Each of us needs this spiritual renewal so that God can have His way in and through our lives.

Renewing Your Strength

Isaiah 40:31
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Because we have not really waited on the Lord, not taken the time to wait on Him, our spiritual strength will not be there like it should be. We will find our strength dwindling. We need to wait on the Lord that we can renew our strength. Spiritual renewal is promised to those who will wait on Him.

Isaiah 41:10
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.

This strength will come from the Lord as we give ourselves over to Him, letting Him take hold of our lives.

Wait on the Lord

We need to spend more time praying and seeking God for the spiritual renewal we need. We need to really get on fire for God. We need to be so on fire for God that we won't be able to contain it, won't be able to keep it to ourselves.

When we get on fire for God, we will find that prayer becomes very easy; singing, rejoicing and shouting become easy; it will be easy to praise God.

But when we get down in the doldrums and find ourselves in a rut, we don't feel like praising God; we don't feel like praying; we don't feel like rejoicing. But I see in the Scriptures that we are to praise God whether we feel like it or not!

Hebrews 13:15
By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.

It's going to take something on our part. We need to let the Lord have His way with us, waiting upon Him that He may renew our strength.

There's spiritual progress when we wait upon the Lord. You can't wait upon the Lord and not see spiritual progress in your life. You will see a change in your life: a change of attitude.

Sometimes we do not have good attitudes concerning the things of God. Maybe things have upset us, have caused us to get into the place where we don't care any more. We start to just glide along, so to speak, but that is not what the Lord would want.

We must do things according to the Word of God if we want to really be blessed of the Lord, if we want to have a spiritual renewal.

Yes, there will be spiritual progress as we wait upon the Lord. We will not only have a spiritual renewal, but spiritual progress will follow, and we will see spiritual power begin to show in our lives.

Be of Good Courage

Psalm 27:14
Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Two things: Wait on the Lord, and be of good courage. If we do this, He will strengthen our heart; a great change will take place.

I believe many of God's people have lost their courage. They're disheartened because of things that have gone on that they haven't fully understood.

But the Scriptures are so clear. If we would just go to God's Word and ask Him to open it to our understanding, we would see that the things which happen in life are normal for those who surrender all to God, for those who ask Him to take them deeper in their walk with Him.

You can't go deeper with God without going through some hard and difficult trials. You'll have trial after trial because God is wanting to do something in your life to bring about His plan and purpose.

Now, people want things from God, but they don't want to pay the price. They don't want to put anything into it.

Diligently Seek the Lord

Proverbs 13:4
The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.

People who are sluggards desire but have nothing. Why? Because they're just plain lazy. They don't want to make any effort to put anything into it. They just want to live for self — with no genuine concern for their soul. They may desire from God, but they receive nothing because they are spiritually lazy.

We need to wait upon the Lord. It takes time to wait upon the Lord. Oh, we may have a prayer life, yet not take time to wait on the Lord. Our prayer life may just be popcorn prayers: five minutes of prayer then we pop up and go about our business.

If you want God to really move in your life, you will need to seek Him, to wait on Him. And you need to be willing to wait for the answer, not giving up.

People today want everything right now. Everything in this life seems to be geared up for right now — instant. They keep working to make everything faster and faster. The computers are too slow, and faster ones need to be made. And as they make a faster computer, people are getting rid of their old ones because they're too slow. They get beside themselves sitting at the computer if they can't bring up the information they're looking for right now, instantly.

We can turn on the switch to a light and it comes on instantly, but we're not always going to receive things from God instantly. Yes, He can move in an instant, and sometimes He does. He can move suddenly in your life. But if you want your heart strengthened, you must wait on the Lord with good courage.

We need to wait on the Lord if we want to have that spiritual renewal, if we want our souls on fire for God and we want God to use us: moving in and through our lives.

If we want this, we will have to give ourselves over to the Lord diligently: for it's the soul of the diligent that shall be made fat.

Those who will really seek God, who will really give themselves over to God, shall be fat and flourishing — not physically, but in their soul. We need to be spiritually fat: having the Word of God so in us, and the anointing so in our lives, that at any moment someone in a crisis could find the power of God working through us.

Rivers of Living Water

John 7:38
He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

These rivers ought to be flowing out of every believer. We should desire this, for as the rivers flow out of us, others can receive the help they need by the anointing that is flowing out of our lives: touching those who need to hear the gospel, touching those who need deliverance and healing, and touching those who need nourishment for their souls.

We need to work on getting our souls filled up with the Scriptures where they can minister food and nourishment to others, encouraging the needy. Nourishment ought to be flowing from our innermost being to nourish those we reach out to.

These rivers ought to flow to where if someone in need gets in touch with us, we can pray and their need will be met, even if they're not present when we pray for them.

We can receive this spiritual renewal as we wait on the Lord. Spiritual progress will take place in our lives; spiritual strength will come to us, and we'll have spiritual power.

Anybody who really wants the Lord and wants their life to be used of Him would want to set aside time — away from everybody, not answering the phone or doing anything other than waiting on the Lord — to seek Him in prayer and the Word for a fresh renewal in their spirit.

We need spiritual strength to continue walking with the Lord in troublesome times. How can we face such times if we are not prepared? Now is the time to prepare: time to seek spiritual renewal and strength. Then, when troublesome times come our way, we will have God working in and through us.

Signs Should Follow Us

Signs have been given to you and me:

Mark 16:17,18
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In My name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

These are the signs that follow those who believe. If you don't believe, then you can't expect these signs to follow you. These signs will follow those who believe.

Matthew 10:8
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

Now, that is a big order! Jesus was talking to the apostles whom He was sending out. But know that this word is also for us believers today. We ought to be in the place of being on fire for God where these signs will follow our lives.

We will do these things freely; not for filthy lucre, not for pride's sake, but doing it freely because we have freely received.

Matthew 4:23,24
And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and He healed them.

He healed all manner of sickness and disease.

Matthew 8:16,17
When the even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils: and He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.

These signs will follow us if we believe.

John 14:12
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

Here is our authority to be able to do these works of the Lord: heal the sick, cleanse the leper, raise the dead and cast out devils.

Mark also spoke of the sign of speaking in new tongues: baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues.

The disciples followed the instructions which the Lord had given unto them before He ascended into heaven:

Acts 1:4,5
And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

About 120 gathered in the upper room to wait for the promise, including Mary the mother of Jesus. With one accord they sought God, waiting until they received the power promised them from on high.

Acts 1:8
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

They were in one accord — in agreement — when the Holy Spirit came upon them. And God expects His people today to be in one accord, to be in agreement, seeking God to move in and through them, together and individually.

Acts 2:1-4
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

We have seen where these signs will follow the believer. So many doubt that these signs are for today, doubt that God would do these things through them. But that's not what the Scriptures say: these signs shall follow them that believe. It's a promise to us who are believers (see Mark 16:17,18; John 14:12 and Acts 1:8).

These signs in Mark that are to follow the believer are very important to us. We need these signs to follow each of us — not just the ministry but the individual believer.

But we must have the right motives. We will not have this power working in and through us if our motives are wrong. We need to humble ourselves before the Lord, with no proud thoughts of wanting this power to rob the glory that belongs to the Lord.