When God Moves Against The Enemy It is Revival Time
O True God, hear my voice!
- Listen to my complaint!
- keep me safe from my enemy’s threats.
- from the band of rebels out to make trouble,
- Who sharpen their tongues into swords,
- who take aim with poisonous words like arrows.
- They hide in the shadows and shoot at the innocent;
- they shoot at them without warning and without any fear.
- They persist in their evil purpose and plan in secret to lay their traps.
- And they say, “Who will see them?”
- They plot their offense with precision and say,
- “Now we have the perfect crime.”
But without hesitation the True God will shoot at them;
- His arrow will surely wound them.
- He will use their very own words to bring them to destruction;
- all who see will be appalled at what happens to them.
- they will proclaim His deeds
- and will reflect upon all He has done.
- and will take shelter in Him.
-Psalm 64 (VOICE, verse 9 in bold)
We Are Living in a War
There are times when God moves against the enemy, against the enemy's works in the earth, in people who are agents of the enemy and enemies of Christ and the followers of Christ. We are living in the midst of a war, between God and Satan, on earth. Satan is infinitely weaker than God, but through the fall of mankind and the not yet restoration of humanity, the enemy and his forces wreak havoc in the earth world.
The enemy works in hiddenness.
In Psalm 64, David is crying out to God against his enemies. Hiddenness is a theme. He asks to be hidden from them and then he goes into detail about their sins they do in hiddenness. Then he proclaims that God will suddenly unveil their hidden machinations.
Things like conspiracy, treason, insurrection, plots and plans, lies and deceptions are brought to light. This is like an embezzler being exposed as a fraud and a thief. God is against or at war with the works of the enemy in people's lives who have sided against God and God's people.
We do not celebrate when people fall or face disciplinary action.
When a person, who has become our enemy, who is living in sin, is exposed; our reaction is important. We do not celebrate when our enemy falls, nor do we rejoice when they trip up (Prov. 24:17). We are not permitted or commissioned to mete judgement on others through celebrating their demise (Prov. 24:18), like the fallen world does (Rev. 11:10).
Getting revenge on the enemy through living in grace, spreading the good news, and setting others free; is a whole different thing than celebrating other human's demise, exposure, or misfortune. We should live and do justice, loving mercy and kindness, walking with God, in humility (Micah 6:8). This is the Romans 12:1 life of worship, in continual thankfulness to God; where prideful gloating has no place.
We are worshipers who belong to God.
The proper response to the exposure of the enemy's work in people is authentic worship: yielding to the sweeping fear of God, proclaiming what God has done, and living in awe of God. Psalm 64:9 reads:
Then everyone will fear the True God.
They will proclaim His deeds.
And will reflect upon what He has done.
The exposure of the enemy's work is not a private matter. To me, this sounds like revival. Not renewal, but revival. Revival happens outside the church. I believe 'everyone' means 'all people'.
It does not say "my family will", or "my tribe will", or even "my people will", but "everyone will". David could have even just made it plural, meaning more that one, and written, "people will", but he wrote, "everyone".
Everyone will fear God. I looked up the Hebrew word here for everyone, and it means all, the whole of, or every. When this thing happens, where God ambushes the enemy, it will be seen by all, and everyone will get it that God did it and fear or honor God.
You don't have to advertise a fire.
The next point is that all the people will proclaim God's deeds. This is called "word of mouth advertising". It is the most effective advertising and it is free.
When we are advertised to, the advertiser always has to get past our skepticism or cynicism. Half truths and lies are unfortunately more common that truth, in the world. We have juries in court, who hear cases and try to find what is true; and as we try to figure out if something is true or not, we say, "the jury is still out on that one".
But in this case, when God moves, to drive out and drive back the enemy; it is clearly, inexplicably true to all. And all the people will broadcast this truth of the act of God, against the enemy. Everyone will go and tell people they know, to whom they are credible witnesses, what God has done.
The Authentic Fear of God Because God is Real
Those who had none or not much fear of God, will suddenly realize God is real and fear him reverentially, and will announce what they saw and experienced to those they come into contact with.
Perhaps the "all" or "everyone", is reached by the announcing. All will know because the all who first experienced God's works will tell all, who all will believe. A fire is not hard to advertise.
This deliverance or push-back that God does on the enemy will be something that is understood or reflected upon to be God's work. It will not be explained in any other way except that the True God worked against the evil ones. It won't be explained scientifically or by psychology, sociology, anthropology, or any human based explanation.
The message will be, "God is real and God did this good work". This is not something that is taught, but caught. It will happen and some will be witnesses of it's happening.
These people will announce to all others what God has done. The truth and genuineness of God's action will come with a bonus package of the revelation that it is genuine and really God and God's doing.
Revival
And this is how revival works and spreads, will work and will spread.
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