By Joseph Mattera
Christians everywhere pray for a national awakening that will preserve and revive their nation. However, an awakening does not come simply because people hope and pray for it. Before a nation experiences a spiritual awakening, certain preconditions must occur.
By “awakening,” I am referring to masses of people in a community, city or nation turning to Christ, leading to human flourishing and societal reform.
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10 Hindrances to a National Awakening
- There is a lack of true oneness in the church. Jesus gave the precondition for the world to be awakened to the truth of the gospel when He prayed, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21, NIV, author’s emphasis). For the gospel witness to awaken sinners, disunity and fragmentation among gospel-preaching churches must be healed in a community.
- Corporate prayer meetings are based on a cause and not seeking God. Prayer must be earnest and focused on seeking God’s face rather than His hand alone. Too many corporate prayer gatherings I have seen in the past several years were more focused on winning political elections than seeking God’s face. This is contrary to the clear precondition for healing the land, as found in 2 Chronicles 7:14.
- There is a lack of holy desperation. A profound, pervasive sense of the need for God often precedes awakening. The book of Joel speaks about the urgency for corporate fasting and prayer so great that the bride, bridegroom and mothers nursing their infants were commanded to assemble to seek the Lord for healing of the land (Joel 1-2). Jesus also made it clear that those He would fill needed the precondition of holy hunger (Matt. 5:6). A complacent attitude in the church can stifle spiritual awakening.
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