2 Chronicles and History

2 Chronicles and History

“then, if My people, who bear My Name, will humble themselves, pray, seek My Face and turn from their evil ways, I will hear from Heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 (CJB) is one of the most quoted verses for prayer and repentance; and it applies to every situation where it is genuinely prayed. But, most of the time Christians are left wondering why their prayer is not being answered! Why have we not seen revival in America or any other nation where the Church is praying for it? I would suggest studying revivals of the past and 2 Chronicles chapters 6 and 7. It is not just a matter of getting a lot of people to pray this or any other prayer for revival!

A little history: 2 Chronicles 5-7 is about the completion of the twenty year project of building GOD’s House and Solomon’s palace in Jerusalem. In the dedication of the Temple; the first permanent structure to house the Arc of the Covenant, Table of Showbread, the Gold Altar of Incense and the Gold Lampstand; that lasted 7 days all of the nation was gathered, all of the priests and Levites were sanctified and present, hundreds of thousands of animals were sacrificed and much praise and glory were offered up to GOD. Then Solomon prayed a prayer of dedication to GOD asking for His favor and forgiveness whenever the people or nation sinned, GOD judged and the people repented in prayer (Chapter 6). GOD came to Solomon after that in a dream and answered every point of his prayer (Chapter 7) with a prophetic admonition of what would happen if the people strayed from obedience and went after the ways of the world. And it all came true!

GOD blessed Solomon more than any other man before or since with wisdom, honor and riches; yet he strayed after the flesh and the world and his kingdom was divided between his son Rehoboam who ruled over Judah (the Southern Kingdom) and his servant Jeroboam who ruled over Israel (the Ten Tribes). Both Rehoboam and Jeroboam did not follow after the LORD and most of the Kings after them did not follow after the LORD. This led to seventy years of captivity in Babylon, four hundred years of silence from GOD, the Virgin Birth, Sacrificial Death, Resurrection and Ascension of JESUS CHRIST, then the total destruction of Jerusalem and Israel for 1,858 years.

Now some world history: GOD has raised up and brought down many nations to bless and punish His People, The Church, even as He was punishing His people Israel. In fact GOD has raised up and brought down people groups and nations throughout the history of the world to bless and punish those who seek Him and those who do not. Since the fall of Israel we have had the Roman Empire, the Catholic Empire, the British Empire, the Socialist (Communist) Empire, and the American Empire. All have started with good intentions to better the world through their own doctrine and rule of government; and all have failed because “every thought of men is evil”.

The Body of CHRIST, the Church, has failed to be the governing body for the nations of the world that it is called to be and therefore the world is in sin and chaos. It is the Church that has to come before The LORD in repentance in humility and declare our sin and ask GOD to forgive us so that He will hear us from Heaven. It is all true Christians from every nation and land who believe in JESUS CHRIST and have personally repented and surrendered their life to the work of GOD’s Kingdom in the earth; not Christian organizations or religious orders; for revival to come to nations. For revival to come to the world it has to be the outcry of the masses of those who love GOD and serve Him; those who repent for themselves, their families, their organizations and their nations.

When a majority of Christians in a locality are humbly repenting and seeking the Will of GOD, then GOD will hear, forgive and heal, then revival will happen there! The great revivals of the past always started small with just a couple of people who were so earnest that GOD revived them and they shared that with others and GOD revived them until it grew and could not be contained until people started to take the glory onto themselves and preach what they did rather that Who GOD is.

So the lessons of 2 Chronicles is that great sacrifice is required to hear from GOD and great effort is required to work out our salvation (revival – being revived from eternal death to eternal life). We know that JESUS is our great sacrifice for salvation but we have to work at it daily with fear and trembling before GOD Almighty who judges both body and soul for eternity. We can pray any prayer from the Bible but we also need to understand the circumstances of the person praying and GOD’s response; they are not feel good quotes or mystical phrases that we can just get GOD to answer because we want or need Him to.

Revivals come from persecution, humble prayer and the timing of GOD! It does not come because we need or want it, it comes as the Will of GOD!

Study 2 Chronicles 5-7; Matthew 6:5-13, 6:23-34, 10:27-31; Luke 11:1-4, 12:4-7; Philippians 2:12-18; Hebrews 12:1-2