Then [Jonah] cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.
Jonah 3:4-5
Recommended Reading: Romans 10:14-17
“Gipsy” Smith was a British evangelist who preached in Great Britain and America for more than seventy years. He is famously known for this formula for bringing about revival: “Go home. Lock yourself in your room. Kneel down in the middle of the floor, and with a piece of chalk draw a circle around yourself. There, on your knees, pray fervently and brokenly that God would start a revival within that chalk circle.” That is, there can be no corporate revival (renewal) that does not begin with prayerful, personal revival.
God sent Jonah to Nineveh to preach a message of impending judgment if the city did not repent. Thankfully, the city listened to Jonah’s message and repented before God. But that corporate repentance only happened because Jonah repented first of his personal sins and submitted to God’s direction for his life. The awakening in Nineveh was the result of renewal in Jonah.
Be in prayer for revival in your family, church, city, and nation. But pray most fervently for revival in your own heart.
Waiting for general revival is an opportunity for enjoying personal revival.
Stephen Olford
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