Epoch-Making Revival * Dutch Sheets * GiveHIM15 * 12/09/2024

[ronscarpa]

6 min read     https://www.givehim15.com/post/december-9-2024

December 9, 2024

 

Epoch-Making Revival

 

 

One of my favorite verses on revival is Acts 3:19: “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”

 

 

As is often the case, our English translation doesn’t fully convey the Greek content. The phrase “times of refreshing” is loaded with meaning. “Times” is translated from the word kairos, which means “opportune time.”(1)

 

 

Wuest, a very literal translator of the New Testament, uses the following phrases to translate kairos: “epoch-making periods” (see Acts 3:19); “strategic, significant period” (see Acts 12:1); “strategic, epochal time” (see Acts 19:23). Using his words, kairos times are strategic, significant, and potentially epoch-making. America must experience an “epoch-making” revival.(2)

 

 

I looked up the hyphenated phrase “epoch-making” to gain full understanding. It means “significant by virtue of ensuing historical developments,”(3) “a period of time characterized by momentous events or changes,”(4) and “a fixed point of time from which succeeding years are numbered.”(5)

 

 

That’s what we’re after - momentous events and changes. A revival so great it is historical, one from which succeeding years are numbered, like epoch-making and historical floods. The year is remembered, like the Johnstown Flood of 1889 or the Big Thompson Canyon (Colorado) Flood of 1976. The size of the flood is measured by how often one of that proportion comes: a 50-year flood or a 100-year flood. We want a flood of the river of God so great that people will speak of it the way they speak of physical floods: a revival of such monumental proportions that it is historical.

 

 

Breathe On Us, Oh God!

 

The word “refreshing” in Acts 3:19 is also important. Anapsuxis is compounded from two words, ana and psucho. Strong’s Concordance says ana means “repetition, intensity or reversal.”(6) Zodhiates agrees, and adds the word “increase.”(7) Psucho means “to breathe, blow or refresh with cool air.”(8) Here are five definitions of anapsucho or anapsuxis:

 

• “to draw breath again”

• “to revive by fresh air”(9)

• “to cool or refresh with a breath”

• “to regain strength”

• “Restoration”(10)

 

 

In this verse, Peter is saying that if we respond properly to the Holy Spirit, it will create a kairos time for God to once again breathe on us; revive us with a fresh breath, restore us, and give us new strength.

 

 

I also like the concept of intensity in ana. God wants to breathe on us again intensely. Peter was apparently thinking back a few days to Pentecost when the breath of God blew intensely, once more filling humans with the Spirit and life of God.

 

 

In Ezekiel 37:1-14, dry bones are used to represent spiritual death. To reverse this, God first caused the bones to reconnect; then He put skin on them, “but there was no breath in them” (v. 8). The prophet was then told, “Prophesy to the breath…say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life”’” (v. 9).

 

 

God’s breath bringing life is what occurred in Genesis 2:7. He breathed into Adam’s lifeless body, infusing it with His life. In Acts 3, Peter thought back through history - Genesis, Ezekiel, Pentecost - and prophesied that it could happen again if the people would obey the Holy Spirit.

 

 

They did and God did; and it has happened since, on numerous occasions. God is ready to do it yet again! He wants to release His breath, another wind, to our generation, and He wants to do so with great intensity.

 

 

Buy the Opportunity!

 

We must seize the moment. Twice the New Testament tells us to “redeem the time” (see Ephesians 5:15-17; Colossians 4:5, KJV). "Redeem" is translated from exagorazo, meaning “buy or purchase,” and “time” is kairos. We are told to buy the opportune time.(11)

 

 

Indeed, opportunities must be bought; they cost us - time, energy, abilities, money, even our very lives. If we don’t spend what is necessary and “buy” them, opportunities can be lost.

 

 

When Apple Computer fell on difficult days, its young chairman, Steven Jobs, traveled from Silicon Valley to New York City. His purpose was to convince Pepsico’s John Sculley to move west and run his struggling company. As the two men overlooked the Manhattan skyline from Sculley’s penthouse office, the Pepsi executive started to decline Jobs’s offer.

 

“Financially,” Sculley said, “you’d have to give me a million-dollar salary, a million-dollar bonus, and a million-dollar severance.”

 

Flabbergasted, Jobs gulped and agreed - if Sculley would move to California. But Sculley would commit only to being a consultant from New York. At that, Jobs issued a challenge to Sculley: “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want to change the world?”

 

In his autobiography Odyssey, Sculley admits Jobs’ challenge “knocked the wind out of me.” He said he’d become so caught up with his future at Pepsi, his pension, and whether his family could adapt to life in California, that an opportunity to “change the world” nearly passed him by. Instead, he put his life in perspective and went to Apple.(12)

 

We must not miss our opportunity to change the world! Let’s buy the opportunity for an epoch-making revival.

 

 

Seek Vision for the Harvest

 

Allow God to birth vision in you, vision that will motivate you to faith and action. Vision is a life-changer, a rearranger, a cause producer. Its hunger can be insatiable, a motivating force creating energy and energizing creativity.

 

 

Vision moves us from mere mental assent to physical exertion. It separates the hearer from the doer, a convert from a disciple, and mediocrity from excellence. Vision is also what separates a ripe harvest from a reaped harvest (see Matthew 9:37).

 

 

Let’s ask God to increase vision and passion for a historical, epoch-making revival, and for hearts willing to buy the opportunity.

 

 

Pray with me:

 

Father, we ask You to increase our passion and vision for the epoch-making revival You have planned. Light the flames of passion in the church to such intensity that no price will be too great to pay. Awaken hearts to seize the moment, and buy the opportune time You have created. Bring vision to believers, motivating them to write history.

 

Breathe on the dry bones of the earth and give them life. Save and deliver, redeem and transform. Make this an epochal, historic revival - unlike any other. We believe entire nations can and will be born-again in a day. Do it, we pray! Send the rushing, mighty wind of Acts 2. Give us miracles on the level of Acts 3 that cause thousands to be saved. Blow Your breath all over the world.

 

We ask these things through Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

 

 

Our decree:

 

We decree that the life-giving breath of God is bringing an epoch-making revival to earth again, and this cannot be stopped!

 

 

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I encourage you to visit YouTube, where you can listen to the song, Revive Us (Revival in Belfast) by Robin Mark.

 

 

Click the link below to watch the full video:

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s devotional was taken from my book Praying for America,(13) which is no longer in print.