I was surprised to realize that hidden in the story King Hezekiah’s leadership lays a profound multistep formula through which revival can come to any people group. Since revival is simply returning to the Biblical pattern of serving God, Hezekiah was able to command his people to return to that pattern and his command worked! This amazing story begins in 2nd Chronicles 29:13.
The first thing Hezekiah did in his first year was to “open the doors of the house of the Lord and repair them.” These doors metaphorically represent the entrance point into God’s house. These days many churched people are turned off to organized religion. Others are turned off by something that a particular church once did and if they do consider going to church, their thought is, “I will never go to ‘that’ church!” Brothers and sisters, God is calling us to “repair the doors of our church.” Try to find out what the reputation of your church is in your community or your denomination in our nation, and begin a prayer-backed, God-led “fixing” of those doors so that all of every age, ethnicity, or moral status feel welcome to enter those doors. Recognizing that the first step to bringing people back to God was to make sure the entry point of the temple was open and welcoming, Hezekiah made the repair of the doors his first focus.
Secondly, we see in 2nd Chronicles 29:4 that he convened a meeting of all the priests and Levites. In a practical sense, as it pertains to the church today, the priests were like our pastors, and to the Jews, the Levites, although of a specific bloodline, were like the laity of today’s church. The priests were the preachers and teachers of God’s Word, and the Levites were responsible for a lot of the day-to-day activities of the temple.
In verse 5, Hezekiah, as king, declared to the Levites that “they were to sanctify themselves and sanctify the house of the Lord.” It is obvious as you read through this chapter that the king was also including the priests in his command by using what we sometimes refer to as a “bounce pass.” This happens when you are preaching to one group but you know that the group with them is also listening!
I believe that once again God is calling believers everywhere who are spiritual leaders in all of the ministry gifts to “sanctify themselves and sanctify the house of the Lord!” So regularly we hear of another tragic failure in the ministry, or another church being sued or having to close their doors because of losing their good reputation in their community. Whatever our ministry gift is or whatever our title in the Body of Christ I believe God is calling all, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, including the laity, to “sanctify ourselves, and to sanctify the house of the Lord in this hour!
Once after addressing a group of area pastors I was told by the Presbyter of that area “Nolan, pastors do not like to be preached to!” My response to him was simple; “Why?” He said that pastors often believe that if they have a problem, because of their office, God will speak to them about it directly. I then said “That could be spiritual pride” and that we all need to let God use the gifts to try to call all of us up higher in Him!” He said, “I know, but I’m just warning you that’s the way it is!”
I believe that revival can start in any church when God revives it from the top down. When the senior leaders start to come to their pulpits humbled before God, testifying to a life-changing experience in their own lives, it can ignite a new passion in the hearts of almost any congregation to seek God in a new way in their lives as well. There is so much more to this story of the success of Hezekiah’s strong leadership. I pray that you will search God’s Word for more inspiration regarding revival from this king who successfully set in spiritual order a whole nation!
Successful, dynamic spiritually alive and thriving churches have one principle thing in common. They are willing to be taught…changed…admonished and are open to continual self examination. Humility and having upen ears for new and different ministering the gifts of the Spirit puts control in the right place…the supernatural arena of manifestations of the miraculous from God. Saints want to be invigorated by His presence…not just pious platitudes from religious roots.⛪
Well said