REVIVAL 5 PROMISED BY THE LORD 2 CHRONICLES 7:14

We continue to research that glorious promise,’ If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven; will forgive their sin and heal their land.’

Only a majestic, loving God could forgive sin; yet the Lord promised that. Early in bible record, we read, ‘I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious; and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’ (Exodus 33:19)The Lord chose to show His kindness to special ones. ‘When Moses had prepared the two tablets for the eternal law, ‘The Lord passed before him, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.’ (34:6) God revealed His essential nature to Moses, compassionate, benevolent, forgiving, good and truthful: equally blessed is this knowledge to us.

Nehemiah enlarged our understanding of the forgiving God, crying ; ‘You are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them.’ (Nehemiah 9:17) Contrast with fallen man, who reluctantly forgives; is merciless, quick to retaliate, unkind to and readily abandons the needy.

David commended his God.’ Lord, You are a God full of compassion. and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in mercy and truth.‘ (Psalm 86:15) Please observe the attributes of our marvellous, pardoning God, contrasting with other deities where coldness, intolerance, mercilessness, error and revenge dominate.

The psalmist reached a peak in telling of this characteristic, ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul; Forget not all His benefits; Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction.’ Who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies?’ (103:3,4 ) We must remember His boundless goodness: wiping out viciousness, infirmity of spirit; healing soul and body; releasing from destructive forces.

Isaiah delighted in this theme: ‘Come now, let us reason together‘; says the Lord. ’ Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they will be as wool. (1:18) The Lord calls us to discuss with Him our grievous state; nor should we be dismayed with the stain or the colour of our misbehaviour. He will purify and make whole. Surely He gives Holistic cleansing.

Isaiah told that the Lord does it for His own glory, ‘’I am HE who blots out your transgressions for My own sake. (43:25) His astonishing generosity demonstrates the depth of the Lord’s love for His fallen creatures. Of course, we are the beneficiaries.

He continued in 44; 22,’ I have blotted out as a thick cloud your transgressions; and like a cloud your sins.’ Then His plea followed, ’Return to me for I have redeemed you.’ Our wrongs are as a thick cloud, hiding the face of our God, looming in judgment on us, Our Lord removes this ominous cloud , leaving the clear sky and the smile of His beautiful face.

Isaiah continued, ‘ Seek you the Lord while he may be found; Call upon Him while He is near; Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord. He will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.’ (55:6,7) He tenderly invites us to cry to HIM for help; to recognise He has come close to us; to abandon our wayward path; and nestle in His strong arms; receiving a great dose of mercy and overflowing pardon. Oh, how great is the Lord! Rest safely in Him.

Jeremiah expands our understanding of our God when he spoke, ‘Know the Lord, for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,’ says the Lord. He longed for us to know Him as ‘The one who forgives their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.’ (31;34) Do you know your God? It characterises HIM, who suspends His perfect memory, but Who chose not to commit to memory ( call to mind ) all that incriminated us. WE should dance for joy when we know His generous spirit.

The prophet Hosea wrote, ‘Come, let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. (6:1) His stern judgments may lacerate; but His grace heals. While He chastises, He will restore peace and preserve integrity.

Jonah added his word after the three unforgettable days in the belly of the fish, ‘ I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, one who relents from doing harm. (4:2) Jonah’s irretrievable position, being discoloured by the fish’s gastric secretions; his heart moulded by the 3 days and nights as the fish changed his direction and destiny. God may meet you in your most unlikely dilemma. Pray God it will be a liberating occurrence. WW11 was mine.

When the greatest man born of woman, John the Baptist, announced, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29), men heard the liberating message of the One who brings pardon and forgiveness. Every nation must hear this glorious news; the burdened hearts of many sink with the sheer mass of their sin. He lifts that.

After the Lord Jesus had died, gloriously defeating the devil, and he had been raised from the dead, our Lord said, ‘It is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His (redeeming) Name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things.’ (Luke 24:46, 47). The risen Lord prescribes a change of heart

(repentance) so that our sins may be blotted out. Then we must preach and teach this

monumental truth; the world waits for this glorious, life-giving, precious word.

Paul powerfully taught this truth in Acts 13:38, ’Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this MAN (Christ Jesus, God’s holy Son) is preached to you the forgiveness of sins. And by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the Law of Moses. ’ The Word became flesh, that is, the Lord of glory became the Son of man ( born of the virgin Mary ) , to bear our sins in His own body on the tree; so pardoning sins, and freely imparting righteousness.

‘I will heal your land’ is the concluding promise. Isaiah forecast,’ the wolf shall dwell with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the young goat; the calf and the young lion; and a little child (is this the holy Child?) shall lead them.’ (11:6). Later he wrote, ‘The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the rose.’ (35:1) He transforms our wilderness and barren desert. He heals our home land.

Jeremiah asked ‘Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Amos wrote, ‘the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed.’ (9:15)

‘The creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. ‘Paul in (Rom 8:21) John victoriously cried, ‘There shall be no more curse. The throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it. Total healing. Rev 22:3.