Don Graham Revival Ministries

"The Heart God Revives"

II Kings 22

It was a cold winter night, January 1996, in North Carolina. Jean and I were traveling that year with the White Team of the Life Action Ministries as their team pastor. We were scheduled to present the program, Bring Back the Glory. We had arrived at the church when it began to snow. The meeting was cancelled and we were alone as a team that night for our meal. We had our team worship time without any rush and I spoke to our team about Josiah, the young man with a tender heart! It was a most blessed experience! God spoke to our hearts and we experienced a real touch from God. From that night forward for the rest of our tour things were different. Remembering that remarkable night, this study is affectionately dedicated to those young people plus the precious people who make up the Life Action Ministries!!

The Life Action Ministries in their crusades always feature a study of The Heart God Revives. I believe that truth is fleshed out in the life of Josiah in a beautiful way. Josiah had a tender heart (v.19) which is the only heart God can revive. Note: A man with a tender heart...

I. REFUSES Alternative Paths to Holiness (v.2)

Josiah came to the throne as an eight year old boy. He chose at the outset to walk in the ways of David, refusing to follow after his godless father and grandfather Amon and Manasseh. His parents had led their nation into debauchery and decay. Josiah decided from the beginning to recognize the error of his forefathers choosing, and instead to walk the straight and narrow path and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. The contemporary church scene is cluttered with a myriad of options for holiness, most, if not all of them, merely become flimsy and fluffy substitutes for the real thing.

II. RESTORES the House of God (vs. 3-7)

Seeing the disgraceful condition of the house of God, desecrated and neglected by his father and grandfather, Josiah sets out in the eighteenth year of his reign to repair, renovate and restore the temple to its rightful place among the people of God. That hallowed place with which God had associated His holy name was an utter disgrace with open breaches (v.8) in the walls of the house. That was the first order of business for Josiah and it must also be for us if the Church is to ever know genuine revival. What about that temple of yours? The body of the individual believer is the Temple of God housing the indwelling Spirit of God. For, oh, so too many believers there are breaches in that temple. The body all too often has been prostituted to the things of this world and is in utter desecration. The body and the spirit must be cleaned up, cleared out so that our blessed Lord may dwell there comfortably at home in our hearts!

III. RESPONDS in Humility to the Word of God (vs. 8-11)

In the process of renovation and renewing the workers found the book of the law in the house of God. (v.8) Imagine, the very Word of God is lost in the very house of God! What a lurid picture of the Church of our day—services being conducted weekly but utterly devoid of the Word of God. We find ourselves living under the very curse and judgment of God, i.e., the judgment of a famine of the Word of God. Like Israel, God has given America what she pled for, namely, prosperity and at the same time has sent leanness to our souls. The Church of the Lost Bible!—how tragic!!

When the Scriptures were found they carried them promptly to King Josiah and he ordered them to read the Book to him. Upon hearing the Word of God read, Josiah's tender heart toward God was broken as he repented toward God for his sin and the sin of his people as he rent his clothes and cried out to God! In verse nineteen we see this coupled reaction: Because thine heart was tender and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord… That’s it! A tender heart toward God will respond in humility and brokenness to the Word of God. There is no substitute for a man whose heart is tender and at the same time laced with the Word of God. Such a man, like Josiah, is destined to become the point man of a mighty movement of God. Will you join me in the prayer that there might be a new generation of men growing up whose hearts are tender and will tremble before God’s Word and then faithfully unleash that Word?

IV. RECOGNIZES the Clear Indictment of the Word (vs. 12-20)

One simple reading of the Word and immediately this young man with a tender heart discerned that his people have grievously sinned against God and readily perceives that what has been happening to his nation is because of ...the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us…(v.13) He wisely seeks the counsel of the godly prophetess, Haldah. A man with a tender heart is never a lone ranger. He realizes his need for help. He sent and enquired of the Lord from Haldah. She points out that there is another reason for God’s attention being riveted upon him. In addition to his tender heart, humbled heart, repentant heart, he also wept before the Lord. (v.19) Genuine tears always brings the attention and pleasure of God. Tender men know how to weep! Many men, like me, grew up thinking that tenderness was tantamount to weakness. Not so! Josiah was a rugged man who stood against overwhelming pressure and led Judah to its last reform before its demise. It takes a real man, a man’s man, to handle this; yet Josiah, a man with a tender heart wept over the spiritual depravity of his day.

You may ask how can I know if my heart is the kind of heart God revives. Check the following suggestions that comes to us from the revival heart of the Life Action Ministries: If your heart is not tender and broken then it is a proud heart. Proud people refuse to take advice, like to argue, only think of God occasionally, focus on self, want to deal with the respectable rather than the real, tend to deal in generalities rather than specifics, calls sin by other names (i.e., character flaws, mistakes, etc.), are more conscious of what people think rather than what God already knows, defend and justify their actions, etc.

If any of the above is true of your life, pause with me just now and do business with God. Admit your proud heart, confess it with brokenness and repentance before God. Deal with it swiftly and ruthlessly. Ask God to do whatever is necessary to have your heart a tender and broken heart before Him. Then God can indeed revive your heart! Amen and Amen!!