Clean Hands, and A Pure Heart.

     It has been said that if you desire revival, draw a circle on the ground, step inside, and ask God to send revival and begin with me. It is a fact that God must first work in the hearts of His chosen vessels before He can use them for greater purposes. He must first cleanse His church before He will use it to bring souls into His Kingdom. Judgment begins in the house of God (1 Peter 4:17).
     The Scriptures are filled with examples of this truth. Before Moses could lead Israel out of Egypt He first had to circumcise his son. This was a sign of his covenant relationship with God, and was something he had neglected to do (Exodus 4:24-26).
     Joshua could not proceed into the promised land until all of the males born during the forty years Israel wandered in the wilderness, were also circumcised (Joshua 5:2-9). This physical act is symbolic of the removal of the sin nature in our hearts (Romans 2:29) (Deut 10:16) (Jer 4:4).
     Years ago a group of seven men were moved by the plight of the backslidden churches around them. They made a covenant before God to seek Him on a regular basis until He sent revival. They faithfully met three nights a week to seek God, praying until four or five in the morning. They met like this for weeks until early one morning one of them arose from prayer and opened his bible and began to read from Psalm Twenty Four. "who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood (Psalm 24:3-4NASB).
     The men were cut to the heart and all began to confess their sin and rededicate themselves to Christ anew. this was the beginning of a mighty revival that swept the Hebrides in 1949.
     We must be clean to approach A holy God. We must put away sin and surrender ourselves to Him. He must have us before He will use us, but once cleansed and filled with His Spirit there is no end to the great things He can accomplish through us!