HE THAT HAS EARS, LET HIM HEAR

By Michael Catt

How many times have I heard great teaching on revival? Too many to count. How many times have I walked away from that teaching with the intention to do something about it and failed to act on it? Too many times to count. Isn't this something we are all guilty of?

As Manley Beasley use to say, we all know more than we are living up to. We talk about revival more than we pray about it. We think about it more than we act on it. Yet, over and over we see these words in the Gospels and in Revelation, "He that has ears to hear, let him hear."

I don't believe those words were written just so we might hear, take notes and be dismissed. They were written because hearing must lead to doing something about what we've heard. I heard Howard Hendricks say years ago, "You are responsible, not only for what you hear, but for what you would have heard if you had been listening."

At the Heart Cry for Revival Conference, I heard a lot. The question is, "Now what?" Maybe it's, "So what?" Will anything about my life be transformed? Will any dead branches be pruned so I can bear more fruit. Or, will I find myself stirred in my soul for a few days but going back to the daily grind with little or no change? The ball is in my court.

The Holy Spirit has clearly spoken. There were times when I needed to get away, I was in information overload. I needed to process all I was hearing. I needed to reflect, act, pray and think about what I was hearing. There were times when I realized I was around people who had a far greater hunger for God than I did and I was one of the plenary speakers!

I remember sitting at the table one day with my friends from Romania. They serve a great church, but when I asked them how I could pray for them, they teared up and said, "Pray we will have revival." They talked about how the prosperity and liberation from Communism had brought worldliness into the church. It's interesting, American's pray for prosperity and believers who have suffered pray for more suffering so it will burn away the dross and chaff.

What does one do with messages from a conference? Do we just take notes, maybe share them with a friend? Do we buy the CD's and DVD's and review what we heard? Hopefully we will do those things. The greater thing to do would be to apply and appropriate what we've heard. The seed has fallen on our hearts. The problem will be that the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches might choke out our hunger and thirsting after righteousness. After all, we've been to a conference on revival but that's not the real world - we've got to get back to the daily grind. And, the daily grind is so daily it's deadly. It chokes out our hunger for meat. We justify eating junk food. It chokes out our desire for God and we substitute a little devotional on the run. It robs us of power needed for the abiding and abounding life.

In a sense, at the Heart Cry Conference, we "held a revival." Now, we need to turn it loose. We must turn it lose in our lives. What we've heard, we must heed. God has spoken and He has not stuttered. The Spirit is speaking to the churches. Our burning hearts must warm the hearts of others. We can not allow ourselves to be cooled by the daily grind.

We live in an uncertain day, but God has given us a certain clarion call. We live in a day where we are all busy, in a hurry and stressed. We must be still and know that He is God. The current is against prayerfulness but the need for prayer is more urgent than ever. But having prayed, we must rise up and put our hands to the plow. The day is dark, the need is great. We must "repent, or else." We must do the works of the one who has sent us into this world. We must call the remnant to action. We must stir the carnal to decide whom they serve.

I've heard from HIM. I must now do something about it.
Michael Catt