Heart-Searching for Prayer Preparation and Personal Revival ----------------------------------------------------------- Psalm 139:23-24 - Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Confession of sin is necessary for fellowship with God, and revival among God’s people. Prayerfully consider the following questions. Go through these questions one by one. Answer truthfully these questions. Every “yes” answer means sin in your life! In reading these questions, as you are convicted of sin, confess it at once to God. Be willing to make it right ... then you can claim cleansing and forgiveness. (1John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.) Be sure to name your sin to God, as ... “Lord, I have not put Thee first in my plans,” or “I have neglected Thy word and prayer.” Do not make the least excuse for sin of any kind in your life. (Proverbs 28:13 - He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.) No matter what others do, or do not do, Christian, leave nothing undone on your part. God wants to work through you to bring about a great spiritual awakening. He can begin by your fulfilling every requirement shown by the Lord through the Holy Spirit and His Word. A revival from the presence of the Lord begins today, IF YOU DESIRE IT. (Read the Scriptures first. Ask the question .... Give a truthful answer ... “yes” or “no.”) _____________________________________________________________________________ 1) Matthew 6:14-15 - For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. A. --- YES or NO --- Is there anyone against whom you hold a grudge? B. --- YES or NO --- Anyone you haven’t forgiven? C. --- YES or NO --- Anyone you hate? D. --- YES or NO --- Anyone you do not love? E. --- YES or NO --- Are there any misunderstandings that you are unwilling to forget? F. --- YES or NO --- Is there any person against whom you are harbouring bitterness, resentment, or jealousy? G. --- YES or NO --- Anyone you dislike to hear praised or well spoken of? H. --- YES or NO --- Do you allow anything to justify a wrong attitude toward another? 2) Matthew 6:33 - But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. A. --- YES or NO --- Is there anything in which you have failed to put God first? B. --- YES or NO --- Have your decisions been made after your own wisdom and desires, rather than seeking and following God’s will? C. --- YES or NO --- Do any of the following in any way interfere with your surrender and service to God: ambition, pleasures, loved ones, friendship, desire for recognition, money, your own plans? 3) Acts 1:8 - But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. A. --- YES or NO --- Have you neglected to seek the lost for Christ? B. --- YES or NO --- Have you neglected to witness consistently with your mouth for the Lord Jesus Christ? C. --- YES or NO --- Has your life not shown the lost the Lord Jesus? 4) John 13:35 - By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. A. --- YES or NO --- Are you secretly pleased over the misfortune of another? B. --- YES or NO --- Are you secretly annoyed over the accomplishments or advancements of another? C. --- YES or NO --- Are you guilty of any contention or strife? D. --- YES or NO --- Do you quarrel, argue, or engage in heated discussions? E. --- YES or NO --- Are you a partaker in any divisions, or party spirit? F. --- YES or NO --- Are there people whom you deliberately slight? 5) II Corinthians 9:6-7 - He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. A. --- YES or NO --- Have you robbed God by withholding His due of time, talents, and money? B. --- YES or NO --- Have you robbed God by withholding your income for God’s work? C. --- YES or NO --- Have you failed to support mission work either in prayer or offerings? 6) I Corinthians 4:2 - Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. A. --- YES or NO --- Are you undependable so that you cannot be trusted with responsibilities in the Lord’s work? B. --- YES or NO --- Are you allowing your emotions to be stirred for things of the Lord but doing nothing about it? 7) I Corinthians 6:19-20 - What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. A. --- YES or NO --- Are you in any way careless with your body? B. --- YES or NO --- Do you fail to care for it as the temple of the Holy Spirit? C. --- YES or NO --- Are you guilty of intemperance in eating or drinking? D. --- YES or NO --- Do you have any habits which are defiling to the temple of the Holy Spirit? 8) Psalms 115:1 - Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake. A. --- YES or NO --- Do you take the slightest credit for anything good about you, rather than give all the glory to God? B. --- YES or NO --- Do you talk of what you have done rather than what Christ has done? C. --- YES or NO --- Are your statements mostly about “I”? D. --- YES or NO --- Are your feelings easily hurt? E. --- YES or NO --- Have you made a pretence of being something you are not? 9) II Corinthians 3:5 - Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; A. --- YES or NO --- Are you self-conscious rather than Christ-conscious? B. --- YES or NO --- Do you allow feelings of inferiority to keep you from attempting things you should in serving God? 10) Ephesians 4:28 - Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. A. --- YES or NO --- Do you underpay? B. --- YES or NO --- Do you do very little in your work? C. --- YES or NO --- Have you been careless in the payment of your debts? D. --- YES or NO --- Have you sought to evade payment of debts? E. --- YES or NO --- Do you waste time? F. --- YES or NO --- Do you waste time for others? 11) Ephesians 4:31 - Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: A. --- YES or NO --- Do you complain? B. --- YES or NO --- Do you find fault? C. --- YES or NO --- Do you have a critical attitude towards any person or thing? D. --- YES or NO --- Are you irritable or cranky? F. --- YES or NO --- Do you ever carry hidden anger? F. --- YES or NO --- Do you get angry? G. --- YES or NO --- Do you become impatient with others? H. --- YES or NO --- Are you ever harsh or unkind? 12) Ephesians 5:16 - Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. A. --- YES or NO --- Do you listen to unedifying radio or TV programs? B. --- YES or NO --- Do you read unworthy magazines? C. --- YES or NO --- Do you partake in worldly amusements? D. --- YES or NO --- Do you find it necessary to seek satisfaction from any questionable source? E. --- YES or NO --- Are you doing certain things that show that you are not satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ? 13) Ephesians 5:20 - Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; A. --- YES or NO --- Have you neglected to thank Him for all things, the seemingly bad as well as the good? B. --- YES or NO --- Have you virtually called God a liar by doubting His Word? C. --- YES or NO --- Do you worry? D. --- YES or NO --- Is your spiritual temperature based on your feelings instead of on the facts of God’s Word? 14) Philippians 1:21 - For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. A. --- YES or NO --- Are you taken up with cares of this life? B. --- YES or NO --- Does your conversation or heart joy over “things” rather than the Lord and His Word? C. --- YES or NO --- Does anything mean more to you than living for and pleasing Christ? 15) Philippians 2:14 - Do all things without murmurings and disputings: A. --- YES or NO --- Do you ever, by word or deed, seek to hurt someone? B. --- YES or NO --- Do you gossip? C. --- YES or NO --- Do you speak unkindly concerning people when they are not present? D. --- YES or NO --- Do you carry prejudice against true Christians because they are of some different group than yours, or because they do not see everything exactly like you? 16) Philippians 4:4 - Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. A. --- YES or NO --- Have you neglected to seek to be pleasing to the Lord in all things? B. --- YES or NO --- Do you carry bitterness toward God? C. --- YES or NO --- Have you complained against Him in any way? D. --- YES or NO --- Have you been dissatisfied with His provision for you? E. --- YES or NO --- Is there in your heart any unwillingness to obey God fully? F. --- YES or NO --- Do you have any reservations as to what you would or would not do concerning anything that might be His will? 17) Colossians 3:9 - Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; A. --- YES or NO --- Do you engage in empty and unprofitable conversation? B. --- YES or NO --- Do you ever lie? C. --- YES or NO --- Do you ever exaggerate? Cheat? Steal? D. --- YES or NO --- Carefully consider— do you overcharge? 18) II Timothy 2:22 - Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. A. --- YES or NO --- Do you have any personal habits that are not pure? B. --- YES or NO --- Do you allow impure thoughts about the opposite sex to stay in your mind? C. --- YES or NO --- Do you read that which is impure or suggests unholy things? D. --- YES or NO --- Do you indulge in any unclean entertainment? E. --- YES or NO --- Are you guilty of the lustful look? 19) Hebrews 10:25 - Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. A. --- YES or NO --- Do you stay away from the meetings of preaching the gospel? B. --- YES or NO --- Do you whisper or think about other things while God’s Word is being read or preached? C. --- YES or NO --- Are you irregular in attendance at services? D. --- YES or NO --- Do you neglect to attend or participate in meetings for prayer? E. --- YES or NO --- Have you neglected or slighted daily or private prayer? F. --- YES or NO --- Have you neglected God’s Word? G. --- YES or NO --- Do you find the Bible and prayer uninteresting? H. --- YES or NO --- Have you neglected thanksgiving at meals? I. --- YES or NO --- Have you neglected daily family devotions? 20) Hebrews 13:17 - Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you. A. --- YES or NO --- Do you hesitate to submit to leaders in the church or elsewhere? B. --- YES or NO --- Are you lazy? C. --- YES or NO --- Do you rebel at requests given to you to help in the work of the gospel? D. --- YES or NO --- Do you in any way have a stubborn or unteachable spirit? 21) James 1:27 - Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. A. --- YES or NO --- Have you allowed yourself to become “spotted” by the world? B. --- YES or NO --- Is your manner of dress displeasing to God? C. --- YES or NO --- Do you spend beyond what is pleasing to God on anything? D. --- YES or NO --- Do you neglect to pray about things that you buy? 22) James 4:6b - God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. A. --- YES or NO --- Do you feel that you are doing quite well as a Christian? B. --- YES or NO --- That you are not so bad? C. --- YES or NO --- That you are good enough? D. --- YES or NO --- Are you stubborn? E. --- YES or NO --- Do you insist on having your own way? F. --- YES or NO --- Do you insist on your “rights”? 23) James 4:11 - Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. A. --- YES or NO --- Have you dishonoured Him and hindered His work by criticizing His servants? B. --- YES or NO --- Have you failed to pray regularly for your pastor and other spiritual leaders? C. --- YES or NO --- Do you find it hard to be corrected? D. --- YES or NO --- Is there rebellion toward one who wants to restore you? E. --- YES or NO --- Are you more concerned about what people will think than what will be pleasing to God? _____________________________________________________________________________ If you have been honest and true in the matter of admitting your sins, then you are ready for Cod’s cleansing. Sins that are admitted, are sins that are confessed. Remember these three things: 1. If the sin is against God, confess it to God, and make things right with God. 2. If the sin is against another person, confess it to God, and make things right with the other one. 3. If the sin is against a group, confess it to God, and make it right with the group. If there is full confession, there will be full cleansing. Then the joy of the Lord will follow. Then there can be testimony and prayer in the power of the Holy Spirit. Revival will soon follow. Psalm 19:12 - Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------