REVIVAL:
CONDITIONS FOR; PRAYER: UNANSWERED; OBEDIENCE: NEED FOR

Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late—and how little revival has resulted?

Considering the volume of prayer that is ascending these days, rivers of revival should be flowing in blessing throughout the land. That no such results are in evidence should not discourage us; rather it should stir us to find out why our prayers are not answered.…

I believe our problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying; and it simply will not work.…

Prayer is never an acceptable substitute for obedience. The sovereign Lord accepts no offering from His creatures that is not accompanied by obedience. To pray for revival while ignoring or actually flouting the plain precept laid down in the Scriptures is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble.

1 Samuel 15:22; 2 Chronicles 7:14; James 4:3–4

Of God and Men, 55, 56.