1. Revival is a sovereign work of God in answer to the sincere and fervent prayers of His people.
2. James Alexander Stewart, in his book, Preparation for Pentecost, gives 76 Scriptural definitions of revival.
3. We do not have time for all of them, but here are a few:

• Revival is the manifestation of the supernatural.
• Revival is the people of God filled with the awe and majesty of the Shekinah glory. (Note: the presence of God.)
• Revival is the sovereign, supernatural, spontaneous outworking of God the Holy Spirit.
• Revival is the Church scattered, going everywhere preaching the Word.
• Revival is the saints of God agonizing on behalf of lost souls going to hell.
• Revival is the restoration of the backslider of the thrill, glory, power, and joy of his salvation.
• Revival is the breaking forth of God’s glory.
• Revival is the people of God living in the power of an ungrieved, unquenched Spirit.
• Revival is the Church of God filled with all the fulness of God.
• Revival is walking in the light, and experiencing the power of the blood of Jesus.
• Revival is the Church crowding the Upper Room in mighty conquering, devil-binding intercession.
• Revival is a new beginning in obedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
• Revival is the noising abroad of the presence of the living Christ in the midst.
• Revival is an invasion of God into the devil’s territory.

4. By studying Scripture, and by studying the history of revivals throughout church history, we can see that prayer always precedes revival.
5. Second Chronicles 7:14 says, If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
6. If God's people pray, God will work (Psalm 119:126).

I. WE MUST KNOW GOD'S WORD (119:130).

1. To ask God to work, we must have faith that God will work, and that faith comes from our understanding of God's Word. Romans 10:17 says, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
2. The Psalmist asked the LORD to give him a better understanding of God's Word: "teach me thy statutes" (vs. 124); "give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies" (vs. 125; cf. vs. 135).
3. Daniel could pray, "It is time for thee, LORD, to work," because Daniel knew the Word of God. In Daniel 9:2, Daniel said he understood by studying the book of the prophet Jeremiah, that the Jews would be in Babylon for seventy years.
4. Elijah the prophet could pray, "It is time for thee, LORD, to work," because Elijah knew the book of Deuteronomy chapter 11 taught that if God's people turned aside, and served other gods, and worshiped them; that His wrath would be kindled, and He would shut up the heaven, that there would be no rain (Deut. 11:16, 17).
5. Knowing the Word of God, Elijah could boldly stand before wicked King Ahab and say, "As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word" (I Kings 17:1).
6. Some might be thinking, "Yes, but Elijah was a great prophet."
7. Yes, indeed he was a great prophet, but James 5:17 says, "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months."
8. Elijah knew the Word of God, and so he could "pray earnestly that it might not rain" (James 5:17), and he could pray, "It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law" (Psalm 119:126).
9. The LORD did work, and through the ministry of Elijah the prophet, Baal-worship was defeated in Israel.
10. George Muller could pray, "It is time for thee, LORD, to work," and God worked mightily through George Muller. George Muller cared for over 10,000 orphans, and established 117 schools.
11. George Muller pastored a church in Bristol for over 40 years, and then at the age of 70 he traveled all over the world for 17 years preaching the Gospel. He traveled over 200,000 miles to 42 countries.
12. George Muller financially supported missionaries (including Hudson Taylor in China) in 26 different countries.
13. He distributed over 281,652 Bibles, a million and a half New Testaments; and other Christian literature, including over 100 million Christian tracts, booklets and pamphlets.
14. A.T. Pierson, in his biography of George Muller, wrote, “The prayer habit, on the knees, with the Word open before the disciple, has thus an advantage which it is difficult to put into words: It provides a sacred channel of approach to God. The inspired Scriptures form the vehicle of the Spirit in communicating to us the knowledge of the will of God. If we think of God on the one side and man on the other, the word of God is the mode of conveyance from God to man, of His own mind and heart. It therefore becomes a channel of God’s approach to us, a channel prepared by the Spirit for the purpose, and unspeakably sacred as such.”
15. Muller said, "My knowledge of God and His Word is that which helps me" (cf. Psalm 119:124-130).
16. We must know God's Word. And then we can pray, "It is time for thee, LORD, to work."
17. R. A. Torrey said, “If we would feed the fire of our prayers with the fuel of God’s Word, all our difficulties in prayer would disappear” (How to Pray).
18. F.B. Meyer said, "How can we know the Spirit of God...unless our judgment is deeply imbued with the Word of God? We must not be content with the Spirit without the Word, or with the Word without the Spirit. Our life must travel along these two, as the locomotive along the parallel metals. The Word is the chosen organ of the Spirit; and it is only by our devout contact with it that we shall be enabled to detect His voice. It is by the Word that the Spirit will enter our hearts, as the heat of the sun passes into our chambers with the beams of light that enter the open casement. We need a widespread revival of Bible study. These mines of Scripture, lying beneath the surface, call loudly for investigation and discovery; and those who shall obey the appeal, and set themselves to the devout and laborious study of the inner meaning of the Word, shall be soon aware that they have received the filling that they seek" (The Secret of Guidance).
19. We could see God work if we knew the Word of God. Hudson Taylor meditated on Ezekiel 34:26, "And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing."
20. God answered his prayers and sent 100 new missionaries to the China Inland Mission.
21. James Caughey was born in Northern Ireland in 1810. When he was a young boy his family emigrated to America. He was saved and called to preach during the Second Great Awakening.
22. In 1841, James Caughey arrived in Liverpool and for nearly seven years he preached all over England. Revival fires broke out all over England, with 22,000 souls saved, and many Christians refreshed, revived, and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
23. One of Mr. Caughey's converts was William Booth, who was inspired by Caughey's evangelistic preaching and who later went on to start the Salvation Army.
24. It is recorded that wherever James Caughey went, he preached Mark 11:24 -- "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."

II. WE MUST OBEY GOD'S WORD (119:126-132).

1. It is one thing to know God's Word, and it is another thing to obey God's Word.
2. James 1:22 says, "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."
3. With the exception of just three verses, there is a reference to the Word of God in every verse in Psalm 119 (173 out of 176 verses) -- His law, His testimonies, His precepts, His statutes, His commandments, etc.
4. The Psalmist emphasizes keeping God's Word. In this psalm, the word "keep" is used 22 times (cf. verse 129).
5. The ungodly have no respect for the Word of God. The Psalmist says in verse 126, "It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law."
6. In other words, they have broken God's law. We see this today on every hand. People desecrate the Lord's Day; they lie; they steal; they use filthy language and take God's name in vain; they commit adultery, etc.
7. If God does not send revival to America soon -- our nation will be destroyed. Our country has become a nation of liars and drunkards and adulterers.
8. Jeremiah the prophet cried, "Mine heart within me is broken... For the land is full of adulterers" (Jer. 23:9, 10).
9. America needs to get right with God! America desperately needs revival. Spurgeon said, "Man's extremity...is God's opportunity."
10. Spurgeon said, when "sin becomes fashionable, and a holy walk is regarded as a contemptible Puritanism; vice is styled pleasure, and vanity bears the bell. Then the saints sigh for the presence and power of their God: Oh for an hour of the King upon the throne and the rod of iron! Oh for another Pentecost with all its wonders, to reveal the energy of God to gainsayers, and make them see that there is a God in Israel!...When the church of God is trampled down, and her message is derided, we may expect to see the hand of the Lord stretched out for the revival of religion, the defence of the truth, and the glorifying of the divine name. The Lord can work either by judgments which hurl down the ramparts of the foe; or by revivals which build up the walls of his own Jerusalem. How heartily may we pray the Lord to raise up new evangelists, to quicken those we all early have, to set his whole church on fire, and to bring the world to his feet. God's work is ever honourable and glorious; as for our work, it is as nothing apart from him" (Treasury of David).
11. Spurgeon was right -- "The Lord can work either by judgments which hurl down the ramparts of the foe; or by revivals which build up the walls of his own Jerusalem."
12. It is either revival or ruin.
13. W. Graham Scroggie said Psalm 119:126 is "an appeal to the sovereignty of God against the stupidity of men" (A Guide to the Psalms).
14. Sinners have always acted stupidly. To live for sin and self is stupid. To submit to the devil and then die and go to hell is very stupid!
15. The Psalmist said in verse 128, "Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way."
16. Do you hold God's Word in high esteem? Do you hate every false way? Do you love His name? (verse 132).

There is a name I love to hear;
I love to sing its worth;
It sounds like music in mine ear,
The sweetest name on earth.

O how I love the Saviour's name!
O how I love the Saviour's name!
O how I love the Saviour's name!
The sweetest name on earth.  -- Frederick Whitfield

17. Before moving on, let me say this: we live in such a dirty, filthy age that we think things could never have been this bad. Yet let me quote a preacher from hundreds of years ago.

"Infidelity was never more subtle, more hurtful, more plausible, perhaps more successful, than in the day in which we live. It has left the low grounds of vulgarity and coarseness and ribaldry, and entrenched itself upon the lofty heights of criticism, philology, and even science itself. It pervades to a fearful extent our popular literature; it has invested itself with the charms of poetry, to throw its spell over the public mind; it has endeavoured to inweave itself with science; and he must be little acquainted with the state of opinion in this land, who does not know that it is espoused by a large portion of the cultivated mind of this generation. 'It is time for thee, Lord, to work.'"— John Angell James, 1785-1859.

III. WE MUST LET GOD ORDER OUR STEPS (119:133).

1. Verse 133 says, "Order my steps in thy word..." God will not order our steps if we have no intention of doing what He says.
2. "Order my steps in thy word..." Not: “Order my steps according to my wishes.”
3. Psalm 37:23 says, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD."
4. Not the steps of a bad man, or a carnal man, or a worldly man, or a backslidden man, etc.
5. Spurgeon said, "A holy life is no work of chance, it is a masterpiece of ORDER."
6. An obedient Christian can say with the Psalmist -- "Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me."
7. Spurgeon said this about the prayer of verse 133 -- "This prayer seeks a very choice favour, namely, that every distinct act, every step, might be arranged and governed by the will of God. This does not stop short of perfect holiness, neither will the believer's desires be satisfied with anything beneath that blessed consummation" (Treasury of David).
8. May we not be satisfied with anything else but the perfect will of God.
9. May we not stop praying for revival.
10. May we not stop praying for sinners.
11. And may we not stop trying to win them to Christ!
12. "And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30).

CONCLUSION:

1. There was a Gospel song that became very popular during the 1859 revival in Northern Ireland.
2. They still sing it today and my pastor learned it when he was preaching over there.

WHAT'S THE NEWS?

Whene’er we meet you always say:
What’s the news? What’s the news?
Pray what’s the order of the day,
What’s the news? What’s the news?
Oh, I have got good news to tell, 
My Saviour hath done all things well, 
And triumphed over death and hell— 
That’s the news, that’s the news!

The Lamb was slain on Calvary!
That’s the news! That’s the news!
To set a world of sinners free,
That’s the news! that’s the news!
’Twas there His precious blood was shed,
’Twas there He bowed His sacred head,
But now He’s risen from the dead,
That’s the news! that’s the news!

His work’s reviving all around,
That’s the news! that’s the news!
And many have salvation found—
That’s the news! that’s the news!
And since their souls have caught the flame,
They shout Hosanna to His name,
And all around they spread His fame—
That’s the news! that’s the news!

The Lord has pardoned all my sin—
That’s the news! that’s the news!
I have the witness now within—
That’s the news! that’s the news!
And since He took my sins away,
And taught me how to watch and pray,
I’m happy now from day to day—
That’s the news! that’s the news!

And Christ the Lord can save you now—
That’s the news! that’s the news!
Your sinful heart He can renew—
That’s the news! that’s the news!
This moment, if for sins you grieve,
This moment, if you do believe,
A full acquittal you’ll receive—
That’s the news! that’s the news!

And now if any one should say,
What’s the news! what’s the news?
O tell them you’ve begun to pray—
That’s the news! that’s the news!
That you have joined the conquering band,
And now, with joy, at God’s command,
You’re marching to the better land—
That’s the news! that’s the news!