All eyes are on President Obama and his team as they seek to create and implement a stimulus plan for the American economy.  Regardless of our opinions about his approach, we all agree that our nation is in big economic trouble.

But we are also in a grim spiritual crisis.  Intuitively, we all know it is true.  Practically, we see the symptoms of spiritual decline in the media, our communities, and our churches – maybe even our homes.  Statistically, we should be reminded of a few riveting facts, most of which are documented in my book Fresh Encounters:

•   Five hundred billion dollars has been spent on ministry in the United States in the last fifteen years with no appreciable growth in the impact of the church.

•   During the last ten years the combined membership of all Protestant denominations has decreased 9.5 percent while the national population has increased 11.4 percent.

•   In recent years, half of all churches did not add one new member through conversion growth.

•   Every month as many as 2,700 churches in the Unites States alone hold their last service, close their doors, and put up the “For Sale” sign.

•   The number of those who classify themselves as irreligious has doubled in the last decade.

I would consider these facts present a pretty powerful wakeup call (and this is just a small sampling of the disconcerting data).  The call was so powerful in my own life that in June 2007 I decided to leave the security of the Sr. Pastor role in a very large congregation to give my full-time efforts to the profound need for a full-scale spiritual stimulus.  Some call it revival.  Others describe it as renewal.  I simply consider it the most urgent and compelling need in our land.  

As I often say, the problem with our spiritual condition is not the pervasiveness of the darkness but the failure of the light.  When the church is revived, the light of Christ’s glory fills the darkness of the culture.

God’s Spiritual Stimulus Proposal

Fortunately, the best spiritual stimulus plan is not left to human reason or strategy.   Congress does not have to vote on this proposal.  God gives us an inspired and familiar stimulus package in 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Allow me to highlight just a few points from this stimulus plan:

·         God has all the “stimulus” we need IF we will meet the conditions.  His supply is limitless but his requirements are precise.

·         The heart of the spiritual stimulus is God’s willingness to work through and bless His called people.  The surrounding world and culture are not the focus of the plan.

·         The plan calls us to humble ourselves, pray, and repent.  This is not complex – but requires extraordinary focus, surrender, and resolve.

·         The prayer mentioned here is “face” prayer, not “hand” prayer.  We are not just seeking something from Him to relieve our hurt.  We are seeking Him to revive our hearts.

·         He has promised to “hear” in such a powerful way that it will bring forgiveness to the sins of our land and healing to the sickness of our hearts. 

Our Response to the Plan

We are not asked to vote for this plan but to volunteer our very souls to God in order to see it implemented.  A few things stand out if we are going to cooperate with God in this spiritual stimulus strategy:

It is costly – The plan has come at a great price to the One who is making the offer.  Even back in the Old Testament, and certainly in the New Testament, the only basis on which anyone can be made right with God, and revived by Him, is the finished work of Christ.  Let’s not forget the price that was paid for the privilege of prayer, humility, and repentance.  This plan is authenticated by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, which compels us to take it seriously.

It is a proven plan – Throughout biblical and church history the plan has proven true.  Every major revival began in a movement of prayer – but not just any kind of prayer.  These moments of prayer were corporate and marked by humility and repentance flowing from a pursuit of the face of God, as revealed in the Word of God.

It requires change – There is so much I could say here.  I suppose it might boil down to this: We are going to have to stop organizing our praying around our plethora of church activities and start organizing our activities around our praying.  Prayer must become the power source, not the tack-on.  It must become the first-resolve, not the last resort.  This kind of change has to start with the leadership of the church.

What Could Happen?

People often ask me about the vision of what we do at Strategic Renewal.  In the context of this devotion, we might call it the vision of God’s spiritual stimulus plan.

Vision is a picture of what could be coupled with the conviction that it must be.  So, in case you have not read or heard it before, here is what I see:

“Pastor-led, local church-oriented movements of Christ-exalting, worship-based prayer – leading to a full-scale revival, supernatural evangelism, and cultural transformation.”

To put it simply, this is a vision to see the next Great Awakening in this generation.  If we are going to dream – we should dream big, and glorious.  Why not?  Our current crisis demands more than status quo ideas and another quick-fix program. 

Yes, President Obama is doing his very best to help the American people dream of a better day.  The path will be costly. The ideas are many, and hotly debated.