Into The River

🌊 River of Revival » God’s Will for Revival (January 21)

“This is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” –1 John 5:14

Sometimes it seems like we’re uncertain if it’s God’s will to bring revival. We may reason (wrongly) that there isn’t more revival because God doesn’t will it or that it’s become too late in history for another revival. But in doing so, we underestimate God’s heart for his people.

God is for anything that draws us closer to him. But he wants us to desire his presence as much as he desires ours. This is why we pray. We pray passionately for revival, desperate for his intimate fellowship, and he responds in divine love.

“Our prayers must not be efforts to bend God to our will but to yield ourselves to his.” –Catherine Marshall

Prayer Prompt: Father, we know revival is your will. We also know that when we pray according to your will, you will answer. In the prayer that Jesus taught us, we are told to pray that your will be done on earth. And so we continually knock on heaven’s doors with persistence and by faith, trusting your positive reply. Soon, Lord, soon.

Join the whole church in prayer daily, in worship together on Sundays at 10 AM, and at a new course on Life in the Spirit at 6 PM, and also on Wednesday evenings praying together for an hour at 6:30 PM. 

We are becoming more intentional in our efforts to follow Christ "Upstream," rather than just drifting downstream into a new year. In 2026 we are committing ourselves as a church body to seek God's heart for revival, reading Scripture and praying along with the prompts in the daily devotional Our Cry for Revival. ConnectionOC.com 🌊​​🛶 

These daily devotional videos wrap up today after three weeks to begin the year united. Each one was shared by email and posted as videos on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and as podcasts on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. Subscribe as more will be added periodically in the coming weeks and months. We encourage you to stick with reading and praying daily throughout the year. 
Devotional: Nick Harrison, Our Cry for Revival: 365 Devotions and Prayers for an Outpouring of God’s Spirit (Brentwood, TN: B&H, 2024).

“A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.” –Proverbs 15:13

To be sure, our emotions are touched during revival. The presence of the Lord overwhelms us. Tears may follow or any other emotional manifestation of revival. 

However, we must never be led by our emotions. Emotions express our inner feelings, but most of us have learned what happens when we rely on our emotions as a gauge of truth or error. Our emotions are, then, valid outlets when we’re touched by the Holy Spirit. But they are no measurement of revival or even a lack of revival.

“What is really valuable before God is not how we emotionally feel the presence of the Lord or how we even feel love towards him; rather it is how we follow the Holy Spirit and live according to what he has revealed to our spirit. Not emotion but communion with the Lord in the spirit is what is valuable before God.” –Watchman Nee

Prayer Prompt: Lord, may my emotions be moved by your presence, but guard me from making my emotions the sole measurement of your revival. Give me the strength not only to feel your love in my heart but also to demonstrate it with my actions.

Join the whole church in prayer daily, in worship together on Sundays at 10 AM, and at a new course on Life in the Spirit at 6 PM, and also on Wednesday evenings praying together for an hour at 6:30 PM. 

We are becoming more intentional in our efforts to follow Christ "Upstream," rather than just drifting downstream into a new year. In 2026 we are committing ourselves as a church body to seek God's heart for revival, reading Scripture and praying along with the prompts in the daily devotional Our Cry for Revival. ConnectionOC.com 🌊​​🛶 

These daily devotional videos will continue a one more day, sent each morning by email, and posted as videos on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and as podcasts on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. We encourage you to stick with reading and praying daily throughout the year. 

Devotional: Nick Harrison, Our Cry for Revival: 365 Devotions and Prayers for an Outpouring of God’s Spirit (Brentwood, TN: B&H, 2024).

“Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” –2 Corinthians 13:5

What is the church but a gathering of God’s “called-out ones”? Each of us who has been called out has been guaranteed a home in eternity. But until that final day we have work to do. We must undergo frequent self-examination. We must know of a certainty that Christ dwells in us. Our church fellowship must also be tested. Are we cold, lacking the zeal of the Lord? Or are we hot with passion for the things of God? After all, revival begins with us and extends to our local church and throughout our community.

“The truth should be realized that all revival and spiritual quickening in the church, must come through individual hearts. We deplore the coldness of the church, its languishing devotion, its diminishing fervor and zeal, its spiritual deadness and lethargy. We sing revival songs. We pray revival prayers. We preach revival sermons. Yet we wonder why revival never comes. But how is it in the individual hearts? Has the revival begun there yet?” –J. R. Miller

Prayer Prompt: God, hear us as we examine our hearts and test our faith. May we come alive to the reality of Christ in us. Bring light into our lives and into our churches. May every gathering of believers find room for one more … then another … and another. Thus, revival is born.

Join the whole church in prayer daily, in worship together on Sundays at 10 AM, and at a new course on Life in the Spirit at 6 PM, and also on Wednesday evenings praying together for an hour at 6:30 PM. 

We are becoming more intentional in our efforts to follow Christ "Upstream," rather than just drifting downstream into a new year. In 2026 we are committing ourselves as a church body to seek God's heart for revival, reading Scripture and praying along with the prompts in the daily devotional Our Cry for Revival. ConnectionOC.com 🌊​​🛶 

These daily devotionals will continue a couple more days, sent each morning by email, and posted as videos on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and as podcasts on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. 
Devotional: Nick Harrison, Our Cry for Revival: 365 Devotions and Prayers for an Outpouring of God’s Spirit (Brentwood, TN: B&H, 2024).

“Let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.” –1 Thessalonians 5:6

Revival is God’s divine alarm clock. The operative word is alarm. While evil advances in the world, many men and women, including Christians, are fast asleep.

As revival is ushered in by the Holy Spirit, the church awakens. People are saved, healed, and delivered from sinful lifestyles and obsessions.

Be assured, God’s alarm clock has no snooze button. As the alarm goes off, it’s time to move forward.

“Many do not recognize the fact as they ought, that Satan has got men fast asleep in sin and that it is his great device to keep them so. He does not care what we do if he can do that. We may sing songs about the sweet by and by, preach sermons and say prayers until doomsday, and he will never concern himself about us, if we don’t wake anybody up. But if we awake the sleeping sinner he will gnash on us with his teeth. This is our work: to wake people up.” –Catherine Booth

Prayer Prompt: Lord, may we listen hard for your divine alarm clock to sound the warning. The coming revival should and will shake us from our slumber. God, the hands of the clock are advancing. Allow the alarm to sound!

Join the whole church in prayer daily, in worship together on Sundays at 10 AM, and at a new course on Life in the Spirit at 6 PM, and also on Wednesday evenings praying together for an hour at 6:30 PM. 

We are becoming more intentional in our efforts to follow Christ "Upstream," rather than just drifting downstream into a new year. In 2026 we are committing ourselves as a church body to seek God's heart for revival, reading Scripture and praying along with the prompts in the daily devotional Our Cry for Revival. ConnectionOC.com 🌊​​🛶 

These daily devotionals will continue into next week, daily sent each morning by email, and posted as videos on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and as podcasts on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. 

Devotional: Nick Harrison, Our Cry for Revival: 365 Devotions and Prayers for an Outpouring of God’s Spirit (Brentwood, TN: B&H, 2024).

“Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” —1 Peter 1:8 (kjv)

One of the greatest blessings that accompanies revival is joy. To quote Peter, it’s pure “joy unspeakable and full of glory”! To receive revival is to receive the joy of the Lord—our strength and our hope!

Revival is a great releaser of God’s joy. If there is no joy in the meeting, it isn’t revival.

“A genuine revival without joy in the Lord is as impossible as spring without flowers, or day-dawn without light.” –Charles Spurgeon

Prayer Prompt: O God as we pray for revival, visit us with joy unspeakable. Fill us until we overflow. Allow our lips to praise you and set our feet a’dancing. Give us joy that is contagious, dependent not on our circumstances but on your presence. Joy, joy, joy!

Join the whole church in prayer daily, in worship together on Sundays at 10 AM, and at a new course on Life in the Spirit at 6 PM, and also on Wednesday evenings praying together for an hour at 6:30 PM. 

We are becoming more intentional in our efforts to follow Christ "Upstream," rather than just drifting downstream into a new year. In 2026 we are committing ourselves as a church body to seek God's heart for revival, reading Scripture and praying along with the prompts in the daily devotional Our Cry for Revival. ConnectionOC.com 🌊​​🛶 

These daily devotionals will continue into next week, daily sent each morning by email, and posted as videos on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and as podcasts on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. 

Devotional: Nick Harrison, Our Cry for Revival: 365 Devotions and Prayers for an Outpouring of God’s Spirit (Brentwood, TN: B&H, 2024).

“When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.” —Isaiah 59:19 (nkjv)

As much as we desire revival, we have a bitter enemy who opposes our prayers and seeks to undermine our faith that God will indeed move in revival. Our prayers must focus on God’s willingness to bring revival, but we must also firmly counterattack Satan, the resister of revival. When the enemy comes in like a flood, we must depend on the Spirit of the Lord to lift a standard against him. We must know that God—and his breath of fresh revival—will prevail.

“Behind the present world iniquity, chaos, and unrest is Satan. He is the enemy who has come in like a flood. He is at work within the church seeking to prevent revival. He it is who makes Christians worldly and prayerless, and who introduces strife, division, false teaching, unbelief, etc. He has great power today because there is less prayer among God’s people. Our prayer meetings have died out because we are so busy rushing about; organizing when we should be agonizing.” –Major Allister Smith

Prayer Prompt: Father, the enemy has come into the church and the nation like a flood. Lord, raise up a standard against his demonic work. Prevail, Lord, over the enemy!

Join the church family in prayer daily, in worship together on Sundays at 10 AM, and also on Wednesday evenings praying together for an hour at 6:30 PM. We are becoming more intentional in our efforts to follow Christ "Upstream," rather than just drifting downstream into a new year. In 2026 we are committing ourselves as a church body to seek God's heart for revival, reading Scripture and praying along with the prompts in the daily devotional Our Cry for Revival. ConnectionOC.com 🌊​​🛶 

These daily devotionals will continue into next week, daily sent each morning by email, and posted as videos on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and as podcasts on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube. 

Devotional: Nick Harrison, Our Cry for Revival: 365 Devotions and Prayers for an Outpouring of God’s Spirit (Brentwood, TN: B&H, 2024).

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” —Isaiah 43:19

The mistake many Christians make is expecting revival to look like it’s looked in the past. Rest assured, it won’t. When revival is from God, it’s because he’s doing a new thing.

We would not expect there to be rivers in the desert, but that’s God’s vision. God wants to bring a mighty river of revival into our desert experience today. Will we welcome it if it doesn’t match our expectations of what revival should look like?

“Past awakenings brought fundamental changes to music and methods, for instance. Both John Wesley and [George] Whitefield struggled mightily with the idea of preaching in the fields. They were proper Oxford men, after all! But their use of such a “profane” method helped to spur a great revival. In past revivals both gospel proclamation and social ministry converged, whereas today they are too often seen as rivals. Revival separates our preferences from unchanging truth.” –John Piper

Prayer Prompt: God, you are so creative! Everywhere we look we see evidence of your work. Even in the revivals you reveal yourself as an artist. It won’t be hard to spot true revival as long as we look for your presence and the moving of your Spirit. Send it Lord! We’re waiting and watching.

These daily devotionals will continue another week, daily sent each morning by email, and posted as videos on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and as podcasts on Spotify and YouTube Podcasts. 

Join the church family in prayer daily and also on Wednesday evenings praying together (6:30-7:30 PM). We are becoming more intentional in our efforts to follow Christ "Upstream," rather than just drifting downstream into a new year. In 2026 we are committing ourselves as a church body to seek God's heart for revival, reading Scripture and praying along with the prompts in the daily devotional Our Cry for Revival. ConnectionOC.com 🌊​​🛶 

Devotional: Nick Harrison, Our Cry for Revival: 365 Devotions and Prayers for an Outpouring of God’s Spirit (Brentwood, TN: B&H, 2024).

“Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.” —Ephesians 6:18

We know that prayer begets revival, but we must remember that prayer also sustains revival. When we stop praying, revival dries up like a wet sponge in the desert. Likewise, when we allow worship and prayer to wane, we might as well call it a day. That revival is, sadly, winding down.

Bold persistent prayer brings and sustains revival. Pray before, during, and after revival.

"From the Day of Pentecost, there has not been one great spiritual awakening in any land which has not begun in a union of prayer, though only among two or three; no such outward, upward movement has continued after such prayer meetings have declined.” –A. T. Pierson

Prayer Prompt: God, You have placed it on our hearts to pray for revival—not just for revival but for ongoing revival. Keep the burden upon us, Lord. Don’t let us up from our knees. May our worship continue through the days and nights. May the glorifying of You not come to an end until Your purposes have been accomplished.

In 2026 we are committing ourselves as a church body to seek God's heart for revival, reading Scripture and praying along with the prompts in the daily devotional Our Cry for Revival. Today marks the end of an intentional ten days praying and fasting as a congregation (Jan. 5-14), as we come together tonight at 6:30 PM for an hour of waiting upon the Lord and seeking His life and peace. Join us!

These daily devotionals will continue another week, daily sent each morning by email, and posted as videos on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and as podcasts on Spotify and YouTube Podcasts. 

We are becoming more intentional in our efforts to follow Christ "Upstream," rather than just drifting downstream into a new year. ConnectionOC.com 🌊​​🛶 

Devotional: Nick Harrison, Our Cry for Revival: 365 Devotions and Prayers for an Outpouring of God’s Spirit (Brentwood, TN: B&H, 2024).

“The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.” —Proverbs 21:31

All of us, in one way or another, have prepared ourselves for battle; but revival, like victory, belongs to the Lord. Yes, many fine churches hold “revivals,” often with the results of seeing more people saved. But such efforts are simply preparing for battle; the victory belongs to the Lord.

When it comes to true revival, human effort short-circuits what God wants to do. Ready the horse, but then give God the reins and get out of the way.

“If we persist in describing human efforts and continue to think in terms of ‘annual revival meetings,’ believing that the good work we are doing for God is revival, then we must content ourselves with far less than God is willing and able to give. If, on the other hand, we can realize that revival is truly God at work in a most unusual fashion, then our entire being can be stirred with longings and supplications to see just such an outpouring of God’s mighty power in our own day.” —Richard Owen Roberts

Prayer Prompt: God, victory belongs to you, even when we prepare for battle. Revival, too, is yours. Bring it forth apart from our clumsy efforts at doing what only you can do. Forgive us our presumption that any “revival” of our making compares with what you want to do in our midst.

In 2026 we are committing ourselves as a church body to seek God's heart for revival, reading Scripture and praying along with the prompts in the daily devotional Our Cry for Revival. For three weeks to begin the year we will share daily videos highlighting a theme from that day's devotion. 

Join the church family in prayer daily and also on Wednesday evenings praying together (6:30-7:30 PM). We are becoming more intentional in our efforts to follow Christ "Upstream," rather than just drifting downstream into a new year. Join us on this daily journey, and fasting as well (Jan. 5-14). ConnectionOC.com 🌊​​🛶 

Devotional: Nick Harrison, Our Cry for Revival: 365 Devotions and Prayers for an Outpouring of God’s Spirit (Brentwood, TN: B&H, 2024).

“God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” —2 Timothy 1:7

What some may term an unfortunate side effect of revival is the tendency to have certain strange manifestations appear among the congregation. Many who experience these manifestations may count it as a blessing, but others see it as a distraction—one that can soon bring an end to revival.

The truest manifestation of revival is the intense awareness of God’s presence and the worship generated by his Spirit. A Christian never needs to lose control of his or her actions. Even during revival, we are still accountable. The Spirit we have from God is one of power, love, and self-control.

“The weakness of human nature has always appeared in times of great revivals of religion, by a disposition to run into extremes, especially in these three things: enthusiasm, superstition, and intemperate zeal.” –Jonathan Edwards

Prayer Prompt: God, my nature is weak. Guide me always as I, through the power of the Holy Spirit, learn self-control and discipline. Keep me from being a distraction to others through my own intemperance. Let all be done decently and in order.

In 2026 we are committing ourselves as a church body to seek God's heart for revival, reading Scripture and praying along with the prompts in the daily devotional Our Cry for Revival. For three weeks to begin the year we will share daily videos highlighting a theme from that day's devotion. 

Join the church family in prayer daily and also on Wednesday evenings praying together (6:30-7:30 PM). We are becoming more intentional in our efforts to follow Christ "Upstream," rather than just drifting downstream into a new year. Join us on this daily journey, and fasting as well (Jan. 5-14). ConnectionOC.com 🌊​​🛶 

Devotional: Nick Harrison, Our Cry for Revival: 365 Devotions and Prayers for an Outpouring of God’s Spirit (Brentwood, TN: B&H, 2024).