Wed.’s Devo - Revival

Read: 2 Kings 22:3-23:30; Acts 21:37-22:16; Psalm 1:1-6; Prover’s 18:11-12 Josie had the high priest count the Temple money and give it to the supervisors he assigned to restore the Lord’s Temple. He trusted them so much he didn’t even require them to keep an account of the money they received. *** During the construction, they found a copy of the law and brought it to read to the king. When Josiah realized all the things they had done to provoke the Lord’s anger, he gathered the people and read it to them. Then he began the biggest campaign cleansing of the land of idolatry any king had ever done. He renewed their covenant with the Lord promising to keep his commands, laws, and decrees with all their heart and soul. *** His massive revival of righteousness covered the whole land and left nothing uncleaned. When they were tearing down the pagan altars at Bethel and burning the bones of the false prophets, Josiah noticed a tomb of the man of God. When he asked about it he learned that it was the tomb of the prophet who had prophesied he would do that very thing. He ordered that his tomb go untouched. *** When Josiah had rid the nation of idolatry, he ordered that everyone must celebrate the Passover to the Lord. Never before or after had there been a king who turned to the Lord with all his heart and souls and strength. *** But, God was still angry with Judah because of all the wicked things Manasseh had done. He had promised to banish Judah from his presence just as he had Israel. *** Josiah was killed on the battlefield fighting with the king of Assyria to conquer the king of Egypt. He died at Meggido and his son Jehoahaz was anointed king. *** In Acts, Paul had been saved by the Roman officers from the mob. He asked the commander if he could speak to the people. When he found out he was a Roman citizen, he agreed to let him talk. *** Paul talked to them in Hebrew telling them who he was and of his Jewish blood and education. He had been so zealous against Christ that he had murdered all who believed in him. But on the road to Damascus he was stopped by a brilliant light and a voice. The voice identified himself as Jesus and asked him why he was persecuting him. When he asked him what he should do he was led blind to Damascus. A man by the name of Ananias prayed that he would regain his sight and he did. He told him that God had chosen him to witness what he had seen to everyone. He rose up and was baptized. *** Lord, I pray that the cleansing that Josiah did in his lifetime would be what we do in our nation and in the world. I pray for a a massive cleansing of all the idolatry and evil that is being done. May our revival not only be in deed, but in heart. I pray for world revival.