Listen to the voice of the prophet Isaiah pleading for divine visitation: “Oh, that you would rend the heavens! That you would come down! That the mountains might shake at your presence” (Isa. 64:1).

Isaiah was a faithful preacher during a time when his nation was going to pieces. The people were trying to stave off disaster by alliances here and there, but Isaiah stood his ground and declared that all their schemes would crack up in defeat unless they turned to God.

The prophet looked around at the condition of the country and then looked back to remember the days of old. He said, “When You did awesome things for which we did not look, You came down, the mountains shook at Your presence” (Isa. 64:3).

God’s manifestations with Moses, Joshua, Gideon, and David were when Israel walked in power. The prophet says, in effect, “Lord, do it again.”

Obstacles to Revival

He uses three reasons in telling the people why God is not coming down in power. These same reasons hold true today:

1. Sin. God is not visiting us in revival today because we are still rebelling. Rarely do you hear people say, as David did, “Against You, You only, have I sinned” (Ps. 51:4).

I used to wonder why David said that. I thought he had sinned against just about everybody, including Uriah, Bathsheba, the nation, and himself. But David had a proper concept of sin. He regarded sin first and foremost as something against God.

We don’t hear people say that today. We need to face, first of all, our own sins as Christians. “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:17). That should be enough to put us on our knees.

There are sins of omission, sins of commission, sins of disposition, and sins of doubtful things—not just our mistakes, not just our blunders, not just our imperfection, but our sins. We have not only our sinful natures, but also our sinful deeds. God is not breaking through because we have sinned and have not repented.

2. Self-righteousness. “All our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6). Our sins and self-made righteousness are less than nothing. The Bible says our righteousness is as filthy rags, because they don’t cover us, and filthy because they only defile us.

We have so much self-righteousness that we are “too good” to have a revival. The Laodiceans were in that same awful state. They were rich and increased with goods; they had need of nothing. But all that good is not enough.

Our Lord said, “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20). But how good were they? I believe they were plenty good. Do you know what a church full of Pharisees today would be like? Everybody would go to church; everybody would read the Bible; everybody would pray in public; everybody would give a tithe; everybody would try to win other folks to their belief . . . and everybody would be lost! That’s how good you can be and not be good enough.

We need another kind of righteousness. This other righteousness is the implanted, the imported, and the imputed righteousness of Christ.

3. Prayerlessness. “There is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You” (Isa. 64:7). Telescope that statement a little bit and you have this: “There is no one who stirs himself up to take hold of God.” We’re living today in a tired age. Everybody is tired.

I’m glad the Lord doesn’t get weary, because everybody else today is tuckered out. Look at all of our labor-saving devices. But by the time you’ve turned on and turned off these labor-saving gadgets for a whole day, you’re a wreck. We go to bed tired. We get up tired—physically, mentally, spiritually. It seems a deep sleep has descended on us and the devil has chloroformed the atmosphere.

It seems we are walking in our sleep. We go through all the motions, but sometimes church work is just glorified self-exaltation. No wonder the Bible says, “Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Eph. 5:14). “Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame” (1 Cor. 15:34).

However, notice that it doesn’t say, “There is no one who stirs himself up,” period. There has never been a time when the church was stirring itself up more than it is now. But so much of all this activity does not get hold of God. We read the Bible, we pray, we go to church, and these things are a means to an end. So often, however, they stop right there.

Our Lord’s accusation at Sardis was simply this: “I have not found your works perfect [fulfilled] before God” (Rev. 3:2). Oh, they were doing a lot of good things, and they were as busy as could be. They were doing more and more, however, of less and less. These people were not getting through to God. And faith in itself has no value unless it connects you with God.

Getting Hold of God

Some time ago I woke up in the middle of the night. The weather had changed and I was cold. There was a warm blanket at the foot of the bed, but I was so sleepy I didn’t get myself together and apply the remedy. I went around with a “crick” in my neck for several days.

A lot of people know why God isn’t breaking through today; they know where the remedy is, but they never stir up themselves to take hold of God. Some people are waiting for a lovely feeling to come.

Sam Jones used to say, “If I went out to chop wood and you found me out there sitting with my axe on my knees, and not a chip in sight, you could reasonably ask, ‘What are you waiting for?’ What would you think if I said, ‘Well, I’m waiting until I work up a sweat. When I do that, I want to chop wood.’”

A lot of dear people are waiting for a lovely feeling. You have a Bible there. Read it. Pray whether you feel like it or not. Go to God’s house to pray. March yourself to the place. Get one foot in front of the other and walk down that church aisle and do the thing you ought to do.

Our sinfulness, our self-righteousness, and our sluggishness hinder a visitation of God in the church today. Whatever your trouble is, apply the means of grace and do something about it. God will visit you. God will break through again.

Adapted from When God Breaks Through: Sermons on Revival by Vance Havner; © 2003 by Dennis J. Hester, editor and complier. Published by Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.