Burning Hearts: 21 Days to Personal Revival

Day 1

This 21 Days to a Burning Heart is “preparation” for personal revival—which Charles Finney defined as “a new obedience to God.”

The following 21 Day Challenge begins with a specific and structured commitment to prayer, purity and purpose that is outlined in The Burning Heart Contract and is as follows...

Prayer Commitment—30 Minutes a day in Prayer and Bible for 21 Days: 

The best, most practical, fool-proof method that has worked for me for over two decades is to write (or journal) my prayers of praise, admit, request, and thanks (PART) to God every day.  The accountability in writing out my conversations with God means that I won’t forget either to (1) confess any sin or to (2) pray for others specifically. 

I encourage, if you’re not doing it already, to get a journal—and commit to writing out your two-way conversations with God for 21 Days—at the end, you will have a record of ALL that God does in your life through prayer. 

In addition, I listen for God’s answers and thoughts to me by reading a 365 Bible everyday.  In other words, it is most often through my regular daily planned Bible reading that God speaks to me—and I know He’ll speak to you, as well.  If you don’t have a One Year or Change Your Life Daily Bible…this might be the time to get one!  

Purity Commitment:  Not to touch or look at another person’s private parts, only your spouse for 21 Days (and if you’re not married, that means…no one; no pornography.)

A practical way to gain power and effectiveness in your prayer life comes as a result of purity and holiness.  Ask God to purify your mind…to prepare you to be more sensitive to Him, and how to spend your time more wisely.  But especially if you struggle with sexual impurity in any way, I would encourage you to get an accountability partner and check in with them 2 or 3 times a day for the next 21 days.  (That might sound like a lot, but if you want to “get rid” of something…you can’t hide it, you must expose it.)

For some of you, this area may be less tempting than others—just ask God to show you any area that He might want to purify in you (II Tim 2:21-22). 

The purity-piece in the journey of 21 Days to “personal revival” is a holiness commitment…and God calls (I Peter 1:13-16) you and me to be holy because He is holy. 

Think ahead--something happens to us when we become more like Him…we become powerful preachers, evangelists and leaders.  Why?  We’ve got nothing to hide.  And we’re not ashamed of poorly representing the Gospel.  We’re transparent—not perfect—but we honor God’s name by our choices in public and private…and people see, know, and they are watching!

Purpose—to share the Gospel with everyone whom God prompts you to share with, even asking Him to give you opportunity to lead at least one person to Christ in the next 21 Days.

Don’t panic or compete!  In Finney’s Lectures on Revival, he wrote, “Four factors have a part in conversion—three active agents and one passive instrument.  The agents are God, the truth-bringer (you and me), and the sinner.  The instrument is truth.  Under God’s influence the truth cuts its way like fire.” 

In the feedback from many students/young adults, this component of the Burning Heart Contract has been the “deal-breaker!”  This is the area in which many struggled to commit.  So I want to encourage you—the more often you share your relationship with Christ to others (especially strangers), the more comfortable you’ll become in sharing Christ and the greater chance someone is going to be in your path (whom God puts) to hear His story!!!  That’s being His agent/ambassador!  Remember, the Holy Spirit has all kinds of things going on we don’t even know…so when you are prompted to share (whether it feels funny or awkward or repetitive or you have no good reason to think they’ll even respond), go for it anyway! 

One student has written the name of 5 people whom He knows God has placed on his heart to share with over the next 21 Days.  I’d encourage you to do the same!  (FYI: In the coming days, I will share some of my favorite material from Spurgeon’s book, Soul Winner!  This is a “must read” resource for all those who desire to be more effective in evangelism!)

Are you ready?

Becky Tirabassi