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Revival of Repentance in N. Omaha
by Dr. Wes Adams
What I witnessed in Omaha for eight days was the most authentic, multifaceted revival of repentance that I have seen in my lifetime. There are three dimensions of repentance that I witnessed that I have never seen before to the degree that occurred. (1) Leaders themselves led the way in repentance with their families and their congregations. (2) Seven congregations with their leaders went through repentance corporately and simultaneously over a fourteen month time climaxed by an intense 9 days. (3) Family and extended households went through repentance together led by teams who themselves had gone through the process of repentance.
At all these levels there was pubic confession of both past and present sin. Generational cycles of sin were identified, repented of and broken. Husbands and wives confessed sin to one another, both past and present. The hearts of fathers were turned toward their children in humility and confession of failure and neglect. As the Bible says, when the hearts of the fathers are turned to their children, then the hearts of the children will turn to their fathers and parents in confession and reconciliation. This we saw over and over again.
Over 70 households were led by Healing the Land Teams in confession of sin and reconciliation. Numbers of these household included parents, adult children and grandchildren. Before it was over many entire families were weeping together their way back to God and love for one another.
During the process, some evenings were public services where there was corporate and public confession of sin. This was not just identificational repentance, but many times intensely personal. What we came to realize is that no sin in reality (and effect) is private. Sin has consequences not just for the individual, but defiles other people, contributes to defilement of the community and as the Scripture teaches clearly ultimately to the defilement of the land. All dimensions of sin was confessed and repented for publicly and corporately.
The repentance led to a fresh experience of God’s forgiveness and grace, and also to a washing and cleansing both at the individual and corporate level.
On the final Sunday night the testimonies of what the Lord had done the past seven days were profound. Times of corporate thanksgiving and praise together followed before God.
The week helped me understand more fully the New Testament description of the revival of repentance under John the Baptist’s ministry. During his ministry the people came from great distances and publicly confessed their sin and were baptized for sin’s remission and cleansing. It says that John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the children’s hearts back to their fathers.
The New Testament also testifies that Jesus came “at this time” and publicly identified with the revival. Jesus was attracted to a revival of repentance then; and he will be attracted to any revival of repentance now.
The first major step on the journey to transforming revival is surely a revival of repentance in the spirit of that of John the Baptist.
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