Many of us feel that we're in the last days. That we're living in a time where there must be a falling away for the end times to come. Many feel that the seven Churches in Asia, listed in Rev 2-3, represent the condition of the body of Christ through seven distinct ages before the arrival of the Great Tribulation. The last Church listed is the luke-warm and back-sliding church of Laodicea which is ready to be spewed out of the Lord's mouth. How can there be revival while we're falling away? All seven of the Churches of Asia were from that early period. Most of them had issues, but two of them were doing well. In those with issues, Jesus spoke of what they needed to improve. Thus it is possible for a church even in the worst of times to improve or have revival. 2 Chron 7: 14 tells us how to accomplish it. It begins with you, with our neighbor(s), it begins with me. It begins with humbling ourselves before the Lord. It begins with prayer and seeking the Lord's presence. It begins with repentance for our sinfulness, our slothfulness, and our neglect of scripture. The promise of the New Covenant allows us to keep it where Israel couldn't keep the Old Covenant, which is that the Lord will write his commandments and statutes into our hearts and minds by Holy Spirit as we draw near to the Lord, who is found within the pages of scripture by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
2 Chr 7: 14:
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
1 Tim 4: 1:
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Thes 2: 3:
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Heb 8: 8-12:
For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Rev 3: 14-19:
And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
