Revival, Breaking Up Your Fallow Ground — John Musser

Would you turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 4 and verse 3? And as we're turning there, I just want to make a short announcement. Friday night, we're going to be sharing my testimony Paul God miraculously saved my life and it spared me from Drugs and alcohol and the powers of darkness and how God set me free.

How God changed my life completely. If you could see a picture of me tonight You'd be amazed at the Wonderful work of Christ and the power of the blood of Jesus how God can change a life. This is our brother Joe gave his testimony.

We came out of similar backgrounds. But how we praise God for how God can deliver and set free. We want to invite you to ask as many people to those meetings as you can. Now in revival as I've already mentioned before we can have a spiritual awakening.

Revival, Spiritual Awakening, and the Conditions for Revival

A spiritual awakening has to deal with the unsaved. Revival has to do with God's people. 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 sins and heal their land and So we see that God Deals with his people and we looked Wednesday night about all the times where God's Spirit was drawing his people on himself onto revival.

But first things are first in revival. Before we can have revival we need to deal with all known sin in our lives. That's one of the grand conditions to real revival. Every known sin has to be put under the blood of Jesus Christ.

The Bible says if we confess our sins, he's just righteous to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But if we don't confess our sins, then we're not Covered as far as fellowship is concerned with the blood of Jesus Christ and So we see the blood brings this restoration of fellowship with Christ and tonight I'm going to speak on breaking up the fallow ground.

And when we're preaching revival truths, first of all, you need to start with the simple things and What we're going to do tonight is we're going to look at a number of sins that grieve the Spirit of God.

Will you ask God to search your heart like David and see if there be any wicked way in you? Whenever I see God move in my life I know that I need to search my heart and see if there's anything that may be quenching the Spirit of God.

Before I come to these revival meetings, I ask God Lord you search my heart as herself. Is there wrong motives? Is there anything pride or station or whatever? It may be that could hinder the power of God and if you're going to know the power of God you need to be ultra sensitive to sin because the Spirit of God is ultra sensitive to sin and He will not put up with Lightness or indifference and coldness and as we learn this you'll find that Christians who are really walking with God.

That little sins bother them that little things grieve them because it's a little foxes that spoil the vines. Now I'm going to read from another scripture, but in Jeremiah chapter 4 and verse 3 is your turn there already.

I want to read a parallel passage in Hosea. You need not turn there. Hosea chapter 10 in verse 12. Here God is speaking through the Prophet Hosea and he says sow to yourselves in righteousness reap in mercy break up your fallow ground.

I Want you to hear that tonight because we're going to see that twice. He says break up your fallow ground. You break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and reign righteousness upon you.

You have plowed wickedness you have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of your lies because thou distrust in thy ways and the multitude of thy mighty men. And God talks about this Pronouncement of judgment that's coming upon the children of Israel unless they would break up their fallow ground.

Now in Jeremiah chapter 4 and verse 3 and 4 God says again through the Prophet for thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem Break up your fallow ground and so not among thorns. Do you know something that we cannot understand the deeper things of Jesus Christ until you have confessed all known sin.

You remember Paul said to the Corinthians. He said there are many things that I want to teach you, but he says you're carnal. He says you cannot receive them and you cannot understand them. There are two kinds of people that cannot understand the Word of God.

First of all the natural man the unsaved man. The Bible says that the natural man Receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him neither can he know them because he's spiritually discerned.

He does not have the Spirit of God living within him to interpret the Word of God to his heart and mind. That's the first class of people that cannot understand the Word of God. It is foolishness to them because they have no divine illumination.

Now the second class of individuals that cannot understand the things of Christ are those who are carnal those who are backslidden those who have fallen away from God and God says here don't sow among thorns.

Don't sow my word among thorns. Now what is the Prophet speaking of when he says break up the fallow ground. The children of Israel are a nation of farmers and they knew just exactly what the Prophet was talking about.

When you break up fallow ground you are plowing or you're disking ground that has been left idle or it's been allowed to be fallow where the briars and nettles and thorns and weeds. Growing that ground and the snow and the rain Causes that ground to be matted down and if you were to take seeds and try to plant it and ground like that you would Have no fruit because there would be briars and thorns and everything mingled along with it and So the Prophet of God is speaking to the children of Israel and he says you need to break up your hearts because our hearts are likened unto a field.

Our Minds are likened unto a field that are cluttered with the old all the things of this world as Jesus said don't be overcharged with the cares of this world and Surfeiting and all these other things.

He said get your eyes elevated to the Lord Jesus Christ and And we find in Scripture that our minds are likened unto fields and some of our hearts are filled with briars and nettles and Thorns and thistles and God cannot bring forth fruit in our hearts in our lives.

And so God says to us tonight you break up your fallow ground. You allow the plow of God's Word to break up that fallow ground in your heart. Allow the Lord to reveal sin to you so you can confess that sin and get it under the blood of Jesus Christ.

I remember when we moved to our home in Muskegon, I wanted to plant a garden. So I invited my father-in-law to help me out a little bit at one time that ground in my backyard was Used as a garden and the man had a fruit stand and he sold a lot of vegetables and fruit in that stand.

But through the years he allowed that land to go idle and it was fallow it was so hard. I remember when my father-in-law brought that disc over that he had to put some railroad ties on that disc so it have enough weight to go into the ground and Then that wasn't heavy enough and I had to get on that disc and I rode in back of that tractor and you could hear That fallow ground being broken up.

You could hear it. It sounded like a t-shirt rending tearing and Then he went over that again and again with that disc back and forth and back and forth and then afterwards I took a rotor tiller and I made that ground nice and smooth and then I could take the seeds the tomato plants and the radishes and all these things.

I could plant it in the ground and I had a nice harvest. My friends if you understand this truth You'll gain great understanding in spiritual things. You heard the testimonies of men and women this week have been quickened they received insight into the Word of God.

For years they'd gone on and they Did not desire maybe reading the Word of God because they couldn't understand and all of a sudden The Word of God just came alive to them. What happened? They broke up their fallow ground.

They got their sins under the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, how do we go about breaking up the fallow ground? I've already mentioned that we let the Spirit of God convict us of our sins self-examination with a spirit's aid.

You know, there are so many Christians that will cry out to God at the end of the day and they'll say Lord forgive me of all the sins that I've committed today and They think that God is going to forgive them of all those sins.

You cannot speak in generalities when you come before God. You must say Lord forgive me of that evil thought or Lord forgive me of that vain imagination. You must be specific because your sins are committed one by one and they must be put under the blood of Jesus Christ one by One.

Now the thing that we're trying to bring across this week we shared with you of how Christians can be blinded how their minds can be deceived and When we've fallen away from Christ and when he's done our first love We become beguiled to the sins that are within our hearts because we become calloused in our hearts and the Spirit of the Lord is grieved and he coils back to some remote part of our being and So wonder we don't see the power of God in the love of Jesus Christ.

The power that God has promised to every one of us as Christians. So tonight let's look at some of these sins that grieve and quench the Spirit of God. You might want to write some of them down the first one and you're going to be amazed as I mentioned.

Ingratitude and the Spiritual Weapon of Thanksgiving

This is ingratitude. Unthankfulness, do you know that this is an appalling sin in the sight of God? There are some people that walk through life and all they can see is dark clouds. All they can see is a negative.

All they can see is pessimism. All they can see is the dark shadow of life. The Word of God says offer the sacrifices of Thanksgiving. Now what does that mean to offer sacrifices of Thanksgiving that means it takes a sacrifice to praise God sometimes David said I'm going to praise you with my whole heart before the gods.

I'll sing praise unto thee when he says I'm going to sacrifice praises unto you. Do you know that we are to praise God whether we feel like it or not? You are to thank the Lord whether or not you're emotionally inclined to do so whether you're mentally inclined to do.

So we are to give thanks always the Bible says in all things give thanks in. Everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. There are a lot of people running around today and they want to know the will of God.

Well, Paul made it very clear. He says in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Nothing could be any clearer could it? Then we are to live on hallelujah corner that we are to praise God for all of his goodness.

Paul said of course, you know, he was writing out of the Holiday Inn right when he wrote the book of Philippians. Wasn't he? No, he was in stocks. He was probably there with lashes upon his back. He was in hunger and nakedness.

And he didn't know if he was going to get out of that prison cell and he said to those Philippians he says rejoice in the Lord all the way and again, I say rejoice and Here Paul is admonishing these people who are free and he's in prison to rejoice in the Lord all the way and again I say rejoice.

Let your moderation be done to all men. The Lord is at hand. Oh. There's so many saw there's so many Psalms that we have of praise of jubilant praise. You see God used David to spearhead praise in Israel.

You know something that praise is one of the most powerful spiritual weapons that you have as a Christian. Because listen to my words if Satan can get you discouraged he can do anything with your life.

God cannot use a discouraged Christian. There's no way that God can use someone that's always Pessimistic and always down about everything. Oh, yes. The church is in a bad state today and America's in a bad state and we need to groan in our heart.

But listen, there's a great difference between joy rejoicing and happiness. Happiness is conditional upon happenings as long as everything goes, right? Some people are happy. The car keeps running. The house is alright.

The children are healthy. You've got plenty of money in your wallet. Everything is alright. That's happiness happiness because it's conditional upon happenings. You know, what joy is is Conditional upon your relationship with Jesus Christ.

Although all the world about you everything else may be in turbulence. You may be going through trials and tribulations and discouragements. You would be assailed by the devil and yet if you have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ The Bible says that you can have joy unspeakable and full of glory.

That's what Peter said. He says as Christians even on this face of this earth that we can have joy unspeakable and full of glory even through Tribulations and that's why James says brethren counted all joy when you fall and died diverse tribulations.

What were these men talking about? We think of these men. Do they know what they're saying? Yes God's ways are not man's ways. In gratitude, I remember one day we were visiting some people in the hospital in Chicago.

And we went to minister to them but there was this one woman this colored lady and The pastor said to me John come on down here. I want to show you someone. I want to introduce you to someone and There was this color lady there and we walked into the room and she said, you know I don't have many days to live and she said I don't know about my children.

What's going to take place in their lives and about my family? But she says, you know something I'm saved and I know Jesus Christ and she said hallelujah and when she said hallelujah her arms spread out and her toes came out beneath that blanket and She went on a little ways again another spell and talking about all the tribulations that doctors can't find this out.

And they don't know about this and she said hallelujah. And I'll tell you something this woman kept on praising God in that room was literally Electrified with the presence of God and we went out of that Hospital being ministered to by that woman that was laying flat on her back.

As I mentioned before that praise is a spiritual weapon. You see praise emphasized and thanksgiving throughout the entire Word of God over and over again. It's the evidence of a spirit-filled life. The Bible says giving thanks and praising the Lord.

Learning this truth is a weapon against Satan. You know why I believe that Satan Lucifer before he fell let all the angels of heaven to praise the triune God. I believe that when Christians praise the Lord it reminds him of his lofty position that he once had in the heavenlies and I'll tell you I'll guarantee you this that if you begin to praise God you may not feel like it.

But you begin to count your blessings one by one. You're going to move out of that slough despond. I've never seen it to fail in my Christian experience when I'm willing to count my blessings one by one and See what the Lord has done.

It gives you faith. You begin to see God delivered me back. Then he'll deliver me again. The Lord answered prayer back then he met this financial need the Lord's going to do it again and count your blessings.

You see we forget about our blessings because we lost circumstances to cloud our vision of God. And an unbelief we fall away from the Lord like the children of Israel God had miraculously moved in their lives and he delivered them from Egypt's power and how God displayed such miracles upon the children of Israel and Yet when they went to Cagis Barnea, they doubted the Lord.

They said the walls are too high. They said the men are too strong. They've got too many weapons of warfare and we don't have anything. We've been going through this wilderness and we don't even have the weapons of warfare.

What are we going to do? And when they begin to talk like that God gave them up to their sins. Because they got their eyes on circumstances and said of the Lord God Almighty that reigns over the affairs of men and tonight many of you are caught up in the circumstance syndrome and Your life is miserable because all you can see is circumstances and you cannot see a sovereign God.

That may be trying to get your attention through circumstances he may be trying to break you and bend you to get you to realize that only as you're yielded fully to Christ can you enjoy him in life. And if we would only see God in circumstances my friends instead of seeing the Circumstances without the hand of God and Joseph said this he says as for you you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

You see all these men they see you see I use a principle don't look at second causes. If you find and you receive a bad letter in the mail, do you get mad at the postman? No, you don't get mad at the mail carrier.

I want to tell you something so many times. We're angry at circumstances and if Satan can use circumstances in your life to get you defeated. He'll keep on doing it. It's like the Angler says if a bait works and it catches bass.

Why change your baits use the same lure and Satan will blast you. You know why some of you keep on going through tribulations and trials and you just keep on going around and around because you have not Learned how to see God in circumstances.

You have not learned to praise your way out of it. My friends I'm talking about Experience tonight in my own life I've been swallowed up with such physical infirmities and problems and God is bringing progressive healing in my own body.

Two years ago I was just my life. I did my body my physical body was Drained. I didn't even know if I could go on in the ministry any longer and I knew these truths before. But I began to praise the Lord and thank God it took time.

It wasn't easy this carnal mind didn't want to live on a hallelujah corner. My friends I want to tell you something. God has wrought a miracle in my body and my mind. When seemingly the doctor said there's nothing that can be done.

Oh. Let's break out of the rut and until you see tonight that this pessimism is not of God. Oh Listen, I even get into churches and I hear leaders in the church. All they can talk down is everything that's going bad.

Listen isn't there a God that reigns over us? Beloved in Christ, where is your God. God said the children of Israel. It's not that there's not a God in Israel. He's there. He's not left you. He's just as close to you as you ever was before and So tonight we want to make sure that we put this down because God inhabits the praises of his people.

That's what the psalmist said that God Inhabits the praises of his people. He's there. When you praise him God will inhabit those praises. It seems like it's a place where God dwells within the habitation of the praises of his people the Thanksgiving.

That's why we can sense the Spirit of God tonight because so many people were praising the Lord. Oh. There's so many things that we could thank the Lord for but secondly the neglect of the Bible. Some people go weeks or longer without reading the Word of God.

Neglect of Scripture and the Need for Meditation

Some people never really studied to show themselves approved on the God. I'll work one that need it not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth and When you get into studying the word, that means you're going to look up some hard words.

You're not going to just skim over the Word of God. You see what you can do you can hear the Word of God and you can read the Word of God and you can memorize the Word of God and you Meditate on the Word of God and then you share that word with others all of these different levels of getting into the Word of God, but so many of God's people only read the word.

That's all they do they skim over the word. They did not say like Jeremiah thy words were found and I did eat them. Joshua 1 8 says but this book of the law shall not be part of my mouth. But thou shall meditate there in day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then thou Shall make thy way prosperous and then thou shall have good success.

God said us in this word blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law that he meditate day and night.

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also should not wither and whatsoever. He doeth shall prosper. You want prosperity in the ranch at the home in your family.

God says this book of the law shall not be part of thy mouth. You must do more than just read the word. You must engraft the word into your heart that only comes through meditation so intense. Concentration upon the Word of God.

That's why Paul says I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies. Living sacrifice and the God is the least that you can do. He says and don't be conformed to this world to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

You know how you form Jesus Christ in you. By engrafting the word into your heart that's how Jesus is formed in you by getting God's Word into your soul and God says there's only one time you find the word success in the Bible.

It's linked with meditation. You've almost got to memorize the word before you can meditate on it when you lay in bed and you allow those scriptures to flow in your mind. Oh. Mental perception and spiritual perception that brings as you allow God's Word to linger in your minds.

You know why people today have so much unbelief because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Faith is revived faith is strengthened faith is empowered by searching the scriptures and reading the Word of God.

You cannot live in the Christian life without the Word of God words of scripture. Jesus said man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. He said pray this our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. What does that mean? It's not only talking about physical bread. I studied this out extensively. It talks about the spiritual bread that Jesus talked about in Matthew chapter 4 and verse 4.

Man shall not live by bread alone. You cannot survive by bread alone. I'm preparing a message has taken me five years to prepare how the Word of God will heal you mentally physically emotionally and spiritually.

How the Word of God can bring healing? Side to all you could give so many scriptures tonight and we read these novels and comic books and and some of you men will sit down and You'll read the newspaper from cover to cover.

But how much time do you spend in the Word of God? How much time do you spend in God's Word? Peter says as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word. I tell you I smile every time I think about that.

Because my mind goes back to Muskegon, Michigan, and I've got two little babies twins and I remember them crying in stereo for the bottle. And I don't know if you've ever had the great blessing of having twins.

I know there's one that has tonight. But I want to tell you something they can really squawk for that bottle. Can't they? We hear some of them squawking back there. They want a bottle. But when you've got two of them and that crying is intensified, I'll tell you something you'll run right to that refrigerator.

You'll warm that milk up as fast as you can and you'll stick it in their mouth. Now Peter says as newborn babes. He says you desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. He says that's the only way that you can grow.

He says that you might be able to grow crave lust after the Word of God. That's what it means to desire God's Word to hunger for God's Word. That's why Job could say I have esteemed thy words more than my necessary food.

And look at all these prophets. They talked about eating the Word of God. What does it mean eating the Word of God as we've already talked? It only comes through meditation. Not just skimming. I remember one day I was sitting in the church and The preacher announced a very simple text to the audience to the Christians there and there's a woman there that was a professing Christian for 20 years and she had a son on either side of her and I was sitting behind her and I wasn't trying to be judgmental or anything like this.

But this professing Christian that was a Christian so-called for 20 years. Could not find a very easy New Testament scripture and she went from Genesis to Revelation to try to find that scripture and One son looked over his shoulder and the other one looked over his shoulder and then I heard the mad Scramble and I was wondering what was going on and finally she gave up and she looked in the beginning in the Bible to find out where that scripture was.

One time I was having revival meetings. There was a woman that was in the faith for at least 15 years. I wanted to share a scripture with her to help her out Spiritually and I said would you turn to a certain text in the New Testament?

She could not find that scripture. She was embarrassed. Listen. You want to know why today false cults are stealing our people from our fundamental churches today is because we don't know the Word of God.

We have not studied the Word of God. We don't even know the basic fundamentals of the faith. You can talk to people today and they can't even quote enough scripture to you they don't know the Word of God and Listen, these cultists can come up to the door.

They don't even know Jesus Christ. They're not even saved and yet they'll come up to your door even though they will pervert the scriptures and they will quote scripture after scripture after scripture after scripture right in your face and In Muskegon, we have cultists that come around that don't even believe the Word of God yet.

They take portions of it and they spend midnight oil memorizing those doctrines and scriptures and Today we should be ashamed and how we neglect the Word of God. I want to tell you something over 40 different authors.

Hundreds of years in the making blood and sweat. God gave us this book beloved. I want to tell you something. This is the vine book. If we'd only go back to the book if we get into the Word of God then unbelief.

Times that you've virtually charged God the God that cannot lie with lying. The majority of us tonight. We don't realize it, but we've fallen to unbelief. We're an unbelief and we don't even know it. We say that we believe God's Word, but we don't because in biblical Belief you obey with the knowledge and Then and only then do you truly believe when you have the knowledge of it and then you obey it in your lifestyle as James says he said.

Don't be just here's the word but doers of the word. Deceiving your own selves for if any man be a hearer of the word and not a doer is like unto a man beholding his natural Face in the glass. He beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forget as what matter of man He was.

James says. If a man will continue in my ways and God's ways he will be blessed in his deed. But unbelief if we would see that the one of the root problems of our unbelief is lack of meditation. It's lack of meditation upon the promises of God's Word.

You cannot believe unless you get the scripture in your heart. You cannot you can't strum it up. It comes from your innermost being it rises from within. That's the only way that you can believe that's why I tell people that the only way you're going to get a burden for souls is to meditate upon passage of scripture of the damnation of hell.

You've got and graft that into your heart what a man thinketh in his heart. So is he. What you think in your innermost being that's what you become. We are a product of our thought life and so that's why God's Word teaches us that what a man thinketh in his innermost being he will become and I know that as I've meditated upon passage of scripture about the horror and darkness of hell about eternity without Jesus Christ of men gnawing their tongues and gnashing their teeth and screaming and crying and agony as I look into the passage of scriptures there about the second death and the Eternal lake of fire and when I get those scriptures in my mind I began to see that listen, I've got to put this fear out of my life.

This bondage of fear this torment of fear and I've got to talk to people because unless I do share Christ with them. They're going to hell and love supersedes fear. But you've got to change your heart first.

You can't work it up. You can't be a soul winner just because you the preacher says be a soul winner. You've got to put it in your heart. You've got to put scriptures of salvation into your heart what a man thinketh in his heart.

So is he then there's lack of prayer. Lack of private prayer lack of family prayer. Oh, listen so many families today. They don't even pray together. Listen to you husbands. I want to tell you something.

Unless you gather that family together and get them in the Word of God. You're neglecting your spiritual duties and I would to God tonight that if you are not having a family altar. That you'd raise up that family altar tonight.

It doesn't matter if it's just you there and your wife or whoever it may be. You must have that family altar. It's important. That's when God Brings a union between the husband and the wife and the children.

I remember young man that had a father that read the Old Testament a New Testament to him constantly always and This young man grew up and then he fell away from the Lord for a while and in his college days He began to hear in his ears in his minds.

In the ear of his mind he could hear his father reading the Bible to him over and over again because his father persistently read the Word of God in that family devotional time and He looked at me and he said brother John that is what brought me back to Jesus Christ.

I couldn't get away from my father's Reading he was long since dead and gone. But he said that brought me to my knees and today that man is one of the finest Christian men I've ever met he has one of the finest families I've ever seen in my life and they have that family altar and Then the prayer meeting.

Oh Listen, my friends. We need to realize today the reason why we don't come to the house of God and praise because we don't believe God's gonna answer. Pray prayer if we believe that God was going to answer prayer.

This place be packed. The capacity. I Want to tell you something we don't realize that the Word of God says don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the Matter of some is as we see the day approaching.

God says you need that fellowship. You need that strength. You need that prayer time and until we face it as sin and rebellion against God. We're not going to be able to have the fullness of the Spirit.

You're not going to know the power of God until you begin to do something about it. You don't rationalize and argue the thing out, but you say I'm going to be in God's house and I'm going to seek the Lord in prayer.

Maybe we could open one of those windows back there. It's getting warm in here. The neglect of assembling. We need to think about these things tonight. Neglect of assembling ourselves together of coming together as God's Word says that as we see the coming of Jesus Christ is so near he says.

You must be in the fellowship of other Christians because the spirit of Antichrist is in this age. The false philosophies the cults the isms everything is warring against us. The acceleration of demonic activity.

You need the house of God. Whether you realize it or not. Well, listen, I want to tell you something. I've had preachers tell me I could write a book on excuses. All of the excuses that come out, you know Billy's got a runny nose.