Day: 9

The Making of a Diamond

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)

You are probably familiar with the passage above. It speaks of God’s healing and presence in the land. When God transforms a city or land, it is quite dramatic.

It’s typically called “revival.” Though some of us may be familiar with the first and second Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th centuries, respectively, the word “revival” is largely a foreign concept for many Western Christians.

Some churches schedule revivals, but a true revival is not schedule-able!

A revival happens when a body of believers becomes sick of the sin in their lives and culture. It happens when they fall on their knees and call out to God in personal anguish over an extended time. They implore God to heal themselves and their land of wickedness.

One of the highlights of my numerous trips to Cuba was hearing the secret spiritual history of post-revolution Cuba when revival swept the land in 1989. It is an amazing story.

The Rise and Fall of Cuba

When communists overthrew the old Batista regime in 1959, many hoped that a new free, egalitarian society would take its place. That hope was quickly dashed.

Soon, churches were closed down, pastors threatened and jailed, and church buildings confiscated. A long reign of persecution was just beginning.

The persecution yielded predictable results. It weeded out those who were in ministry for prestige, position, or power. Those who were not totally committed or unfaithful left as well, either finding new work or leaving for the US.

The pastors willing to pay any price for their faith stayed behind. Their suffering was not short-lived; by staying behind, they underwent a life-long course of trial and tribulation.

Imagine what went through the minds of those who stayed behind. Do you think that they woke up each day and thought to themselves, “Ah, a new day to suffer, but today I will show off the qualities of Christ and emulate God’s long-suffering nature?”

Not likely. Instead, these living martyrs experienced fear, doubt, and anxiety constantly. Although you may not be experiencing persecution, these feelings probably resonate with you.

The suffering pastors in Cuba found that these feelings, when allowed to drive us to God, yielded something beautiful: a connection with God that allows His strength and character to flow to, and through, us.

This is exactly what happened in the Cuban Church over the years. The leadership of the Church went deep with God. Stripped of all social standing, position, and power and experiencing great stress, they turned to God. His power began to flow into them.

The pressure these leaders lived under brings to mind the process of diamond formation. The formation of a diamond requires three ingredients: a very common material (carbon), great pressure, and a long period of time. This process of transformation results in one of God’s works of art, a diamond.

This process is the same in God’s work in the Church. He takes a very common material (people), adds great pressure, and allows it to work over a long period of time. In Cuba, something pure and beautiful was created, a classic national revival that flowed through the church and throughout the culture in 1989.

Revival Comes

One of the leaders of the Cuban Church gave us his first-hand account of the effect on society when God visited Cuba that year.

Crowds began to form in front of churches – people were lined up for blocks to get in. In fact, pastors had to issue tickets to ensure that everybody had a turn. They held church services night and day for three months. Miracles were happening everywhere, fueling the crowds.

Communist officials would come to the pastors in secret and say, “I know nothing about Christianity or your Book, but something inside me is telling me that it is true. I want you to teach me about Christianity.”

This revival lasted in its greatest intensity for three months, and at a slightly lower level for another five years. Since that time, it has sprung up in one area and died down, only to spring up in another area!

This isn’t surprising to me, since most of the churches that I visited were filled with people crying out to God. I visited a medium-size church in the middle of the week and was astounded to find that it was filled with 240 people, all of whom had been praying and fasting with no food or water for three days!

Simple People

The devotion, endurance, and dependence of the Cuban church always amazed me.

Cuba is evidence that the Lord doesn’t look for the most charismatic, brilliant, or talented to become his followers. He looks for the simple people, the ones who are truly in love with Him and who can’t turn away.

This raw material is then slow-baked in a furnace of affliction. God typically doesn’t bring the affliction but uses Satan’s schemes and attacks, thwarting them for His greater purpose.

Given a few decades, God creates a church that is sparkling – so tough that it can endure any heat. Satan brings the heat to destroy, but God uses it to create a beautiful, sparkling diamond.

There is a lesson there for you and me.

For Further Reading

“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”

Psalm 85:6 (ESV)

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV)

“For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Ephesians 5:14 (ESV)

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

Genesis 50:20 (ESV)

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

James 1:2-4 (ESV)

“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

Romans 12:13 (ESV)

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

John 3:8 (ESV)

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Philippians 2:5-8 (ESV)

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