Personal Revival Checklist

Praying Through the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 5 – 7

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) clearly reveals the essential elements for personal revival.  If you will live in light of these truths, you can experience daily, continuous revival.  To fail to heed Christ’s words will lead to fruitlessness and despair.

Carefully read each scripture and search your heart in the light of Christ’s words that they might bring you to greater repentance and a hunger to be “conformed to the image of Christ.”  As you proceed, circle the areas of greatest need and seek God for cleansing and revival.

Chapter 5

1. Do I have a genuine power of spirit?  Do I consistently recognize my own inability and the critical need for God in my life? (5:3) ________ Yes      ________ No


2. Am I continually mourning over the sin of my life?  When I sin, is there a godly sorrow that leads to repentance without regret? (5:4; II Cor. 7:10) ________ Yes     ________ No


3. Am I meek?  Am I willing to be governed by God alone?  Is the quality of brokenness clearly visible in my life? (5:5) ________ Yes     ________ No


4. Am I hungry and thirsty for rightness in every realm of my life?  With God?  With others?  In every situation, circumstance, decision? (5:6) ________ Yes     ________ No


5. Am I merciful toward others?  Do I exhibit a spirit of forgiveness? (5:7) ________ Yes     ________ No


6. Am I pure in heart?  Are my motives pure?  My thinking not double-minded?  Have I laid down other allegiances and affections that I have cherished more than Jesus?  Do I have a single-minded devotion to Jesus Christ? (5:8; II Cor. 11:3) ________ Yes     ________ No


7. Do I seek to be at peace with all men without compromising my convictions?  Do I make peace when it is within my power to do so? (5:9; Rom. 12:18) ________ Yes     ________ No


8. Am I standing so visibly for Christ that I am in opposition to the world, the flesh, and the devil and, because of that, suffering persecution?  Am I rejoicing when men revile me and say all kinds of evil against me for Christ’s sake? (5:10-12) ________ Yes     ________ No


9. Does my life create a hunger and thirst for God in the lives of others?  Am I being used of God right now to preserve and maintain the truth? (5:13) ________ Yes     ________ No


10. Does my life illuminate the truth about God and man before others?  Do people see my good works (the fruit of the Spirit) and glorify God? (5:14-16; Gal. 5:22-23) ________ Yes     ________ No


11. Are there any commandments, even the smallest ones, which I do not regard as binding on my life?  Am I teaching others to do the same either by expression or example? (5:17-19; Deut. 8:3b) ________ Yes     ________ No


12. Is my righteousness merely external, like that of the Pharisees, instead of coming from my heart? (5:20; 22:36-38) ________ Yes     ________ No


13. Am I angry with brothers?  Am I guilty of calling others names, criticizing others, or wrongly accusing others? (5:21-22) ________ Yes     ________ No


14. Is there anyone, anywhere, who has something against me whom I have not approached to seek reconciliation? (5:23-24) ________ Yes     ________ No


15. Am I overcoming lust daily?  Are my eyes focused on Christ alone as my source of satisfaction?  Do I have a single-minded devotion in my marriage to my spouse? (5:27-32) ________ Yes     ________ No


16. Do I make oaths?  Do I feel the necessity to make up for lack of integrity by assuring people that what I’m saying is really true?  Do I ever fail to speak with honesty and integrity?  Do I exaggerate or “stretch the truth”? (5:34-37) ________ Yes     ________ No


17. Am I taking revenge on anyone by what I’m saying or doing?  By my words or actions?  Even subtly?  Am I failing to love them aggressively, merely tolerating them? (5:38-39) _______ Yes     ________ No


18. Am I giving to my enemies, loving them, praying for them, greeting them? (5:40-47) ________ Yes     ________ No


19. Am I seeking to be “perfect” or complete in every realm of my life even as my heavenly Father is perfect? (5:48) ________ Yes     ________ No

Chapter 6

1. Am I practicing my righteousness before men?  Am I anxious to let people know, one way or another, how spiritual I am—what religious activities I’m involved in? (6:1) ________ Yes     ________ No


2. When I give, do I make sure others know about it?  Am I secretly pleased when they discover it? (6:2-4) ________ Yes     ________ No


3. When I pray, am I anxious to impress others?  Do I love to pray publicly so that others can hear me and be impressed? (6:5) ________ Yes     ________ No


4. When I pray, do I go into the inner room of my heart and shut the door?  Do I pray to my Father?  Am I experiencing genuine communion and intimacy with Him? (6:6) ________ Yes     ________ No


5. Do I use meaningless repetitions in prayer?  Do I secretly think I can impress God with my many words, or long moments spent in prayer?  Am I resting and depending on my own efforts and abilities to gain God’s attention rather than the merits of Christ alone? (6:7) ________ Yes     ________ No


6. Am I acknowledging and praising God in prayer?  Am I hallowing His name?  Am I praying for His honor and glory?  Do my requests reflect a desire for His glory, not just a desire for my own comfort, pleasure, and good will? (6:9) ________ Yes     ________ No


7. Am I aggressively praying for God’s kingdom to be established? (6:10) ________ Yes     ________ No


8. Am I praying for God’s will to be done—not merely interested in my selfish desires being granted? (6:10) ________ Yes     ________ No


9. Am I depending upon Christ alone as the source of my every need—my daily bread?  Do I come to Him with every need of life? (6:11) ________ Yes     ________ No


10. Am I consistently dealing with sin in my life, seeking God’s cleansing and forgiveness? (6:12) ________ Yes     ________ No


11. Am I praying for and depending on God’s protection from temptation and deliverance from evil? (6:13) _________ Yes     ________ No


12. Is there anyone who has sinned against me, offended me, or harmed me in any way that I have not truly and fully forgiven? (6:14-15) ________ Yes     ________ No


13. Am I fasting?  Am I abstaining from worldly issues that cloud my spiritual vision?  Have I surrendered every material thing in my life that I felt I couldn’t do without?  That I couldn’t or wouldn’t give up on a moment’s notice? (6:16) ________ Yes     ________ No


14. When I fast, am I anxious for others to know? (6:16-18) ________ Yes     _________ No


15. Do I have an over-attention to storing up material wealth?  Do I own a lot of unnecessary things?  Are material possessions seen as “treasures” to me? (6:19) ________ Yes     ________ No


16. Am I so investing my life and resources that I am laying up treasures and rewards in heaven? (6:20-21) _________ Yes     ________ No


17. Do I have anything that is a master to me other than the Lord Jesus Christ?  Am I holding on to anything in my life that is causing me in some way to treat Christ and the things of God lightly?  Causing me to despise Christ or give Him anything less than His rightful place? (6:24) ________ Yes     ________ No


18. Am I worrying about material things?  About what I will eat or drink or wear?  Am I worried unduly about my physical appearance?  Am I exhibiting a lack of faith by worrying about anything material?  (6:25-31) ________ Yes     ________ No


19. Am I seeking first of all His kingdom and His righteousness in everything?  Am I investing my life and time in eternal, kingdom business (i.e., the Word of God and the lives of men)? (6:33) ________ Yes     ________ No


20. Am I worrying about the future on any level—worrying about myself, my family, my job, my income, my physical comfort? (6:34) ________ Yes     ________ No

Chapter 7

1. Am I judging others in a way so as to be critical and condemning? (7:1-2) ________ Yes     ________ No


2. Am I more concerned about changing others than I am about dealing with my own spiritual deficiencies? (7:3-4) ________ Yes     ________ No


3. Am I constantly trying to correct others without first humbly correcting myself? (7:5) ________ Yes     ________ No


4. Am I asking, seeking, and knocking before the Lord?  Am I consistently and continually looking to Him with dependency and expectation, realizing that “He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that seek Him”? (7:7-11; Heb. 11:6) ________ Yes     ________ No


5. Am I treating others as I would desire them to treat me?  Do I give others as much honor, respect, understanding, and attention as I give myself? (7:12) ________ Yes     ________ No


6. Have I entered the narrow gate that leads to true eternal life? (7:13-14) ________ Yes     ________ No


7. Am I wary of false prophets?  Do I have such a relationship with God and His Word that I am sensitive and discerning regarding that which is really true and that which is false—not naïve and gullible regarding spiritual deception? (7:15-20) ________ Yes     ________ No


8. Do I trust in my religious activities to make me right with God?  Do I vainly believe that external righteousness alone will make me right before God? (7:21-23) ________ Yes     ________ No


9. Am I consistently in a position to hear the Word of God?  Am I listening intently to what God is trying to say to me, not merely paying only casual attention? (7:24) ________ Yes     ________ No


10. Am I aggressively and immediately obeying God as He speaks to my heart through His Word?  Is my life being built upon God’s Word through immediate obedience to Him? (7:24-27) ________ Yes     ________ No

Your sins have put a barrier between you and someone else.  Go now and ask forgiveness of those you have wronged, whatever the causes.  If necessary, make needed restitution.  Let nothing keep you from a clear conscience.  No price is too high to pay.

Finally, determine to live in immediate obedience to the promptings of the Spirit of God and directives of His Word.  Trust God to use you as a powerful instrumental of revival.
by Bill Elliff