WHEREAS, God is a God of life, having given birth to all life throughout the universe in Creation, and having breathed the breath of life into the first man, Adam (Genesis 2:7); and
WHEREAS, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is referred to as the Son of God who “was in the beginning with God, [and] all things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being, [and] in Him was life, and the life was the Light of men” (John 1:2–4); and
WHEREAS, Regarding the Holy Spirit, the Apostle John quotes Jesus as saying, “It is the Spirit who gives life” (John 6:63); and the Apostle Paul affirms that “The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6); and that the Old Covenant ends in death, but under the New Covenant the Spirit gives life to those who are born again (2 Corinthians 3:6); and
WHEREAS, The people of God in the Old Testament from time to time experienced periods of rebellion against God and His divine will for them, prompting Him to discipline them, sometimes severely, which often led to them turning to Him in repentance, prayer, and renewed obedience, at which time His glory would once again fill the house of God and His people would be endued and infused with fresh life from heaven; and
WHEREAS, The Church itself was birthed on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) with the baptism of the Holy Spirit that filled the disciples with supernatural power, prompting their desire to share the Gospel boldly and three thousand new believers were ushered into God’s Kingdom by means of regeneration on that great day; and
WHEREAS, God has manifested Himself among His people in days gone by in seasons of refreshing, revival, and spiritual awakening, such as the days of The Evangelical Awakening in Britain (1735–1791), The First Great Awakening in America (1726–1770), The Second Great Awakening in America (1787–1843), The Layman’s Prayer Revival (1857–1859), The Global Awakening (1901–1910), and The Jesus Movement in America (late 1960s to early 1970s); and
WHEREAS, Though some parts of the body of Christ have experienced “waves” of spiritual awakening since the mid-1970s, the overall “tide of revival” in America has been “out” for four decades, while the Church and our culture have been drifting further and further into a moral and spiritual state of rebellion and corruption; and
WHEREAS, Our Southern Baptist Convention has been in a state of steady decline in baptisms for the past fifteen years (since 2000); and
WHEREAS, Our current Southern Baptist President, Ronnie Floyd, has made a comprehensive and clarion call “PLEADING WITH SOUTHERN BAPTISTS To Humbly Come Together Before God in Clear Agreement, Visible Union, and in Extraordinary Prayer for the Next Great Awakening and for the World to Be Reached for Christ”; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Columbus, Ohio, June 16–17, 2015, do commit to dedicate and consecrate ourselves afresh to seek the Lord God with our whole hearts, through repentance of our own sins, and also crying out to God regarding the sins of our nation; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we engage in faithful and fervent prayer for the spiritual healing of our churches, our Convention, and our nation; and be it finally
RESOLVED, That we faithfully and fervently plead with our great God to open the windows of heaven and come down among His people with a fresh filling of His Spirit that His Name will be glorified throughout our nation and the nations, and that His people will be refreshed with an outpouring of His love and holiness, resulting in renewed zeal to share the Gospel of Jesus with lost people for the purpose of winning them to faith in Christ and discipling them in such a way that they will in turn win others to Christ.