Set the Sail (Preparing for a Move of God) Sample

Conclusion: Repeat Them In Our Day

This prayer is the opening line of a worship song penned by the prophet Habakkuk. It expresses a deep desire to witness the fame and deeds of God that previous generations experienced firsthand — not as a nostalgic longing for the “good old days,” but as a plea for God to repeat His works in Habakkuk’s generation. He doesn’t want to simply hear about what God has done in the past; he wants to experience God's works in the present.

What are the “fame and deeds” that Habakkuk refers to? Likely, it’s the miracle of the Exodus when God flexed on Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Habakkuk is asking for a new act of redemption — rescue from the captivity of Babylon, a new Exodus. In biblical theology, this work is ultimately fulfilled in the greatest act of freedom from slavery: Christ’s death on the cross. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still appropriate this prayer today. It doesn’t mean the church can’t plead for God to move in similar ways.

This prayer captures the very heart of this series—a yearning for God to move in our time, in our generation. Lord Jesus, repeat in our day, your mighty fame and deeds.

God brought about mass conversions and social reforms during the Great Awakenings. He birthed the fastest-growing church as an underground movement in communist China. God poured out His Spirit, evidenced by miracles, during Azusa Street. He heard the prayers of the faithful in the Hebrides. He used young people like Evan Roberts in the Welsh revivals. He drew in the hippies and vagabonds during the Jesus Movement of the 1970s, radically changing the face of the church. He set the hearts of Gen-Z on fire during the Asbury outpouring — and we are still seeing the fruit of this manifesting in our generation now. And God can do it again! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Are we satisfied to watch the decline of the church in our generation? Are we content to relegate a powerful move of God to the past? Or will we plead with God to do again what He has done before? That He would do among us what He did among them? Will we get on our knees and cry out for God to repeat His fame and deeds in our day?

Where are the prayer warriors who will wrestle with God for cities and generations? Where are those who are familiar with the secret place of prayer? Where are the intercessors who will lay hold of God’s promises and pray like this prophet?

Let us set our sails and ready the ship for the wind of God’s Spirit to blow through the church once more.