In Ezra Chapter 9, Ezra comes to realize that God's people are in trouble again, for not exercising Godly separation which ultimately led down the path of compromise, and pretty soon they were doing the same abominations as the heathen nations around them (verse 1).
This greatly grieved Ezra. and I am struck by his response in verses 8-10, where he speaks of God giving them mercy and grace, and "a little space" for revival. After the judgment of the Babylonian captivity, in one of the lowests points of their history, God used a heathen king to extend mercy - for the purpose of revival. It was a small window of escape, with a specific purpose.
If we are going to see revival in our hearts and lands, it is not going to be from a position of our own outward strength. It will be from a time when we have been brought low - either through chastisement or by humbling ourselves. It is then that we are too weak to think that we can bring revival ourselves and realize that it is all Christ and none of us; all the power of God, and none of our own strength.
If we are going to see revival in our hearts and lands, we must realize that the window that God gives us is for a purpose. So often we see God give us liberty and abuse it by not recognizing it as an opportunity for Spiritual revival. Liberty is not unbridled freedom - it always has a purpose.
If we are going to see revival in our hearts and lands, we must recognize that the window given is "a little space." God is merciful and gracious, and His mercies are new every morning, but there are opportunities that are lost and lines that are crossed and ground that cannot be regained in this life when we put off too long the prompting of the Spirit of God.
(Ezra 9:8-10) "And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments,"