Are you hearing what I’m hearing? America is on the verge of a great revival! All the signs indicate we are on the precipice of a history-making revival of never-before-seen proportions! 

“Revive your church, oh Lord, beginning with me.” Augustine

A REVIVAL STORY. OR IS IT?

When God called our family to serve as missionaries to Europe, we left a church we loved dearly. This church was not a “thing” to us but a people. Leaving them was very difficult. It was like leaving home. Permanently. 

A nearby pastor – a great friend – knew our relationship with our church had been particularly close. He also knew that our plan to move to a cabin on the grounds of our denomination’s state campground would isolate us from the community we would need as we traveled from church to church raising our budget. He approached me, voicing his concern for our family, and graciously offered his church as our home church. Any weekend we were not on the road, we could attend services there. Our young daughters could be a part of their children’s ministries. My wife and I could be a part of the pastoral staff. We would have use of the church offices. It was an offer we gratefully accepted. Being a part of this life-giving church proved to be an essential part of our overall health. 

As is typical, our itineration travels would sometimes take us on the road for weeks at a time. After one such trip, we returned home. There was a mountain of administrative work awaiting me. I went to the church office one morning and was greeted by staff members who wanted to talk about the revival they said was taking place in the church. Their excitement was tangible. Listening to them, I could feel the energy of what was taking place in the church. Staff member after staff member told me story after story of changed lives and how the revival had begun. I was elated and praised God at this news.  

When I met my friend, the pastor, I told him how thrilled I was that revival had come to the church. I was surprised when he challenged me, “Who told you that?” I replied that it was the talk of the office. “Were they mistaken,” I asked. “Wasn’t the church experiencing revival?” I’ve never forgotten his thoughtful response: “We’re experiencing a great manifestation of God’s presence, but we haven’t decided yet if we really want revival. That remains to be seen.”

“A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God.” Charles Finney

MANIFESTATIONS OF GOD’S PRESENCE AND REVIVAL.

While God’s manifested presence is always a part of revival, the manifestation of God’s presence does not necessarily mean we are experiencing revival. Excitement, joy, even signs and wonders – all these we associate with revival, and well, we should, but their presence does not indicate revival.

Revival is more. Much more.

REVIVAL IS . . . 

First, REALIZATION

The seeds of revival are watered when we realize our need for revival, not because of felt needs, a desire for excitement, or in the hopes of church growth but out of a passion for God Himself and to glorify Him.

This realization follows after the initiative of God. He moves on our hearts with conviction or convincing, and we realize the condition of our souls and our great need for Him.

Second, REPENTANCE

Conviction grips our hearts, leading us to willingly turn from sin, from all desires we place before God. We set Christ in the center of our hearts and minds, surpassing not only that which is sinful but common, or even what people would call “good.” Repentance produces a passion for the person of Jesus, the Holy Savior who died to pay the price for our sins and who lives to help us live free of sin. Loving Him above all things, we live broken yet whole, ever joyfully in repentance.

Third, REQUEST

We pray the prayer of Psalm 85.6, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in You? We recognize that revival does not come from below but from above: it is not human efforts that produce revival; it is the outpouring of God, given at His discretion. Recognizing this, God’s people come together imploring God to open the heavens and pour out His Spirit on all who thirst for Him more than life itself. Warning: this thirst cannot be packaged and served up in a well-produced 90-minute Sunday service. It is an every day and throughout the day aching for God that we feel must be filled or we will die of longing.

Fourth, REFRESHING

Seeing their repentance and thirst of His people for Him, God opens the heavens, He comes among His people with new life. Yes, He gives powerful signs and wonders, but more than this, He comes personally as the great satisfier of souls, He comes to the measure that men and women desire Him and fills their hearts to overflowing with His person. 

Fifth, RESPONSE

God’s people respond rightly and gratefully to the action of God with praise, confession of sin, and still more heartfelt repentance (for repentance leads to life). No corner of the heart is left unexamined; no sin or weight is allowed to remain. Every breath and heartbeat are a response to God’s greatness and grace. 

Sixth, REVOLUTION

Nothing short of a revolution takes place in the life of the believer or church. Lives are powerfully transformed. Discipleship that was once but a shadow now becomes substance; no longer is The Faith Once for All Delivered to the Saints just a belief; it is now a way of life. There is an outward expression of the internal transformation that is taking place. People not only turn from wrongdoing, but they make those wrongs right: they ask others to forgive them, and they make restitution. They worship God by serving the body of Christ and their neighbors. In short, shallow, two-dimensional, black-and-white pseudo-Christianity becomes deep, four-dimensional, glorious living color, daily life in Christ.

Seventh, REACH

The revolution that takes place in the hearts of God’s people moves outside their individual lives and the four walls of the church, transforming how they live each day and compelling them to take the Gospel to their community, nation, and the world in glad obedience to the command of Jesus. Christians do not consume revival selfishly but give it away joyfully – the extension of the Gospel of Jesus to the world completes believers’ joy in Jesus.

“Revival is when God intervenes with His people at a particular moment to manifest decisively the presence of His Son in three ways:  to give them a new focus on who Christ is to them and for them; in order that they might enter together into the fullness of His life over them and in them; so that they might serve together in the fulfillment of His mission through them and ahead of them.” David Bryant

REVIVAL IS NOT THE WHOLE STORY GOD WANTS TO WRITE

We need to understand that revival is not the end of the story: “And they all lived happily ever after.” The twin sister of revival is reformation: these two walk and work together. As revival is fresh breath in the church, reformation is the re-forming of the church, a necessary coming home to the Truth that must take place lest the revival be spilled out and lost. Where revival brings the believer and church back to full life in Christ, reformation rebuilds the Christian ideal – as revealed in Scripture – in the heart and mind of the church, as the essential vessel for revival. 

One of the 20^th Century’s greatest philosopher-theologians, Francis Schaeffer said it this way in his classic text, Death In the City:  

“The church in our generation needs reformation, revival, and constructive revolution. At times men think of the two words reformation and revival as standing in contrast one to the other, but this is a mistake. Both words are related to the word restore. Reformation refers to a restoration to pure doctrine; revival refers to a restoration in the Christian’s life. Reformation speaks of a return to the teachings of Scripture; revival speaks of a life brought into its proper relationship to the Holy Spirit. The great moments of church history have come when these two restorations have simultaneously come into action so that the church has returned to pure doctrine and the lives of the Christians in the church have known the power of the Holy Spirit. There cannot be true revival unless there has been reformation; and reformation is not complete without revival. Such a combination of reformation and revival would be revolutionary in our day — revolutionary in our individual lives as Christians, revolutionary not only in reference to the liberal church but constructively revolutionary in the evangelical, Orthodox Church as well. May we be those who know the reality of both reformation and revival, so that this poor dark world may have an exhibition of a portion of the church returned to both pure doctrine and Spirit-filled life.” 

IS REVIVAL ON THE HORIZON? 

So, is the America church on the verge of a great revival? Do signs indicate we are on the precipice of a history-making revival of never before seen proportions? 

Based on the Church’s great fascination and identification with American culture, the answer would seem to be no. In the language of the Apostle John, we love this world far too much, we are worldly. 

Based on the Church’s indifference to God, the answer would seem to be no. In the language of the Psalmist (Psalm 42.1-2), Our souls do not pant for God as the deer pants for the water brooks. Our souls do not thirst for God, for the living God, causing us to wonder when can we come and appear before Him.

Based on what study after study reveals about the Church’s diminishing belief in God’s Word, again in the words of the Psalmist, we do not love God’s Word, and so, will never know His revival: “Consider how I love Your precepts; Revive me, O Lord, according to Your lovingkindness” (Psalm 119.159).

And based on the prayerlessness and pride that fills the Church, in the words of Ezra (II Chronicles 7.14), though we are His people and call ourselves by His name, we have not humbled themselves, we are not praying, neither do we seek His face. We are not turning from our wicked ways. There is little calling out from God’s Church on earth to hear in heaven, little to bring God’s forgiveness of our sin that He might then heal our land.

But based on the God of promise and the promises of God, there is always hope. 

And in view of a Remnant Church in America that remains more fascinated with Christ than with culture, a Remnant Church that is faithfully seeking God’s face in prayer, a Remnant Church that treasures the Scriptures as inspired of God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (II Timothy 3.16), there is hope. Yes, there is hope. 

With this hope set before us, let us go back daily and revisit the seven steps of revival, asking God to help us realize just how much we need revival, just how much we need Him. 

“This church will have either a revival or a funeral!” Unknown

FINAL WORD:  THE WELSH REVIVAL

When revival comes, here is what it just might look like. 

The day was Thursday, September 29, 1904. The place: the nation of Wales. 

The country was in a spiritual free fall, far from God and apparently without hope. The nation’s churches were dead and devoid of any move of God. But this day, God touched the heart of a man named Evan Roberts, giving him a dream of salvation for the nation. And God gave him a plan to do just that, telling Roberts to lead the young adults of his church in seeking personal and national revival. Roberts dutifully obeyed God, but the first meeting left much to be desired as only seventeen people attended. The rest of the young adults couldn’t be bothered.

The following night, Roberts was again at the church. A few more joined the seventeen as Roberts spoke on the importance of revival. The nightly meetings continued without any visible results. Still, Roberts continued preaching night after night to a slowly growing crowd.  His confidence was not in the numbers or himself, but in the God who had commanded him to preach. 

The next Sunday, Roberts’ pastor reluctantly agreed to let him preach to the entire church in the evening service. Not much seemed to be happening and expectations were less than high before he preached or even as he preached. But, that night, when Roberts opened the altar, over sixty young people responded to the message, not leaving until after midnight, each one seeking the Spirit’s moving in his life.  

The next night, Monday, the change in the church was dramatic. There was an electricity in the air that everyone could feel. All testified that the Holy Spirit gripped the entire church as Roberts preached.  Many wept or trembled in the presence of God. No one went home until 3:00 in the morning. 

By Wednesday, the entire town knew what was happening in the church. Not only were services lasting until late at night, but early morning prayer meetings simultaneously sprang up in homes across the area. 

The revival even made its first appearance in Welsh newspapers. Crowds continued to overflow the church, shopkeepers closed early to get to church, steel workers came directly from the mills, skipping their meal and even a cleanup. Revival soon became a daily feature in the national secular press.  

Roberts began receiving invitations to speak in churches throughout the region. He accepted one invitation to preach in a nearby city. The day of the first service, the town shut down: no one went to work that morning; almost everyone came to the church instead to seek the face of God for His holy visitation. That evening, the service was marked by a powerful breakthrough as people sought God for the salvation of Wales and Roberts knew that God had kept His Word to bring salvation to the nation.   

For two solid years, the churches of Wales were crowded to overflowing, not just here and there but every church in every part of the country. During those two years, more than 100,000 people came to faith in Jesus Christ, swept into the kingdom of God.

Newspapers reported, “The whole of Wales has been converted.” Crime virtually ceased to exist. Wales’ most dangerous criminals repented of sin and came to faith in Jesus. Judges had no cases to try. Police forces were laid off. Debts were paid and those that couldn’t be paid were forgiven. Stolen items were returned to their rightful owners. Restitution for wrongs was made.   

Miners would gather for a hymn and prayer before descending into the earth. Pit ponies used in the mines had to be retrained because they didn’t recognize the gentle and holy language of the miners. Bars closed for good as patrons went instead to prayer meeting, meetings marked by the supernatural power of God.

Salvation for the nation had come: an entire nation had become what A.W. Tozer called “children of the burning heart.” 

When we arrive in heaven and we open the books of its great library, and we turn to the year 2024 in history, may we find there the name of your church, and may we find this entry: 

            On this day, the people of this church – with one heart, as one person – took their place among   The Children of the Burning Heart.   

_________

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“Of all vocations, surely the gospel ministry is the one whose paradigm is most radically formed by the dynamics of godly mentorship.” 

Stephen Baldwin