Revival?

Pastor Dewey Moede Note: I asked Pastor Jerry to write a post on Revival as FGGAM prepares to go to Windom, Minnesota for Revival on August 26th and 27th of this year. Please keep us in your prayers……….

 Christian revival is an increase in spiritual interest or a renewal in the life of a church, with a local, national or global effect.  We need to understand that this revival referred to, is not necessarily the same as the series of preaching events using the same name.   There are some individuals who are “revived” at the revival meetings, but not often the whole of the church.  This may be because a major thrust in revival meetings is usually seen to be evangelism; seeking to bring the lost to salvation.   However, I have seen that unless the church is revived, changed in all things worldly within, those the church wins to Christ in revival meetings, will soon become as they are now!

Revival of the church/churches, the restoration of the church itself to a vital and fervent relationship with God after a period of moral decline, is what I am addressing in this writing.

Biblical accounts of national moral decline and restoration during the history of the Israelites, illustrates revival.  In particular, narrative accounts of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah emphasize periods of both national decline and revival associated with the rule of various righteous and/or wicked kings.

In the American colonies, the First Great Awakening was a wave of religious enthusiasm, among Protestants, that swept the colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, leaving a permanent impact and model on American churches.   It resulted from powerful preaching that deeply affected listeners, who were already church members, with a deep sense of personal conviction and salvation by Christ.

Pulling away from the normal and ingrained ritual and ceremony, the First Great Awakening made religion to become intensely personal to the average person by creating a deep sense of spiritual lack and redemption.   Unlike the Second Great Awakening, that began about 1800, which reached out to those outside the church, the First Great Awakening focused on people who were already church members.   It changed their rituals, their piety, and their self-awareness.

The new style of powerful preaching, and the way people practiced their faith, breathed new life into Christianity in America.   People became passionately and emotionally involved in their faith, rather than passively listening to intellectual discourse in a disconnected manner.   Ministers who used this new style of preaching were generally called “New Lights”, while the preachers of old were called “Old Lights”.   People began to study their Bibles at home, which is a trend in America that has been lacking for many, many years!

Largely, the western church, the American church, is spiritually asleep and she does not yet realize it.   For the church, competition with the world in music, in entertaining the masses, and even in church growth strategies modeled after the world of business, has lead to her moral decline.   And, the moral decline of the church may be seen as directly responsible for our national moral decline.

This word revival is not evangelism, although the long-term result of a church made alive will be evangelistic. Evangelism is important!  However, revival is what God sends, not to the lost, but to His own people, the church.  In revival, God does a new quickening work in those who have life, yet who have grown lethargic and weak through sin and neglect; they have “left their first love.”

Here are a few definitions of revival, which I whole-heartedly endorse as my biblical understanding:

“Revival is that sovereign work of God in which He visits His own people, restoring and releasing them into the fullness of His blessing.” (Robert Coleman)

“Revival is an extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit producing extraordinary results.” (Richard Owen Roberts)

“Revival is a return to spiritual health after a period of decline into sin and broken fellowship with God… Revival is for God’s people when they need to be forgiven and restored to life, spiritual health, and vitality”  (Blackaby & King -Fresh Encounter, Lifeway, 1993)

“We need a work of the Holy Spirit of a supernatural kind, putting power into the preaching of the Word, inspiring all believers with heavenly energy, and solemnly affecting the hearts of the careless, so that they turn to God and live. We would not be drunk with the wine of carnal excitement, but we would be filled with the Spirit. We would behold the fire descending from heaven in answer to the effectual fervent prayers of righteous men. Can we not entreat the Lord our God to make bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the people in this day of declension and vanity?” (Spurgeon)

The pathway for revival:

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”    (2 Chronicles 7:14)

However, that is the whole point and the barrier, is it not; getting the Church, God’s people, to humble themselves, to pray, to seek God’s face, and repent, genuinely?

So, should we pray for revival?  YES! That is what the Psalmist is doing in the verses below:

“Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, And revive me in Thy ways.” (Psalm 119:37)

“Revive me according to Thy lovingkindness, So that I may keep the testimony of Thy mouth”  (Psalm 119:88)

“Great are Thy mercies, O Lord; Revive me according to Thine ordinances” (Psalm 119:156)

“Wilt Thou not Thyself revive us again, That Thy people may rejoice in Thee?”  (Psalm 85:6)

“Lord, I have heard the report about Thee and I fear. O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy”  (Habbakuk 3:2)

We cannot manipulate God toward a work of reviving us.   Revival is the work of God.  We pray for it from a sense of humility and repentance because we are dependent upon Him to send it.

“Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.”    (Psalms 85:6-7) “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.”    (Psalms 138:7) “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”      (Isaiah 57:115) “O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.”      (Habakkuk 3:2)

Oh Beloved Church, what is preventing you from humbly seeking God for the revival of you, your church, His Church?      Oh, LORD . . .

“Revive us again; Fill each heart with Thy love; May each soul be rekindled With fire from above.

Hallelujah!  Thine the glory. Hallelujah!  Amen. Hallelujah!  Thine the glory. Revive us again.”