Can someone define revival for me?

Many people believe revival is just holding services a few nights and having someone different come by and preach. What do you believe true revival is? God Bless!

As I have read in several books and heard in different messages revival is God coming down. It is as plain and simple as that. J.Edwin Orr has a message entitled 'Revival is like Judgment Day' If God came down, what do you think it would be like?

I would say that revival is when God manifests His physical presence; giving us the ability to take hold of Him through our senses.

Part of revival would be that we are changed through it. When we encounter God, we have no choice but to change.

The root of revival is revive. Through revival we are revived from spiritual complacency into spiritual activation.

An interesting word study would be to look-up instances of reviving that takes place in scriptures. I found a handful when a did a quick cursory search. Several translations might have to be searched out to get a more complete picture.

"Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, Upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself. Then we shall not turn back from You; Revive us, and we will call upon Your name. LORD God of hosts, restore us; Cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved." Psalm 80:17-19 (New American Standard Bible)

Kind Regards,

Derek

Personally I think that this is the best working definition that cuts through the rubbish:

"It is the renewal of the first love of Christians, resulting in the awakening and conversion of sinners to God. In the popular sense, a revival of religion in a community is the arousing, quickening, and reclaiming of the more or less backslidden church and the more or less general awakening of all classes, and insuring attention to the claims of God.

It presupposes that the church is sunk down in a backslidden state, and a revival consists in the return of a church from her backslidings, and in the conversion of sinners."

- Charles G Finney (Lectures on a Revival of Religion)

It presupposes that the church is sunk down in a backslidden state, and a revival consists in the return of a church from her backslidings, and in the conversion of sinners."

I would disagree with Finney here. I think revival presupposes that the Church is hungry for more of God, and that the Church does not have to be in a backslidden state for revival to take place. I think some of the revivals in history would make this point for us.

Kind Regards,

Derek

The question of ‘what is revival' has been an important to myself lately. For what it's worth I enter this subject not as a long time student of it...but admittedly as a hostile witness to it early on.

This past year I have changed completely on my appreciation of the desperate need for revival. I'm not sure if my 'definition' of revival, as far as American churches are concerned, fits any classic definition but nonetheless I wanted to add these thoughts to the soup.

The root of revival is revive. Through revival we are revived from spiritual complacency into spiritual activation.

I hesitate to be contray here brother, but this topic is too important for any of us to be thin skinned on. I feel what you have stated here is perhaps a better definiton of false revival, such as become popular in our day. Perhaps the word revival misleads us, causing us to think of individuals being "activated."

I do think the definition you shared may be more faithfully applied to the church body as a whole across decades and centuries but not to individuals within those times. Let me explain...The church was alive two hundred years ago during the great Awakening, but today her body is largely gangrenous, that is to day entire members of the church are not even converted. Seeing the body corporately we may be able to define revival as ...well 'reviving.' but for many members of the body, revival will mean nothing less then encountering saving grace for the first times in their Charismatic Pentecostal Baptist Evangelical whatever careers.

In short, a truly impactful revival cannot be mere rejuvenation of once healthy Christians, but in fact the blessed regeneration of countless false Christians. This can come only after the Gospel is preached in this generation with the urgency of fresh discovery and the light contained therein penetrates wicked hearts whose churches presently cator to appetites or self-indulgence.

I think revival presupposes that the Church is hungry for more of God, and that the Church does not have to be in a backslidden state for revival to take place.

I think the history of revivals would not align with this concept. In the early 1700's many ministers of the gospel feared that Christianity, as a true faith of the heart, was in danger of becoming extinct. The rise of evangelicals was predicated not on the enthusiasm for the Gospel, but on the shocking notion that many in the church were false converts...knowing not God while being deceived. Today we are on that brink again…at least in this hemisphere.

Consider the recorded emphasis of preaching on this very subject by Wesley, Whitefield, Finney, Edwards, and many others. Revival to these men wasn't the massaging of weary spiritual muscles back to health, or the microwaving of complacent molecules within cold Christians. Revival to these preachers was exposing corpses in the congregation and calling them from their hypocritical graves

This is a persistent problem in 'Christianized" cultures I believe. Each generation must discover for themselves the power of God, because all that the previous generations can really hand down is the teaching, memory and form of Godliness.

Here is an eyewitness account from Edward's preaching in the town of Enfield that shows to me what revival is. This was written by a certain Reverence Williams present during a preaching of "Sinner in the hands of an Angry God." In the walls of a church in 1741.

In light of the sermon, there was a great moaning and crying out through the entire building. "What must I do to be saved? Oh, I am going to Hell. Oh what shall I do for Christ?" So the minister was obliged to desist from preaching...the shrieks and cries were piercing and amazing.

After some time of waiting the congregation became still, so a prayer was made. After we descended from the pulpit and discoursed with people, some in one place and some in another. Amazing and astonishing the power of God was seen and several souls were hopefully wrought that night, and oh the pleasantness of their countenances they that received comfort.

One historian wrote about the account..."The people of Enfield on that day (July 8th) were treated to nothing short of a spiritual revolution."

Indeed! I believe if we talk about revival in terms of just more and more of what we already have...we'll never wake up. The fact that we panting revival hounds need to come to grips with is that many in our churches are not part of God's church. Feeling the force of this dreadful reality is the spiritual revolution we need for true revival...to stop singing happy dishonest songs of unreality and to cry out in shrieks and moanings..."What must I do to be saved?"

If the American church, which is given over to effectually secular gratifications, was given over to such effectual saving grace, all of the other benefits we hope for, including the salvation for the lost, charity for the poor, infirmed and imprisoned, as well as the improvement of our national character would naturally follow like fruit on a living tree.

Presently our churches are celebrations of unreality. Unlived truths are paraded routinely before us. It is making our us and our nation hard to true repentance.

"Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, you nation that has no shame...This is the joyous city that lived carelessly, that said in her heart, "I am, and there is none besides me." How she has become desolation, a place for animals to lie down in! Everyone who passes by her will hiss, and shake their fists.”

The church is certainly a place for men who are nothing more then animals living for their bellies, to live carelessly while the church lies in ruins. They sing lies about wanting more of God, and applaud one another’s convincing appearances without shame. Yet there is still God's church…

"Make search for the Lord, all you quiet ones of the earth, who have done what is right in his eyes; make search for righteousness and a quiet heart: it may be that you will be safely covered in the day of the Lord's wrath."

For those wanting revival Paul wrote, “…what counts in a new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God.

Blessing all,

MC

"Revival is God bending down to the dying embers of a fire just about to go out and breathing into it until it bursts into flame." - Christmas Evans

"What we call revival is simply New Testament Christianity - the saints getting back to normal" - Vance Havner

A revival is nothing more than a renewal of obedience to God.

Wyatt

P.S. To DerekSpalla,
You only revive something when it is nearly dead not hungry for more as you said.
The definition of revive in the dictionary is "to return to consciousness or life". If the church needs revival, and it does desperately, it is because it has lost God conscousness and His life!

Revival has been important to me lately also. There are so many falling away and it seems no one cares anymore. You mention revival and everyone acts as though it is a word from the past we need not use anymore. I always looked at revival as a fire that has burned down to just the few coals still burning slightly down underneath everything that has already went out but they are still smoldering waiting for the wind to blow again. How we need the church to catch on fire that the world can see Jesus is alive and well. Lord send the Fire.

DerekSpalla wrote:
I would disagree with Finney here. I think revival presupposes that the Church is hungry for more of God, and that the Church does not have to be in a backslidden state for revival to take place. I think some of the revivals in history would make this point for us.

This reminds me of a statement that Ron Bailey made in his "RORA2003 - Having Begun in the Spirit" series. He spoke of the importance of using words with their intended meaning in mind. He illustrated this importance by saying that there is nothing wrong with calling your "goldfish" a "dog", but if you don't tell the "dog-sitter" that the animal that you are alling a "dog" is really a "goldfish", then don't complain when they take it for a "walk" in the "fresh air".

Please read the chapter that the Finney quote came from, "[url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=flat&order=0&topic_id=1586&forum=40&post_id=&refresh=Go]LECTURE I - WHAT A REVIVAL OF RELIGION IS[/url]". Finney is expounding on the passage:

O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. [b]HAB 3:2[/b]

There is a need to be emancipated from our romantic notions of "revival" which consists of "exciting meetings" and "larger churches". Most, in their studies of revival start at the results. We remember Edward's "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", Finney's track record, the ecstacy and excitment of the Welsh and Chinese Revivals, but we ignore the woeful state of the Church and the World immediately prior to God's wonderful outpourings. That is the near absolute consistant factor in revival.

[i]Revival is when God gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented that He shows Himself.[/i] ~Leonard Ravenhill

We remember Edward's "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", Finney's track record, the ecstasy and excitement of the Welsh and Chinese Revivals, but we ignore the woeful state of the Church and the World immediately prior to God's wonderful outpourings.

This is not how I read these events...ecstasy and excitement. They are agony and indictments if anything.

Yet brothers I need someone here to help me understand the tremendous contradiction I sense in this forum. Let us reason together! I've been on this revival website for over a year now. I've heard railings against idolatry, divorce, adultery, pornography, love of money, false prophecy, false teaching, hatred, boastfulness and many other habitual behaviors in the church. These things do not describe carnal Christians...they describe carnal men practicing Christianity and failing.

Indeed, most here refute the notion that there even is such a thing as a “carnal Christian”. Yet, isn’t the idea that a revival is that long-awaited event where the millions of woozy near dead Christians are stirred and activated into obedience and Christ-likeness...isn't this idea of revival a deep-rooted affirmation that there indeed is such a thing as a Carnal Christian? Aren’t we making room for the very thing we say doesn’t exist when we say that revival is merely awakening the carnal Christian?

As we continue to treat revival as a mass repentance to run faster and jump higher, as if somehow the aggregate sin in the church is going to be addressed without first addressing the aggregate false heart, we are actually delaying the real abasement that must occur.

Do we not see that the real problem is not the behavior of the man, but his nature? I admit I'm a novice at the history of modern ‘revival’, but from my fresh readings of those times, I see the main theme was not changing a man's behavior but changing his nature. How is it that many who are experts on revival do not know these things?

So I could care less about an excitement that fades quickly. The issue at stake for us...whether we want to call it revival or Christianity, is that we have eroded the all-important central message that a man must and can be born again. The constant emphasis on changing our behavior does little to rebuild this crumbled altar of repentance...not merely for a renewed effort towards Christ but for a renewed nature in Christ.

Perhaps we are missing common sense in our search for great things. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it must be duck! Why preach to a duck to start clucking like a chicken? (Although some revivals have achieved this miracle...)

When I read the sermons and lectures of past preachers, I do not see them content to preach that churchmen aren't trying enough. I see them fearful that churchmen aren't truly converted.

Here are just a few examples…First Edwards laments the sorry state of men’s' false hearts...but in these times what he is describing might actually be accepted for 'revival' today.

Thus are all of you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from the dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life (however you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religous affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God and may be strict in it."

And again...

There is such a thing as conversion."

Here is Wesley, abasing himself so that others might also test themselves...

I did..., as many of this place can testify; using diligence to eschew all evil, and to have a conscience void of offence; redeeming the time; buying up every opportunity of doing all good to all men; constantly and carefully using all the public and all the private means of grace; endeavoring after a steady seriousness of behavior, at all times, and in all places; and, God is my record, before whom I stand, doing all this in sincerity; having a real design to serve God; a hearty desire to do his will in all things; to please him who had called me to "fight the good fight," and to "lay hold of eternal life." Yet my own conscience beareth me witness in the Holy Ghost, that all this time I was but almost a Christian.

And here is Whitefield on the same subject.

An almost Christian is one of the most hurtful creatures in the world...These are the men who turn the world into a lukewarm, Laodicean spirit...

And again on what true revival will imply for some who think they are merely uncommitted Christians...

The Lord enabled me to open my mouth boldly against unconverted ministers for I am persuaded the generality of preachers talk of an unknown and unfelt Christ. The reason why congregations are dead is because they have dead men preaching to them. O that the Lord may quicken and revive them! How can dead men beget living children?

And this...

Unconverted ministers are the bane of the Christian Church.

And more recently from Paul Washer…

"There is only one thing that gave me a sleepless night, there is only one thing that troubled me all throughout the morning; within a hundred years a great majority in this building will possibly be in Hell.... and many who confess Jesus Christ as Lord will spend an eternity in Hell...I'm talking about you.

And last of all, and most piercing...

Revival is a word that is most often used to speak of "bringing one back from near death".

If we apply the term "near death" on an individual level, we might be thwarting the very real conviction and blessed conversion individuals need. "Near Death" and "Asleep" might be terms suitable for the general body of Christianity, but "death" is a more clear-eyed term for many of us Christians.

Why expect change in behavior without a change in nature first?

MC

“The eternal human quest is to know and experience God…One way God responds to this basic human longing is to manifest himself in a revival.”

Here is a working definition of revival from “The Ten Greatest Revivals” by Elmer Towns and Douglas Porter [1-56955-217-7]:

“An evangelical revival is an extraordinary work of God in which Christians repent of their sins as they become intensely aware of His presence in their midst, and they manifest a positive response to God in renewed obedience to the known will of God, resulting in both a deepening of their individual and corporate experience with God, and an increased concern to win others to Christ.”

I would add that revival is the extraordinary work of God in a believer’s life and that it is different from the work that the believer has experienced or is currently experiencing.

I also like the nine “faces” of revivals found in “Rivers of Revivals” by Elmer Towns and Neil Anderson:

1.\tThe repentance revival emphasizes a moral cleansing of individual lives and of society as a whole.

I think this is what most of the posts so far have been referring to. But there are other faces of revival:

2.\tThe evangelism revival focuses on winning souls to Christ.
3.\tThe worship revival centers on magnifying God.
4.\tThe deeper life revival emphasizes the experience of God’s indwelling.
5.\tThe spiritual warfare revival devotes its energies to battling Satan and the other demons.
6.\tThe Holy Spirit revival is characterized by extensive manifestations of the Spirit.
7.\tThe reconciliation revival leads to the removal of barriers to racial and ethnic harmony.
8.\tThe liberation revival focuses on gaining freedom from corporate and personal bondage to sin. (I think we have been focusing on this one too.)
9.\tThe prayer revival displays considerable efforts at intercession and other forms of prayer.

“Though any given revival may manifest several of these characteristics, most revivals tend to display one trait more prominently than the others.”

I think we are in danger of trying to put God in a box when we presuppose that the Church must be dead for “true” revival to take place. “We should put few limits on how God chooses to send revival.”

I think it is true that in revivals past, present and those in the future, revival may be birthed because the Church is dead and needs to be revived. But I do not want to limit revival only to these instances.

Christ has made me alive and I am hungry for more of Him. I want Him to manifest His physical presence to me and bring me to a place of a more abundant life, not because I am dead, but because I can be made more alive.

Kind Regards,

Derek

We want to define revival....but do we want it?

Brother!

The fact that we panting revival hounds need to come to grips with is that many in our churches are not part of God's church. Feeling the force of this dreadful reality is the spiritual revolution we need for true revival...to stop singing happy dishonest songs of unreality and to cry out in shrieks and moanings..."What must I do to be saved?"

If the American church, which is given over to effectually secular gratifications, was given over to such effectual saving grace, all of the other benefits we hope for, including the salvation for the lost, charity for the poor, infirmed and imprisoned, as well as the improvement of our national character would naturally follow like fruit on a living tree.

Presently our churches are celebrations of unreality. Unlived truths are paraded routinely before us. It is making our us and our nation hard to true repentance.

As we continue to treat revival as a mass repentance to run faster and jump higher, as if somehow the aggregate sin in the church is going to be addressed without [u]first addressing the aggregate false heart[/u], we are actually delaying the real abasement that must occur.

These things do not describe carnal Christians...they describe carnal men practicing Christianity and failing.

You are dead on MC.

I am coming very much to the same conclusions that you are describing in part.... That it isn't the false doctrine that is the bane of this hour, it's the faking, fronting, pretending, the ...

... Edwards laments the sorry state of men’s' false hearts

...and the blackness thereof. The frightening aspect is that it is still far too easy to be careless and forget that even the regenerate still have a memory, a resevior of past haunts and sins ... Ah, don't want to get off on a different tangent here.

Will carry your bottom line over again;

Why expect change in behavior without a change in nature first?

'in which Christians repent of their sins...' struck me as an oxymoron - not that Christians should not repent of their sins - but can a person who is abiding in sin all the time, really call her or himself a Christian?

Dear Dorcas,

When Isaiah is called as a prophet he exclaims;
"Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of Hosts."

Isaiah being called to be the prophet of God confesses his own sinfulness and then also personalizes the sin of the nation of Israel as his own.

The angel that brought the live coal to Isaiah didn't seem to think it oxymoronic when he touched the coal to Isaiah's lips and said;
"Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your [b]sin purged[/b]."

Kind Regards,

Derek

I’m not sure if the following is word for word of what Charles Finney wrote about revival because I heard this in a paragraph form previously. This gets into some of what you have been discussing.

.................................................

WHAT IS REVIVAL?

By Charles Finney

It presupposes that the church is sunk down in a backslidden state, and a revival consists in the return of the Church from her backslidings and the conversion of sinners.

1. The foundations of sin need to be broken up. A revival always includes conviction of sin on the part of the church. Backslidden professors cannot wake up and begin right away in the service of God without deep searchings of heart. The fountains of sin need to be broken up. In a true revival, Christians are always brought under such conviction; they see their sins in such a light that often they find it impossible to maintain a hope of their acceptance with God. It does not always go to that extent, but there are always, in a genuine revival, deep convictions of sin, and often cases of abandoning all hope.

2. Revival is a new beginning of obedience with God. Just as in the case of a converted sinner, the first step is a deep repentance, a breaking down of heart, a getting down into the dust before God, with humility, and a forsaking of sin.

3. Backslidden Christians will be brought to repentance. A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God. Just as in the case of a converted sinner, the first step is a deep repentance, a breaking down of heart, a getting down into the dust before God, with deep humility, and a forsaking of sin.

3. Christians will have their faith renewed. While they are in their Backslidden state they are blind to the state of sinners. Their hearts are hard as marble. The truths of the Bible appear like a dream. They admit it to be all true; their conscience and their judgment assent to it; but their faith does not see it standing out in bold relief, in all the burning realities of eternity. But when they enter into a revival, they no longer see "men as trees, walking," but they see things in that strong light which will renew the love of God in their hearts. This will lead them to labor zealously to bring others to Him. They will feel grieved that others do not love God, when they love Him so much. And they will set themselves feelingly to persuade their neighbors to give Him their hearts. So their love to men will be renewed. They will be filled with a tender and burning love for souls. They will have a longing desire for the salvation of the whole world. They will be in an agony for individuals whom they want to have saved--their friends, relations, enemies. They will not only be urging them to give their hearts to God, but they will carry them to God in the arms of faith, and with strong crying and tears beseech God to have mercy on them, and save their souls from endless burnings.

4. A revival breaks the power of the world and of sin over Christians. It brings them to such vantage ground that they get a fresh impulse towards heaven; they have a new foretaste of heaven, and new desires after union with God; thus the charm of the world is broken, and the power of sin overcome.

5. When the Churches are thus awakened and reformed, the reformation and salvation of sinners will follow. Their hearts will be broken down and changed. Very often the most abandoned profligates are among the subjects. Harlots, and drunkards, and infidels, and all sorts of abandoned characters, are awakened and converted. The worst of human beings are softened and reclaimed, and made to appear as lovely specimens of the beauty of holiness.

6. When a revival can be expected? A revival may be expected when Christians have a spirit of prayer for a revival. That is, when they pray as if their hearts were set upon it. When Christians have the spirit of prayer for a revival. When they go about groaning out their hearts desire. When they have real travail of soul.
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Notice #5 and #6

'in which Christians repent of their sins...'

Dear Dorcas,

Help me out. Are you saying that Christians have no sins to repent of? I'm just trying to understand your comment, though we might be digressing from the original topic a bit.

Kind Regards,

Derek