Revival is a word I hear tossed around a lot these days. How would you define it? Is revival a biblically madandated thing, or is it the same thing as the Lord returning? Do we pray for these things seperatly?Hope that makes sense. Eagerly anticipating your responses.
The word revive, revived and reviving appear in the King James version but the same Hebrew word translated such is also used in other ways which help give clues to the "biblical" definition of revival. Such as to live, keep alive, give life, nourish up, preserve, quicken, recover, repair, restore to life. In my mind the thought of revival is to seek the Lord for a "fresh" moving of the Spirit to quicken or make alive what has become "dead". This is how I see the vast majority of Christendom in the west as dead. We are like Ezekiel's dead mens bones. The only thing that can change these dead bones is God himself. He asked Ezekiel the question "Son of man, can these bones live?" and Ezekiel answers Him and says "O Lord God, Thou knowest.". The Lord God can make the dead bones live but he used the agency of the prophet to speak to them. Of course this is a type and picture of Israel but the Church parrallels Israel's history in so many ways that I believe that application can be made of these scriptures to the present day Church. The dead bones CAN live again! God does want to revive His people. The return of Christ will be glorious but revival does not need to wait until then. A promise was given to Israel which we can also lay hold of because God does not change and the desire God had for Israel is even greater for the Church. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says " And My people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land". This is the way of revival. The "land" has been spoiled by allowing worldly and carnal influences to dominate the things of the Lord. The way for the land to be healed is through repentance. It takes humilty and prayer. Those are the first two requirements. As we seek Christ's face things will be exposed that must be dealt with in our lives and then we need to turn from our wicked ways. That is repentance! Then God will hear our cries and will heal the land that has been spoiled by the enemy. A revival in the Church begins with individuals. Are you committed to seeing God move afresh and heal the land? Then you must humble yourself and pray, forsaking your wicked ways when they have been exposed to you. Seek Christ! He is the only answer. Don't look within but upward into His face then the things within will change and you will be conformed to His image!Kevin
Allow me to pick a starting point by using the words of Arthur Wallis in his “In the day of Thy Power”, published in 1956.There was never a day in which the term “revival” needed to be more carefully defined. It has come to be used in relation to spiritual things so widely and so loosely that many are perplexed to know what it does mean. To some prejudiced or misinformed people the term is synonymous with excessive emotionalism and mass hysteria. It is to be hoped that the following pages will be a sufficient answer to such a slander on the work of the Holy Spirit.Others use the word to describe a successful evangelistic mission. When they tell us that their church is “having a revival”, we understand them to mean that a gospel campaign is being conducted there. This use is possibly a relic of days when the Spirit was working widely, and one had only to arrange such a mission to witness a quickening amongst the believers and an ingathering of the lost. Today it is otherwise, but in any case to use the term thus is misleading. We cannot go to the Bible to see how the word “revival” is used, for it is not found there, although it contains many examples and types of revival, and unfolds all its principles. The nearest Scriptural equivalents are “revive” (or quicken), and “reviving”, but these may be applied to individual quickening, and are not always synonymous with what has come to be called, by common consent down the centuries, “religious revival”. It might be well if those who wish to describe what is simply a quickening work amongst believers would use those Scriptural expressions, “revive” and “reviving”, and distinguish them from “revival”, which includes and yet exceeds them. Revival is more than big meetings. It is more than religious excitement. It is more than the quickening of the saints, or their being filled with the Holy Spirit. It is more than a great ingathering of souls. One may have any one of these without revival, and yet revival includes them all. There is a wealth of difference between missions or campaigns at their best and genuine revival. In the former man takes the initiative, it may be with the prompting of the Spirit; in the latter the initiative is God’s. With the one the organization is human; with the other it is divine. There is no intention here of disparaging the work of missions, or of denying that God has owned them to the conversion of multitudes, but it must be made clear that they do not constitute revival. Missions may be a part of the continuous programme of evangelism which is the task of the church, but revival is a thing of special times and seasons. Revival may of course break out during a mission, but when it does so certain features will appear which are peculiar to revival, and certain features will disappear which are characteristic of missions. However, while revival tarries, the normal evangelism of the church must continue, but let us keep the distinction clear.Lars Widerberg(The first six chapters of Wallis text may be obtained on request – Intercessors.Network@telia.com)
More on defining revival:A revival breaks the power of the world and of sin over Christians, wrote Finney. It brings them to such a vantage ground that they get a fresh impulse toward Heaven; they have a new foretaste of Heaven, and new desires after union with God; and the charm of the world is broken, and the power of sin overcome.A revival is a voluntary and determined return to first things – John Drysdale.From “And with fire” by Arthur Skewington WoodLars W.
"Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; and let them bring forth salvation" (Isa.45.8) - It must be remembered that the Israelites did not get the victory over their enemies until after they had a revival among themselves. It is a great mistake to think that "revivals" only take place among the ungodly; for "revival" in the "outer circles" depends greatly upon the spiritual temperature of the "inner circles" of the Church. (I Sam. 7.4-10). Quoting Jonathan Edwards on Revival:***The five revival characteristics which are to be used to verify a true revival; namely, the exaltation of Jesus Christ, the overcoming of Satan's kingdom, a love of the Scriptures, people are convinced of the truth of the Gospel and there is an evident and expressed love to God and man.*** (Jer 3.22) "Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.
I may not be able to give a good defintion of revival, all I know is that I am currently in a personal revival.My time with God is sweet and almost unceasing. I have a renewed hunger for God and the things of God. I have a new desire for wittnessing and reaching the lost (I currently have tracts on order from Ray Comfort). Song and hyms can't help but flow from my lips. They things of this world have lost their hold on me. I have little or no desire for entertainment as the world knows it (I have probably not watched 5 hours of t.v. in the the past three months). My wife and myself are looking for ways to simplify our life so we can give more to missions and needs around us. I find the conversation and subject of this world dull (This often leaves me with few to converse with. I try to be friendly but I cannot find much to talk about unless the other person is in love with Jesus. I have learned to seak out such people.).More of Jesus, more of Jesus, what else matters??? Oh God revive your people. Let them find the true joy and fulfillment that a deep relationship with you brings. God let revival begin in your people and then it can't help but spill over into the world. Please give me an outlet to share what you are doing in me so that I will not burst. God, may I always be eternaly minded. Let us all be about your business.I hope this does not appear proud or puffed up.Thanks for providing a little bit of an outlet.I feel a little better.In love with Jesus,PJP.S. This web page has played a roll in stirring up my spirit once again. Thank You!
Well Praise be to God PJ!I hope this does not appear proud or puffed up.Not at all, if anything it is encouraging. What a testimony!My wife and myself are looking for ways to simplify our life so we can give more to missions and needs around us.It is my prayer that you and your wife will continue on in this spirit, I also hope that my wife and I can come to this unified mind set.I find the conversation and subject of this world dull (This often leaves me with few to converse with. I try to be friendly but I cannot find much to talk about unless the other person is in love with Jesus.I have learned to seak out such people.).Amen!PJ, I can't say that I am in this same state of spirit right now, it appears to be a time of transition more than anything. But I do long to be in that place. I don't think my hunger has ever waned, my desire to know Him is all encompassing. This site has also been a tremendous blessing to me in so many ways, the forums with all their insight (we have some pretty knowledgeable people contributing wouldn't you say?!), the sermons that just are some of the best I have ever heard and have helped me grow, strech my thinking and compel me onward and the overall encouragement of so many here. Recently, Todd was a great help (though he probably doesn't even know it yet) in getting my focus turned around and one of those adjustments was back towards missions, it has prompted me to go back and read KP Yohannan's book "Revolution in World Missions" also listened to KP's "GFA message" which I would recommened to everyone here to listen to; KP Yohannan More of Jesus, more of Jesus, what else matters??? Nothing!It really is all about Him.Thanks PJ for sharing your heart with us all, may you continue to do so, you have lifted my spirit!P.S. Ktrek, lwpray, and rooster; Too many quotes to choose from, great stuff!_/crsschk\\_
I like DeVern Fromke's thoughts on revival;"...and we read of the darkest hour in Israel's history during the period of the Judges. They cried out to the Lord, and with each new judge that He raised up there was a bit of revival, but I believe that this would teach us that mere reviving is not the real answer. God must awaken His people to be alive to His larger purpose, not merely awakenings and revivings for themselves."In Christ,Ron
Ravenhill reminded us about a woman who listened to George Whitefield and asked why he wept.He said, ‘I weep because you don’t weep’, ‘ My heart breaks for that heart of yours that don’t break.’This attitude of Mr. Whitefield will bring any of us, if we lay hold of it, to the edge, to a breakthrough in the heavenly realm which will teach us what true revival is.Blessings,Lars W.Listen to True Revival by Leonard Ravenhill
From "In the day of Thy Power" by Arthur Wallis.“Awake, awake. . . put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city.” The church asleep is not only denuded of power but also of holiness. Only when the people of God are awakened are they clothed with the beautiful garments of practical righteousness. Is there not a need of holiness today? Is there not a downward tendency on the part of individual believers seen in lukewarmness toward the Lord, compromise with the world, and complacency as to themselves? Then there is an undoubted need of an awakening. Holiness is not optional but obligatory. God demands it. Without it no man shall see the Lord (Matt. 5:8; Heb. 12:14). But revival is a time when God comes and rains righteousness upon us (Hos. 10:12). If there is no revival of righteousness, there is no revival at all. It is characteristic of revivals that they have been seasons when sins that have long hindered blessing are exposed, confessed, and forgiven. Relationships, wrecked by pride, envy, and evil-speaking are wonderfully restored when the hearts of the saints melt in the fires of revival. As Jonathan Edwards wrote of the 18th-century New England Awakening, “Abundance has been lately done at making up differences, and confessing faults one to an-other, and making restitution; probably more within these two years, than was done in thirty years before.”It is at such times that Zion awakes and puts on her beautiful garments, displaying to a wondering world “the excellencies of Him Who called [her] out of darkness into His marvellous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). Revival issues in an awakened church clothed with the power and holiness of her risen Head. The church dormant becomes the church militant. Rich blessings,Lars W.
From "In the day of Thy Power" by Arthur Wallis.Here is another awesome quote from that book:What is Revival?"It is God revealing Himself to man in awful holiness and irrestible pwer. It is such a manifest working of God that human personalities are overshadowed, and himan programmes abandoned. It is man retiring into the background because God has taken the field. It is the Lord making bare His holy arm, and working in extraordinary power on saint and sinner.
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