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Our Need for Revival By Massimo Lorenzini
What do you think of when you think of revival? For some, the word conjures up images of Pentecostal tent meetings where people are being “slain in the Spirit” or for others they may think of emotional outbursts that bypass the mind and lasting repentance is absent. But there’s a genuinely biblical understanding of revival that is probably the greatest need of Christians both individually and corporately as the body of Christ. This need for revival is also closely connected with our need for doctrinal reformation. Sound theology always paves the way for sound living. Counterfeit revival is usually marked by a neglect of biblical doctrine. So what exactly is revival? Revival is when God grants extraordinary results to the ordinary means of grace such as preaching, prayer, worship, witnessing, etc. Here are some brief descriptions of revival from various Christian leaders. “An extraordinary movement of the Holy Spirit producing extraordinary results.” (Richard Owen Roberts) “God breaking in and upon and over His church like ocean waves upon the shoreline rocks.” (Jonathan Edwards) "Revival
is the Church falling in love with Jesus all over again." (Vance Havner) "Revival
is a community saturated with God." (Duncan Campbell) "A
revival means days of heaven upon earth." (D. Martyn
Lloyd-Jones) "Revival
is ultimately Christ Himself, seen, felt, heard, living, active, moving in and
through His Body on earth." (Stephen Olford) "Revival
is God purifying His church." (Erwin Lutzer) "Revival
is that strange and sovereign work of God in which He visits His own people,
restoring, re-animating, and releasing them into the fullness of His
blessings." (Robert Coleman) "Revival
is a sudden bestowment of a spirit of worship upon God's people." (A.W. Tozer) "A
true revival means nothing less than a revolution, casting out the spirit of
worldliness and selfishness, and making God and His love triumph in the heart
and life." (Andrew Murray) "Revival
is the reformation of the Church for action." (Max Warren) "Revival
is God revealing Himself to man in awful holiness and irresistible power. It is
God's method to counteract spiritual decline and to create spiritual momentum
in order that His redemptive purposes might be accomplished on earth"
(Arthur Wallis) “Revival comes to the church when we are thoroughly possessed with the hope held out in the gospel—and that hope is Christ Himself.” (David Bryant) “Revival is an extraordinary work of the Spirit that invades the church to reenergize us with God’s eternal purposes in Christ Jesus.” (David Bryant) Revival is “an approximation of the consummation.” The consummation refers to the Day of the Lord when He will vanquish His enemies, eradicate sin from the universe, and create a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Pet 3:13). Revival is a “flash” of the glory of God that will one day cover all the earth. It is a divine foretaste of His kingdom come. Hab 2:14, For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea (NKJV). Isa 65:17-19,
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be
remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;
For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, And her people a joy. I will
rejoice in Jerusalem, And joy in My people; The voice of weeping shall no
longer be heard in her, Nor the voice of crying” (NKJV). 2 Pet 3:13, Nevertheless we, according
to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness
dwells (NKJV). The Need for
Revival Revival is need when God’s people drift from intimate communion with the Lord. Isa 29:13, These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men (NIV). Five of the seven churches of the Revelation are called to repent by Christ Himself. A good example is the church of Laodicea: Rev 3:14-19, 14"To the
angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Cry for
Revival Revival begins when God prompts His people to tire of their distance from Him and call out for a special visitation of His Spirit to restore them to close fellowship with Him. Isa 64:1, Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! Ps 85:6, Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? The Promise of
Revival The Lord promises to send revival when His people seek Him for it. Hos 10:12, Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you (NIV). Isa 55:6-7, 6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD , and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon (NIV). 2 Chron 7:14,
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 (NKJV). Acts 3:19, Therefore repent and turn
back, that your sins may be wiped out so that seasons of refreshing may come
from the presence of the Lord (HCSB). The Process of
Revival There is a general process that God’s people go through leading to revival. 1. Brokenness—recognizing our need for God and grieving over the things we have done that He hates (Matt 5:3-4). Godly sorrow produces repentance (2 Cor 7:10). 2. Genuine repentance leads to forgiveness. Our confession of our sins results in a fresh new cleansing of our hearts (1 John 1:9). 3. Repentance and forgiveness lead to a new freedom (John 8:36). 4. The natural overflow of freedom is genuine worship (Ps 103:2-4). What are the Marks
of Revival? Various studies on great times of spiritual renewal reveal several common characteristics including the following: 1. There will be a hunger for the
knowledge of God as revealed in His written Word. God's Word will be exalted
and authoritative over man's experience. We will not be confused by equating
God's Word with man's experience. Our emotional experiences must always be
subordinate to and subject to the absolute truth of God's Word. 2. There will be an intense
conviction of sin, leading to repentance. When confronted with the holiness of
God, conviction of sin follows and repentance will be real. There will be a
forsaking of sinful habits and a walk in holiness with God. 3. Humility and brokenness will be
evident. God's glory becomes so intense that no personal price is too great to
pay. Humility and brokenness is the only way to encounter God's holiness. 4. There will be deliberate acts of
reconciliation and restitution. We will become like Zacchaeus
when he met Jesus. How completely the new birth was accomplished in Zacchaeus is testified by his vow to give half of his goods
to the poor, and to make fourfold restitution where he had wrongfully exacted.
No longer content to let "bygones be bygones" there will be a
God-given zeal to obtain and maintain a clear conscience. We will become a
people of integrity. No longer will we bring gifts of worship and service to
God's altar while harboring hurt, anger, and bitterness. 5. There will be a growing interest
and practice of personal and corporate prayer. Prayer precedes and sustains a
revival. When God is present He cannot be ignored. Do we hunger and thirst for
an intimacy with Jesus? Being in His
presence will be the delight of our life. 6. Joy will be untainted and pure.
God will take center stage and the Lord Jesus Christ will reign as the sole
object of our adoration and worship. 7. Evangelism will flourish. There will be renewed power and witness to the lost community. No longer will God's people be bound in fear of rejection, self-love, and indifference. God's people will find new freedom, desire, faith, and boldness to share Christ everywhere and with everyone. 8. Mass conversions will ensue with
much greater frequency than could ever be expected. The Revival of
1857 On the corner of Fulton and William Street was located a
Dutch Reformed Church in New York City. Things were not going well for the old
church. It was located in down town New York City, and people were moving out
to the suburbs and leaving the church. The neighborhood was becoming extremely
blighted and poverty stricken. It was getting dangerous to go there. A layman in the church, Jeremiah Landfear,
made his rounds walking up and down the streets of the inner city of New York.
As he passed businessmen on the street the marks of anxiety were written upon
the faces of these businessmen. This nation was standing on the brink of
economic disaster, and they knew it. A bubble of prosperity that had been
building was about ready to burst. They knew it. They were frightened at the
outcome. Landfear thought it would be a
good idea to give these men an opportunity to pray. He circulated very widely
in hundreds of offices publicity about a prayer meeting that would take place
on the first Wednesday of September at 12 o'clock on the third floor assembly
room in the North Dutch Reformed Church on Fulton Street. You did not have to stay the whole hour. You could come and pray and leave. You could
come and stay just five minutes, but come and pray. On that first Wednesday in September Landfear
was in the room alone. He prayed for
five, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, and twenty minutes alone. Would anybody
come? Twenty-five minutes his butterfly was turning to buzzards. Is anybody
coming? At 12:30 he heard footsteps on the stairs. And then another,
and another, and another and another. Finally, five men had joined him in
prayer. The meeting was such an encouragement that they agreed to meet the next
Wednesday. The next Wednesday 20 businessmen were there. It was such a
heartening thing to be together in prayer that they met again. The next
Wednesday thirty men were there. Then they agreed to meet everyday. On the
first day 100 men were there. Many of these men were not Christians. Many of them
were lost. In a matter of three months every room in that old North Dutch
Reformed church were crowded out with praying men. There was no room. The
auditorium, Sunday school rooms, basement, ever room and corner was filled with
men praying. Men on the outside were kneeling together praying because they
could not get inside the church. They agreed to open the John's Street Methodist Church just
around the corner. On the first day the John's Street Methodist Church was
opened for prayer it too was filled with men praying. Again, it was so full that men simply could
not get in. These enterprising businessmen agreed to open Burton's Theater in down town New York City for prayer at
noon. The first day it was opened one newspaper reporter said, "It was stuffed
from pit to dome. From the orchestra pit
to the third balcony." It so
happened that the Fire Marshal was there and he would not let others come in,
but hundreds of men were on the outside praying because they could not gain
entrance. There was no room. Within six months there were 150 prayer meetings like this
going on somewhere in New York City. Fifty thousand New Yorkers were gathered
for prayer. With that kind of praying blessings began to fall on New York City
in 1857. Twenty-five thousand businessmen had been converted. That
was a class of people who were thought to be almost unreachable. It was nothing
to see a hundred people come down the aisle of a church at invitation time
confessing their sin openly, and receiving Christ as their personal Savior.
Great streams of revival flowed out from New York City. Up the Hudson River at
Albany reported 1,200 conversions, Schednecty a like
number. Across the Mohawk and virtually every city of any size in the state of
New York experienced powerful revival.
It moved across Long Island. In Rockaway Beach, Long Island you could
not find one unconverted person. The revival moved into New England and quickly
there were 147 centers of revival. One pastor in New England said that in one month there were
over 1,000 people who had come to him to talk to him about their relationship
with God. Wouldn't you like to spend a month like that? When revival had swept through Simsbury, Conn. there was
only one lost adult left in the entire city. In the city of Newark it began in
First Baptist Church. The pastor was
Henry C. Fish who got a little group together for prayer on Wednesday
night. Just a half dozen, but soon the
half-dozen became twenty. On one
occasion he had such a burden for lost people that that he was totally
incapacitated from conducting the prayer meeting. He just sat in his chair and
groaned and sighed that he had such a deep burden for lost people. First
Baptist Church, Newark saw 300 conversions in a short period of time. Across to Philadelphia, down the Ohio, into the Deep South
to Texas and as far west as California revival fires were burning. God took
this nation and shook it in 1857. There seemed to be a zone of heavenly influence around the
East Coast of the United States. Ships coming in from the high seas would
report that just a few miles out at sea God got hold of the people on board the
ships and the whole crew and captains would be converted. Thirty captains of
vessels like this were converted. They did not know revival was going on in
this country. Just hitting the heavenly zone of heavenly influence and being
brought to God while they were yet away from the harbor. Within a year and a half well over a million people had been
brought to Christ. The population of the U.S. back then was 30 million. If we
had that kind of revival today in the next eighteen months it would mean the
conversion of between eight and nine million people. What I am describing is a mighty work of the Spirit of God.
It is when God takes hold of a nation and shakes it. What God did in 1857 He
can still do today. In fact, it is happening in many countries in our world. Join
me in prayer and repentance asking God to do it again. The promise has not
changed, and our God does not change. He desires that we have a change of heart
and turn to Him. The Key Text for
Revival 2 Chron 7:14, “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” (NKJV). We find in this key text on revival four conditions and three outcomes. What are they? Four conditions:
Three outcomes:
Revival is not optional. God will discipline His people who wander away from Him. Amos 4:6-12 describes conditions of cursing that precede revival: 6 "I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD. 7 "I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up. 8 People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD. 9 "Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, I struck them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD. 10 "I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD. 11 "I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD. 12 "Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel." Notice how many curses God sent to get the attention of His people. What was their response? Over and over again we hear the refrain repeated, “Yet you have not returned to Me” (vv. 6b; 8b; 9b; 10b; 11b). What Can We Do to
Prepare Ourselves for Revival? God is sovereign in bestowing revival upon His people. However, there are some things we can do to “set our sails” to catch the Spirit’s blowing should He bless us with His presence in revival. 1. Renew your commitment to pray. “You don’t organize a revival, you agonize for it in prayer.” (Greg Laurie) Have you ever prayed for revival? Have you ever been burdened for the spiritual condition of yourself, your church, your nation? Have you ever been so grieved by the sin you see that you fell to your knees pleading with God to send revival? 2. Resolve to practice ongoing repentance. “Revival is a renewed commitment and zeal to obey God.” (Greg Laurie) One of our greatest problems is that we are blind to our own faults. We need others to help us see our blind spots. Do you allow other Christians access to correct you? Have you told them that? Are you truly broken before God? Are you humble in your general attitude toward others? Do you see that the greatest problem hindering revival is the sin in your own heart and life? 3. Reform your beliefs. We need to reform our beliefs so that they conform to God’s Word. A genuine revival will never allow experience to take precedence over God’s Word. The Bible will always be central to any true work of God. Belief determines behavior. “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17, NKJV). 4. Recruit yourself for service and outreach. What kind of church would you have if everyone was as faithful as you? If everyone was as active in serving others as you? Christ represented you on the cross. Now He calls you to represent Him to this generation. “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20, NKJV). The great missionary to Africa,
David Livingston’s daily prayer was threefold. He prayed: ·
“Lord, send me
anywhere, only go with me.” ·
“Lay
any burden on me, only sustain me.” ·
“Sever
any tie, but the tie that binds me to Thyself.” Suggested Scriptures
to Read and Meditate on Regarding Revival
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