There is a word in the Christian world that isn’t in the Bible and yet resonates with many. We all want revival, yet what do we mean? I have encountered a few different approaches to this subject.

 

One, which surprised me at the time, was a view that revival isn’t that exciting, we just need to get on with what we are supposed to do. What is revival really other than Christians witnessing and praying and doing discipleship? This seems to exist among a younger generation of Christians and leaders with not much background in revival literature and the hopes of a great outpouring from the 1970’s through the 1990’s.

 

Second is a disappointed view; ‘don’t talk to me about it, I got my hope up in the 90’s on the back of some prophecies and nothing happened!’. I have been there, and I got rather sick of the ‘revival is just around the corner’ hype that kept coming from some movements I was connected to. You can only go on so long believing it’s ‘coming soon’.

 

Some have a more American view. The term in the States is often used of any evangelistic campaign or season of stirring spiritual activity, no matter how short. If something is happening it’s a ‘revival meeting’.

 

Finally there is the more traditional British and reformed view which tends to look back at past revivals. These by and large were characterised by prolonged seasons where multitudes got convicted of sin and came to faith. Wesley and Whitfield are quoted together with the South Wales revival of the early 1900’s and many others.

 

 

The view that developed in the mid 19^th Century that the church would be rescued out of the darkness that pervaded, lifted up a strong expectation of the imminent return of Christ but left it unnecessary to restore or revive the church. This pessimistic view pervaded much of the thinking of the church right to the 1970’s. It was a betrayal of what had been known as the ‘Puritan Hope’ (See the book of the same name) that had fuelled the thirst and expectation for revival in previous centuries. This held out a hope of a revived glorious church, not a week ineffective one; a hope of an ingathering of many souls, not a resignation to the loss of many to hell. There is no space to develop that more here; sufficient to say I am committed to the view of the glorious bride that Jesus will return for, a church triumphant, not a basket case. This stirs a great thirst for more of God, for better ways than we have known before, for ways to build and relate that give the church sustained momentum and relational peace and joy together. This stirs us to believe for greater miracles and greater impact on our community.

 

 

Different to what has come before.

I think we can already see some evidences of it. There is a widespread rise in divine healing. I think we are seeing the restoration of the experiential to the church so that unbelievers can genuinely ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’. This means lots of believers tasting this first and carrying it out into their world. I think we are going to see a revival more like the early chapters of Acts where in many cases -the crippled man at the gate beautiful for instance- signs preceded the preaching of the word, as they often did with Jesus. Massive demonstrations of God’s goodness and power will generate great interest in the powerful message, they will cause people to quickly reassess their perspectives and ask questions they never asked before. In a land bereft of Bible knowledge, with an atheistic approach to life and an absence of any knowledge of absolutes regarding right and wrong, a miracle demonstration is a great way to bring conviction of sin. Think about Peter after the massive catch of fish, it caused him to realise his sin. (Luke 5). It defies human logic that massive blessing (this boat sinking catch would have been a lucrative day’s work) can bring awareness of sin. The church is being recommissioned to go bless the nations more than they can handle in order to bring in a great harvest of souls.