Featured What About Revival?

I am currently reading an amazing book, Henan by Paul Hattaway. It is the history of work for Christ in the province of Henan from the 19th century until today. Tremendous revivals are chronicled, right through tragic times of persecution such as the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 and the terrible time of the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in revival, missions, and China.

I believe in both personal and corporate revival. Walking with Christ every day, keeping prayed up, confessing sins to the Lord right away, witnessing for Christ, this is personal revival.

What is corporate revival, and how does it occur? Surely no one here would deny the necessity of it! Charles Spurgeon wrote: “When a man says, ‘Oh! Yes we are getting on very well, we do not want revival that I know of,’ I fear me he is not low enough to be blessed; and when you and I pray to God with pride in us, with self-exaltation, with a confidence in our own zeal, or even in the prevalence of our own prayer of themselves, we have not come low enough to be blessed. An humble Church will be a blessed Church; a Church that is willing to confess its own errors and failures, and to lie at the foot of Christ’s cross, is in a position to be favoured of the Lord. I hope we are agreed, then, with God, as to our utter unworthiness and helplessness, so that we look to him alone.”
C. H. Spurgeon, Revival. Pensacola: Mt. Zion Publications, p. 9, n.d.

 

Here is a definition of revival by a leading revivalist of the 20th century, which I agree with:

“So when I say that revivals like that at Pentecost may be had today I am not discussing outward physical manifestations. I am discussing the reviving of God’s people, the coming of floodtides of God’s power upon the saints, enduing them for soul winning. I am discussing the arousing of sinners when they are convicted of their sins, when they are compelled to repent and seek God, and when great numbers of hardened sinners are saved and their lives transformed. And these latter gracious results are possible today in great revivals."
John R. Rice, The Evangelist (Murfreesboro: Sword of the Lord, 1968), 11. For Rice's complete theology of revival, see Chapter 17 in John R. Rice, the Last Revivalist of the 20th Century, by John R. Himes.

The one place I would rewrite is that the souls saved are the result of the revival of God's people. Revival happens to God's people, who then get busy doing what they are supposed to do: obeying the Great Commission and thus seeing souls saved and local churches planted.

 

Rice, following D. L. Moody, called the events at Pentecost a "specimen revival," which can be duplicated. The 11 got right with God, repenting of their cowardice and fear at the time of the resurrection, then spent substantial time in corporate prayer in the Upper Room (Acts 1:14). At that time they sought the will of God in the selection of Matthias to replace Judas. After that, through the Holy Spirit's power, 3000 people were saved in Acts 2! That was truly a mighty revival!

So for revival nowadays, the steps are the same:

1. Believers repenting of all known sin and forgiving those who have sinned against them. Oftentimes this includes asking those we've wronged for forgiveness, as has happened in many historical revivals, such as those I've been reading about in Henan, China.
2. Complete surrender to God's will.
3. Banding together in corporate prayer for revival.
4. Making an honest effort to reach the lost with the Gospel under the power of the Holy Spirit.

These steps, except the last one because the Great Commission was not yet given, can be seen in general in the famous verse on revival in the OT: If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14).

 

Here is an example from Rice's ministry of what I've been saying in this thread.

"The 'Buffalo for Christ' citywide campaign of the same year [1944] had a rough start, however. There were 92 churches and organizations supporting the meetings, but Rice found in a preachers’ meeting that there were cliques and disagreements among the supporting pastors. In a preparatory meeting, they were arguing about minor matters instead of praying. Rice wrote, 'They were angry with each other, and they didn’t get along. And I heard two of the men of the largest fundamental, sound churches—one Presbyterian and one Baptist—argue and sneer at each other and criticize each other publicly in the preacher’s meeting.' Some even suggested that the laymen wanted a revival, but not necessarily the pastors. Greatly burdened, Rice turned to the pastors and rebuked them, saying, 'Why not have a night of prayer and get right with each other? How are we going to have a revival when you preachers are fussing and are indignant and unconcerned about it?'

"For the rest of that meeting, many of the pastors discussed the issue, with notes passed back and forth. Finally, they agreed to have a night of prayer, and for the next three Wednesday nights about 300 people prayed all night. There were no breaks, there were no refreshments, just God’s people on their faces before Him, asking for a revival. God sent a result of 997 professions of faith, with 300 of them being unchurched people. Many backslidden Christians repented and made things right with the Lord."
John R. Himes, John R. Rice, The Last Revivalist of the 20th Century (Menomonee Falls, WI: Christ Walk Publications, 2022), pp. 21-22.

 

I agree. Our churches are weak and need to repent and pray. One sign of this is how many churches have dropped their Wednesday or Thursday night prayer meeting. Revival does not and cannot come without prayer--regular and extended corporate and individual prayer.

Sometimes revival starts with just one person's personal revival, such as in the Welsh Revival of 1904-1905, which is said to have started with the declaration of young Florrie Jenkins, who stood and said, "I love the Lord Jesus with all my heart." Here's an essay on that: https://www.churchmodel.org.uk/Back04.pdf.

 

Presbyterian Missionary-Revivalist Jonathan Goforth wrote an incredible book about revival in China in the first years of the 20th century. Here's just one account concerning revival in Shansi Province in 1908, just eight years after the infamous Boxer Rebellion:

“It was wonderful how mightily the Spirit of God worked in the Church of Taiyuan during those days. So marked was His presence, indeed, that it was suite a common thing to overhear people in the city telling each other that a ‘new Jesus’ had come. Their reason for saying this was that for years many of the professing Christians had been cheating their neighbours and quarrelling with them. Some, indeed, had gone so far as to revile their parents and beat their wives. It seemed that the other Jesus was too old or had lost His power to keep them in order. But this ‘new Jesus,’ it appeared, was dong wonderful things. He was making all those old backsliders get up before the whole Church and confess their sins, and afterwards go right back to their heathen neighbours and pay back anything that they owed, and beg the forgiveness of all whom they have wronged. But what was the greatest surprise of all was that they should even go do far as to abase themseles before their wives, asking their pardon for the way in which they had mistreated them. In this way a Revival served to carry conviction to the great mass of people outside the Church, that the Living God had come among His people.”
Jonathan Goforth, By My Spirit (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, Inc., 1942), p. 49.

What is incredible about the revivals in China is that, based on Confucianism, it is an honor-shame culture. In that kind of society, to publicly confess sin and make things right is a huge loss of face. Having preached in a similar Confucian culture for 33 years, this alone convinces me that these Chinese revivals were true revivals. They were and are not what some call "wild fire," like the infamous "Toronto Blessing" and its silliness, such as the "Drunk in the Spirit Conference."

 

What I should have done early in this thread is define the lexical meaning of the Bible word "revival." The best source for that is a book by an old friend of mine who is a revival historian. He defines revival in its ordinary meaning as restoring life, so in the Bible it is bringing God's people back to their normal life.

"Reviving somebody does not mean giving him extraordinary physical powers. It does not mean invigorating him beyond the normal. It just means bringing him back to the way he whould be. This is also what 'revival' means in the Scriptures when applied to the spiritual life of God's people."
Rick Flanders, Back to Normal (Menomonee Falls, WI: Preach the Word Ministries, Inc. 2003), p. 8.

Flanders then turns to Psalm 85, which he calls the revival Psalm. V. 6 says, "Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?" He then writes, "In this context is the prayer that asks God to 'revive us again,' which employs the usual Hebrew term chayah for quickening and restoration. It means to 'bring us back to the spiritual state that should be normal for your people'" (Ibid.).

The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew lexicon has for that word, "to live, have life, remain alive, sustain life, live prosperously, live for ever, be quickened, be alive, be restored to life or health" (Accessed through e-sword software).

In other words, reviving is what in modern times an EMT or someone trained in first aid does when he or she uses a defibrillator on someone who is having a heart episode. You place the electrodes on the proper places of the person's body, clear everyone from touching the person to avoid shocking someone who doesn't need it. You then hit the button, and bring the person back from dying of a heart attack.

This reminds me of the excellent little book by Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life. Our normal life as Christians should be daily prayer and Bible reading first thing in the day, prayer and meditation throughout the day, the fullness of the Spirit to witness, faithfulness to your local church, and a regular practice of going after sinners. In other words, the normal life of a believer in Christ is to walk in the Spirit, walk with Christ Himself. "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light" (Ephesians 5:8).

If you are not living like this, you need revival!

 

"The blessed Holy Spirit could write the life of Elijah in two words: 'He prayed.' No man can do more than that for God or for men. If the Church today had as many agonizers as she has advisers, we would have a revival in a year!"
Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, Inc., 1959), p. 38.

 

There are two positions about revival that I reject. The first one is that revival is not possible any more because we are in the end times. I'll deal with the second later.

This view is usually based on the belief that we in the Laodicean age, an age of apostasy. I completely reject this.

In 1972, famous evangelist John R. Rice notified educator Bob Jones, Jr., that he would no longer preach at Bob Jones U. One reason of the four Rice gave was because Jones believed that revival was no longer possible. You can read the whole story in my book: John R. Rice: The Last Revivalist of the Twentieth Century | On to Victory Press

 

“Dr. Hyman Appelman, Jewish evangelist, tells how in San Angelo, Texas, in a hotel room he, as a state evangelist under the employ of the Baptist State Convention, discussed revivals with his superior. That godly man tried to comfort Dr. Appelman, saying that he must not expect such great revivals as had occurred in other ages since now people were distracted by radio, by automobiles and other luxuries, by a pleasure-madness, by leisure time and by widespread wickedness. Dr. Appelman should go on and do the best he could but not hope for a return of the revivals of D. L. Moody, said the good man.

“Dr. Appelman tells how he bowed his head upon the bed and wept uncontrollably. Then he told his distressed superior that if the Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit were not adequate for this wicked age and well as all other ages, then the gospel was truly out-of-date and Christ was not all He had claimed to be.”

John R. Rice, We Can Have Revival Now (Wheaton: Sword of the Lord, 1950), 117.

 

Another mistaken view about revival is that there must be a certain set of circumstances for revival to occur. If the people in the pew are cold and backslidden, if the church is somewhat liberal, if worldliness is preached from the pulpit, revival can still come if someone in the church is following 2 Chronicles 7:14.

John R. Rice addresses this view: "If cold, modernistic churches, if unbelief in pulpit and pew in these modern days could prevent revival, they would have prevented all the great revivals since New Testament times! In all Bible ages, Christ has not failed, but the church ha. Christianity has not failed, but preachers, teachers and other Christians have."
John R. Rice, Revival Can Happen Now. Murfreesboro, TN: Sword, 2003, p. 19.

"Those who imagine that revivals are simply the product of certain happy circumstances are foolish. They ignore the teaching of the Word of God and the facts back of all great revivals. When the D. L. Moody revival came to America and England, the moral and spiritual conditions were tremendously bad, even in many ways worse than conditions today. Conditions did not deter the power of God then and cannot prevent His blessing now, if His people pay the price for revival. God must feel it as an insult to His power and grace that people think revivals can only be had in propitious circumstances!" (Ibid., p. 26).

 

That is sad. Corporate prayer is vital for a healthy church.

 

Here's just a word on how to do corporate prayer.
1. If it is new to the church, the pastor can explain.
2. The prayer time must be guided by the Holy Spirit. Believers should pray only when the Spirit leads them.
2. No one should be forced to pray, as happens with "Let's pray around the circle," wherein people get embarrassed.
3. Pauses are perfectly okay. If no one prays for a couple of minutes, that is not a problem.
4. Occasionally someone may feel led by the Lord to start singing a hymn or chorus. God can speak to hearts through that, and it can be a real blessing to unite hearts in praise.
5. Testimony and prayer are separate events. No one should give their testimony through a prayer, but if someone wants to just say, "I have a testimony," then go for it!
6. If there is a declared topic for the prayer meeting (waiting for revival, buying property, an upcoming event, etc.), the believers should try not to stray too far from it.
7. If there is an appointed time, the leader may close in a final prayer and then dismiss folk. However, if the Holy Spirit is at work, the prayer time may continue as God continues to work.

Our church has regular times of corporate prayer. There is, of course, a prayer meeting every Wednesday evening. There is a men's prayer meeting once a month, a revival prayer meeting every Saturday evening, and a few times a year there is a time of corporate prayer and fasting for the whole church, announced ahead of time, starting after the morning service. Of course, there is no coercion, and believers come and go freely.

 

No wonder America is in such moral trouble.

 

There is another position on how revivals develop. A revival historian calls it the "sovereign act" position. This is the belief that there cannot be "means" for revival (repentance, prayer), but God just sends revival when He wants to.

"To some, a revival of biblical Christianity comes as a surprise from Heaven, an unusual and unpredictable event sent as a sovereign act of God. Others hold the more hopeful view that God revives His people in response to their repentance and prayer."
Rick Flanders, Back to Normal: Understanding Revival. Menomonee Falls, WI: Preach the Word Ministries, 2003.

 

Going back to the view that revival is impossible because of the apostasy of the church, I meant to include another quote about that:

“God has not even intimated in the Scriptures that before Christ comes there would be a special period of time when men would be harder, when revivals would be impossible or more difficult. All that is the manufactured excuse of those who do not pay God’s price for revival and for soul winning. It is the subconscious rationalization of people who do not feel that God is able to meet this age, do not feel that the gospel is sufficient, do not feel that God’s power and God’s promises are sufficient. It is the excuse of those who are defeated, backslidden and unbelieving.”
John R. Rice, We Can Have Revival Now, p. 71.