Perhaps you’ve heard of the Asbury Revival in Wilmore, Kentucky. After chapel service on Wednesday February 8th, 2023, students didn’t want to leave. A spontaneous time of prayer, praise, confession of sin, exhortation and reading of Scripture has followed, twenty-four hours a day, that continued for over a week until the college rearranged the schedule. What are we to make of this? What does the Bible say about it?
Two terms that are often used together are “Revival” and “Spiritual Awakening.” Revival refers to believers recognizing afresh their need of God; while Spiritual Awakening refers to unbelievers recognizing for the first time their need of God. Understandably, revival precedes spiritual awakening. Believers must be right with God and live right before men before unbelievers will be moved to get right with God.
As American Christians, we do a lot of looking at the world around us and complaining to one another about how far away our culture has moved from God. But we need to understand that lost people behave like lost people because they know of no other way to live; but God has placed His children within this world to live in such a way as to let unbelievers know the difference Jesus can make in one’s life. But sometimes, that difference goes unseen by the world around us because believers get off track and are in need of a fresh touch from God to get us back on track. That’s where revival comes in.
“[Revival] only come when He sends it. He only sends it when His people need it. Surely we His people need it now.” - Richard Owen Roberts, International Awakening Ministries
Let’s look to the Psalmist’s request in Psalm 85:6 to discover some truths that will help us better understand revival. (READ TEXT)
1. The Need of Revival - “Again”
Revival is something that we will always be in need of. No matter how mature we are in the faith, no matter how victorious a Christian life we lead, we will never get to the place where we do not need a fresh touch from God. This is what revival is all about. It is not just a time to reach the lost and restore the wayward, but it is a time to refresh the faithful.
There is a key question that needs to be uppermost in our minds as the people of God, and that question is “What does God want?” Too often, though, when it comes to how we go about things in the church, we come with an attitude that says, “Here’s what I want.” We think that everything would be alright if things were done the way we want. But such an attitude prevents God from moving among us.
A little boy attended church with his family one Sunday morning. His parents, who often complained about the song selection and the pastor’s sermon, on this Sunday, spoke of how everything went to their liking. That night, as the little boy said his prayers with his parents before bedtime, he prayed, “Dear God. We had a great time at church today. The songs were great, the sermon was great, everything was great. Oh, God, You should have been there!”
Sadly, the activity of too many of our churches can be described in terms of “good” but not in terms of “God.” When our focus is on ourselves and what we want, instead of God and what He wants, then we can find our churches doing things than can be explained in terms of what we can do, rather than in terms of what God can do.
And this is easy for us to slip into this state of sanctified satisfaction with the status quo. That why we must realize that revival is something that we will always be in need of.
“When church dinners are better attended than prayer meetings; when we have little or no desire for prayer; when we would rather make money than give money; when our Christianity is joyless and passionless; when we have truth in our heads but do not practice it in our lives; when we make little effort to witness to the lost; when church services are predictable and “business as usual”; when our singing is half-hearted and our worship lifeless; when our prayers lack fervency; when we’re content to live explainable, ordinary Christianity; when the lost world around us doesn’t know or care that we exist; when we make little or no difference in the world around us; when we do not love Him as we once did; we need revival.” - Nancy Leigh DeMoss
2. The Source of Revival - “You”
Who is the “you” the Psalmist addressing? It is none other than God, Himself. There is only one source of revival, and that is God.
Richard Owen Roberts once said that he could describe revival in one word: GOD.
“(Revival) is God manifesting Himself; God revealed and responded to; God in His rightful place again in the hearts of His people.” - Richard Owen Roberts, International Awakening Ministries
3. The Subjects of Revival - “Us”
Where does revival take place? It takes place in the hearts of God’s people. Therefore, if revival is going to take place among us, I must be primarily concerned with revival taking place in me.
One of my favorite subjects in years past has been the story of the great revival that took place in the country of Wales at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Welsh Revival was a mighty movement of God that not only resulted in restoring backslidden believers & refreshing faithful believers, but over 100,000 unbelievers confessed Christ as their Savior within the first six months of this movement of God.
This movement of God spread from Wales to impact Ireland and Scotland, England, Scandinavia, and the European continent; and eventually the United States. This was due, in part, to the role the news media played in reporting on the events associated with God moving among the Welsh Christians.
One story is told of a reporter arriving in community in Wales and asking a policeman if he could direct him to “the revival.” “Could you tell me where the revival is?” the reporter asked. As he pointed to his heart, the officer said, “Ah, the revival is here!”
That is where the revival we need must start: in your heart and in my heart. Once it has come to my heart, then it can spread to others.
4. The Secret of Revival - “Will”
“You have not because you ask not.” - James 4:2 (KJV)
If we are going to experience real revival, we must ask God for it.
“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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” - 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)
“Revival is not worked up, it is prayed down.” - Jack Taylor
“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” - Jeremiah 33:3 (NKJV)
“The person who thinks he knows all there is to know about God just shows that he doesn’t know all there is to know about God.” - Pastor Gerald Tidwell
“We cannot organize revival, but we can set our sails to catch the wind from Heaven when God chooses to blow upon His people once again.” - G. Campbell Morgan
How do we set our sails to capture the winds of revival? We pray.
5. The Result of Revival - “That your people may rejoice in you”
Historians have noted that associated with great revival movements of the past has always been a renewed desire to worship and praise God.
With revival comes “an uncommon sense of the nearness of God with joy in the Holy Spirit, and abounding thanksgiving and praise.” - Charles Spurgeon
Real revival is Christ-focused, Christ-centered, Christ-exalting, Christ-honoring, Christ-worshipping, and Christ-proclaiming.
Revival is a time when God’s people return to the simplicity of their first love. We gain a fresh awareness of how Jesus is to be Lord of our lives and put Him back at the center of our lives.
Our problem is that we see ourselves at the center of things, with God on the periphery. We think of God in terms of what He can do for us to make us happier or to answer our prayers or to give us good feelings. A Christian should be aware that the God of the universe is at the core of all things, the absolute center, and we are created by Him to glorify Him. It is only as we turn everything on its head, turning them upside-down, surrendering to
Christ-centered living as opposed to self-centered living, that everything will fall into place. It only as we center our lives around Jesus, that our lives can be turned right side up; and that is revival!
Conclusion:
“The LORD has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God.” - Isaiah 52:10 (NASB)
Student of revival history, Bill Elliff, says that most of us don’t understand that the reviving of His people for His redemptive purposes is one of the regular ways of God. The cycle of revival that seems as consistent as the rising of the sun. First, there is our Wandering and His judgments; next, our cry and His reviving; then the church is revived and awakening begins.
If you study this work of God, both in the Bible and in church history, you can see its regularity. “The LORD has bared His holy arm” in American history approximately every 40–60 years. The First Great Awakening: 1735;The Second Great Awakening: 1800; The Third Great Awakening (The Prayer Revival): 1857; The Welsh Revival (worldwide in scope): 1904; The Jesus Movement: 1970. Now, Asbury Revival: 2023?
“Do you really want to see a revival begin? Then go to your home and draw a circle around you on the floor. Then get down on your knees in the middle of the circle and ask God to bring revival within that circle. When you do that, and God answers, you will experience the start of revival.” - British Evangelist Gipsy Smith
