"Understanding Revival”

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.