What Is Revival?

What is revival? Revival is a restitution or a restoration to spiritual vigor. Revival is a reawakening of spiritual fervor. It is to revitalize the spiritual ardor of oneself, of a group of believers so as to reestablish the ability to win new members to Christ.

As Spurgeon said,

“Revival is to live again, to receive again a life which has almost expired, to rekindle into a flame the vital spark which was nearly extinguished” (https://archive.spurgeon.org/s_and_t/wir1866.php).

What a thought to know that someone who is spiritually alive needs reviving! The flame of life within their soul is dimming, like a candle, whose wax is slowly wanning. There are some Christians who are like this, they are barely alive. They have fallen, down into the mirey pits of sin, like falling into quicksand, slowly descending further into its depths. They have grown cold and indifferent. They have become like the world.

Did you know that you can only revive something that once was alive? If it has never been alive, it cannot be revived, it only be brought to life. So, what is it with this passage of Scripture that we are looking at? It is speaking to those who have become lukewarm Christians. They are no longer on fire for the Lord. They have become casual Christians, only showing a spiritual side when it benefits their worldly desires.

• Verses one through three points toward the mercy of God “Thou Hast.”

• Verses four through five tells us to remember, “Turn Us” of “Our Salvation.”

• Verses six is about restoration, “Revive Us Again.”

Psalm 85:6; 1 Chronicles 29:11.

Church Hymnal, page 370, Revive us again.

We praise the Thee, O God!

For the Son of Thy love,

For Jesus Who died,

And is now gone above.

Hallelujah! Thine the glory.

Hallelujah! Amen.

Hallelujah! Thine the glory.

Revive us again.

The psalmist was requesting that God resuscitate his people or bring them back to life. God is equipped and is very capable in restoring the two, the churches and the people. He can shower us with his affections, taking and bringing us back to where we should be, adoring and worshiping him. If we need restoration, if we need renewal, if we need revival in our congregation, in our family, or even in our individual spiritual life, we ought to seek out and request that God give us a new equipping of his love, grace, and mercy. How do we do this? This occurs through the continual usage of CPR – Christ Providing Rejuvenation, and by obtaining a regularly scheduled spiritual exam – which is much like a physical.

Psalm 139:23-24.

Church Hymnal, page 141, Search me.

Search me, O God, and know my heart today.

Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray.

See if there be some wicked way in me.

Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free.

We are to examine ourselves:

• Psalm 26:2, Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.

• Psalm 51:2, Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

• Psalm 51:12, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

• 1 Corinthians 11:28, But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

• 2 Corinthians 13:5, Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

• Acts 3:19, Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.

While a genuine restoration or revival has a place only with God's children, it carries with it a gift for the other sheep who are not yet in the fold. If you drop a stone into a lake the ring extends consistently, until the farthest corner of the lake feels the impact. When we allow the Lord to restore a believer, very soon his family, his companions, and his neighbors get a portion of that benefit; for when a Christian is resuscitated and revived, he prays more intensely for sinners. Yearning and a cherishing petition for sinners is one of the signs of a recovery in the reestablished heart.

Since salvation is requested for sinners, the gift comes from him who hears the supplications (prayers); and hence the kingdom increases by a revival. Before long, the revived Christian talks about Jesus and the Gospel; a great seed is planted, and the good seed is never lost, for he has said, “So shall my word be that goeth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). The good seed is that which is planted in the soil, and in the hearts. God readies the soil, with the goal that the seed rises for harvest. Subsequently by the witness of the believers, another entryway of mercy opens up to men.