What Does Revival Look Like?
By Chuck Fisher
On the Acts-Celerate message board, someone asked "What does revival look like?" I answered with the following posting:
That is an inadequate question, just asking about the superficial, appearances. The proper question should be, what is revival? Is revival excitement and blessings? Is revival 'getting your whoop-de-doos' down at the altar? If you look at what we Pentecostals call revival, that would seem to be an answer. "We had a great revival, God really poured out His Spirit at the altar," we say, when there has been great display of 'power manifestations.'
That is not revival. (Yeah, I know, "You heretic, you!") Revival begins with a burden for the Word of the Lord and a sorrow for sins. Remember Josiah, boy king of Judah at age 8? It wasn't until he was 26 that revival came to Judah. The priests brought to him a copy of the Word of God that they found while doing repairs to the Temple.
Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king's attendant: "Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the LORD's anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us." (2 Kin. 22:10-13)
Revival broke out when the Word of God was recovered and sorrow for sins was palpable, and repentance was manifested. This is the pattern that God Himself told us, in the classic verse we like to use to promote revival, but seem not to obey: "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 Chr. 7:14) We like to quote the verse, we like to have meetings, we will even confess our 'national' sins, but never feel sorrow, sin-exposing sorrow that causes us to truly deal with our sins and seek God to change us.
Today, we hear about power, 'Holy Ghost' power. We don't hear about holiness. Revival comes when sorrow for sins strikes and we see ourselves as we truly are, sinful and needy, lacking holiness. Revivals in the past have had this as their beginning point. Finney tells of one great revival that began when a blacksmith was broken-hearted over the sin and carelessness of the young people in his town, and one work-day, became so burdened that he closed his smithy for the day and just wept and prayed before God. Late in the day, he went to the minister and asked if a meeting could be held. The minister didn't think anything would come of it, but agreed and called a church meeting that evening. People came, and the minister not knowing what to do, the congregation sat quietly for a few minutes. Finney tells us that soon, one of the young women of the town that the blacksmith was burdened for started weeping, and confessing her sin and guilt. Soon many more felt that same burden of sin and sought God. Revival came to that town.
That same thing happened at Asbury College in 1975. At a chapel meeting at that Christian school, a young girl became overwhelmed with her sinfulness before God and started weeping in sorrow and repentance. The Spirit of God came down so unexpectedly that the chapel became overwhelmed with sorrow for sins. The meeting went on for days. Students and professors alike confessed sins and sought God's forgiveness for their careless walk with Him. 25 years later, the Asbury Revival is considered a "classic" example of a move of God.
Another great revival that we Pentecostals don't hear much about, because it doesn't have colorful character and spectacular manifestations, was the Prayer Revival of 1858. A man went to a church in New York City and asked if he could start a prayer meeting during the noon-hour, during the workweek. He was given permission to do so, and an announcement appeared in the newspaper announcing it. The first meeting had about 6 people come in. Within weeks, the meeting had to be moved to a meeting hall. Within months, there were daily prayer meetings around the city. So many businessmen took part in the meetings that business halted in NYC during prayer meeting time. By the end of the year, prayer meetings sprang up in every major city in the nation, and business came to a halt. I believe that one figure I read was that 100,000 people were saved in the two years of that revival. One has said that the only thing that stopped that revival was the Civil War.
Revival will affect society, as well. Whenever Finney held revivals, bars shut down. There were no taverns that could stay open when the customers got right with God. Wesley not only preached revivals, but changed society, as well. He would preach in the open air to the common man of England, but then start different social 'societies' to deal with problems of society. These organizations dealt with the ills of their towns and communities. Historians tell us that it was the Methodist Revival, led by John Wesley, that transformed England and spared it the ravages of revolution that hit France.
So, what does revival look like? It looks like Josiah tearing his robe before God, sorrowing over the sins of the nation, and his own sins of omission. It looks like people hearing the Word of God, not the words and imaginations of men, and being convicted of sinfulness and seeking God in repentance. It looks like people who get up with a sense of God's holiness and love for others and seeks to bring God's message of love to others.
One final question: why don't I believe what we are seeing in Toronto, Brownsvillie, Smithton, etc., to be revival? On one of the boards I frequent, a poster who has been doing research into the early days of Pentecost posted the following 'prophecy,' made at the Azusa St. Revival in 1906:
IN THE LAST DAY THREE THINGS WILL HAPPEN IN THE GREAT PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT:
- THERE WILL BE AN OVEREMPHASIS ON POWER, RATHER THAN ON RIGHTEOUSNESS;
- THERE WILL BE AN OVEREMPHASIS ON PRAISE, TO A GOD THEY NO LONGER PRAY TO;
- THERE WILL BE AN OVEREMPHASIS ON THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT, RATHER THAN ON THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST.
I believe this to be our condition at this time. We preach power and not righteousness, either God's or our need to be righteous people. We praise and do not pray. We say, "Come, Holy Spirit" and not "Lord Jesus, I come." Until such time as we turn this around, we will not experience true revival.