Monday, October 20, 2025
Revival
REAL SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
Several have rejoiced recently over different movements around the world, some where people preach Christ, or which express a desire to know Jesus or follow Him. Many are asking, "Is this revival?" That begs the question, what does genuine spiritual revival look like? I'm going to answer from the characteristics of great movements of God in the past, from Pentecost and following (which D.L. Moody called, "The Specimen Revival"), to the Great Awakening of 1735-70, the Great Revival of 1857-58, the Welsh Revival of 1904-05, the Hebrides Awakening of 1949-53, and others. Here are the features of real spiritual revival:
1. PRESENCE. True revival can only happen when the presence of God comes to earth, and the Holy Spirit falls on human beings. We call it God's "Sensible Presence" (George Whitefield), when God's Spirit makes Himself unmistakably known to people. People who truly taste the divine are buoyed up in the transcendent, with "joy unspeakable and full of glory", flooded with "the love of Christ that passes knowledge", and at rest in "the peace of God that passes understanding".
2. POWER. This Sensible Presence causes powerful conviction of sin for some, indelible assurance of salvation for others, and produces genuine conversions almost at once, that otherwise might take years. Think of those "pricked in the heart" on Pentecost morning, with 3000 turning to the Savior, or the 30,000 "melted down" at the Cambuslang revival as Whitefield preached, where over 2000 were thoroughly converted over that period of visitation. Sometimes amazing, miraculous answers to prayer and genuine healings have resulted.
3. PURITY. Groups and audiences become strongly aware of God's holiness, and thus convinced of their own sin. This has sometimes accompanied powerful manifestations of deep grief over such sin, with loud weeping and lamentation. This occurred under Jonathan Edwards' ministry, particularly his sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". This has often resulted in genuine repentance of sins that were deep and long, where sin is confessed (think of the crowds thronging John the Baptist's preaching), repented and forsaken. In the Welsh Revival, judges would put on "the white glove", indicating there were no cases to try. Welsh miners' mules, trained by profanity, could no longer understand their owners whose vocabulary was thoroughly cleansed in the revival.
4. PRACTICE. "Revival is a new beginning of obedience to God", said Charles G. Finney (not all he said was correct, but he was right on this one). In revival, Christ lives in and through His people, as they live out-and-out for Himself. Relationships are restored among friends, families, neighbors, and especially enemies. "The hearts of the fathers are turned toward the children, and those of the children toward the fathers". Lunchtimes become prayer meetings, as in the Fulton Street Revival in New York. Debts are paid, property is restored to rightful owners. Christians become earnest about personal evangelism and service to God. In Wales, young children would sing, "Come to Jesus" outside pubs and taverns, and the drinkers would come out, weeping and seeking forgiveness.
5. PREACHING. Revivals have moved forward through powerful, gospel communicators. George Whitefield was considered the greatest gospel herald, but he started John & Charles Wesley and a host of others on their public speaking tours. The Holy Spirit anoints surrendered vessels, and they "lift up their voice like a trumpet", with effects so far beyond ordinary hearing that they cannot be compared. Audiences like the Kingswood coal miners in England, hearing the gospel on their exit from the mines, would cry white tear-streams down their coal-blackened faces on hearing Whitefield. In revival, audiences pack churches, parks and public arenas, wherever the Word is heralded, "hearing, as for eternity".
6. PRODUCTION. Revival produces results! Nearly all the great mission societies in England and America in the late 18th and 19th Centuries began as a direct result of a revival or awakening. In the (albeit smaller) awakening that took place in the beginnings of Billy Graham's ministry in America and England, ministries of all kinds popped up in its wake, and churches (both "mainline" and independent) were suddenly flocked-to, whereas the attendance had flatlined immediately after WWII. Revivals produced book publishers and printing houses, orphanages, halfway-houses, homes for prisoners, and numerous hospitals. The slave trade in England and its empire was abolished through the undying efforts of William Wilberforce and participants in the Evangelical Revival in England. In the US, "The Second Great Awakening directly fueled abolitionist fervor by creating a moral imperative against slavery through its core teachings" (fiveable).
People, we need one now. In the Great Tribulation, the world will see the greatest revival ever, with "a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb" (Rev. 7:9-14). Ask God to send revival!
Several have rejoiced recently over different movements around the world, some where people preach Christ, or which express a desire to know Jesus or follow Him. Many are asking, "Is this revival?" That begs the question, what does genuine spiritual revival look like? I'm going to answer from the characteristics of great movements of God in the past, from Pentecost and following (which D.L. Moody called, "The Specimen Revival"), to the Great Awakening of 1735-70, the Great Revival of 1857-58, the Welsh Revival of 1904-05, the Hebrides Awakening of 1949-53, and others. Here are the features of real spiritual revival:
1. PRESENCE. True revival can only happen when the presence of God comes to earth, and the Holy Spirit falls on human beings. We call it God's "Sensible Presence" (George Whitefield), when God's Spirit makes Himself unmistakably known to people. People who truly taste the divine are buoyed up in the transcendent, with "joy unspeakable and full of glory", flooded with "the love of Christ that passes knowledge", and at rest in "the peace of God that passes understanding".
2. POWER. This Sensible Presence causes powerful conviction of sin for some, indelible assurance of salvation for others, and produces genuine conversions almost at once, that otherwise might take years. Think of those "pricked in the heart" on Pentecost morning, with 3000 turning to the Savior, or the 30,000 "melted down" at the Cambuslang revival as Whitefield preached, where over 2000 were thoroughly converted over that period of visitation. Sometimes amazing, miraculous answers to prayer and genuine healings have resulted.
3. PURITY. Groups and audiences become strongly aware of God's holiness, and thus convinced of their own sin. This has sometimes accompanied powerful manifestations of deep grief over such sin, with loud weeping and lamentation. This occurred under Jonathan Edwards' ministry, particularly his sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". This has often resulted in genuine repentance of sins that were deep and long, where sin is confessed (think of the crowds thronging John the Baptist's preaching), repented and forsaken. In the Welsh Revival, judges would put on "the white glove", indicating there were no cases to try. Welsh miners' mules, trained by profanity, could no longer understand their owners whose vocabulary was thoroughly cleansed in the revival.
4. PRACTICE. "Revival is a new beginning of obedience to God", said Charles G. Finney (not all he said was correct, but he was right on this one). In revival, Christ lives in and through His people, as they live out-and-out for Himself. Relationships are restored among friends, families, neighbors, and especially enemies. "The hearts of the fathers are turned toward the children, and those of the children toward the fathers". Lunchtimes become prayer meetings, as in the Fulton Street Revival in New York. Debts are paid, property is restored to rightful owners. Christians become earnest about personal evangelism and service to God. In Wales, young children would sing, "Come to Jesus" outside pubs and taverns, and the drinkers would come out, weeping and seeking forgiveness.
5. PREACHING. Revivals have moved forward through powerful, gospel communicators. George Whitefield was considered the greatest gospel herald, but he started John & Charles Wesley and a host of others on their public speaking tours. The Holy Spirit anoints surrendered vessels, and they "lift up their voice like a trumpet", with effects so far beyond ordinary hearing that they cannot be compared. Audiences like the Kingswood coal miners in England, hearing the gospel on their exit from the mines, would cry white tear-streams down their coal-blackened faces on hearing Whitefield. In revival, audiences pack churches, parks and public arenas, wherever the Word is heralded, "hearing, as for eternity".
6. PRODUCTION. Revival produces results! Nearly all the great mission societies in England and America in the late 18th and 19th Centuries began as a direct result of a revival or awakening. In the (albeit smaller) awakening that took place in the beginnings of Billy Graham's ministry in America and England, ministries of all kinds popped up in its wake, and churches (both "mainline" and independent) were suddenly flocked-to, whereas the attendance had flatlined immediately after WWII. Revivals produced book publishers and printing houses, orphanages, halfway-houses, homes for prisoners, and numerous hospitals. The slave trade in England and its empire was abolished through the undying efforts of William Wilberforce and participants in the Evangelical Revival in England. In the US, "The Second Great Awakening directly fueled abolitionist fervor by creating a moral imperative against slavery through its core teachings" (fiveable).
People, we need one now. In the Great Tribulation, the world will see the greatest revival ever, with "a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb" (Rev. 7:9-14). Ask God to send revival!
# posted by Groseys messages @ 1:49 PM 
