Revival – What is the truth?

Happy New Year to everyone. This is slightly longer than usual – about a 10 minute read. I hope it’s thought provoking as we enter the year ahead. Get yourself a cuppa and sit down…..

Wherever I go in Christian circles these days I hear talk of revival. I have titled this blog ‘Revival – What is the truth?’ because I think there are some basic misunderstandings about what is required and what is coming . Unless we get this right we may well miss what God wants us to be doing.

Many who talk about revival have an expectation of a time coming soon when non Christian’s are going to flock to our churches asking “what must I do to be saved?” God will sovereignly pour out His Spirit at a time of His choosing and then the fish will simply throw themselves into the nets. All the Church needs to do is wait, pray and perhaps prepare for this influx to come. Apparently.

To start with, we need to be clear about what we mean when we talk about revival – what it is and what it is not.

The dictionary definition of revival is ‘an improvement in the strength or fortunes of someone or something’. Andrew Murray defines it as “making alive again those who have been alive, but have fallen into what is called a cold or dead state”. Revival is something that applies to the Church, not the world. It is the Church that needs the improvement of strength and fortunes; it is the Church that has been alive but has fallen into a cold or dead state. You can’t revive something that has never had spiritual life (ie unbelievers) but you can possibly revive something that once had spiritual life but has all,or partly, lost it (ie the church).

So, revival is not a description of thousands of non believers deciding to follow Jesus as Lord. Neither is it something that we are expecting to fall out of heaven onto a sinful world causing them to rush to our doors. Revival is what happens when the Church gets properly right with God and is fully aligned with His will. It is not a series of powerful meetings, or an increase in converts. It is the Church turning, changing direction, following God wholeheartedly.

The word ‘revival’ does not occur in scripture, but the word ‘revive’ does. In a few cases, it is there simply in the sense of physical recovery from illness or trauma. There are three occasions where it is used in the context we are considering, in the Old Testament. (Ps 85 v 6, Isa 57v15, Hos 6v2). Each time the writer is asking God to revive the nation of Israel, and each time the writer recognises that there are things Israel needs to do to make this happen.

Here are some of the things Israel needed to do:-

• Listen to what God is saying
• Not return to folly (or foolishness)
• Fear God
• Make Love central
• Restore faithfulness on their part as a response to the righteousness that God has given
• Be contrite – show true remorse for past wrongdoing
• Be humble
• Change their ways
• Acknowledge Him – put Him first
• Live in His Presence

If Israel would do that they would experience revival – an improvement in their strength and fortunes; becoming alive again where they had allowed death to creep in. There were things Israel had to do. There are things here that the church has to attend to, and it is a matter of choice and a decision of the will. Revival of the Church is not something that falls sovereignly out of heaven and lands on the Church, it is something the Church needs to want and chase after. So, let’s be very clear, when we ask for revival we are asking for the church to be revived – and that is down to us, not God. Do we want it? Will we pursue it? Are we prepared to change whatever needs changing to get it?

Andrew Murray whom I quoted before is also famous for this phrase – “a revived Church is the only hope for a dying world.” Why? Because firstly the Church is the means that God has decided to use to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. (More than that, His intention is that through the Church, “the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms” – the demonic rulers and principalities). Secondly a revived church is the only hope because quite simply, the church needs reviving, and a dead or moribund church can’t help a dying world.

I know that the Church is a mixed bag in this nation, but none of us can sit in our own individual churches and think that there is not some part that needs reviving.

2 Chronicles 7 v 14 springs to mind at this point. “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 heal their land.” This was spoken to Israel, but the principle is the same for us. We are His people. We need to humble ourselves and talk with God, seek His face (the place where expression and feeling is communicated) and change direction wherever we need to.

I believe that throughout the shenanigans of lockdown and the response to covid, God was allowing a shaking of the world, and He was shaking the Church. I believe He was saying to the Church “It’s time for a radical change. I want you to stop doing things the way you’ve always done them. You have had little effect. I want you to come and take counsel from me. It’s time for change but you need to follow my direction implicitly from now on. My Son will be the Head from now on. You quote the verse “I have plans for you….” but I want you to know that I have plans for my Son, plans that eclipse anything and everything else. My Son, whom I love, will be the Head of His church. So it’s time to leave your own agendas, whims and fancies behind. There is no time left for messing around and fudging issues. It’s time for my Son to show you what He can do. I have seen what you can do. Now see what He can do.”

So, for the Church to be just waiting and praying for something to fall from heaven that will change the world misses the point, and probably the boat too! Yes, something will come from Heaven (See Joel 2) and we’ll talk about that bit in a minute. But change is needed down here first, among us.

One fundamental thing that needs to change is our understanding of how God planned to relate to us. We often end up with a visitational mindset. We go to meet with God on Sundays or mid week group days. We meet with God when we set time aside perhaps daily to pray etc. Visiting God.

Israel fell into this trap too. They began to see going to the Temple as them visiting God. The truth is that God’s plan and desire always was to live with us. The Tabernacle and the Temple was His way of finding a way to live with His people who were unclean and sinful. Now, because of the Cross, He is able to live in us. We are clean. You can’t get any closer to Him than that! But He also wants to live among us as the people of God. Think habitational not visitational. He wants to live among us, not visit us or be visited by us. If someone comes to live with you, as opposed to just visiting once in a while, it makes quite a difference to how you live. This is how it should be with the Church – any church, all of the Church. Living in His Presence – the last thing on the list of things Israel needed to do (see above).

Throughout lockdown wise leaders will have been ‘seeking His face’ to see where Church goes from here. What needs to change? What needs to stop? What needs to start? How do we fulfil the mandate of Matthew 28 to go and make disciples of all nations – and everything that goes with that. How do we understand the times we are in?

The Church at the end times (and yes, I believe we are approaching those times now) will be a Church where God very obviously lives among His people.

If we get this right, if we correct where we have been going wrong, if we allow God to live among us fully, if we begin to obey fully the great commission, I believe we will see millions come to Christ. After all, this is the Church becoming who she is meant to be, and then doing what she was always meant to do.

If the harvest was ready 2000 years ago, then it is still ready and waiting. In fact, Jesus spoke of the harvest as being ready then, and also as being completed at the end of the age. Joel 2 v 28 started to be fulfilled in Acts, but it’s final fulfilment is in ‘the Day of the Lord’. The last days. The end days. Joel says, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people….” God will sovereignly pour out Holy Spirit on the world – when we, the Church, have made ourselves ready. There is a synchronicity here. The Church has to be ready when God is ready. And He will apply whatever pressure it takes if we are too busy with other things. He is preparing for the return of Jesus, and nothing in the Church or the world will be allowed to get in the way of Jesus’ ultimate day of glory – The Day of the Lord!

As we, the Church get to this point, it would be foolish to imagine that we will have free run in a halcyon vacuum. I believe all this is going to happen against a backdrop of intense pressure and persecution of the Church, the like of which we have not yet seen. This calls for courage, determination and a trust in God that despite what we see going on around us, He is in charge. We are on the winning side, and Jesus is coming soon.

So

• An end to waiting for something to fall from heaven while we do nothing
• A start to changing how we do church
• An end to waiting for more power/annointing before we move
• A start to doing what He told us to do
• An end to a gospel that makes Jesus there for us
• A start to living and preaching a gospel which starts with repentance (a complete change of thinking) and makes Jesus the Head over everything in our lives
• An end to church simply providing a weekly experience of God
• A start to church where we all learn to live with Jesus all the time
• An end to church that has little supernatural expression of Holy Spirit’s power (whatever happened to deliverance by the way?)
• A start to church where Holy Spirit directs, and is given space to set people free and change lives radically.

Then we will have a Church that many in the world are waiting for, and all the more as times get darker – which they are. At the same time, many in the world will hate us with a passion and do their best to destroy us. We need to be ready for that, but at the same time we will know the Fathers delight in us as He pours out His Spirit on all people and we reap a harvest.

In my next blog (to follow quickly) I want to look at a couple of current teachings that can get in the way of what God doing. 1) How we understand the return of Jesus – it’s timing and the idea that somehow this generation of Christians will make a sharp exit from earth before things get any darker. and 2) The idea that the church is and always will be a small remnant, and. 3) How an over emphasis on Grace can undermine the other side of the coin which is Holiness.