09 Jan What is Revival?
What do you picture when you think about revival?
Throughout Church history revival has been a buzz word. I grew up in churches that had experienced revival, were influenced by a revival or were pursuing revival. My mom and dad’s marriage was officiated by John Kilpatrick (Pastor of the Brownsville Revival ~ which I also attended many times). My wife worked at a church that experienced revival for a few years. I work at Global Awakening, a ministry run by Dr. Randy Clark, which exists because of the Toronto Revival. It became evident to me over time that revival looked different to different people. How do we know we are experiencing a revival? It has a lot to do with what we think revival is.
In future blogs I would like to explore revival history and recommend some books. For now I would like to explain a little bit about what revival is not. To see clearly sometimes we have to remove the dirt.
~Revival is not an evangelistic crusade or evangelistic meetings.
~Revival is not people running up the front of a church building weeping.
~Revival is not nightly meetings.
~Revival is not multiple thousands of people getting saved.
~Revival is not people laughing.
~Revival is not special healing services.
~Revival is not Christians praying for the sick outside of church meetings.
~Revival is not Christians prophesying or operating in the gifts of the Spirit.
~Revival is not the Church rising up in power and influence.
~Revival is not the Church feeding the poor, building homes or changing the government.
Revival is much much more! After reading and interviewing pastors and leaders of revival including Dr. Randy Clark I have an understanding of revival that is true to Scripture, true to history and simple enough to include new revivals. You see it is commonly said that the people who are against current revivals are those who lived in previous revivals. This is because our definition and picture of revival was not really biblical or historical. It was experiential and limited.
It is time for another revival across the world and we need to clear the dirt so that we can see the glory of God shine on this planet in a way that builds off of past revivals and grows into an awakening.
In the next blog I will look at what revival is and then we will explore Scripture and revival history. Want to know more about revival? I recommend purchasing this: The Stirring(available in several formats).