Revival: The First Step

In my last post, I made this statement: “True revival, I believe, has nothing to do with schedules, programs or eloquent oratory from visiting preachers. No, it is a sovereign act of God that completely resists our desire to package and control. We cannot make it happen, and yet it does seem historically that God desires us to ask Him for it.”  The more that I have meditated on the subject and discussed it with others, the more I believe that the above statement is true. It would be so much easier to research the data developed by the church growth gurus and find just the right evangelism program to initiate in our local churches and neighbourhoods. Fruitful perhaps, but not revival.

So, the question remains: If God is sovereign and all spiritual awakenings occur through his initiative, how exactly are we to pray for revival?

For me, the answer to this question must begin with my own repentance; repentance of my hard heartedness, my lack of true passion for those without Christ, and the ensuing fervour in prayer that such a passion would release. I need to confess to him that on the few occasions when I have asked for revival in our land, it has been more driven by a personal desire for security, financial stability, and a pleasant place for my children and grandchildren to live in freedom and safety.

Revival always brings heartfelt repentance, and not just among the lost of our secular society. It must begin with the Church. It must begin with you and me. Otherwise, we will participate in an exercise of religious activity, but it will bear little fruit. I must get brutally honest with the Lord, repent of my selfishness, and ask him to share with me his loving heart for those for whom he died.

I am reminded of the passage that recounts the consecration of Solomon’s magnificent new temple where God gives clear instructions to his people should they stray from following the Lord:

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
                                                                                                            2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV

Even in Solomon’s day, repentance needed to begin with “my people who are called by my name”. Surely, this is where we, too, must start. Perhaps, we should humble ourselves though fasting, not to convince God that we’re serious this time, but to manifest our contrite hearts and our complete and utter dependence on him. Then we should “seek his face” by spending time in his presence and in his Word – gobs of time – not trying to extract from the Lord the secret formula to revival, but delighting in him through worship and drawing close enough to him in personal intimacy that we can more deeply share his burden for our broken world. Church, I can’t tell you how long this might take before we could move to the next step, but I doubt that one specially called hour of repentance is going to suffice. God is passionately after our hearts and attitudes and, if I’m a typical example, we have a long way to go.

We live in a culture that is so results driven and where speed and immediacy are the ultimate goals. As a furniture store slogan on TV declared over and over again a few Christmases ago, “You can have it all, and you can have it now!” We are naïve if we think that this attitude of entitlement has not found its way into our orthodox and evangelical churches as well. That’s why we look for formulas; read the right verses, say the right prayers, make the right declarations, and we can get God to answer our prayers and to answer them right now.

No, not this time. If we are truly serious and committed to seeking him for revival, then we must totally surrender to his timetable and his agenda. He will have it no other way. Surely, one of our “wicked ways” from which we must turn includes trying to manipulate God into doing things our way so that we are not too terribly inconvenienced by his will and purpose.

The history of people that were praying for revival in various places around the world and throughout the ages suggests that God will answer those prayers “at just the right time”, but it might take months, years, or even decades. And yet, it will come exactly on time! It will come when our hearts are finally in the right place for the Lord to give us that for which we have been asking him.

In the early 1990’s, a Vineyard worship song entitled, Show Your Power, blessed many churches. It is a cry to the Lord to send revival. Here are the lyrics:

The last petition in the second verse has always challenged and convicted me: “And for our inheritance, give us the lost.” As God stirs our hearts concerning repentance and revival, surely this is what we must ultimately desire. We ask not for riches, but we do ask for the lost as our inheritance in a mighty harvest beyond anything we have yet seen. Lord, help us to never settle for anything less!