What is Revival all about?

Is Revival in the Air? Have we overlooked the central reality of revival?

What is revival all about?

Repentance? The salvation of the lost? The renewal of the church? Miracles? City transformation?

Azusa Street revivalist reporter Frank Bartleman said, "the depth of any revival will be determined exactly by the spirit of REPENTANCE that is obtained.”

Revivalist Charles Finney said, “A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God.”

But ultimately, I like what revival author Arthur Wallis wrote, “It (revival) is God revealing Himself to man in awful holiness and irresistible power. It is such a manifest working of God that human personalities are overshadowed, and human programmes abandoned. It is man retiring into the background because God has taken the field. It is the Lord making bare His holy arm, and working in extraordinary power on saint and sinner.”

Whatever we are experiencing in our church right now, revival, renewal or outpouring, we are experiencing God revealing Himself… in irresistible power, a manifest working of God.. God has taken the field.

Photo by Christian Dubovan on Unsplash

Revival is in the air. But what we are really beginning to experience is the conscious awareness of God is in the air. God is taking the stage.

Ever since I experienced an impartation service two weeks ago (I wrote about this in detail last week in Outpouring of the Holy Spirit) the greatest thing I have experienced is the tangible awareness of God. I’m experiencing His presence throughout my days in a way that brings me to tears and touches my physical body. But in the last 21 years of really following Jesus, I’ve never had God on my mind so much. I believe this is the fear of the Lord. I believe this is what a baptism of the Holy Spirit and receiving power from God is all about. I’m getting reports of people in our church weeping throughout the week as God’s presence comes upon them, being drawn to thoughts about God and experiencing God in powerful ways.

Jesus is our reward. The Christian life is all about Him. Revival is all about Him. Revival is all about Jesus taking His rightful place among us. Somehow I believe I overlooked the most important aspect of revival: God and His glory captivating and consuming our lives so much that we are constantly aware of Him and His stirring of our affections towards Him.

The Pentecostal experience in Acts 2 and throughout church history is about the people of God experiencing the living God in our time, in an actual moment of encounter with who He is that is undeniable.

I recently saw a short media clip with Mr. Rogers where he stated (probably at least 30 years ago) that as a society we have become obsessed with information but we have lost the ability to live in wonder. Philosopher Charles Taylor has written about the effects of secularism creating a disenchanted world.

Christians and churches that experience revival are experiencing wonder and helping re-enchant the world. We are to be a spiritual people. Revival causes churches to become a place of encounter with the living God who are awakened to be a truly spiritual community. God’s glory becomes so heavy and so strong that we can’t program it or hype it. He interrupts our lives in revival with His presence as He takes center stage.

When God takes the stage and He takes central focus there is repentance of sin, a removal of idols, a dependence on God, the saving of souls and a fresh obedience to God. Revival becomes a time where God is so near that we don’t want anything but Him. May God revive His church in this day and cause us to be aware of Him in our experience day by day. May holy fear, and an intense love for God and a quick obedience be the fruit of our beholding Him as He manifests among us.