Where does a revival start?
My family and I reside in a small community in northern Ontario where the winters are long and cold, and twilight comes quickly as the sun dips below the horizon on a typical clear winter evening. Our home backs onto a protected acreage of thick birch and oak trees, intermixed with what we call “bush.” It only takes a few snowfalls before the beautiful colors of fall are forgotten in several feet of heavy snow. The bleak winter landscape of the region is only interrupted by the black rock for which Sudbury is famous. Hardly an advertisement for interested visitors to consider relocating. I guess it is because winter seems so harsh that spring and summer are so eagerly anticipated. With the arrival of spring, I find myself observing the subtle changes. One morning last spring, I awoke to notice that the barrenness had given way to hundreds of buds covering the tree branches. Literally overnight those buds opened, and the forest came alive with thick lush green color. After the long, harsh days of winter, life had returned.
Spring is an accurate metaphor for the subject of revival. The Hebrew word for revival conveys the idea of being made alive, to give life, or possibly to restore life. It is the idea of bringing life out of fruitlessness or barrenness. Hosea closes his short prophecy with the heart of God expressing his yearning for Israel to forsake their idolatry, admit the failure of their human resources, and return to Him. God then speaks of a future day of blessing. Listen to the spirit of revival that God intends to one day bring about in the land of Israel:
“I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for Mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine.” (Hos. 14:4-7)
It’s not difficult to speak about revival from the Scriptures. Israel’s history after the Davidic monarchy is a sad story of spiritual and political decline dotted by a few bright exceptions during such administrations as those of Josiah and Hezekiah. But let the reader get beyond the theoretical study of biblical revival and ask himself the heart searching question: Is my spiritual life in need of biblical revival?
Evidences of need
When I can be complacent or dishonest about sin in my own life or allow some area of vulnerability to become a sinful vice, I am desperately in need of personal revival. When my prayer life lacks any fervency and I forget the privileged access I have to the throne room of God, I need revival. When my enthusiasm for interests and hobbies rivals my eagerness to study the Word of God, isn’t it time for revival? When I arrive at the Lord’s Supper late and unprepared, or when I can be busy Saturday evening but undisciplined to make it out the next morning, I need revival. When my enthusiasm for attending the meetings of the assembly is based on who’s speaking, I need revival. When someone shares the joy of testifying for Christ and my own soul isn’t thrilled, I need revival. Is there such barrenness in my walk with the Lord that I give little thought to the souls of family, friends, and neighbors on their way to a lost eternity? Am I busy working on filling the storehouses of my retirement while full-time workers in North America and overseas missionaries struggle to make ends meet? When I am more interested in filling my mind with the world’s affairs and celebrity goings-on than the heavy burdens being carried by believers in my own assembly, something is very wrong. I need revival when I can tolerate watching sin glorified in the media and pay to enjoy it. Do I remain silent when the name of my Lord is defamed in my hearing? When the pursuits of the world or advancing in my career consume so much of my time that I have little left to invest in the local assembly, I need to ask myself this question: Is my spiritual life in need of revival? If we’re honest, we will admit that all of our lives have had periods of spiritual barrenness.
The path to revival
Dependence on the Lord. If we sincerely desire revival in our lives, the Scripture provides us with some guiding principles. The psalmist cries out in Psalm 85:6, “Will You not yourself revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?” He understood that if Israel was to again enjoy God’s blessing, it was Jehovah alone that could bring this about. God is the source of revival. He is the source of all life and, if my Christian walk is somehow lacking, God alone can infuse life.
The Word of God. In Psalm 119:25, we learn of the central role the Word of God plays in bringing about revival: “My soul cleaves to the dust; revive me according to Your word.” A telling sign that my spiritual life is in need of revival is when the Scriptures are no longer a priority; I have lost interest in spending time in the Word. Consequently my communion with the Lord has grown cold. The rediscovering of the book of the Law was instrumental to the tremendous period of national revival that took place during the reign of King Josiah. “When the king heard the words of the book of the Law, he tore his clothes.” (2 Ki. 22:11). Can I really expect God to bring about revival in my own life apart from the same attitude to His Word?
A contrite heart. Finally, in Isaiah 57:15, we read these words of the Lord, “I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” The very heart of God longs to bring about revival in my life. But He is looking for a heart that is prepared. A broken, humble heart is the right ground in which God can bring about revival. Many of our Christian lives have become self-satisfied and complacent with little actual enjoyment of the Lord. Is there anything attractive about this to a lost world? When I come to the end of myself, when I have exhausted my meager resources and fall before God, confessing my utter inability and brokenness, He can begin the process of revival.
The story is told of an occasion when the well-known English evangelist Gipsy Smith was asked how to have revival. Asked Gipsy, “Do you have a place where you can pray?” “Yes,” was the reply. “I’ll tell you what to do. You go to that place and take a piece of chalk along. Kneel down there and, with the chalk, draw a complete circle all around you—and pray for God to send revival on everything inside of the circle. Stay there until He answers and you will have revival.”1
If we feel burdened for God to bring about a revival in our generation, let us remember that it starts in the heart of an individual believer. “Send a revival, start the work in me.”
Endnote
1 Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1989), pp. 305-306.