I am very pleased to hear the word 'revival' being passed around by my brothers in Christ. The idea is a great one, as it always is. And now, about as much or more than ever, we are in need of revival. Not the nation, as in the United States, so much as the churches are in need of revival. The Roman Catholic Church is full of problems, which I don't need to go into detail about, and the Protestant churches are.. well... just dead. I've heard it suggested that we could be on the verge of a third (or possibly fourth or fifth) 'Great Awakening'. But, before we go trying to imitate history's great revivals, I think we need to consider carefully what a lasting revival will look like.
The first question we need to ask is: Why do we keep having these great awakenings? We hear about the awakening part, but every awakening is preceded by a falling asleep. Wouldn't it be better to simply have never fallen asleep? For Protestants the Great Awakening (pt1 and 2) seem be a topic of pride. We will hear about how things dramatically changed in England, with bars being shut down overnight and so on. But I feel that there should be no such bragging rights. We, as churches, have fallen asleep over and over. To talk about the waking up part is impossible without admitting the falling asleep part. And that we have awoken more than once? In reality, with a long term view in mind, its not a good thing. So it seems that the revivals of the past have not been very deep nor lasting. I think this could be partly because of the speed of them. What good is rapid change if that change is only superficial? Its actually much worse. Rapid superficial change causes the illusion that actual change has happened, thus demotivating people from actually changing. And when talking about revivals of the past we always end up talking about how a city or region was dramatically changed overnight. If it was overnight, then the change only seemed to be dramatic, but it wasn't deeply rooted change nor lasting change. I think this is why history has given us revival after revival.
So why keep repeating history? If we are going to have a revival, and I pray we do, then we must make sure to do it right. I seriously and wholeheartedly ask my brothers and sisters: Let us not attempt to do a revival like the past! Lets not get caught up in the things that are easily visible, and thereby sell short redemption to a few feel good signs. Jesus says in Luke 17:20-21 "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." What we should expect, instead of the quick fixes, is a long hard-fought battle. We must build up the roots of people's souls, and not concern ourselves about the external things. The kingdom comes on the inside, so it doesn't matter how good or bad the outside looks, the kingdom is present only if its on the inside. Its going to take a long time too. The revivals of the past would happen over a year or two and everyone would be all excited, but then only five or ten years later would be going right back to sleep. A true revival is more like a steady surge, constantly and slowly growing. And if we have that, a true revival, with Christ becoming deeply rooted in the hearts of men, then we won't have to have any more of them. Honestly, I would like to have one revival, and after that, no more. Waking up and falling asleep over and over is just not my style.
So that's what I wanted to say, or more precisely warn: I think we will have a revival, and I pray we do, but its not going to look anything like the revivals of the past. And that's a very good thing. We need more than just a typical revival, we need an overpowering flood, constantly keeping us drenched in God's word.
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