What is Revival?
REVIVAL
re: again
vive: to live
revive: to bring back to life
revival: the process of being brought back to life
When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, He made it possible for those who love Him to have eternal life with Him. When someone accepts Christ as their Savior, they begin to live forever right at that very moment!
The church is supposed to be alive in Christ – but all too often, we linger in a half-asleep state. We neglect the great responsibility and authority He’s given to us to be about His business. We neglect the power of simply waiting in His presence. We go through the motions, never experiencing His manifest glory and treating His love more like a fact we’ve read in a book than like a present reality.
Many people hear the word “revival” and think of three things:
- Special meetings at a church, often utilizing a guest preacher and going on for several nights in a row
- Extended outpourings where thousands flock to services and people are saved, healed, delivered, and even raised from the dead
- Many would say that revival happens when God releases His manifest power on a group of people.
Revival can be those things, but I submit to you that revival is, at its core, true Biblical Christianity. It must begin on a deeper, individual level – the spiritual must happen before the physical. God begins preparing the foundations long before anyone “sees” anything.
Revival happens when the Bride of Christ remembers who she is (and whose she is) and begins to walk in that reality. Often this starts with one praying individual, desperate to see the power of God moving in their church or city. Then another, then another, until these prayers reach critical mass and explode into an outpouring of God’s power and glory.
God does not come with this power and visible glory to entertain crowds. He doesn’t generally “show up” unless people are hungry for Him and desperate for His presence. (If He does show up amongst the self-sufficiently satisfied, it’s usually NOT a pleasant thing!) He comes to transform - to revive His church, to wake the sleeping and raise the dead, to heal and deliver and release from bondage, and to save sinners.
Revival takes many forms and there’s often a particular emphasis. For example, salvation was the thrust of the Welsh revival. Joy unspeakable and full of glory – often manifesting as laughter – was most evident in the Toronto Blessing. Healing after healing took place at the Lakeland revival. And so on. And yet people were ALSO saved, healed, delivered, raised, and awakened at each one as well.
This site can’t claim to be comprehensive – partly because the authors can only write from a first-hand perspective on certain elements of revival. Partly because God is always moving! He hasn’t stopped and He won’t stop – He hasn’t changed and He won’t change. That means that although some things stay the same (who He is and what He does), other things will change (such as where and how He does them).
Enjoy – and be revived!
