The subject of revival is bandied about with many different opinions as to what it is and how it is initiated. All will agree that it is a work of the Holy Spirit and that lives are drastically changed when an awakening takes place or when it "falls." As I read the Scriptures, it can only be the filling of the Spirit (Eph. 5:18) when an individual or people have met the requirements which are prayer and repentance as a general rule.
In the major awakenings of the past, there have been major life transformations, sometimes on a very large scale. Many times, there are records of prayer on the part of a few or many which seem to have precipitated the awakening. Also, most of the revivals run their course and things tend to revert to the status quo. Much study has been done as to why revival tarries; and once it has come, the article turns to why it is not maintained.
I would like to enter the fray here and pose a suggestion on both counts: preparing for revival and its maintenance once it has taken place. It seems to me that most revivals are a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit with the participants not having the theological framework from which to evaluate His working and, thus, the maintenance of revival becomes a major concern.
Then, there are those who conjecture as to whether major revival will come again or whether we are in the 'last days' and can not expect the Holy Spirit so to move. There are those who are waiting, if somewhat impatiently, and those who have all but given up on His repeating previous awakenings. Many try to copy the events leading up to such awakenings in hope that history will repeat itself.
Frequently, we are admonished that prayer and repentance are keys to revival; and I agree that they are vital ingredients. However, I believe that a major key has been omitted in past revivals which is also the prime reason that the revival did not continue. While repenting of sin is always preached and should be, repentance of the reign of the flesh is not a general topic of preaching. That being the case, a believer repents of what he has done but usually does not repent of what he is!
When true revival takes place, the Cross (being crucified, buried and risen with Christ) becomes a reality; but when revival is a sovereign act of the Holy Spirit, the participants are usually not aware of its involvement . Therefore, when the revival begins to die down, they do not know that they can deny themselves and take up the Cross once again (Luke 9:23) and experience a continuation and/or spreading of the awakening.
Jessie Penn-Lewis, among others, saw this as the weakness of the Welsh revival at the turn of the 20th century and wrote at length about this missing ingredient. At the turn of the 21st century, we are in greater need of the Spirit's moving than was the case a century ago. The Church, as a whole, has imbibed more at the fount of humanism than anyone cares to admit. Since that is the case, there is little prayer and repentance and little faith that the Holy Spirit yet works in this way in the repetition of great awakenings of the past.
In 1967, God called me to such a ministry which was ministering revival or awakening on an individual basis. He has honored such ministry with transformed lives in this country and around the world since that time. However, since the Church at large has not recognized this kind of transformation as "revival," she has become enamored with the church growth movement and Christian psychology as substitutes for the working of the Holy Spirit. Now, both of these have pretty much run their course; and I don't believe that the economic situation will permit their being major players on the church scene. This leaves a vacuum that is waiting to be filled.
While we are praying and believing God for a major awakening, we can expect God to give individual revival on a regular basis (as we have seen Him do for the past 40 years in many languages and cultures). Also, there is not the matter of waiting for the Spirit to come but to fulfill the conditions for personal revival which are radical surrender, repentance of sin, and taking up the Cross (Rom. 6:6, Gal. 2:20, Lk 9:23,24). Personal prayer and that of the intercession others is an assumed prerequisite. This is not engineering revival but taking God at His Word and believing Him to transform lives by renewing their minds which describes that which happened in the major awakenings of the past. Since spiritual discipleship has been the missing dimension in most churches, we do not regularly see such transformation in their ministries. However, we have witnessed His doing so consistently since His call to the ministry in 1967 and have no reason to believe he will not do so in local churches which will take the same approach.
Preaching on prayer and repentance is insufficient since the preaching of the Cross is mandatory as it is the "power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18). We find that the preaching of the Cross from the pulpit is rare, and it is no coincidence that revival--individual or corporate--is just as rare. When individual believer's lives are transformed, revival or renewal takes place; when they learn to share that with others in their sphere of influence, the revival spreads and can become corporate.
While it does not require a 'rocket scientist' to understand the basic requirements for revival, God did call me from the aerospace industry (now Lockheed Martin) to develop and implement an approach to personal revival where my family and I were dependent upon His faithfulness to routinely transform lives both for our eternal and temporal destiny. From the beginning, it was a faith ministry that was dependent upon such transformations to convince the watching world that God, indeed, was the author and sustainer of such a movement as was launched and is now known around the world. This contrasts with the usual shrouding in mystery of the term, revival, as though God were capricious in sending or withholding revival, depending upon His whim rather than our fulfilling His requirements where He is faithful to transform or revive such believers.
The continuation of our usual practices of preaching on topics other than the Cross and then praying that God will send revival is but to subvert the biblical requirements for the filling of the Spirit and yet expect Him to honor prayer and repentance alone. Though our prayer and repentance may be sincere, we have not taken our place at the Cross and lost our lives which is the basic requirement for discipleship/sanctification or revival. If this were taught routinely, there would be revival taking place continually rather than the infrequent general revivals or awakenings which are more remedial in nature.
Of course, the preaching of the Cross presupposes that the pastor has experienced the Cross as a prerequisite; otherwise, such a message will have a 'hollow ring', and the Holy Spirit will not honor it. Even if such a message were preached in the power of the Spirit, there would be the necessity of having personal workers who can minister to those who would respond to such a message. For this to be the case, there must be the discipling and training of those who would be used of the Spirit in such ministry. Again, this is not a major hurdle to be overcome since such training has been available for more than 35 years, with time-tested and proven materials and methods.
As the situation in our country becomes increasingly desperate, the Church must forsake approaches which are heavily flavored with self-strength in favor of those which God has regularly honored, even though it will be swimming against the stream. We have to admit that what we are doing has not been blessed with individual or corporate revival and turn to an approach that is.
There is an abundance of books available from trusted authors whose lives and ministries have stood the test of time, such as: Jessie Penn-Lewis, Andrew Murray, Watchman Nee, Ruth Paxson, F. B. Meyer, Roy Hession, Charles Trumbull, Reginald Wallis, Hannah Whitall Smith, and a host of others. Some of these were involved in awakenings or were products of them.
We must forsake the idea that we can conduct ministry in a 'business as usual' fashion and add prayer and repentance and expect the Holy Spirit to send revival. We have found over the last 4 decades that it is when believers deny themselves and take up the Cross that the Holy Spirit attends their prayer and repentance with revival. It is the death/resurrection process that God attends with revival and nothing short of that.
It is leadership that must pave the way since they must go to the Cross ahead of their flock and lead the flock there after them. In doing so, they will lose not only control of their lives but also of the congregation which can be a bit frightening! When we take our hands off of our lives and ministries, the outcome can be radically different from anything we have ever envisioned; and the individual members will be empowered to utilize their spiritual gifts which will multiply the ministry.
Once the leaders have lost their lives and are allowing Christ to live, they are ready to begin discipling or mentoring their people, such that each becomes equipped for ministry as taught in Ephesians 4. This means that the people will have to see such a difference in their leadership that they will want what the leaders have! In many cases, the leaders will require discipling themselves in order to 'take up the cross.' Afterward, they will be able to do the same for others within their ministries.
The above rationale is not something to be entered into lightly since it will involve restructuring of lives and ministries as never before envisioned. But again, what we have been doing is not working and will work even less well as the economic constraints become more stringent. Human need is likely to engulf the average church which will mean that the staff, which may be reduced, will be overburdened to the point that the whole body will have to be involved. Churches which are servicing debt will find the burden particularly stressful.
An entirely different model of ministry must be developed which takes into consideration the discipling of all members and equipping them to be vitally involved in the ministry and outreach of the church. Such a model will obviate the pastor's being the central focus of ministry and will allow for all members to be used of the Lord as the Holy Spirit directs and empowers (Eph. 4:11,12).
