misunderstanding Revival





"Revival in America isn't possible!  America has turned its back on God.  How, then, is Revival at all possible?  God just has to come and get us out of here.  The longer He waits, the more people are dying and going to hell."  Thus said an elderly man to me, who boldly professes to be a Christian; who leads his own family in an hour-long Bible study every morning; who faithfully attends church three times a week; and, who regularly hands out tracts on street corners.  When I left his house, I felt as if I had been accosted and beaten in a dark alley....

Revival is very little understood even by most professing Christians.  Most apparently view Revival as being an uplifting season of spiritual refreshing which results in renewed enthusiasm for 'spiritual' activities such as churchgoing, witnessing, charitable works, etc..  Whereas, the late Edwin Orr rightly characterized Revival as being like "Judgment Day."

Many first-hand accounts of Revivals I've studied include agonizing, fearful stories involving both penitent as well as impenitent souls.  True repentance comes at very great cost to many who are truly converted.  I have read true accounts of some who witnessed such conversions that appeared to them as though conscience-stricken sinners, under insufferable weight of conviction, were literally in the throes of death.  For, so it is in fact.  Genuine conversion means a very real kind of death to the sinner ~ before that such an one may then be "born again."  I will never forget the testimony of a man ~ a church leader and missionary coordinator, who upon attending a meeting where real Revival was occurring (in early 20th century China), said: "It was the most heart wrenching thing I have ever witnessed." 

If I could define genuine Revival (as I best understand it), in as few words as possible, I would say that Revival is what happens when God's Presence is revealed to man's consciousness.  The guilty sinner is horrified when his own condition becomes apparent to himself, in the manifest Presence of the holy God.  Whereas, even the most godly saint is moved to fear and trembling in reverence to Him who searches one's soul to the uttermost.

When God comes down ~ and it truly is a condescending of Him who "humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!" (Ps. 113:6), when God comes down and thus makes His divine Presence to be distinctly known and felt by ALL; saints and sinners alike feel the very atmosphere to be, as it were, permeated by the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-consuming fire of God's Presence.  Nor is such description hyperbolic.  If anything is the case, my ability to describe such experience is pitifully inadequate.  For one thing, I have never personally experienced "Revival" in the manner and measure such as I have only read about it both in Scripture as well as in true Church history.  Nevertheless, having earnestly studied Revival, for at least the past decade and more, I am confident thus to speak (write) upon the subject.

In saying that Revival is "like" Judgment Day, of course, Orr meant that Revival is in fact a time of judgment.  So it is.  Which brings us to consider the first coming of Jesus Christ, in a different light....

Jesus told a parable about a man who leased out his vineyard.  When the man sent his servants to inspect his vineyard, however, those who leased the vineyard killed the owner's servants.  At last the owner sent his own son; whom those wicked men also killed.  For which reason the owner then moved to destroy those to whom he had leased his vineyard.

In that parable, Jesus rebuked the Jewish nation ~ unto whom God had formerly sent his servants the prophets and, now at last, He had sent his own Son unto them.  The Jews' rejection (and murder) of Jesus Christ finally became the basis of God's judgment against that nation; as Scripture and History record.

But what did the coming of Jesus Christ mean to the Jewish people of that time?  Did it not mean the coming of Revival to them?  Was not Jesus "God manifested in the flesh" (1 Tim. 3:16)?  Jesus "went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil" (Acts 10:38).  "Great multitudes" followed him (for a time).  If ever it could be supposed that true Revival had come to a people, surely, it was when the Savior of the world revealed Himself among men.

Revival came at the END of that (Old Covenant) Dispensation: after a long succession of godly forerunners had prepared the way for the appearing of Christ.  Yet, His coming was not only in order to the preparation and subsequent institution of a new Dispensation (the Church Age), which resulted in a tremendous increase of souls for God's kingdom.  But Christ's coming was also in order to reveal God's judgment against the sinful and hypocritical nation of Israel; which, the result of Christ's coming to them, culminated in the destruction of multitudes that rejected Him, as well as severe judgment upon the nation as a whole.

Revival IS JUDGMENT.  It is a time when God comes down to reveal and to judge the secrets of men's hearts.  Revival is a time of ultimate decision.  It is a time of division and separation.  Revival is the threshing and winnowing and sifting of the wheat, which both cleanses and prepares the wheat at the same time that it separates and removes the chaff.

I recall having read of one instance where a certain individual who mocked and scorned the working of God in a Revival in that man's hometown, began suddenly to shake and convulse with such uncontrollable force that broke his neck and he died instantly.  "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."  Revival is the most serious of all business.

Not only America, but all the world doubtless is ripe for judgment.  So ripe, in fact, its rotten stench is intolerable.  What shall God then do?  Send an earthquake to awaken men to judgment?  Notwithstanding there is an ever increasing number of great earthquakes, massive floods, and violent storms, yet those seem to have very little effect to stir men's consciousness of their own sinful nature.

No, neither storms, nor wars, nor plagues ~ like Coronavirus ~ have any power, it appears, to convict men of their sins and of their need of the Savior.  But Jesus told us what it does take:

When he [the Holy Ghost] is come, he will reprove [reprimand, convict] the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. (John 16:8)

"When he is come" ~ does not mean only once, nearly two-thousand years ago at the day of Pentecost.  It means that when God's Spirit is manifested, there is then present the only power in the Universe that can and does expose to men the consciousness of their own sin.

Revival IS JUDGMENT.  How that men RESPOND to that judgment, then determines not only their individual destiny; moreover, throughout History, the destiny of nations has turned upon their respective, collective response to Revival.  As briefly discussed, above, there have been cases in which groups (even nations) of people rejected Revival unto themselves ~ and they suffered the terrifying consequences of that.

I sincerely believe Revival must be coming very soon.  And not only to America, but to the whole world.  Yet, I see the necessity of that, perhaps, in a manner that is neither widely nor well understood by others.  I see Revival in our time ~ at the end of this present Dispensation ~ as being a parallel both to the purpose and effects of Christ's first coming in the end of the former Dispensation.  I see Revival as being the means whereby God must prepare the Body of Christ ~ as well as the body of the world ~ for the ultimate separation of those two dissimilar 'seeds,' as it were, at the Rapture.

When I consider, firstly, that there are more souls now living in this generation than have lived in all the generations combined since the first coming of Christ; and, secondly, when I consider that the Rapture Event marks the "closing of the door" of Salvation; and, thirdly, when I consider the true nature and effects of Revival: I cannot then imagine that the Church Age may come to its Climax ~ nor that the Rapture may occur ~ apart from one last great move of God in (worldwide) Revival.

For, after the Rapture, God is then going to deal with the world's inhabitants after a radically different manner than He has dealt with the world during this now quickly fading Age of Grace.

We, Christians, should both desire and pray for Revival.  Yet, true Revival is a fearful thing indeed.  It is a time of ultimate judgment.  A time of intense revelation of long hidden things of the heart.  A time of turning unto God, for many; and, of being turned over to complete reprobation, for many more.

I tell you, Revival is coming.  But not as most suppose.  It will not be with the hype, and foolishness, and man-worship that is lately so widely and perversely displayed as "revival."  When "it" comes, God Himself is coming down from His own place above the heavens, to search with fire every heart and life.  And He will decree the judgment as He finds it.