The best way to define revival is biblically. Oftentimes we get off on the wrong foot by defining revivals by history. We learn about revival from the Bible, but history simply illustrates Bible truths about revival. Revival is God bringing His people back to spiritual health. Put another way, revival is God bringing His people to a level of submission and faith where He can bless them the way He promised.
Before Christ, the nation of Israel had a covenant with God and they lived under that covenant called the Old Covenant. In Deuteronomy, especially in chapter 30, He told the children of Israel that no matter how far they have gone, even when they were expelled from the Holy Land (which was the ultimate chastisement for Israel), God would return them to blessings if they turned to God with all their hearts.
Now the New Covenant, which is with believers today, has a different set of promises. The New Covenant is expounded for us in Hebrews 8–10, and it is applied to us by Jesus Christ Himself in John 13–17. Jesus became our Mediator. We received special privileges in prayer, and we received the Holy Spirit to live inside of us and change everything for us. He tells us that we will “bear much fruit”—we will be productive. Everything He promised about the new covenant would be based upon abiding in Christ—the level of faith and submission where we must live to have those blessings. So revival is when God brings Christian people back to abiding in Christ.
The word “if” is found 25 times in these chapters in John and many of them are qualifiers to say that the ball is in our court whether or not we will experience God’s blessings. God is still in control because He has set the perimeters. We simply respond to God’s offer and live within the framework of God’s divine purpose.
There are some things that God has determined to do with or without man’s involvement or knowledge. There are other things, such as revival, which God makes conditional. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)
(Partially adapted from HISTORY OF REVIVALS – An interview with Dr. Rick Flanders)
