We are not left in the dark about that. Because revival is produced by the truth, teaching the truth of God’s Word lays the groundwork for revival. When it comes down to having a revival, the Old and New Testaments tell us the same thing: humble yourself and seek God’s face. James 4, which is a revival passage, says, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”
Revival comes when we humble ourselves and seek the face of God in prayer—being willing to yield everything, confess sins, get clean, and surrender our lives to God. When God’s people do that, He always responds with all the blessings He promised. Revival is not raising the bar so high it is out of reach. It can happen. We can humble ourselves. We can seek God’s face and willingly turn away from everything He shows us is wrong. Those two steps always bring revival to the heart. That is where we start.
There is debate over whether we will ever see a national revival again. Whether corporate revival is in God‘s plan for America or not, I don’t know. But I do think that there is nothing that hinders the individual Christian from meeting God’s expectations, and experiencing personal revival. And is that not where corporate or wide spread revival begins in reality? Must not individuals, moved by the Holy Spirit, experience personal revival, and when those people are brought together it becomes a corporate moving of God?
If we truly long for revival and the desire to see God work, then let us, one by one, meet God’s conditions, and then anticipate that God will visit upon us His power and his presence. Let us stop trying to organize global prayer groups or signing up churches to designate times as revival month, and let us come clean before a holy God and see what He might do with an individual who lives a holy life in an unholy world.
(By Pastor Wagenschutz)
