Psalm119:25 “My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to Your word.”
Revive… A word pregnant with meanings! According to the dictionary, the word ‘revive’ means: to return to consciousness or life, become active or flourishing again, to restore to consciousness or life, to restore from a depressed, inactive, or unused state, bring back, to renew in the mind or memory. You see, the dictionary does not fully capture the full meaning of that word ‘revival’ according to the Word of God.
Revival, according to the intent of God’s word, is to be awakened from spiritual lethargy, to be awakened from spiritual dullness, religiosity, sin, and to be delivered and set free from ‘self-preservation.’
Revival is to be infused, by the Spirit of God, with passion for the things of God; righteousness, holiness of heart and life, prayer and passion to make Christ known and glorified in your life! When revival comes, the transient things of earth which perish with the using, are going to be very insignificant compared to the things of God’s heavenly kingdom and His interests.
Revival – a Fire Ignited by the Spirit of God
Revival is a fire ignited by the Spirit of God, first in the spirits and hearts of men, and if that fire is properly fanned, it will set entire nations, cities, villages, and territories ablaze for Christ! Isaiah 64:2 “As fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil— to make Your name known to Your adversaries, that the nations might tremble at your presence!”
When the Spirit of God brings revival, He sets your heart on fire! You burn and glow with the holy fire of the Lord, you are ever ready to obey His slightest whisper without reservation.
Why You Need Revival
Psalm 119:25 “I’m feeling terrible— I couldn’t feel worse! Get me on my feet again. You promised, remember?” (The Message Bible)
Evan Roberts— a man like you and I— was born in 1878, in Loughor near Swansea, and left school at 11 to go and work down in the coalmine with his father until his early 20’s, when he became a blacksmith’s apprentice with his uncle in nearby Pontarddulais.
Evan had a thirst for spiritual things from an early age. The story is often told of how he would take his Bible down the mine to read it during rest periods. For years, Evan had been a faithful member of Moriah Calvinistic Methodist Chapel at Loughor, Wales. Having been converted as a young teenager, Evan was a Sunday School Superintendent, a conscientious reader of the main theological works of his day, and more than that, he had been praying for revival for a few years, and he continued to pray regularly that God would again visit Wales, in Revival Power.
As God answered his prayers for revival, revival fire spread across Wales in late 1904 and early 1905, although no official records were kept of the actual number converted, 150,000 is considered a very conservative estimate, during the first six months! People’s lives were transformed by the thousands. This was indeed, a sovereign move of God’s Holy Spirit!
Whole communities were turned upside down, and were radically changed from depravity to glorious goodness. The crime rate dropped, often to nothing. The police force reported that they had little more to do than supervising the coming and going of the people to the chapel prayer meetings, while magistrates turned up at courts to discover no cases to try. The alcohol trade was decimated, as people were caught up more by what happened in the local chapels than the local public houses and bars. Families experienced amazing renewal, where the money earning husband and father, the bread winner, had wasted away the income and sowed discord, but now under the moving power of the Holy Spirit, following the conversion to be a follower of Jesus Christ, he not only provided correctly for family needs, but was now with the family, rather than wasting his time, and wages, in the public houses of the village or town. Souls were saved, individual lives were changed and Society itself was changed. Countless numbers were converted to Christ. Wales again was a God-fearing nation! Public houses were now almost empty. Men and women who used to waste their money getting drunk were saving it, giving it to help their churches, buying clothes and food for their families. And not only drunkenness, but stealing and other offences grew less and less, so that often a magistrate came to court, and found there were no cases for him.
The Lord was stirring my heart to visit the small town Loughor and the church. I was really blessed, looking at all those wonderful pictures of revivalists of those days. A prayer and passion can do so much and bring a huge revival into a nation, even nations! The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. (James 5:16 NLT) Would you like to see a great power and wonderful results?
What Can We Learn from Evan’s Story
1) You must be set ablaze with God’s fire before you can do great things for God. You must be awakened from lethargy and religiosity before you can awake others! A dead candle cannot light up other candles. God wants you to do great things for Him, to impact the earth with the reality of His heavenly kingdom! Never underestimate what God can do through you. Nations, cities, towns, families and territories can be delivered from darkness and brought over into God’s Kingdom of Light, Love and Power through you! Habakkuk 3:2 “… O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy!”
2) You are an agent of God’s Kingdom on earth. He has made you His ambassador in your environment and territory. The name of the Lord and His kingdom must not be dragged in the mud where you are, but must be glorified! The devil ought not to have a place in your home, family, territory, town, city and nation at large. All these are only possible when you are revived and set on fire by the Spirit of God! You have a number of people assigned to you from Heaven, who you are to deliver from darkness and the devil, but you need God’s fire to do this! Remember, Moses could not deliver the Children of Israel until he personally encounters the ‘revival-fire’ of the Lord in a burning bush! (See Exodus 3:1-3).
3) Every generation needs a revival. Yes, every generation needs a revival, and often in Bible history, God ignites an individual before He ignites a city! There must be a man or woman who will offer himself willingly to God and cry out… and keep crying out… for revival until He comes! You can be that person! You should be that person!! Will an entire generation perish without experiencing the love and power of God because of our cold, lethargic and fireless Christianity? What will we answer our King Jesus, when we stand before His Throne? Isaiah 52:2 “Shake yourself from the dust, arise; Sit down, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion!”
How to get God to Revive You
Hosea 6:2 “After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight.”
1) Repentance. Hosea 6:1 “Come, and let us return to the LORD; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.” Repentance is key to having revival. Repentance for what, you may ask? Repentance for going your own way, for taking your own life more important than that of His kingdom and interests. Yes, repentance for being self-centered as if life is all about you and your comforts! You see, Jesus commands every Christian to seek “first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (See Matthew 6:33). But we often do it the other way round! Most christians are self-centred and too conscious of their needs and wants. Even though God promised in His word to meet your needs, yet He commands you to put His Kingdom first! You must cry to God and re-order your priority. Repent for putting yourself first and neglecting the things that matter most to God’s heart! The Lord Jesus showed us in His word that for you to experience and display God’s kingdom, repentance is the first thing you must do! Matthew 4:17 “From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, ” Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
2) Earnest and heartfelt prayer. This is a requirement if you are going to have a revival! God only responds to your heartfelt prayers. The Lord will revive you if you cry out to Him in prayer, for He Himself desires that His people be set ablaze for Him, He desires that you be set “on your feet again” for His Kingdom! You must pray, that you may be enabled to overcome the enemy of revival, that is the devil. He doesn’t want you to do great things for God and so you need to overcome him in prayer! Yeah, cry earnestly for God to use you as a mighty weapon in the hands of the Warrior-King, Jesus! Colossians 4:2 “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it…”
3) Continual and patient seeking of God. While asking God in prayer to revive you, determine in your heart to keep praying until revival comes. James 5:7 “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”
As you seek Him heartily and patiently, expect to set on fire for His kingdom, power and glory!
Spirit- Filled Articles to Encourage & Edify
- Revive Me Prophetic Word – Father-Child Time
- Trust God’s Navigation – Prophetic Word
- You are Not Barren, but Fruitful
- Rule Out Frustration | Prophetic Word
- Leave the Crowd Behind and Follow Christ
Is God talking to you about revival? From Evan’s story what do you think we need to do to be revived ourselves and seeing our families and nations revived?