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Why We Need Revival
The following is taken from Global Revival: Worldwide Outpourings – Forty-Three Visitations of the Holy Spirit and is used by permission. Revival and Missions To use an analogy, revival is needed because it can be likened to nitrous fuel in a turbo-charged car that descends from the heavens and penetrates the engine of the Church, giving it much needed impetus, a Divine thrust that quickens and aids holiness, discipleship, evangelism and missions. The Korean Church was only founded in 1885, yet during the first year of the Pyongyang Great Revival (1907-1910), 50,000 people were added to the Church. In comparison, the Battak people, on the Island of Sumatra, Indonesia, first received the Gospel in 1862 and forty-eight years later by the year 1910, there were nearly 100,000 converts. The facts reveals that the Korean Church grew very rapidly in one year alone, with 50,000 converts, yet without revival the Battak Church (which grew at a healthy rate) only achieved 100,000 converts within forty-eight years. In this example we can state that the Battak Church without revival grew twenty-four times slower than the Korean Church that experienced revival! This is why revival is needed! During the Welsh Revival (1904-1905), in a six week period alone, 100,000 converts were saved, and it has been recorded that in total, 150,000 made applications to join a churches but as many as 250,000 could have been converted during this revival! Our Responsibility for Revival and Missions We need revival because there are too many modern day blind leaders of the blind, and they with their multitudes of followers will all fall into the eternal ditch of hell. We need revival because like Nineveh, there are people who are ignorant of biblical truth, ignorant of the fact that they are sinners on the threshold of hell and they do not know their right from their left. We need revival because there is a major regress in morals, those who say that there are no boundaries, no moral absolutes and they call good evil and evil good and woe unto them! – But also, woe unto the Church for our lack of concern, compassion and commitment towards each other, the Great Commission and that God is not being glorified as He should be. Charles Finney wrote about many hindrances to revival, but one of them was, ‘neglecting the claims of world mission…’ Finney went on to conclude that this neglect was because Christians generally ‘focussed only on their own field of labour, their own church [or] their own circle of ministry.’ It is the responsibility of every concerned Christian to pray daily for revival (2 Chronicles 7:14 and Isaiah 44:3-4) and also to pray that God would thrust forth more labourers into His harvest field (Matthew 9:38). Those prayers need to be coupled with our practical and financial giving towards evangelism and world missions. All Christians are commanded to spread the Good News according to ones capacity. For those who are considering the claim of the Great Commission and how they (or members of their church) can responsibly and intelligently participate, see How to Plan, Prepare and Successfully Complete Your Short-Term Mission by Mathew Backholer. Charles H. Spurgeon said, “The question is not, ‘Will the heathen be lost if they do not hear the Gospel?’ but, ‘Will we be saved if we do not take it to them?’ ” Used by permission from Global Revival: Worldwide Outpourings – Forty-Three Visitations of the Holy Spirit by Mathew Backholer. ‘If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land’ (2 Chronicles 7:14). Recommended Books: Holy Spirit Power The Holy Spirit in a Man Revival Answers, True and False Revivals Heaven – A Journey to Paradise and the Heavenly City Prophecy Now, Prophetic Words and Divine Revelations Revival Fires and Awakenings: Thirty-Six Visitations of the Holy Spirit Global Revival: Worldwide Outpourings - Forty-Three Visitations of the Holy Spirit Reformation to Revival, 500 Years of God’s Glory: Sixty Revivals, Awakenings and Heaven-Sent Visitations of the Holy Spirit Revival Fire - 150 Years of Revivals: Spiritual Awakenings and Moves of the Holy Spirit Understanding Revival and Addressing the Issues it Provokes Jesus Today, Daily Devotional: 100 Days with Jesus Christ Samuel Rees Howells: A Life of Intercession Samuel, Son and Successor of Rees Howells Recommended Revival DVD: Great Christian Revivals Thus says the Lord, “For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants and My blessing on your offspring” (Isaiah 44:3). REVIVAL LINKS ‘O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do it for Your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many, we have sinned against You’ (Jeremiah 14:7). |
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