Post 39-Is This Why There's No Revival?

 

 

Is This Why There’s No Revival?

 

Tue, May 23, 2017 at 9:50 AM

Hey Dana

            I have revival on my mind today. Last night was our regularly scheduled—through the church—night to pray for revival. Once again, it was just Carol and me praying. (Sometimes I feel like Anna in Luke 2 who, singularly, just kept on praying for the Messiah to come.) On Monday evenings at our home we hold an hour long prayer time for revival.  While I don’t think I’m too picky (meaning I would love to see revival breakout in my home church first) the prayer time is for revival in the churches, church leaders, and individuals in this region, throughout the country, and across Canada. Our pastor at Calvary Chapel in Chester Springs, around the spring of 2014 bought a thousand copies of the book, The Laws of Revival by James Burns. This is a link to the entire book on line. http://www.svetrunas.lv/JBurns/default.html  The first time I read it, I thought it too simple. Blew right through it. But then I reasoned if our pastor bought a 1000 copies for the congregation, there must be something to it. So now we use it as a prayer guide, often praying it page by page, paragraph by paragraph, and sometimes line by line. I am a TV addict. In over 20 years, this is the only thing that has caused me to turn off the TV at a regular time each week. The Church needs revival.

            We also recently went to a book sale with one of Carol’s daughters. She is a serious book buyer. While she was doing her thing—scanning each book to check its value—I was casually looking at titles. I came across Martyn Lloyd-Jones book Revival, published by Crossway Books in 1987. It is a compilation of sermons he began preaching back in 1959.

            In Ch 2 of Revival, Jones references Genesis 26:17-18 where Isaac needs water for his blessed, but dispossessed family, and he returns to the lands of his Father, Abraham, and re-opens the wells that were stopped up by previous enemies. Jones postulates that because Isaac was desperate for water for his family and herds, rather than trying new things and trying to find new sources of water, he went to where he knew there had been sufficient water. Then, if necessary, he could try new things—dig new wells—once he was re-established and secure. He uses this as an analogy for the Church today. The Church should be desperate for revival rather than trying new things—apologetics, archaeology, new translations of the Bible, use of the media, and what he calls “popular evangelism,” i.e. “Everything that can appeal in the modern man, the last word in presentation is used...(so that) when it is done, and you do it with a modern technique, then you will get hold of modern man.” page 18.

            Jones preached that rather than trying those new things listed above—that the Church was trying and still tries—Isaac went back to what worked. Jones then relates that to the Church today, and suggests we go back to its history both here and at other places—like the 1859 Revival—to see what worked, and then do that. I agree.

            But I see apathy in today’s Church as a roadblock to this. In 1959 when Jones preached this, he saw it as a total disregard of God and Biblical things—a total lack of spirituality—different from a 100 or 200 years previous when there was Biblical knowledge but  j u s t  apathy, from which people could be awakened. (Which then leads me to Jeremiah—knowing his message wasn't going to be received, but God said preach it anyway, which Jeremiah did. How many pulpit leaders today are Jeremiahs, preaching God’s word, challenging and encouraging people to pray for revival, but knowing it may not—probably will not—come, while they watch their congregations slip further away from God?)

            In addition, Jones, in Ch. 1, looks at the portion of scripture in Mark 9:28-29, where Jesus casts out a demon that his disciples were unable to cast out and He tells them that sometimes something extra is needed—in that case prayer and fasting—due to the additional power the devil was manifesting at that time. He suggests that among other things today, in order to see revival, the Church needs more. What is more? One of the things missing in today’s church is there is insufficient power from God to deal with the devil at all levels and this is holding the Church back from seeing revival. (Think Daniel, Michael the arch angel, and the Prince of Persia.) More?  Solid pulpit preaching, prayer, fasting, teaching—all bathed by the Holy Spirit.

            Jones also asked his listeners (remember these were sermons) to ask God specifically what they should be praying to see the breakthrough the Church needs so that revival can finally happen. If I’m reading Jones correctly, it almost sounds too simple—ask God what I should be praying to (hopefully) hasten revival. Yes, this is up to God, but it takes prayer. As I wrote above, while I’d like to see revival break forth in my home church first, wherever it were to begin in the US or Canada would be wonderful.

John

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Tue, May 23, 2017 at 12:09 PM, Dana answered

     John,

     When asked what I believe my spiritual gift to be, I usually answer, “Cynicism.”  Perhaps I’m a Christian Missourian, you know, from the “Show Me” state.  I’m not too optimistic when it comes to revival talk.  Talk is cheap. 

     Since I came back to the Lord in the late 1970’s, the subject of “Revival” has been something I’ve heard in most of the Christian circles through which I’ve moved. Everybody wants revival, even though revival is often thought of in different terms and descriptions.

     Granted, we all know the Church needs revival, in the sense of invigoration, and enlightenment—new life.  And we tend to look back wistfully at some of the great revivals of history.  But why doesn’t revival ever come?  Why no modern day Great Awakening?  Why not another Azusa Street?  Why no further Charismatic renewals? 

     Oh, one hears tales of mini-revivals breaking out here and there, but they don’t seem to last too long, and there seems to be little spill-over effect.  When reports of revival are heard, they usually are from distant lands, and among those people who the western world (and Church) might consider primitive. 

      Revival, for many, generally speaks of effusive and emotional spontaneity.  It’s an event, surrounded by supernatural, spectacular occurrences.  Miracles, healings, and speaking in tongues—Oh My!  And everyone yearns for the Holy Spirit to just explode upon them and bring real 1^st Century Pentecost back to the Church of today. But not always.

      The Great Awakening of the 1700’s displayed a measure of enthusiasm, but remained tame by the standards of the 2^nd, 3^rd, and the disputed 4^th Great Awakenings.  Some argue that the Charismatic Renewal of the 1960’s and 1970’s might be the 4^th Great Awakening.  Non-charismatic and or Pentecostal people don’t share the same interpretation. 

     My point is that Evangelical Christianity may not have the same idea in mind when it acknowledges that the Church needs revival.  Reformed Presbyterians and Congregationalists most likely are not interested in wild, emotional supernaturalism invading their decent and in order meetings, while I dare say most Pentecostals would probably feel somewhat underwhelmed if the revival they sought only brought a resurgence of doctrinal and theological preoccupation.  And since the Church cannot agree on what revival is or how it should manifest, imagine the plethora of prayer requests for it that must be reaching the Heavenly throne.

     One side says, “Lord, send revival, but I don’t want to speak in tongues,” while the other says, “Lord, send revival, but please don’t make me have to learn Greek, or Hebrew, or Systematic Theology.”  So in my estimation, rather than a unified desire to see real revival (whatever that might be) come to the Church in America, we’re rather schizophrenic about the idea.

     Perhaps the real problem is that the different wings of the Church want revival their way.  It’s as if God somehow must tailor the various types of revival to the different tastes of His ultra-diverse people.  And do you know what that smacks of to me?  Entertainment!  We’re not so much concerned with the growth of Christianity (personally and corporately) but we want God to dazzle us with that which we feel would be our concept of revival.

     So rather than revival being a means to increase the Kingdom of God on earth, it’s a means of tickling our particular ecclesiastical fancies.  “Hey God, do a trick for us!”   The congregations of Jesus’ day wanted the same from Him as well.  It’s all backwards.

     Since Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom on earth with His coming (Mark 1:14-15), and since there is no question of His being the reigning King (read Revelation) doesn’t it seem logical that we be the ones doing the tricks?  And “tricks,” being a figure of speech, perhaps it could be better termed obedience or service.  Instead of Jesus performing for us, how about our performing for Him?  But what’s the entertainment value in that? No goosebumps there.  Scratch that idea.

      We don’t want to put hard time into studying His Word.  We don’t want to get out of our comfort zones in radical, obedient service to our King.  We don’t want to repent, because hey, everybody else is worse than we are. But we do want God to send down the power. 

       Brother Grazier used to say that most of the big historical revivals began with the preaching of the book of Romans, and consequent conviction and repentance.  Good doctrine followed by cleansing from sin, generally got the old revival ball rolling.  But do we really want that?

      In your opening comments, you compare trying new things with going back to what works.  Unfortunately I see that idea employed in the Church thinking that somehow revival can be achieved if we duplicate the steps that previous revivalists took.  My contention is that if we duplicated every step that every single revivalist ever took from Pentecost till now, it still would be wrong-headed.  We want what was, when God might want something altogether new and different for the Church today.  

     Again revival, as spoken of today, seems to be less about Kingdom growth, or even God’s glory, and more about entertaining us. If we expect revival to come to us today, then we have to change our ways, not our techniques.

      Another popular fallacy is the calling of a particular preacher or evangelist who is noted for their track record of prompting revival to occur.  Anyone can whip a crowd into the shape the congregation is expecting (or the shape they are getting paid to provide.)  Exciting speakers are always in demand, because at Brother So n’ So’s church they preached, and “the power came down.”  Really?  Watched any films of Adolph Hitler’s speeches lately?  If one doesn’t speak German, one could believe Hitler’s massive throngs were in the throes of revival.  Beware of attributing revival to man, otherwise one might end up with the Reich instead of renewal.

     Another thing that gets me is when churches have “revival,” meaning that they set aside a week, invite in a guest speaker, and if the messages are good, then they have achieved their goal.  My contention would be that having revival is not the same thing as revival, in the truest sense of the word.  Don’t get me wrong; I’m not knocking that which most churches do.  But the day after the evangelist leaves, don’t tell me “We had revival last week…”  I’m not sure one can limit real revival to one week.  Revival isn’t a service or a set of services; it’s a change of a church’s entire spiritual being, and, it doesn’t stop at the end of the week.

     In my Sunday school, I’m preparing to teach a unit on the book of Judges.  The last verse in the book says, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” 

      The reason I chose that book as our next lesson path, is that I find it strikingly similar to the way things are in our country and also in the Church at large.  Honestly, as I look at modern day American Christianity I see little understanding of, or regard for the Kingship of Jesus.  We are living the book of Judges.  God has commissioned us, like Israel, with taking the land, and rather than doing so, we’ve tolerated and compromised with the evil in our land.  And we wonder why we do not have revival?  We’ve become neighbors with the Baals.

      In closing, I suggest that we indeed should try something new in our pursuit of revival; at least something new to the Church of today.  Repentance. 

      It’s an old idea really, but again, just new to us in our modern times.  Jesus is not king to us.  If we truly grasped the concept of Divine Kingship, we’d be a radically different church.  Radically repentant.  Radically obedient. Radically giving.  Radically taking the Gospel to every creature, despite the discomfort level it might cause us, and perhaps in so doing, we might then actually see real revival come.  Otherwise, pass the plate, sing a hymn, and let’s get to the restaurant before the church down the road lets out.  And don’t forget to pray for revival.

        Dana

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John adds Fri, May 26, 2017 at 9:19 AM

Dana

            This is from the introduction of Burn’s book on revivals. Where there are italics, I have added them:

 

In Christian history, no phenomenon is more clear than the recurrence of revivals. At times, a passion for repentance sweeps across specific geographical areas. Many people who had been unaware of the supernatural become keenly aware of it. They are stopped during their jobs as their minds are gripped by a terror of wrongdoing and a fear of coming judgment. Throwing all else aside, they desperately search for a way of salvation. Having started, these movements spread like wildfire and are seemingly carried in the air. Breaking out in unexpected places, they produce a strange phenomenon and awaken forces that have lain dormant. Mostly, these movements are contained in a local geographic area, but they can spread throughout nations, with incredible results.

 

            Look at those italicized words. How often do Joe and Jane Christian, or Harry and Heather Heathen hear these words in their churches today? Passion for repentance. A terror of wrongdoing. A fear of coming judgment. Desperately search for a way of salvation.

            The below is from David Wilkerson’s sermon, Call to Anguish. Again, our pastor, in what I believe is his desire to see God bring revival, played a portion of Wilkerson’s sermon many, many months ago. Our pastor had returned from a regional pastor’s conference where the conference sponsors played a portion of this sermon. I have not used what he used, but I’ve taken some things from Wilkerson’s introduction. For the entire text,  click the link: http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&aid=32622

 

Call to Anguish (by David Wilkerson, 9/15/2002)

                          ....But it’s a call to anguish. Lord, if you don’t help me I can’t get through this.... Lord I’m too old for games. Foolishness. And I’m tired of rhetoric, meaningless rhetoric. It never changes things. 
              Folks, I’m tired of hearing about revival. I’m tired of hearing about awakenings, of Last Day outpourings of the Holy Spirit. I’ve heard that rhetoric for 50 years. Just rhetoric. No meaning whatsoever. I’m tired of hearing about people in the church who say they want their unsaved loved ones saved.... it’s just talk, rhetoric. I don’t want to hear any more talk about how immoral America has become, how godless our society, how corrupt our business.... Christians losing power. And how dead the church has become, because that too is rhetoric, meaningless. I look at the whole religious scene today and...It’s mostly powerless. It has no impact on the world. And I see more of the world coming into the church and impacting the church rather than the church impacting the world. I see the music taking over the house of God. I see entertainment taking over the house of God ... an obsession with entertainment in God’s house, a hatred of correction, and a hatred of reproof. Nobody wants to hear it anymore....

             Tell me now how many churches have you visited recently when you walk in the Holy Ghost is so strong that every one of your sins are brought up before your face, and the loving grace of God. When was the last time you’ve been to a church where you’ve seen young people under such conviction because the people of God have been on their face? ...and there’s such an agony, that young people are falling on their faces and calling on God because a spirit of conviction is called down from heaven upon them.

 

            Dana, while Paul’s words do not haunt me (Romans 7:21-25), the Son never sets on me so I’m everywhere shadowed his words:

 

²¹ So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature^[d] a slave to the law of sin.

 

            After writing and reading the above, as a former college adjunct, teaching business writing; as a former non-fiction, trade journal writer; as a former public speaker; and as a former sometimes pulpiteer; I’m asking myself, “What’s the take away?” You wrote jokingly saying your gift is cynicism,  there are times I think perhaps God has given both of us this gift. Why? At least today, at this hour, if I do not have the anguish that David Wilkerson spoke about, even though we hold a weekly prayer time for revival, and pray for it periodically in other settings, why should I say the Church doesn’t really care, if I don’t really care and am willing to pay the price?

 

Thankful to share your foxhole

John