Very often in the Body of Christ we pray for revival, or we follow revivals when they take place, or we simply yearn for a spirit of revival to come to where we are.
Under the New Testament, all things going as they should, we ought not require a revival. In fact, if we are obedient to God’s Word and in faith we should already be alive in the Spirit. This being the case we would have no need of revival.
Perhaps our locality needs to be revived, then. But this would indicate that we, the Body of Christ in our locality, are ineffective in our witness and evangelism. In this scenario, we would need to repent and get on with the Great Commission to win souls and make disciples of all nations.
It’s when we become comfortable in our self-sufficiency that we, in essence, backslide, by staying put. You could term this a ‘side-slide,’ where we’re going nowhere and doing nothing to advance the kingdom.
Complacency and comfort tend towards being left behind God’s purposes. Ease is a restraining post. The Holy Spirit, according to Jesus, is like the Wind, always on the move, and we need to know when and where He is going to keep up (John 3:8).
Our mission field is where we are and where He leads us, but we have to be ready to get up and go when He moves us, even within our own locality or amongst acquaintances.
However, it is evident that, on occasion, God does move on a locality in an extraordinary way, bringing what we call revival to a community. We also call it a transformation, which is a better way to describe it.
Revival hope
Really speaking, revival is an Old Testament cry, a national cry for repentance and recovery from falling away.
Remember that most people under the old covenant did not have the Spirit of God with them personally to lead them. They needed the guidance and direction of seers appointed by God.
It was easier for them to weaken and backslide away from God’s will because they relied on others to convey God’s will and relate it to their, then, current circumstances.
Here we are talking about God’s chosen people, Israel, who were given the covenants. They were literally dead spiritually and prone to sin having to live with the inherited sin nature from Adam.
Habakkuk the Prophet prayed an appeal for revival as God was about to pour out His indignation towards Israel for their continual backsliding tendencies.
O LORD, I have heard Your speech and was afraid;
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.
He reminds God of His greatness, power and wonder, and appeals to His mercy. Israel was His work, His masterpiece that would lead to the Messiah who would bring salvation and grace to the whole world.
Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of what God has done and is doing in our midst, but view it from the perspective of the new and better covenant we have with Him. Jesus made this possible through His death and resurrection, bringing us into new life through faith in Him.
The call for revival
Is there a sense in which we call for revival at times even under the new covenant? The world is a constraining place despite all that God has given us to help us power through, and although, being born of God, we are no longer of the world, we are still in the world.
When we are born again we are saved from the world. We are spiritually revived. We are empowered to overcome the world. See what the Apostle John says about this.
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
1 John 5:4-5
So faith through faith in the Son of God empowers us to overcome the confusion and temptations of the world around us. We can resist the tests and trials of this age and live fruitful lives regardless of challenges.
What our community needs is a transformation which comes through a move of the Holy Spirit that brings a positive message of hope and salvation to those around us.
Through the fervent prayer of believers, the hearts and minds of those who need to be saved can be softened to receive the gospel as it is preached, and to yield themselves to the power of God through faith in Jesus.
Meanwhile, as believers, we have daily revival hope. We are saved. We are quickened. We are made alive to God through the Word and Spirit. We don’t need to cry out for a personal revival.
We need simply to live every moment by faith. We need to have a daily consciousness of who we are in Christ and how to live this life as saints of Almighty God.
If we have fallen away, or become static in our witness, and our conscience pricks us, we can confess that to God, ask for forgiveness, and agree to get up again and start being who we are called to be as members of the Body of Christ sent into the fallen world to bring salvation to the lost.
Revival, dear friends, is for the spiritually dead, not the living. We have to keep on living by faith.
Seek God, seek His kingdom; read, study and apply the Word, and allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us. We are sons and daughters of Almighty God. Every day is a New Day, with new mercies, and a new opportunity to be who we are in Christ.
