The Church in Revival

We are in the Evangelism Awakening Revival Institutes, and if you'll turn in your handouts, friends, to session five, the Church and Revival. In our session today, we will examine the subject of the Church and Revival through the years. I've been in several localized revivals, and I want to share the effects of those with you today.

It's important for us to have a comprehensive understanding of how God moves in revival, so we will recognize it when it comes. We must be able to interpret the times in which we live to gain a sensitivity to the spiritual climate around us to realize the great need for revival. Dr. Stephen Olford wisely observed, But on the whole, there is so little spirit-begotten and energized prayer, so little utter dependence upon God, so little authoritative preaching.

Instead, there is so much of high-pressure appeals for money, for decisions, and for uninstructed membership in our church life. These and many other disturbing features on the contemporary scene make me long and cry out for revival. Stephen Olford was a man of revival.

He was my homiletical mentor. He taught me how to preach, and I was in his first graduating class of his school of preaching, but much more than that. Dr. Olford was my colleague and friend.

We often prayed together for long hours for revival. We often discussed revival. He wrote the foreword to my first book on revival, and much of what I know about the subject of revival I learned from him, and I want to share with you that information today, friends.

Now, if you wish to study further on the subject of revival, you may want to know I've written a trilogy on the subject. My Canadian publisher, Gospel Folio Press, has them. They are entitled, Realities of Revival, with foreword by Stephen Olford, The Church in Revival, with foreword by Richard O. Roberts, and The Call to Revival, with foreword by Colin Peckham.

I don't receive a dime from my book royalties. The profits go to support missions and the spread of the gospel. If you want to support my revival ministry, you can make a donation at my Sermon Audio homepage, where it give.

But what I've learned about revival, I've learned from revival men. My relationship with Richard O. Roberts was a close one, and I often sat at his feet studying the subject of historical revival. I've heard him preach on revival.

I've prayed with him for revival. I've had long conversations in his home about the subject of revival, and it was Richard O. Roberts who helped me build my library on revival, and he encouraged me to write an up-to-date biography on Asahel Nettleton. What I'm saying, friends, if you really want to learn about revival, then get all the books you can and study at the feet of those who have spent their lives in the writing and preaching and study of revival.

At his invitation, I traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland, to the home of Ian Murray to discuss revival with him. I read all the books he wrote on revival. If you are serious about the study of revival, then be prepared for the sacrifices involved, what cost counts and what counts costs.

When I wrote my PhD dissertation on revival, I had to travel up and down England to research it. I dedicated my life to the study of revival, and I've traveled to many historical scenes of revival all across this country as well as Great Britain. I've written extensively on the subject of revival with 18 published books on the subject, but the cost has been astronomical, taking a toll on me physically, and I want to pass on to you, friends, what I have learned.

But the question remains, what will you do about it? Will you just sit on that information, or will you devote your time and energy in promoting revival in your day? My very first church revival was one where I was merely an observer. It was a time when I was discipling some men, and a couple of us made a pact to meet at church twice a week at 6 a.m. to pray for revival. And for a period of six months, we maintained that bargain by crying out to God in prayer to show us revival.

Well, God answered our travailing prayers by allowing us to participate in a revival in another church. Myself and another man were led by the Spirit of God to a church out in the country. We got there.

Here is the record of that evening in 1994. It was a hot, humid Saturday evening in the South. Driving from out of town, we arrived late, well after the service had commenced.

As we made our way into the crowded sanctuary of about a thousand people, we realized there were no empty seats. An usher led us up a stairway to a balcony, where we found the last two empty seats in the house. We sat down.

As we looked around, we wondered what was transpiring, for an eerie silence pervaded the sanctuary. Where was the pastor? We looked at an empty podium and wondered why everyone was sitting in dead silence. It was obvious we had arrived well into the service.

As we sat there, I began to feel an overpowering presence. This presence was heavy, as if a heavy drape was coming down upon me. Suddenly, I felt an incredible desire to weep.

Why, I did not know, but I sensed I felt confronted with eternity, and I fought the feeling until I glanced at my friend and noticed tears streaming down his face. I too began to weep. As I looked around me, I noticed others weeping too.

From the balcony, I looked down into the sanctuary, and it was then I noticed that the choir members were passing a box of facial tissues back and forth between them as they wept uncontrollably. Eventually, a teenager made his way down front and gave his testimony. When the whole event was over, it was well past ten o'clock.

We'd been there nearly four hours, but it seemed like just a couple. It was dark outside as my friend and I left for the parking lot. We recognized the pastor walking towards his car, and we ran up to him and inquired what had taken place before we arrived.

He told us, I had a message to preach tonight, but God moved in, so I just sat down and let the Holy Spirit run the service. We asked, well, what happened here tonight? The pastor was visibly exhausted. He slowly made his way to his car and turned and replied, we're dead people.

We are dead. That's all he said. I wouldn't leave it at that, so I ran up to him and begged him to tell me what he meant by that.

He looked me in the eye and said, well, you're dead people down here. We have died to ourselves. I cannot explain it any better than that.

With that, he got in his car and drove off into the night. Well, that was my first introduction to revival, and I was amazed, and the next day I made some phone calls to the church until I got the church secretary, and through her, we learned what had been transpiring in that church for a couple of weeks. It seemed earlier in the month there'd been a men's retreat led by an African missionary.

This missionary had gone through a personal tragedy where he had witnessed the slaughter of his wife by an angry anti-Christian mob that attacked their car on the road one night, and this left the missionary to raise three small kids on his own. He'd just come to this retreat on the heels of that tragedy, and the church had heard about how God was all over this missionary and doing marvelous things in Africa through his ministry, so they invited him to lead a men's retreat for their church, and it was during this time that God moved mightily among the men of the church during that weekend retreat. Their lives were turned upside down, and they were broken in humility and repentance before God.

They literally were new men, and when they returned home, they treated their wives with a new respect and love. They became the spiritual leader of the home, reading the Bible and leading their family in daily devotions. Well, soon the wives were so affected by this.

One night at church, the wives came to the altar and rededicated their lives to Christ. They confessed their sins and got right with God. Well, this apparently was too much for the teenagers at the church who soon saw the reality of God in the lives of their parents.

So one evening at church, the entire teenage membership came forward and gave their lives to Christ. That's what had happened that evening before we arrived at church that Saturday night. The teenagers had come forward.

That's why everyone was crying. God had sat down upon that church because the people of God were getting serious with God, and he poured out his Spirit. Soon others were brought to Christ in the surrounding neighborhood.

People met for prayer all hours of the night during the week, turning the house of God into a Bethel. Well, the aftereffects of this revival were lasting, and several months later, the member of this congregation pooled their financial resources and purchased the local abortion clinic and turned it into a Christian bookstore. When God shows up in revival, friends, by his manifest presence, it will often be felt by the entire community.

The main reason we must become familiar with true revivals of religion is to distinguish them from the false. Listen, friends, revival is not uncontrollable laughter or barking like a dog or roaring like a lion. Revival is not getting the heebie-jeebies and dancing like the prophets of Baal who hollered as they cut themselves.

These crazy antics are not true revival but false fire. You must learn to discern the difference. You can only learn that by studying revival.

Because Satan appears as an angel of light only by becoming familiar with how God has moved in former times, can we recognize him when he comes in our midst in true revival? Let us do our level best to learn all we can in the study and promotion of revival. We will now prepare for session six.