Revival Conference 2007 - Gareth Evans Interview

This is Gareth Evans, retired pastor from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, at Revival Conference 2007. Retired pastor and moderator at this event. Mr. Evans, in your words, what is Revival? I come from Wales, which is often referred to as the Land of Revival. I remember returning there to visit my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, with a pastor's wife from America. We sat around the table, and Vivian, my brother-in-law, started telling stories of the Welsh Revival. We were sitting in Lougher, the village where Evan Roberts grew up, and where Moriah Chapel, which the Revival was centred around, is situated. As Vivian told my friend about the stories of the Revival he'd heard from his boyhood, from his father and his grandfather, his grandfather was converted in that Revival. His father grew up in that Revival times. I watched the passion grow in. I watched the eyes fill with tears. At the end of that time, I asked him, tell me, Vivian, what was the major characteristic of the Welsh Revival? Was it the hymn singing? Was it the preaching of the word? What was the major characteristic? And he and his wife in unison replied, oh Gareth, it was the awesome presence of God. I would define Revival, and there are many definitions I understand. To me, when I speak of Revival, I speak of the awesome presence of God, seen by sinners and saints, when men fall before God in holy awe or in dreadful conviction. The awesome presence of God is the way I would define Revival. Thank you. Why do you believe we do not see a Revival today in North America? I truly believe that the problem lies in the church. I believe it is so easy to point fingers at the situation around us, at the world, the government, the entertainment industry. It's so easy to point fingers. I really believe the problem lies in the people of God. We have a great God, and his promises to us are abundant, but we're not living and walking in those promises. We're not abiding, as it were, in the promised land where we will see the walls of Jericho fall. We're relying too much upon our own efforts and our problems, and we've eliminated the Holy Spirit and his power from our church. Jesus said to the early church that when he comes upon you, he will give you power to be my witnesses. We have neglected to our great parent the third person, the Trinity. I believe we need to see the Holy Ghost allowed again to be the power in the lives of his people. What is our role as God's people in revival? It starts with ourselves. It starts with me. I remember Dr. Martin L. Jones said something like this, that revival is nothing more than a lot of God's people being filled with the Holy Spirit at the same time. I would love to see a passion in individuals, once again, to receive that fullness of the Holy Spirit that has transformed lives in the past. One can name many of the great saints of God who give testimony of a day when, though we walk with God in a Christian strength, in the exousia strength promised to us all, that they came into an experience of God with the unanimous power of God came upon them in mighty power. I think the tragedy where certain gifts of the Spirit become the criteria by which we measure if a person is filled with the Spirit has been a blow to many people who have now turned themselves against it in an experience of the Holy Spirit. I believe when God the Holy Spirit moves upon a person's life, transforms that life, empowers that life, revives that life, and that person comes into personal revival, that I think is a key way that we start seeing God step into the revival to his church, made up of an individual seeking personal revival through the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Brother Gareth, if you only had one more opportunity to address the church in North America, what would you say? Love one another. I cannot help but think on the night before he died, Jesus, knowing he was about to die, threw his disciples together in a baroom. There he promised us such wonderful things as peace and joy, peace the world cannot give or take away, joy that our joy might be full. He promised us the Holy Spirit to come to dwell in us, to lead us into truth, to speak of him, to glorify him in the church. Many wonderful promises. But he also asked of us in that baroom, I think, three major things. As he washed his disciples' feet, he then said to us, I want you to do likewise. I think he's telling us there that we need to always be an encouragement, a refreshment to one another. When I go to church, with the dirt of this world rubbing off on me from my work in the business or the office or the school or watching my television, when the dirt of this world comes upon us so easily, it is imperative we get together as brothers and sisters to wash one another's feet. I want to go to church to be refreshed for one of the reasons. I want to go to church to worship God. I want to go to church to hear God speak to me. I want to go to church to have my feet washed. I need that. I need the fellowship of God's people. Jesus washed their feet and said, do you to one another. Then he said these words, a new commandment I give you, that you love one another. He didn't give us an option. He didn't say love those of the same denomination or the same persuasion or the same style of worship. He didn't give us that option. He told us to love one another. First up, command of the king. And I think it's about time that people of God took this seriously and began to actively seek out to love one another. Instead of gossiping and criticizing and arguing and writing letters in the newspaper against other Christians and all this sort of evil nonsense. The king has commanded us to love one another. And there are no options. The third thing he said to his disciples in La Jolla with these words, if you love me, do what I tell you. To the church in North America, to the church in Canada, to the church in Wales, to my brothers and sisters around the world, I would say again, as Jesus would say, this new commandment I give you, love one another. Amen. Thank you very much for this. Thank you.