"WHAT IS REVIVAL?"

Arthur Wallis, In The Day of Thy Power, P. 20 says, "It is God revealing Himself to man in awesome holiness and irresistible power. It is such a manifest working of God that human personalities are overshadowed and human programs abandoned. It is man retiring into the background because God has taken the field. It is the Lord...working in extraordinary power on saint and sinner." 

REPORT ON REVIVAL MEETINGS IN N. QUEBEC:

Recently, I was with the Cree First Nations people of N. Quebec.  What I witnessed the last night in the big tent in Misstissini reminded me of the outpouring that happened in the early 90's.  There were waves of Glory as the Mighty Holy Spirit touched His people.  God is doing it again!  Hallelujah!

REVIVAL CHARACTERISTICS

(Fisher, Reviving Revivals, pp. 63-64 summarizes nine outstanding characteristics of major revivals:)

1. They occurred in a day of deep moral darkness and national depression.
2. They began in the heart of one consecrated servant of God who became the energizing power behind it, the agent used of God to quicken and lead the nation back to faith in and obedience to Him.
3. Each revival rested on the Word of God, and most were the result of preaching and proclaiming God's law with power.
4. All resulted in a return to the worship of Jehovah.
5. Each witnessed the destruction of idols where they existed.
6. In each revival, there was a recorded separation from sin.
7. In every revival, they returned to offering blood sacrifices (Old Testament revivals).
8. Almost all recorded revivals show a restoration of great joy and gladness.
9. Each revival was followed by a period of great national prosperity.

 FEATURES OF REVIVALISTS

John Gillies, in his 1795 classic, Accounts of Revivalists, noted what he perceived to be the marks of a revivalist. Here is a summary of those characteristics.

• They were earnest about the great work of the ministry on which they had entered...They felt as ministers of the Gospel they dared not act otherwise; they dared not throw less than their whole soul into the conflict; they dared not take their ease...they dared not be indifferent to the issue when professing to lead on the hosts of the living God against the armies of the prince of darkness.
• They were bent upon success; to be indifferent to their office would have been to "prove themselves nothing short of traitors to Him and to His cause. As warriors they set their hearts on victory and fought in faith anticipating triumph under the guidance of such a Captain."
• They were men of faith. They plowed and sought in hope. They knew, in due season, they would reap if they did not faint. They had confidence in God, in their Savior's commission, in the promise of Scripture and the Holy Spirit's almighty power and grace.
• They were men of labor. They bore the burden and the heat of the day...freely offered to the Lord,  keeping back nothing, grudging nothing, joyfully, thankfully, surrendering all to Him who loved them. They labored for eternity as men who knew the time was short and the day of recompense was at hand.
• They were men of patience. They were not discouraged though they had to labor long without seeing all the fruit they desired. They were not soon weary in well-doing.
• They were men of boldness and determination. Enemies might oppose, timid friends might hesitate, but they pressed forward, in nothing terrified by difficulty or opposition. It requires more than natural courage to face natural danger and difficulty. There is, in our own day, a still greater need for moral boldness, in order to neutralize the fear of man, the dread of public opinion--that god of our idolatry in this last age, which boasts of superior enlightenment, and which would bring everything to the test of reason or decide it by the votes of the majority.
• They were men of prayer. It is true they labored much, visited much, studied much, but they also prayed much. In this they did abound. They were much alone with God replenishing their own souls.
• They were men of most decided doctrine both in law and Gospel. There was a breadth and a power in their preaching--a glow and an energy about their thoughts and words--that makes us feel they were "men of might". Their trumpet gave no feeble, uncertain sound either to saint or sinner, the church or the world.
• They were men of solemn character and deep spirituality. Their daily work furnished the best illustration of what they preached. No frivolity, flippancy, worldly carnality or companionships neutralized their public preaching or marred the work they were seeking to accomplish. They lived what they preached.  (end of quote)

Charles Finney succinctly defined revival as "nothing more or less than a new beginning of obedience to the Word of God."

WHAT HINDERS REVIVAL?

Someone answered that question with this profound statement:  We do not have men and women who are prepared to pay the same price to preach the same message and have the same power as those revivalists of the past!

With Christ's affection,

Flo Ellers

NO PORTION OF THIS ARTICLE MAY BE REPRODUCED, DUPLICATED, ALTERED OR FORWARDED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF DR. FLO ELLERS.  THANK YOU!