What Is Revival?
F. W. Boreham described the time when he tried to comfort a distressed woman in an Australian railway station. Upon leaving the train she discovered that she had lost her parasol, and it moved her to tears. He felt a compassionate urge to assist her in finding it. He inspected every carriage. He looked on and under every seat and in the luggage racks above them. When he had searched each carriage, he suddenly asked himself, “What is a parasol?” He realized that he had no idea for what he was seeking.
When it comes to seeking revival, is his dilemma any different from ours? Opinions abound concerning the subject of revival. Three reasons exist for the diversity in defining it.
First, revival is an operation of God. Finite man cannot comprehend the ways of an infinite God. As stated in Isaiah 55:9, His ways and thoughts are infinitely higher than ours.
Second, we are revival illiterate. Since the last coast to coast revival in this land was in 1858, we are among several generations to be born, to live and to die without witnessing a national revival. We have been guilty of attaching the label “revival” to everything-from an emotional experience to a planned evangelistic campaign. The current use of the term revival creates only more confusion and less understanding.
Third, defining reoccurring events is difficult, especially when these events include many foreign peoples who communicate in other languages. Culture, character and custom create variations, and some individuals may attach major significance to incidents of minor importance.
Creating a definition requires making a precise statement on the essential nature of a particular thing. Since many variables are involved in this task, I cautiously submit this definition for “revival” as the “sovereign, sudden, supernatural and selective operation of the Spirit of God. It begins amid prayer, creates purity and reaches the perishing.”
Exploring Characteristics of Revival
Sovereign means that there are no known human factors that create revival. It cannot be “pumped up” or “pulled down.” Sincere and godly men have written on how to organize and conduct a revival, but no outbreak has been recorded as the direct result of their efforts. Historical evidences and eyewitness reports prove the sovereign nature of revival. The great Scottish preacher, Dr. Alexander Whyte, touched during the 1859 awakening in Aberdeen declared, “There is a Divine mystery about revivals. God’s sovereignty is in them.”
Sudden describes a time characteristic of revival. Although a person might labor under the burden of sin for some time, a specific moment arrives when the burden becomes unbearable. For example a woman, in the middle of the street, in the middle of the block, in the middle of the city, in the middle of the day may suddenly fall on her knees and cry for pity from God and help from a neighbor. She needs to find immediate forgiveness for her sins.
Supernatural describes the physical events that often accompany revival. While there have been “quiet” revivals, God’s power and glory is often made manifest during revival. These manifestations have taken the form of prostrations, weeping, and songs of rapturous praise, as sinners come under the burden of sin and as saints become renewed.
Selective means that God chooses to operate within certain limits. Cultural, geographic and evangelical limits may be both difficult to define or describe but undeniably discernible.
Cultural limits confine the spread of revival to a particular group of people. For example, if we accept fishermen as a cultural entity in society, the last great revival in England came through this culture. The herring season in southeast England brought fishermen from as far away as northeast Scotland. Among them was a rugged, rough fisherman named Jock Troup, who had been saved a few years earlier. In October 1921, after the week’s catch was sold in the market place, he stood on a stall to preach to the crowd from Isaiah 63:1 on the Man of Bozrah, “mighty to save.” The power of God fell in flames of revival. When these Scottish fishermen returned to their native ports, the revival accompanied them, touching every fishing village on Scotland’s east coast and spreading exclusively through contact with those fishermen.
Geographic limits restrain revival to a specific region or location. In 1859 the revival that touched all four countries in Great Britain was actually distinct movements. The Welsh experience existed in two languages, Welsh and English, but only touched one neighboring county in England. What might be the geographic limits of a revival today, with our present technology of laser beams, orbiting satellites and satellite dishes?
Evangelical limits mark the movement of revival among churches. Revival has erupted almost exclusively in Bible-believing, soul-winning churches. While revival came to many of the nonconformist churches, it visited only those state and denominational churches adhering to Biblical tenets.
Understanding the Causes and Results of Revival
Prayer always precedes any overt manifestation of the Spirit. Since the movement of the Spirit is sovereign, prayer cannot force revival to happen, but revival never happens in the absence of prayer. Perhaps those individuals who chronicle revivals should note the date of the revival to the prayer meetings, making prayer an effect rather than a cause.
A case in point is the Island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, in the northwest of Scotland. Churches closed because of a lack of public interest. After the Presbyter circulated a petition towards “repentance” to be read in each parish church, an 84-yearold blind woman suggested to the minister to try prayer. When he arranged for a prayer meeting every Tuesday and Friday evening to last until 4 A.M., the woman promised that she and her sister would engage in the same prayer vigil. The prayer meetings consisted of seven men and two women, who claimed the promise of Isaiah 44:3, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.”
The minister invited Duncan Campbell to come and preach for ten days. He declined the invitation, as he was scheduled to speak elsewhere in Scotland. The old woman assured the minister that God would bring him there in spite of his plans. When his previous engagement was canceled, Campbell travelled to the island. During Campbell’s first night on the island, people crammed into the building, and the service, which began at 7 P.M., did not end until 2 A.M. As the crowds increased, the minister scheduled nightly services at 7 P.M., 10 P.M., 1 A.M. and 3 A.M. Campbell acknowledged that he did not bring revival to the island. “It was there before I ever went. It began in that praying group.”
Purity means that souls sense their sin. After the revelation of God’s sovereignty, there comes the revelation of His holiness. People with antiseptic morality suddenly realize the presence of their sin-infected hearts. This conviction weighs them down as a heavy burden, but its release creates such a joy that cannot be suppressed.
For example, during the 1923 revival in Northern Ireland, a converted shipyard worker returned stolen goods, after feeling deep conviction for the wrong he had done. Others started following his example, until the management forgave every past offense and begged their employees to stop returning stolen goods. As their appeals went unheeded, the shipyard companies had to erect special buildings just to store the returned tools.
Perishing implies that unsaved people become the burden of those affected by revival, and their communities become aware of a strange and overpowering consciousness of God. Street meetings were conducted to accommodate the crowds attending the prayer meetings, not to evangelize the lost. The burden for perishing people found its expression in prayer meetings. Deeply concerned individuals offered petitions in prayer for the salvation of lost souls. Although there was a marked absence of solicitation among the unsaved during times of revival, the principle method of evangelism was “prayer.” Churches swelled as the effect of prayer exploded.
By exploring the characteristics of revival—its sovereign, sudden, supernatural and selective nature—and by describing the causes and effects of revival— prayer, purity and evangelization of perishing souls—I hope God’s people will be better equipped to ponder and seek revival for their own hearts, local churches and communities. Yet, one fundamental is certain: if God rewards those who “humble themselves, and pray, and seek [his] face, and turn from their wicked ways … [by healing] their land” (2 Chron. 7:14), it is our collective responsibility to pray from the depths of our innermost beings, “0 Lord, heal our land!”
(Originally published in FrontLine • Summer/1994. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.)
At the time of original publication, we offered this bio for our author: Ken Connolly founded and pastored Berean Baptist Church in Orange, California. He is a popular speaker and writer, and is in demand for Bible conferences and special meetings. Dr. Connolly has recently accepted the Chair of Expositional Preaching at the Tabernacle Baptist Seminary in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Dr. Connolly passed away on October 28th, 2005. Other resources from his ministry are available here.
Photo public domain from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, licensed under Public Domain Dedication (CC0 1.0) and archived at Look and Learn.