Over the last week I have heard a lot of history on revival, mostly the history of the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles that started in April of 1906. How the 1904 Welsh revival had a hand in bringing it about, and ho the result of that revival was the birthing of numerous Pentecostal movements.
I got to thinking, Revival is something that Christians ask for , there are songs about it, there are prayers said in untold numbers of churches across the world each week for it. And aside from smaller awakening of the recent history (the Toronto blessing, the Pensacola outpouring etc come to mind)
But we have not seen anything of the magnitude of say the Welsh Revival - which history shows had a vast effect, not only on the nation itself, But that also spread way beyond the borders of the nation.
I mean look at some of the impact the welsh revival had - where a conservative estimate of 150,000 people were saved during the first 6 months, Public houses became almost empty. Men and women who used to waste their money in getting drunk were now saving it, giving it to help their churches, buying clothes and food for their families. And not only drunkenness, but stealing and other offences grew less and less so that often a magistrate came to court and found there were no cases for him. Men whose language had been filthy before learnt to talk purely. It is related that not only did the colliers put in a better day's work, but also that the pit ponies turned disobedient! The ponies were so used to being cursed and sworn at that they just didn't understand when orders were given in kind, clean words! The dark tunnels underground in the mines echoed with the sounds of prayer and hymns, instead of oaths and nasty jokes and gossip.
People who had been careless about paying their bills, or paying back money they had borrowed, paid up all they owed.
People who had not been friends for a long time because of something that had happened in the past, forgot their quarrels and were happy together again.
People who had been careless about paying their bills, or paying back money they had borrowed, paid up all they owed.
People who had not been friends for a long time because of something that had happened in the past, forgot their quarrels and were happy together again.
So I thought to myself, what do these great revivals have in common?
I came across this website - Banner of Truth
I have copied a section of the article that caught my attention, and I would recommend reading it all from the link above - but here's what I have been thinking about alot today
So what do all these revivals hold in common? First, mighty prayer, fuelled by an intolerable burden of present circumstances, moved God’s people to pray for his glory to come down, for his praise to be in all the earth. The one hundred and twenty met in the upper room after Jesus’ ascension and prayed for ten days for the promised Holy Spirit to come. The Presbyterian Church in Connor, prior to the Ulster revival, had one hundred weekly small group prayer meetings.3 The revival in New York City in 1858 4 and Wales in 1904 were both ignited by mighty prayer.
Second, all of these revivals, including the ones happening currently, occurred in the absence of modernity. By modernity I mean all of our modern conveniences — twenty-four hour sports, news, weather, and movies, internet, cell phones, iPods, etc. Even the awakenings occurring in China, Algeria, India, and Iran are largely among the poor, those who do not have access to our modern conveniences. Why is this? I suggest our affluence and all it buys is killing us spiritually. There is too much noise, too many distractions, too many 'lesser' things to steal away our hearts from sincere devotion to Jesus. We are too easily satisfied with 'cotton candy' when we need a nutritional meal. You know how it goes — you purpose to be more earnest in prayer and Bible study and attending your small group weekly covenant group, but you cannot resist the desire to sit in front of your computer until midnight, looking at Facebook or checking out various news or sports websites.
Second, all of these revivals, including the ones happening currently, occurred in the absence of modernity. By modernity I mean all of our modern conveniences — twenty-four hour sports, news, weather, and movies, internet, cell phones, iPods, etc. Even the awakenings occurring in China, Algeria, India, and Iran are largely among the poor, those who do not have access to our modern conveniences. Why is this? I suggest our affluence and all it buys is killing us spiritually. There is too much noise, too many distractions, too many 'lesser' things to steal away our hearts from sincere devotion to Jesus. We are too easily satisfied with 'cotton candy' when we need a nutritional meal. You know how it goes — you purpose to be more earnest in prayer and Bible study and attending your small group weekly covenant group, but you cannot resist the desire to sit in front of your computer until midnight, looking at Facebook or checking out various news or sports websites.
The first part we can do with a little discipline - prayer is something that we can conscientiously choose to engage in for revival, so great - that's one thing to get the people of God going after.(some already do)
But its the second part - Can true revival come in our instant society. In a world where we can get our meals in minutes (take aways, microwave meals etc) where we can have things on demand - pause TV, playback TV, even watch the shows we miss on the Internet, all of this while on the move through smart phones that are often smarter than the people carrying them.
If its true that all previous revivals have been in the absence of modernity, can we see it in our lives/nations etc in such power with all the mod cons of today's world.
I don't mean can God do it, because we know that nothing is impossible for God, we have to be available, and willing to be used - Isaiah 6:8
What I mean is in our instant coffee, immediate 'I don't wait for anything' culture, can we really be open to God using us.
Its a challenge for me, its something I put to you - surely our facebook induced nature should be a help towards spreading the good new of the gospel - but do you and I make it a hindrance to the move of the Holy Spirit?
