| As individuals and churches are renewed they prepare the way for revival
in the land. A spiritual awakening touches the community when God's Spirit
moves in power. Often this awakening begins in people earnestly praying
for and expecting revival.
Arthur Wallis (1956:20,23) observes: Numerous writings .. confirm that revival
is Divine intervention in the normal course of spiritual things. 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. .
Revival must of necessity make an impact on the community and this is one
means by which we may distinguish it from the more usual operations of the
Holy Spirit.
Edwin Orr's research indicated that 'A spiritual awakening is a movement
of the Holy Spirit bringing about a revival of New Testament Christianity
in the Church of Christ and its related community. .. It accomplishes the
reviving of the Church, the awakening of the masses and the movements of
uninstructed people toward the Christian faith; the revived church by many
or few is moved to engage in evangelism, teaching and social action' (1975:
vii-viii).
Roy Hession (1973:11,23) noted that the outward forms of revivals do, of
course, differ considerably, but the inward and permanent content of them
is always the same: a new experience of conviction of sin among the saints;
a new vision of the Cross and of Jesus and of redemption; a new willingness
on man's part for brokenness, repentance, confession, and restitution; a
joyful experience of the power of the blood of Jesus to cleanse fully from
sin and restore and heal all that sin has lost and broken; a new entering
into the fullness of the Holy Spirit and of His power to do His own work
through His people; and a new gathering in of the lost ones to Jesus..
Revival is just the life of the Lord Jesus poured into human hearts. |