The Wrong Side of Revival
”You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
— James 4:2-3
What happens when you put diesel fuel in a car made for running solely on gasoline? Depending on the car and the quantity, any number of malfunctions are possible, such as misfiring, stalling, and other often irreparable damages to the engine.
This isn’t a lesson on automobile mechanics, but the analogy serves to remind us that just because something is put in, a good result is not necessarily the consequence. Just because we do something, doesn’t mean that the results will help us or anyone else.
Revival.
That’s a common church word but pregnant with more meaning than it usually has a chance to give us. We’re revival-ed out, inundated with meetings and conferences and experiences that have the ring of revival but oftentimes lack any of the scriptural emphases that mark it as real. And in many cases it isn’t revival that is needed—the reenergizing of saints to spiritual heights—but vival—the regeneration and life-giving change of sinners—that is called for because of the epidemic of unsaved church members in our day.
We all know that prayers asking God for His divine interaction with us is a key to experiencing spiritual revitalization. Meetings without prayer will never be movements of God. However, when we pray (if we pray) are we asking in the right spirit? Are we praying for the right things?
Around our church, I’ve made it habit to try and refrain from calling our scheduled meetings “revivals” simply because I don’t want us to assume we will have revival. We will meet, pray, fellowship, worship and have the declaration of God’s Word but I want to be under no allusions that we are entitled to be revived just because we say that’s what we’re doing. History has shown us time and again how delicate the spiritual experiences of Christians can be, easily being tipped away from the healthy and useful into the realm of dangerous and manipulative. At best, going into special times of reflection without proper preparation, confession and prayer can just be wasted time and at worst, it can do great harm to churches and individual souls.
In 1994, writer and theologian Iain Murray published a book with the striking title Revivals and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism 1750-1858 which is a history of revivals just beyond the First Great Awakening in America, yet it also reads like a field guide to many of the controversies and misconceptions about revival that still plague the Church today. In the book, Murray argues from a biblical standpoint that revival is God using ordinary means to effect extraordinary change. Revivalism is man trying to use extraordinary means to bring the same extraordinary, supernatural change. Tracing the trends of manufactured attempts to repeat divine movements of special note such as the strange experiences of Edwards’ and Whitefield’s day, Murray describes the uptick in sensationalized and emotionalized tactics to manipulate parishioners into a mood and atmosphere of revival without dependence on the Sovereign Holy Spirit to effect real changes and bring real revival. How much more so has that kind of religious trickery infected our churches today!
When praying for revival, we as individuals must start at home. Before we seek the changes and advancements of our fellows, we have to be willing to undergo Heaven’s examinations and make the proper changes of repentance and confession. Repentance, which means a conscious awareness and abhorrence of our sin, is crucial to salvation and to all the graces and virtues that come with salvation, including moments of revival. We call on men to “open themselves to God” to receive His blessing but if we are aware we have no strength or ability of ourselves to “open” that door, we would justly seek help and stop trying to do it alone. Daniel Rowland, another useful Christian witness of yesterday’s past awakenings, said, “When I perceive my own indigence and weakness, I will turn all of God’s demands into petitions. When He saith, ‘Turn! Turn!’ I will earnestly and eagerly cry out, ‘Turn me, and I shall be turned.’”
Instead of cheerleading, manipulating, or otherwise trying to counterfeit the “turning”, let’s simply pray “Lord, turn me. Turn us.” Instead of trying to copy what other times and peoples have experienced, let’s pray for what is needed for us now. Forget the blueprints and the formulas; let’s simply bow and cry out as others have that God would be pleased to visit with us, heal our people, and cleanse us of iniquity, idolatry, and complacency.
When we come to a place of awareness that revival is needed, let’s not pray selfish, entitled, empty prayers. Let’s repent of the spirit that covets what we don’t need and harms the innocent around us. Ask in faith, but not in the flesh. And let’s not waste what God does bring us.
“All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One come down. Brethren, pray, and holy manna will be showered all around.”
Blessings. SDG.