Daily Revival Challenge
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
The Fire of Revival - Vance Havner
The conditions today are just about much the same as they were in the times of Elijah. We’re living in a spiritual drought. There’s a famine of the hearing the Word of the Lord. Ahab and Jezebel sit in high places. Idolatry abounds. And yet God has His faithful remnant. We need an Elijah who can face Ahab and call convocation on Carmel, a confrontation with Baal, and a showdown with forces of evil.
We’re a little short on prophets. We need to rebuild the broken altar and put the sacrifice of a dedicated life thereupon. But before we can expect any fire from heaven, we must drench the altar. I’ve heard plenty of preaching about rebuilding the altar. I’ve heard sermons about presenting our body as living sacrifice. But the hardest lesson for anybody in Christian service to learn is that we cannot help God out in the slightest by warming up the altar in the energy of the flesh.
We try to start a fire of our own and think that’ll help out God’s fire. It won’t do it. We’re ashamed to be laughed at by the world. We don’t dare face the Midianites with Gideon’s band, so we mob-o-lize. We don’t mobilize, we mob-o-lize a multitude who know little and care less about spiritual warfare, who never have understood that the Bible is the Lord’s and the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. We’re afraid to face old Goliath today with sling and stone. We want to wear the latest equipment, and Saul’s armory is working overtime. We must be up-to-date and borrow all the technique of the world to do the work of God. But you can’t organize revivals as you do secular things, as the world puts on its drives and campaigns.
You can’t run a church as you would a business corporation. You can’t work up mere human enthusiasm to put over the work of the Lord. We all give lip service, of course, to the Holy Spirit: “Not by might nor power, but by my Spirit” (Zech. 4:6). We sing, “Kindle a flame of sacred love in these cold hearts of ours” (Isaac Watts, “Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,” 1707). But actually we’re so wired up to our own devices that if the fire doesn’t fall from heaven, we can turn on a switch and produce some false fire of our own. And if there’s no sound of a mighty rushing wind, we’ve got the bellows all set to blow hot air instead.
But God answers by fire, not by feelings, not by fame, not by finances. You can blow up quite a blaze today on Carmel. We can do it, yes. But people are not crying out today, “The LORD, he is the God” (1 Kings 18:39). 1
1 Vance Hanver, When God Breaks Through: Sermons on Revival, edited and complied by Dennis J. Hester (Grand Rapids, MI; Kregel Publications, 2003), 54-55.
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Wednesday, April 7, 2010
What Is Revival? - Billy Sunday
“Somebody asks, ‘What is revival?’ Revival is a purely philosophical, common-sense result of divinely appointed means, just the same as water will put out a fire; the same as food will appease your hunger; just the same as water will slake your thirst; it is a philosophical common-sense use of divinely appointed means to accomplish that end. Revival is just as much horse sense as that.
“Revival is not material; it does not depend upon material means. It is a false idea that there is something peculiar in it, that it cannot be judged by ordinary rules, causes and effects. That is nonsense. Above your head there is an electric light. That is effect. What is the cause? Why, the dynamo. Religion can be judged on the same basis of cause and effect. If you do a thing, results always come. The results come to the farmer. He has his crops. That is the result. [However,] he has to plow and plant and take care of his farm before the crops come.
“Religion needs a baptism of horse sense. That is just pure horse sense. I believe there is no doctrine more dangerous to the Church today than to convey the impression that a revival is something peculiar in itself and cannot be judged by the same rules of causes and effects as other things. If you preach that to the farmers – if you go to a farmer and say, ‘God is sovereign,’ [though] that is true; if you say, ‘God will give you crops only when it pleases him, and it is no use for you to plow your ground and plant your crops in the spring,’ that is all wrong. If you preach that doctrine and expect the farmers to believe it this country will starve to death in two years. The churches have been preaching some false doctrines and religion has died out.
“Some people thing that [revival of] religion is a good deal like a storm. They sit around and fold their arms, and that is what is the matter. You sit in your pews so easy that you become mildewed. Such results will be sure to follow if you are persuaded that religion is something mysterious and has no natural connection between the means and the end. It has a natural connection of common sense, and I believe that when divinely appointed means are used spiritual blessing will accrue to the individuals and the community in greater numbers than temporal blessings. You can have spiritual blessings as regularly as the farmer can have corn, wheat, oats, or you can have potatoes, onions, and cabbage in your garden. I believe that spiritual results will follow more surely than temporal blessings. I don’t believe all this tommy-rot of false doctrines. You might as well sit around beneath the shade and fan yourself and say, “Ain’t it hot?” as to expect God to give you a crop, if you don’t plow the ground and plant the seed. Until the Church resorts to the use of divinely appointed means, it won’t get the blessing.” (Billy Sunday: The Man and His Message, William T. Ellis, Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co., 1914)
“Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you” (Hosea 10:12).
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Tuesday, April 6, 2010
National Revival Is Still Possible! - Dwight Smith
This text from a friend landed in my inbox and alerted me to its arrival some months ago. It captured my attention so vividly, I had to call him and discuss it. The conversation that followed proved to be a huge help in shaping my own thinking on revival. My preacher friend told how, while reading Jonah, he was suddenly struck by two thoughts.
First, the people of Nineveh did not deserve to be forgiven. They were known all around as pagan, cultic, idol-worshipping barbarians. They would butcher people at a whim and had little to no conscience concerning God’s moral Law! This was the city ruled by the infamous Sennacherib, who had laid siege against Jerusalem under Hezekiah’s reign. The inhabitants of this “great” city had a sordid reputation of blatant blasphemy, unspeakable immorality, and overall decadence. Still God longed to forgive them!
He is a God “ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness” (Nehemiah 9:17). In fact, He “will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7). He “is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (II Peter 3:9). He has no “pleasure at all that the wicked should die” (Ezekiel 18:23). Though He is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, He came “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). Think of it, God knows everything about us, yet he still loves us and wants to save us from our sins! This gives us hope that, though our world abounds with wickedness, God still can and still wants to rescue the most wretched sinner. Truly, our God is “mighty to save” (Isaiah 63:1).
Second, and most astounding, is the fact that Jonah was a preacher who did not deserve to be used. When God initially told him “Go,” Jonah said, “No.” He fled to Tarshish which was in the opposite direction of Ninevah. Some have concluded that Jonah even had relatives who had been brutalized by the people of this city. In all, it took a frightening storm, a blown cover, an unsaved captain’s rebuke, and three nights of paid accommodations in the belly of a great fish to change Jonah’s stubborn mind. After his obvious repentance, God tickled the fish’s belly, and Jonah was vomited onto land. He quickly made the journey to Ninevah and preached a message of judgment, as he pulled seaweed out of his beard. Still, after the greatest recorded revival in the Bible, Jonah stuck his thumb in his mouth and held a pity party, because God gave mercy to the wicked population of this urban jungle! This preacher was a grade A, capital letter BUM!
Yet before we raise our condemning finger against Jonah, we need to look at his sad example and see our own pitiful reflection. As believers, we know the last words of Jesus were, “Go” (Matthew 28:19), yet too often we answer with a stubborn, “No!” Are there, in fact, unsaved folks that we despise, avoid, disdain, or loath? Perhaps it is because of their skin color, their ethnic background, their outward appearance, their filthy habits, their blaspheming mouth, or you fill in the blank. Maybe our “No” is not so blatant, but is just a subtle refusal. We are too busy; we don’t know how; we don’t have someone to accompany us on the soulwinning venture; we don’t have the personality necessary, we’ve never been through an instruction course, etc. Spin it out how you choose, but it is still the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. It is just cover for our own rebellious lack of surrender (Romans 12:1-2)!
Then when folks do get saved, and God begins to stir in hearts, do we show the prayerful excitement and enthusiasm that we ought? Many times, suspicion clouds our demeanor. Maybe critique is the best we can offer. Both responses are rooted in unbelief, fatalism, and despair! The ten spies crying “We can’t” are still alive and well! There must be someone who will join Joshua and Caleb and shout, “But God can!” How sad our disobedience and unbelief must make the heart of God! Yet He still longs to use us, in spite of our failures and faithlessness! Amazing! We find him reasoning gently with Jonah to the very end of this short book!
What a God! He wants to remake and use the marred vessel of Jeremiah 18:4. He wants to touch the lips that denied him before the fires of the heathen and use them to reach multitudes at Pentecost (Acts 2). He longs to give doubting Thomas another chance to see and believe (John 20). He seeks to forgive a harlot named Rahab and include her in the lineage of Christ (Matthew 1:5). If He can use these, and He can use Jonah, praise God, He can use me, and He can use you!
The above truths give a clear testimony that revival is not connected to our ability to become forgivable or our capacity to be used. Instead revival is wrapped up in the nature and character of God! And because Jesus Christ is the “same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), National Revival is Still Possible!
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Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Why Revival Tarries - Prayer That Grasps Eternity - Leonard Ravenhill
"No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shopwindow to display one's talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off.
Poverty-stricken as the Church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of praver. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.
The two prerequisites to successful Christian living are vision and passion, both of which are born in and maintained by prayer. The ministry of preaching is open to few; the ministry of prayer-the highest ministry of all human offices-is open to all. Spiritual adolescents say, "I'll not go tonight, it's only the prayer meeting." It may be that Satan has little cause to fear most preaching. Yet past experiences sting him to rally all his infernal army to fight against God's people praying. Modern Christians know little of "binding and loosing," though the onus is on us-"Whatsoever ye shall bind...” Have you done any of this lately? God is not prodigal with His power; but to be much for God, we must be much with God.
This world hits the trail for hell with a speed that makes our fastest plane look like a tortoise; yet alas, few of us can remember the last time we missed our bed for a night of waiting upon God for a world-shaking revival. Our compassions are not moved. We mistake the scaffolding for the building. Present-day preaching, with its pale interpretation of divine truths, causes us to mistake action for unction, commotion for creation, and rattles for revivals.
The secret of praying is praying in secret. A sinning man will stop praying, and a praying man will stop sinning. We are beggared and bankrupt, but not broken, nor even bent.
Prayer is profoundly simple and simply profound. "Prayer is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try," and yet so sublime that it outranges all speech and exhausts man's vocabulary. A Niagara of burning words does not mean that God is either impressed or moved. One of the most profound of Old Testament intercessors had no language "Her lips moved, but her voice was not heard." No linguist here! There are groanings which cannot be uttered."
Are we so substandard to New Testament Christianity that we know not the historical faith of our fathers (with its implications and operations), but only the hysterical faith of our fellows? Prayer is to the believer what capital is to the business man.
Can any deny that in the modern church setup the main cause of anxiety is money? Yet that which tries the modern churches the most, troubled the New Testament Church the least. Our accent is on paying, theirs was on praying. When we have paid, the place is taken; when they had prayed, the place was shaken!
In the matter of New Testament, Spirit-inspired, hell-shaking, world-breaking prayer, never has so much been left by so many to so few. For this kind of prayer there is no substitute. We do it--or die!
Taken from Why Revival Tarries, by Leonard Ravenhill. Copyright 1959, Leonard Ravenhill. Published by Bethany House Publishers.
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Saturday, March 13, 2010
What is Revival? - Charles Finney
It presupposes that the church is sunk down in a backslidden state, and a revival consists in the return of the Church from her backslidings and the conversion of sinners.
1. The foundations of sin need to be broken up. A revival always includes conviction of sin on the part of the church. Backslidden professors cannot wake up and begin right away in the service of God without deep searchings of heart. The fountains of sin need to be broken up. In a true revival, Christians are always brought under such conviction; they see their sins in such a light that often they find it impossible to maintain a hope of their acceptance with God. It does not always go to that extent, but there are always, in a genuine revival, deep convictions of sin, and often cases of abandoning all hope.
2. Revival is a new beginning of obedience with God. Just as in the case of a converted sinner, the first step is a deep repentance, a breaking down of heart, a getting down into the dust before God, with humility, and a forsaking of sin.
3. Backslidden Christians will be brought to repentance. A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God. Just as in the case of a converted sinner, the first step is a deep repentance, a breaking down of heart, a getting down into the dust before God, with deep humility, and a forsaking of sin.
4. Christians will have their faith renewed. While they are in their Backslidden state they are blind to the state of sinners. Their hearts are hard as marble. The truths of the Bible appear like a dream. They admit it to be all true; their conscience and their judgment assent to it; but their faith does not see it standing out in bold relief, in all the burning realities of eternity. But when they enter into a revival, they no longer see "men as trees, walking," but they see things in that strong light which will renew the love of God in their hearts. This will lead them to labor zealously to bring others to Him. They will feel grieved that others do not love God, when they love Him so much. And they will set themselves feelingly to persuade their neighbors to give Him their hearts. So their love to men will be renewed. They will be filled with a tender and burning love for souls. They will have a longing desire for the salvation of the whole world. They will be in an agony for individuals whom they want to have saved--their friends, relations, enemies. They will not only be urging them to give their hearts to God, but they will carry them to God in the arms of faith, and with strong crying and tears beseech God to have mercy on them, and save their souls from endless burnings.
5. A revival breaks the power of the world and of sin over Christians. It brings them to such vantage ground that they get a fresh impulse towards heaven; they have a new foretaste of heaven, and new desires after union with God; thus the charm of the world is broken, and the power of sin overcome.
6. When the Churches are thus awakened and reformed, the reformation and salvation of sinners will follow. Their hearts will be broken down and changed. Very often the most abandoned profligates are among the subjects. Harlots, and drunkards, and infidels, and all sorts of abandoned characters, are awakened and converted. The worst of human beings are softened and reclaimed, and made to appear as lovely specimens of the beauty of holiness.
7. When a revival can be expected? A revival may be expected when Christians have a spirit of prayer for a revival. That is, when they pray as if their hearts were set upon it. When Christians have the spirit of prayer for a revival. When they go about groaning out their hearts desire. When they have real travail of soul.
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Thursday, March 11, 2010
“In Due Season, We Shall Reap” – Dwight Smith
The year was 1950, when a local church pastor, named Daniel Breen, became burdened for an area in northern Minnesota. He knew of an evangelist who traveled extensively preaching the gospel and asked him if he would be willing to come and hold tent meetings in a town called Pengilly near Swan Lake. The evangelist agreed to come and the Christian laymen decided to fund the meeting in its entirety.
Believers were made aware of the crusade, a group of prayer warriors was organized, flyers were printed and distributed, a tent was set up, the gospel musicians came to sing, and the preacher began to preach. All of this energy was put forth with the hope and prayer that lives would be touched with the power of the gospel.
Art Smith, a resident of Pengilly, stopped by the little country store of his town on his way home from work and noticed a flyer announcing these meetings. Something peaked his interest and he came home, told his wife, Helen and his two sons, Don and Dave, to get ready and brought them to the first night of the meeting. They enjoyed the friendly atmosphere. The gospel songs were appealing, and the plain, Bible preaching was unlike any they had ever heard before. So, they returned each night of the meeting. Art and his family were members at an area church but it was liberal, and the leadership had turned their backs on the Bible long ago. In fact, this area-wide tent meeting was the first place they had ever heard God’s way to heaven.
The last night came and went and neither Art nor his family had trusted Christ. However, the Spirit of God had begun to work, and He wasn’t finished yet. Later, the youngest son, David, went to a summer Christian camp and was saved. Then, through the clear witness of a children’s Evangelist, the oldest son, Don, believed the gospel. Then Mrs. Helen Smith was born again. All of these obvious conversions brought deep conviction to Art, and finally, He trusted Christ in the furnace room of their tiny basement.
Later, Art and Helen’s boys trained for the ministry in an area Bible-Institute. They both married Christian ladies and became preachers of the gospel. Art had eight grandchildren, all of whom have placed their faith in Jesus for salvation. Each of the grandchildren married Christian spouses and are teaching and training their families in the things of God. One of Art’s granddaughters married a preacher, and one of Art’s grandsons became an evangelist. Art has a great-granddaughter who married a man
that pastors in Florida and is faithfully preaching the gospel. In short, two and three generations from Art Smith, folks are still getting saved and called to preach in the Smith family!
How did it all begin, someone obeyed God and came to Pengilly, MN with the gospel, someone interceded, someone invested money, someone pitched a gospel tent, someone sang, someone preached, someone put up a flyer, someone brought a friend, and someone believed God. Maybe someone wondered if it was worth it. I, for one, can say it was. Art Smith was my grandfather. Don Smith is my dad. I am the grandson who answered God’s call to be an evangelist. Someday, in Heaven, I’m going to look up the someones who invested into that area-wide meeting and tell them it was worth every sacrifice they made! “Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9).
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Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The Kind of Revival We Need – Charles Haddon Spurgeon
It is good for us to draw nigh unto God in prayer. Our minds are grieved to see so little attention given to united prayer by many churches.
How can we expect a blessing if we are too idle to ask for it? How can we look for a Pentecost if we never meet with one another, in one place, to wait upon the Lord? Brethren, we shall never see much change for the better in our churches till the prayer meeting occupies a higher place in the esteem of Christians.
But now that we have come together, how shall we pray? Let us not degenerate into formality, or we shall be dead while we think we live. Let us not waiver through unbelief, or we shall pray in vain. Oh, for great faith with which to offer great prayers!
We have been mingling praise and prayer together as a delicious compound of spices, fit to be presented upon the altar of incense through Christ our Lord; may we not at this time offer some special far-reaching petition? It is suggested to me that we pray for a true and genuine revival of religion throughout the world.
A Real and Lasting Revival
I am glad of any signs of life, even if they should be feverish and transient, and I am slow to judge any well intended movement, but I am very fearful that many so called revivals in the long run wrought more harm than good. A species of religious gambling has fascinated many men, and given them a distaste for the sober business of true godliness.
But if I would nail down counterfeits upon the counter, I do not therefore undervalue true gold. Far from it. It is to be desired beyond measure that the Lord would send a real and lasting revival of spiritual life.
We need a work of the Holy Spirit of a supernatural kind, putting power into the preaching of the Word, inspiring all believers with heavenly energy, and solemnly affecting the hearts of the careless, so that they turn to God and live. We would not be drunk with the wine of carnal excitement, but we would be filled with the Spirit. We would behold the fire descending from heaven in answer to the effectual fervent prayers of righteous men. Can we not entreat the Lord our God to make bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the people in this day of declension and vanity?
Old-fashioned Doctrine
We want a revival of old-fashioned doctrine. I know not a single doctrine which is not at this hour studiously undermined by those who ought to be its defenders. There is not a truth that is precious to the soul which is not now denied by those whose profession it is to proclaim it. To me it is clear that we need a revival of old-fashioned gospel preaching like that of Whitefield and Wesley.
The Scriptures must be made the infallible foundation of all teaching; the ruin, redemption and regeneration of mankind must be set forth in unmistakable terms.
Personal Godliness
Urgently do we need a revival of personal godliness. This is, indeed, the secret of church prosperity. When individuals fall from their steadfastness, the church is tossed to and fro; when personal faith is steadfast, the church abides true to her Lord.
It is upon the truly godly and spiritual that the future of religion depends in the hand of God. Oh, for more truly holy men, quickened and filled with the Holy Spirit, consecrated to the Lord and sanctified by His truth.
Brethren, we must each one live if the church is to be alive; we must live unto God if we expect to see the pleasure of the Lord prospering in our hands. Sanctified men are the salt of society and the saviours of the race.
Domestic Religion
We deeply want a revival of domestic religion. The Christian family was the bulwark of godliness in the days of the puritans, but in these evil times hundreds of families of so-called Christians have no family worship, no restraint upon growing sons, and no wholesome instruction or discipline. How can we hope to see the kingdom of our Lord advance when His own disciples do not teach His gospel to their own children?
Oh, Christian men and women, be thorough in what you do and know and teach! Let your families be trained in the fear of God and be yourselves "holiness unto the Lord"; so shall you stand like a rock amid the surging waves of error and ungodliness which rage around us.
Vigorous, Consecrated Strength
We want also a revival of vigorous, consecrated strength. I have pleaded for true piety; I now beg for one of the highest results of it. We need saints. We need gracious minds trained to a high form of spiritual life by much converse with God in solitude.
Saints acquire nobility from their constant resort to the place where the Lord meets with them. There they also acquire that power in prayer which we so greatly need. Oh, that we had more men like John Knox, whose prayers were more terrible to Queen Mary than 10,000 men! Oh, that we had more Elijahs by whose faith the windows of heavens should be shut or opened!
This power comes not by a sudden effort; it is the outcome of a life devoted to the God of Israel! If our life is all in public, it will be a frothy, vapoury ineffectual existence; but if we hold high converse with God in secret, we shall be mighty for good. He that is a prince with God will take high rank with men, after the true measure of nobility.
Beware of being a lean-to; endeavour to rest on your own walls of real faith in the Lord Jesus. May none of us fall into a mean, poverty-stricken dependence on man! We want among us believers like those solid, substantial family mansions which stand from generation to generation as landmarks of the country; no lath-and-plaster fabrics, but edifices solidly constructed to bear all weathers, and defy time itself.
Given a host of men who are steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, the glory of God's grace will be clearly manifested, not only in them, but in those round about them. The Lord send us a revival of consecrated strength, and heavenly energy!
Preach by your hands if you cannot preach by your tongues. When our church members show the fruits of true godliness, we shall soon have inquiries for the tree which bears such a crop.
Oh the coming together of the saints is the first part of Pentecost, and the ingathering of sinners is the second. It began with "only a prayer meeting", but it ended with a grand baptism of thousands of converts. Oh that the prayers of believers may act as lode stones to sinners! Oh that every gathering of faithful men might be a lure to attract others to Jesus! May many souls fly to Him because they see others speeding in that direction.
"Lord, we turn from these poor foolish procrastinators to thyself, and we plead for them with thine all-wise and gracious spirit! Lord, turn them and they shall be turned! By their conversion, pray that a true revival has commenced tonight! Let it spread through all our households, and then run from church to church till the whole of Christendom shall be ablaze with a heaven-descended fire!"
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Tuesday, March 9, 2010
I can give a prescription that will bring a revival to any church or community or any city on earth.
First, let a few Christians get thoroughly right with God themselves. This is a prime essential. If this is not done, the rest that I am to say will come to nothing.
Second, let them bind themselves together in a prayer group to pray for revival until God opens the heavens and comes down.
Third, let them put themselves at the disposal of God for Him to use as He sees fit in winning others to Christ.
That is all!
- R.A. Torrey
