There are many that are calling revival what it is not. Revival is not emotional excitement. Neither is it a display in signs and wonders or the gifts of the Spirit. Revival is not something that is planned on a Sunday in a church where an evangelist is coming to preach, So I do see the need to know and understand what true revival really is
_________________Travis
I may be wrong about this Mike, but I think I remember revival on other forum posts being spoken significantly as a great ingathering of unbelievers as the Spirit is poured forth.Am I wrong on that recollection? I agree with the definition you wrote here wholeheartedly.
_________________Robert
“I may be wrong about this Mike, but I think I remember revival on other forum posts being spoken significantly as a great ingathering of unbelievers as the Spirit is poured forth.”Robert, I believe that this is a correct statement. There is a great gathering of unbelievers when the spirit of God is poured out on the region or nation but the truth of the matter is that revival begins in the church and it comes through the church and it’s always the result of the church, praying and interceding. Because what God is concerned with is not just the salvation of many souls but with the making of disciples, and the church has to be ready and prepared to make disciples. The failure of the church is that in many large, evangelistic campaigns where thousands have come forward to receive Christ as savior, but many of them fell back into the world, because there was no follow up and discipleship..
_________________Mike
I recall a conversation I had a few years back. We were discussing what revival looks like. I said something to this effect. Revival, to me, looks like this. Members of the body of Christ are growing in their maturity and relationship with God to the point that they begin to reproduce themselves by winning the lost and training them to do the same. Mass conversions are great. But at times I have wondered what happens to the masses after the fact.
"A word with many, many definitions really has no meaning anymore.Hence, the reason for the question. Something I am considering lately."Having heard about "revival" for decades I have come to a simple conclusion:The church should simply have followed and should continue to follow some basic teachings of Scripture:"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you (Matth. 28:19, 20a. Ampl.)For Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? 15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” (Rom 10:13-15)We would need churches who teach the Word of God and make disciples and send out missionaries to go out and preach the Gospel. That is very difficult to find these days.In other words we should pray that people can hear the true Gospel, repent and believe, find a good church, become disciplesMarkus
Well said. That is exactly where I am at on the issue.