HOW DO REVIVALS BEGIN?

"l you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?" - Psalm 85:6

Now that we are at the half-way point in our meditations on revival
we pause for a moment to remind ourselves of some of the points we
have been considering. Revival, we have said, is God bending down to
the dying embers of a fire just about to go out and breathing into it
until it bursts again into flame. The pattern for all revivals is
Pentecost, which was an extraordinary visitation of God accompanied
by extraordinary happenings. God is after the recovery of a
fully-orbed New Testament Christianity and He has invariably used
revivals to this end. The reason why we need revival is because the
Church turns from its first love and falls into decline. And when
revival comes it achieves, sometimes in a few weeks, what could never
have been achieved in years of normal Christian activity. The next
question we must consider is this: How does a revival begin? Is it
something that forms in the minds of devoted Christian people and is
then brought into being through powerful intercessory prayer? Or is
it something that originates in the mind of God and comes down to
earth irrespective of the desires or the prayer life of His people? I
have no hesitation in saying that in my opinion revival begins in the
mind of God. It is something that God plans; men and women have
little to do with it. There are many things that Christians, by
dedicated and committed spiritual effort, can bring to pass in the
Church, but revival is not one of them. For instance, evangelism,
preaching, teaching, and counselling is work that we do for God;
revival is work that God does for us.

PRAYER:
Father, let the wonder of Your sovereignty and power sink deep into
my soul today. Help me see how much bigger and greater You are than
my imagination could ever conceive. In Christ's Name I pray. Amen.