Pillars of Revival 2

A word based revival lasts.

And that is our history. And by this I mean Protestantism and the early church.

Luther directed people to the word. In fact that was the primary issue he had with the papacy as religion (that is what papacy also is) thrives in having people who depend on a priesthood to function, even think.

That is why he translated the Bible into German to enable believers to read it for themselves.

And many other revivals that we are proud to be associated with were all based on the word, many times being led by Bible students and teachers (I do not want to call them theologians for obvious reasons).

As such, the place of God’s word was very prominent in the whole revival process.

You realise that universities were originally Bible Schools set up for the many young people who would respond to God’s call needing to be equipped for the nations and the ballooning church from revivals. The world just hijacked them for its purposes.

A Bible Based revival always looks beyond the present even as it looks beyond localities.

Let us look at David.

He is told that he will not build the temple, the greatest desire of his heart. Does he give up?

No. He starts preparing for the same; raising materials, plans and labor for the same. Why?

Revival is focused on God. It therefore has no human champions. At least none of them thinks like that. They are just content to be part of a great thing God is doing.

To David, the temple was not about him. It represented his worship. Whether he built it or not was irrelevant. Whoever built it had to build it to God’s standard. And he had to have all the support.

The temple was therefore not about David building but God who was the object for Whom it was built. That is why he did not stop his worship just because he was refused to build.

And we see the same with Josiah.

Revival focuses beyond the present though it appears to focus there as you can’t change the future without changing the present.

Incidentally, revival could be the other side of the coin with judgment. In fact, revival really means coming back from the dead. It is only the dead who can be revived.

Sodom and Nineveh were at the same point when they were visited, one by angels and the other by a prophet. One was obstinate while the other was repentant.

But even the revival in Nineveh didn’t last as we still see judgment being declared by later prophets. We are almost sure that it was because Jonah didn’t stay long to manage it by teaching the scriptures.

Sadly, that happens with many revival movements. Hordes turn to God in repentance and find a church that is not ready to receive them properly. Many think that stopping to do some things is what qualifies them as Christians as opposed to having a growing relationship with God through His word.

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (Acts 2:42)

The revival in Acts was sustained by the study of and instruction on the scriptures. Anyone who joined the church joined the instruction.

In fact, were it not that there was abuse, abuse that was guided by a church that had stopped growing, the purpose of catechism was simply to guide believers into their new faith through the scriptures.

The church then made this a fleshy requirement for anybody requiring to join the church without requiring conversion. Then someone could just need to learn instead of convert to be baptized and join the church. I am saying this because I have read some and can tell you they are scriptural to a fault. But going through them before conversion makes one a properly religiously educated infidel, making it even harder to get converted.

Sadly, even modern churches that should know better are doing the same thing by requiring some sort of classes to satisfy the whims of the leaders, especially to ensure loyalty.

I once heard a conversation amongst a group of young people in a Baptist church explaining why they attended membership classes.

One was saying that he cared nothing for conversion, nor was he converted. The reason he attended the classes was so that he could have his wedding in that exquisite church cheaply as members were charged less than outsiders. This in a church that insists in its polity on a public confession of conversion before baptism as the path to membership.

In short, people are learning how a structure operates as opposed to what Christ ordered.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28: 19, 20)

That revival was not the preserve of large crowds or buildings. In fact it was the other way round.

Though the revival started (or became visible) through the large gatherings, it was sustained in those small informal growth groups.

In Acts it starts in the upper room before breaking out to the streets, but there are very few incidents of crowds (forget about the invited ones of today).

Peter was the leader of the church in Acts. But we do not see him holding large meetings anywhere. We simply see him in homes. We see crowds gathering to disrupt what God was doing. It was at the home front that the church was exploding.

We see the jailor and his whole household (family, servants, slaves, soldiers) getting baptized at night. Then we see Cornelius and his whole village getting baptized.

And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, (Acts 20:20)

This of course means that they did not need superstars to sustain their growth. The leader also was not required to be the manager of that growth. Everybody was simply growing to know Christ at a personal level. Christ was the focus of that growth. They did not need the expert to understand the scriptures. They just needed the scriptures to grow in their faith together.

There is nothing as powerful as a small group studying the Bible together. And that is what Christ intended for His church.

No wonder He talked of where two or three are gathered in His name.

It was the same in the Old Testament. The Levites were denied lands to be focused on only one thing, knowing God and His word. Then taking that word to His people.

That is why we see most revivals then were guided by that group. Incidentally most prophets also came from that group.

Remember where Herod went when he was told that a king has been born? To the scribes, who were Levites.  And why? Simply because they were the ones most in touch with the scriptures to understand what was happening.

During Hezekiah’s early years, we see him commissioning the scribes to teach the scriptures to Israel.

A very interesting thing happened. There were so many offerings that there were heaps of unutilized offerings. Yet there was no teaching about giving.

The simple truth is that the word of God properly taught will spur people to give even more than when they are ‘encouraged’ to give.

That is the revival I am talking about.

I am writing so much about revival and harvest nowadays because I am confident that this virus has opened so many people worldwide to the reality of God due to the surety of the fickleness and emptiness of life. And people are searching and finding God as He has always been waiting for them.

This is why we must establish to prepare for this imminent harvest. (In fact I know there are hordes who are pouring to the Kingdom of God but it is not in the interest of the media and world systems to let us know as they would rather we are scared into despair)

My prayer is that we will sink deeper in the scriptures to be ready once these hordes are unveiled as we will then be able to disciple them.

Only then will we be able to manage the harvest God is bringing.