How can we tell if a revival is genuine, false, or manufactured? Knowing what the Bible says about revivals helps us determine whether one is genuine. The Bible explains the need for revivals, the proper attitude for revivals, and some examples of revivals and their results.
The Need for Revival
Do we even need to have revivals? After all, the New Testament doesn’t use the word “revival” or seem to feature many of them.
However, all the Word of God (Old and New Testament) is profitable. Restoring humanity’s relationship with God is a major theme throughout the Bible. So many instances illustrate the need for revival.
The most notable instance illustrating the need for personal revival is King David. King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband, Uriah. David’s sin tortured his spirit and body, and he almost lost his kingdom. The Holy Spirit convicts people of their sins. David tried to hide his sins but couldn’t—the prophet Nathan exposed him.
David’s prayer helps us understand the need for revival and how we might pray.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
“… Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me… Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” (Psalm 51:1-10 NIV)
David’s life is a radical example of revival. There are many stories of people dramatically turning to God—sometimes in huge numbers, like the people of Ninevah humbling themselves and turning away from idolatry. Revival is renewing our spiritual fervor after we’ve found God. After most of us become Christians, we need revival because our once vibrant spiritual life with God wanes.
Why Do Our Spiritual Lives Need Revival?
How can this happen? Let’s take some examples from the letters to the churches in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
The Apostle John sees a vision of Jesus walking among the seven lampstands. They represent the seven churches of Asia Minor, of whom John is the elder. Jesus is reviewing their ministries. Smyrna and Philadelphia receive commendation for standing strong in trials and temptations, but he warns the other five—he’ll judge them if they don’t change their ways. What had they done?
Ephesus was the workaholic church. She was very busy, standing strong for God’s truth and exposing false teachers, but she ignored the Lord and neglected the relationship she had with him in the beginning. Jesus said she had left her first love.
Pergamum was a church that stood strong against Satan and the “doctrine of the Nicolaitans” but had teachers who taught her members to make moral compromises.
Jesus commends Thyatira for her love and faith, her service and perseverance (vs.19). “[Then, Jesus said], I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching, she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.” (Revelation 2:20 NIV)
We’re not sure if Jesus is referring to someone named Jezebel in the Thyratirian church or if he meant someone with the characteristics of Jezebel. In the history of Israel’s kings, Jezebel influenced her husband, King Ahab, to act more wickedly than before him and promote idol worship of Baal and Ashteroth. The LORD considers idol worship adultery against him and punishes his followers if they bow to them.
Sardis was the dead church. She once was alive but seems all but dead. To her, Jesus says,
“Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God” (Revelation 3:2 NIV). Sardis seemed like a church that was alive. She was religious in her words but lifeless in her practice.
Laodicea was the lukewarm, unmotivated, self-satisfied, self-seeking church. She had no cares; her riches gave her all the pleasures she wanted. She didn’t think she needed anything, but God was sick of her and would spew her out of his mouth. She didn’t know she was poor, blind, and wretched.
If Christ wrote a letter to us or our church, what would he say? If we wished to repent, what should be our attitude?
The Proper Attitude for Revival
What is the proper attitude when we come to God for revival? The prophet Isaiah quotes the LORD. “For this is what the high and lofty One says—he who lives forever, whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isaiah 57:15 NIV).
This next verse applies directly to the nation of Israel, but in principle, it also applies to us. God says:
“If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV).
James, the half-brother of Jesus and a leader in the early church, writes:
God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (James 4:6-10 NIV)
Who Does God Revive?
When God saves someone, the Holy Spirit gives life to his dead soul (Ephesians 2:1-5). Each person needs a soul restoration to have a relationship with God. Then, he’ll have peace, forgiveness, spiritual life, and a home in heaven. Today, this is possible only through Jesus (John 3:16-17, 14:6).
So, why does he need revival if he’ll have all that? Because all Christians get dirty with sin. The Holy Spirit convicts them of wrong, and they know they need cleansing.
When a follower of God is repentant, God accepts their confession of sin and repentance and restores his fellowship with them. This is a personal revival (1 John 1:7-9).
Here are some examples of personal revivals in the Bible:
Jacob. Jacob was a deceiver who became deceived and disillusioned by his life choices. He deceived his brother Esau into selling him his birthright to his father’s fortunes, then conspired with his mother to steal it by tricking Isaac when he was old and blind. The plot worked, but Esau hated Jacob and threatened to kill him. His mother sought to protect her son by sending him away to find a wife from her father’s family. Jacob had a dream on the way and bargained with God to serve him if God would protect him and safely return him home. Jacob worked for his uncle Laban for 14 years in Mesopotamia to marry two of Laban’s daughters.
Uncle Laban deceived Jacob repeatedly until Jacob had enough. He had been fighting his battles alone, but after wrestling with an angel, the angel humbled Jacob with a hip injury. Then the angel changed Jacob’s name to Israel, meaning “God fights.” Now God would fight his battles if Jacob would rely on him. Some might argue that Jacob was not a follower of God until after he wrestled with the Angel, but the experience with God at Bethel was where his spiritual journey truly began.
The Prodigal Son. A wild-living son demands an early inheritance, spends it all, and returns humble, confessing his unworthiness to be his father’s son. The father rejoices at his son’s repentance and return. He says, “[my son] was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found (v. 32 NIV).
Here is a representation of some national revivals in the Scriptures.
Elijah turned the hearts of Israel from Baal to God by holding a contest between Baal and his prophets versus Elijah and the God of heaven. God won the contest, consuming the sacrifice saturated with water. Then the Israelites destroyed Baal’s priests and idols.
Josiah was given the book of the law, and when he read the judgments of God for their sins, he led the nation in revival.
Daniel, realizing the 70-year exile of the Jews was ending, confessed the nation’s sins with remorse and repentance. The exiles repented, and God restored them to their land as prophesied. Jeshua and Zerubbabel led the Jewish people back to their land. Despite opposition, they built an altar for the LORD and rebuilt the temple. This is a partial fulfillment of Ezekiel 37.
At Pentecost, Jews from every corner of the earth gathered for this feast in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit came and enabled them to hear the gospel in their languages, and he saved them. Many Jews believed in Peter’s gospel message, and God saved three thousand souls in one day. Some would not classify Pentecost as a revival. Still, the Jews had a covenant relationship with God, and now they were returning to a relationship with him as God had directed throughout most of the Old Testament.
Some end-times theologians maintain another national repentance and salvation will happen in the last days of the earth as we know it. God will save all the Israelites coming out of the Great Tribulation. They will look upon him whom they have pierced (Zechariah 12:10-13:2).
What Does the Bible Say Results from a Revival?
From Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah and the Day of Pentecost, we observe these things that result from a revival:
- working of the Holy Spirit
- brokenness, prayers, fasting, and repentance
- destruction of idols
- recommitment to the Lord, attendance to God’s word, and desire to be with others who follow God
- inviting people to worship the LORD with you and evangelize to the lost
Are you looking for revival? Pray and look for the working of the Holy Spirit and respond to his conviction.
Further Reading on Revival:
How Do We Understand Biblical Revival?
Want to hear some incisive sermons on revival? Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones is still the foremost authority on it.
Photo Credit: Getty Images/elinedesignservices
Rodney Harrier is a committed Christian, husband, father of four adult children, and has four grandchildren. He lives with his wife in central Illinois. Rodney has a B.S. in Bible from Clarks Summit University in Clarks Summit, Pa. He is passionate about helping typical people read through the entire Bible in chronological order in one year and understand it. He is the author and administrator of ChronologicalBibleStudies.com, ConnectingTruthtoLife.org, and the Chronological Bible Studies podcast.
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