Revival Time
Prior to writing this article I was preparing for a revival that I will be preaching next week in Watkinsville.
I recently conducted a revival in a church and the special singer was 93 years old. He shared with me about revival services that he had been involved with in the past. I asked him if he had lived in the area all his life. His reply was, “No not yet because I haven’t finished living my life.”
Typically in days gone by, fall and spring were considered the optimal times for revivals in the South. Not only did the churches spend much time planning for revival, families planned their life around the revival dates.
Vance Havner, the Great Revivalist of old, defined revival as, “a fresh work of the Holy Spirit among Christians to bring them to confession of sin, renewed dedication and a loving zeal for service.”
Revival was also seen as an evangelistic harvest time. A time geared at reaching people who had no prior relationship with Christ.
As years have gone by, many churches still have annual revival services. There is not as much excitement as in the past. In the old days people worked hard to get their friends and relatives to attend the meetings.
News would spread quickly if there was a movement of the Holy Spirit and people would come from miles around. However you don’t hear of the powerful times like in the past, much of it has to do with priorities and practices. The majority of people today have their priorities set on the things of this world, and not of the Spiritual matters.
I myself have witnessed this firsthand. It has been my privilege to preach in close to 100 revival meetings. I generally meet with the leadership team from the church approximately four months prior to the revival, for the purpose of planning and praying.
I recently conducted a revival that I had met with the team and developed the plan for their upcoming meeting. One lady seemed to be the spiritual leader of the team, however she informed me that, “Tuesday night is bowling, and I won’t be here.” She wasn’t there, and yes the meeting went on, she just missed the blessing.
I’m often times considered as an old fashioned thinking preacher, because of my beliefs. I still believe revival is important. We’ve become so focused on being seeker friendly in our churches to the world, that we’ve stopped seeking God. We are trying to solve the problems of the world but not the right way.
WE NEED A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN AMERICA!
We need something that the President, Congress or any other government office can’t give us. We need Revival, and Revival starts with individuals following the instructions found in 2 Chronicles 7:14 – “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 I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”