Finding the Essence of Revival

By David Hobbs

What is the true essence of revival? I’ve been hungering for revival all my Christian life, since I came to Christ on the tail end of the Jesus People Movement in the early 70s. I saw enough to get excited, but heard stories of greater things I had missed.

To me revival was when the Spirit of God was being poured out in signs and wonders—mass healings, invisible angels playing the piano to accompany the worship, people being translated from one place to another, mass slayings in the Spirit—you’ve heard the stories. Whenever there was a report of revival meetings, I went, hoping to see the miraculous.

The Lord quickened to me once that this was the same spirit as the Pharisees in Jesus’ day. They came out to see Jesus, hoping to see a miracle. And Jesus wouldn’t cater to such curiosity seekers. Still, I longed to experience the miraculous, and truth be told, so do most people, Christian or not.

 So when I heard about revival meetings up in the hills, I decided to go.

There were about 30 people in a house converted from a barn. The two things that struck me when I first walked in were the excitement and the love. These people loved all over me, a total stranger, and were excited about what God was doing. Their sense of expectancy was through the roof. (I had just preached a message in my little church about the things missing in the modern church from the early church. The very first one I had mentioned was excitement!)

The house was on a ridge outside of the little podunk town of Rough and Ready, a small town to begin with that the highway now bypassed. There was a great view of the mountains. The worship leader was Keith Luker a musician with a nation-wide ministry. The week before he had been leading worship at an East Coast conference with Heidi Baker and now he had driven 3 hours from Redding to this out-of-the-way place to lead us.

I had a hard time entering into the service. They were wonderfully outgoing and exuberant while I was uncertain and reserved. We were on different wavelengths but the presence of God was there though there was no miraculous, I knew I had to go back the next week and give it another try. I had to do a better job of getting up to speed.

The next week Keith was back again. He began to share on revival. He was talking about the Welch Revival, and how Evan Roberts said that in revival, the time when prayer is most desperately needed is when … (what do you think the answer is? When the revival has gotten off track? When the revival starts to wane? When there is no revival and you need to get it started?) The answer is … when the revival is at its peak! Miracles are happening right and left, people are being swept into the Kingdom by the droves…. Why is prayer so desperately needed then? To keep the revival from going off the tracks, to keep the devil from hijacking it like Brother Parnham tried to hijack the Azusa St. Revival? Then I remembered a bit of wisdom I had heard repeated many times over the years: How do you know when the revival is over? Answer: When people start talking about it; i.e., when people recognize they are in it!

Click! Suddenly a bunch of things fell into place. The reason prayer is so desperately needed at the peak of the revival is because that’s when people start to coast. They think they’ve now arrived and can sit back and enjoy the ride. They’ve reached the top of the mountain; now it’s time to ride down the other side, which means it’s the beginning of the end for the revival. It won’t end immediately, but it will start to wane because the force that was driving it has ceased. Now if the essence of the revival was the signs and miracles, it wouldn’t appear to be waning at all. Excitement would still be high; miracles would still be going strong…. But without that driving force of seeking, it would have to wind down. (There is always a time lag in the spirit realm.)

That meant I was wrong about the essence of revival being the miraculous. The miraculous is at the tail end, not the front end of revival. It is the fruit revival produces, not what makes the revival happen. That what is the essence? It hit me in a sudden flash—the seeking. The all out, no holds barred seeking of God, the crying out to Him: “Ye shall seek me, and ye shall find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”

Then something else hit me: that’s why they say that any mass revival must first begin with personal revival. Revival doesn’t fall from heaven on a passive congregation like rain. Rather, “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.” God responds to the hunger of His people crying out for Him by coming to them in powerful visitation that we call “revival.” When the hunger cools off, God backs off. That’s why it was so important for the church of Ephesus to regain its first love (Rev. 2).

In the second meeting, as I looked around at the group crying out to God in exuberant song and praise with all their hearts, I suddenly realized: “They are already in revival! This is revival.” This was the essence of revival right before my very eyes. They were so excited about the Lord, so desirous of His presence, so wanting more of Him. I entered in with the rest of them, shouting and singing out with all my strength: begging for more, asking to go higher, deeper, feel Him closer….

So I’m in. I’m going for it with all my heart and see where this bus takes us!


Commentary
Many churches sit around waiting for revival, hoping for it, praying, even fasting for it, believing it will lift them from their doldrums. But it’s not “revival” we need, nor miracles. It’s Jesus. We’ve got to fall enough in love with Him that we can honestly cry out for more of Him. He has to be the focus. If we’re not willing to go after Jesus with whatever it takes: prayer, time, repentance, energy, perseverance, following the leading of the Holy Spirit, putting our stuff on the altar, letting go of the things of this world, reordering our priorities, truly putting Him first—then  we won’t experience personal and never have church revival.


No Extra Charge
It amazes me how many people refuse to admit they are lukewarm and backslidden, when you have to look no farther than the very first commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart, all thy mind, all thy soul and all thy strength.” Sit around with a group of Christians at a potluck and listen to what they talk about: sports, family, clothes, cars, jobs, health issues, politics…. Do you ever hear Jesus mentioned? Like a fresh revelation from the Bible or prayer? Yet Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth would speak. Since the mouth is not speaking about Jesus, I have to conclude there is nothing going on in the heart about Him either, that all these other things are more important. So how could such a one possibly claim they loved the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind and strength? Such a preposterous claim would be laughed out of the courts of heaven!