REVIVAL–OUR PART AND GOD’S PART

So what should we do if we think that revival is coming?  We can simply say, “Bring it on, God.” But Scripture and history indicate that we have a bigger role to play, and that God does not and will not bring revival apart from us. Two things: we talk to God about people, and we talk to people about God. Daniel Nash was not the best at talking to people about God, but he had a passion for talking to God. He showed up two weeks early to plow the ground for Charles Finney. We know Finney as a flaming evangelist with a passion for talking to people about God. He depended so much on Daniel that when he died in 1831, Finney went back to parish ministry.

The Hebrides Islands west of Scotland in 1949 were in the doldrums of post World War !! apathy. Peggy, 84 and blind and Christine, 82 and crippled, seldom if ever talked to people about God. They hardly ever left their cabin. But for hours they talked to God. He told them that revival was imminent, so they urged the pastor to call Duncan Campbell. He turned down the invitation twice and said yes the third time. He came for two weeks–and stayed two years. Duncan Campbell was highly gifted in talking to people about God, and his name is connected with the revival that lasted for three years or more. Yet heaven records the names of two invalids who cried out to God for their island.

The 60’s were deeply troublesome years in America, especially for young people. The Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the university lockouts and lock-ins. Dr. Timothy Leary from Harvard University encouraged students “tune in, turn on, and drop out.” They responded by the truckloads. Multiplied thousands of parents were crying out to God for their psychedelic children high on drugs, who showed up the summer of ‘67 a 100,000 strong at Haight Ashbury in San Francisco committed to “make love, not war.” God answered passionate prayers with a might Jesus’ People Movement in early ‘70s. Chuck Smith, pastor of the “little country church on the edge of town,” had a Foursquare church of 65, when his wife Kay convinced him to open the doors to the pot-smoking, guitar-toting, barefoot hippies. His strength was talking to people about God, and Calvary Chapel had meetings about every night of the week for close to a decade. The church grew to 25,000, the epicenter of the Jesus’ People Movement.

Meanwhile, God was working at Asbury College in Kentucky, where a group of students had been praying consistently for a move of God. Seventeen gathered on February 2, 1970 for prayer. They were holding hands in a circle at 2 AM when the student leader said, “We can quit praying. He is coming tomorrow.” The next morning in chapel the administrator gave his testimony rather than the planned teaching–then sat down. The Spirit of God moved on the students, and one by one they came to the microphone to confess sins and ask for forgiveness. Chapel continued past midnight. Classes were shut down for three weeks as God brought conviction and new life. Students talked to God and a college administrator talked to people. Which are you better at–prayer or proclamation? We need both.

The book of Jonah shows us how powerful God’s part is. The reluctant prophet boldly talked to people about God, telling them He was bringing judgment in forty days. God brought unparalleled conviction upon a whole city, and they all repented, from the king down. This is perhaps the greatest single revival to ever occur, when an entire city of perhaps 500,000 people turned to God. We will meet them in heaven. God could do that again–in Moscow, Paris, Tokyo, San Francisco. Let’s do our part and trust God to do His! He can–and He will!

WHAT BRINGS REVIVAL?

Two invalids, Peggy 84 and blind, and Christine, 82 and crippled with arthritis, prayed for revival in 1949 on the Hebrides Islands west of Scotland. The post-war atmosphere was at a low ebb, and they urgently asked God to change the climate. He revealed to them that He would send revival, so they prayed with greater persistence. The proper response to the conviction that revival is coming is not to say, “Cool, bring it on.” It is to ask God to do what He has promised. 

For revival to happen, we do two primary activities: 1) talk to God about people, and 2) talk to people about God. Most have a stronger focus on one than the other. Daniel Nash was a powerful intercessor for Charles Finney. Daniel arrived two weeks early and plowed up the ground through prayer to prepare it to receive rain. Finney’s preaching brought revival during the Second Great Awakening (1825-35). The preacher relied so much on Daniel that when he died, Finney left revival preaching and went back to pastoring.

Peggy and Christine didn’t talk much to people about God, but they spent long hours talking to God about people. They seldom left their little cabin home. They were convinced through prayer that God was bringing revival to the Islands. They urged their pastor to send for Duncan Campbell. He came for two weeks–and stayed for two years. It poured down rain from 1949 to ‘53. The name “Duncan Campbell” is consistently connected with the Hebrides revival. Heaven credits two elderly invalids with calling faithfully on God and cooperating with Him through prayer. 

“Lord, I have heard of your fame, I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known [in 2019]; in wrath remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:2). Be like the prophet who wrote, “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent; for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet…” (Isaiah 62:1). For the sake of the Twin Cities I will not keep silent; for the sake of (insert your state or country here) I will not remain quiet. “You showed favor to your land, O Lord; you restored the fortunes of Jacob…Restore us again, O God our Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger through all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your unfailing love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation” (Psalm 85:1,4-6).

“God, you did it in the late 18th century, again in the middle of the 19th. You wonderfully poured out your Spirit at Azusa Street in 1906 and it went all over the world. A half century later you powerfully sent the Spirit on all varieties of churches that had rejected Your Spirit earlier. Now over 500 million say, “Thank You!” You moved upon young people in the 70s, taking them off drugs and into the life of the Spirit. Do it again. Move upon our universities, our junior high schools and high schools. Wake up sleeping churches. Arouse indifferent Christians. Bring a spirit of conviction upon neighbors, so they come to us for help. And what you do in North America do in Scandinavia, Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, Africa, South and Central America. Send us the spirit of Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. Heal families and congregations. Revive us again!”

 

THE JESUS PEOPLE MOVEMENT

It came on the heels of a terrible decade that included a presidential assassination, a war many Americans didn’t want, and students high on drugs dropping out to “make love, not war.” The revival was fueled by a hundred thousand parents crying out to God for children in protest.

Pastor Chuck Smith’s wife, Kay, encouraged him to open the door to bare-foot, long-haired, pot-smoking, guitar-toting hippies. Lots of distrust from adults to a drugged-up youth culture. Chuck agreed. The “little country church on the edge of town” grew from 65 to 25,000, the epicenter of the Jesus’ People revival that featured simple living, praise music, and the imminent return of Jesus. Two books were widely read, Rich Christians In An Age of Hunger and The Late Great Planet Earth. Extended worship slowly made its way into the life of the church, led not by an organ or piano but by a guitar. Radical, painfully so for long-time mainliners. Churches braced themselves for a major makeover. 

Baptisms at Newport Beach took place a hundred at a time. Lonnie Frisbie came out of the drug culture and helped bring thousands to Jesus.  “Kumbaya” and “It Only Takes a Spark” were replaced by praise music. My friend Kenn Gulliksen, led to the Lord by my dad, was one of the pastors at Calvary Chapel with Chuck, until he launched the Vineyard Movement, then turned it over to John Wimber.  About 100,000 showed up for a summer of love at Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco in 1967, but now the same number and more were getting turned on to the love of Jesus.

Meanwhile, students at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky were crying out to God for their campus. On February 2, 1970, seventeen were meeting in the dorm. At 2 AM as they were in a circle praying, one of the student leaders said, “We can stop praying. He is coming tomorrow.”

The dean stood up at chapel the next morning at 10 am. Instead of the usual talk, he gave his testimony. Then he sat down and said there would be an open mic. Students one by one began coming. That night the dean called the president who was away in Calgary and left a message, “Urgent.” The president thought of the turbulence at many colleges, including administrators and presidents being locked in–or out. He called back and asked, “What’s the problem?”  The dean responded, “It’s about chapel. It is still going on.” It went on past midnight. God’s Spirit was being powerfully poured out. Students were confessing their sins, and God was filling them with His Spirit. The administration shut down school–for three weeks. Teams went out on weekends, and where they went, revival broke out. 

One team showed up at a church in the south, which made the pastor noticeably nervous. They said, “We don’t have to share.” He relented: “You can each have three minutes.” They gave mini-testimonies–and sat down, much to the relief of the pastor. The quartet got up to sing. Before they started, the bass pointed at one of the students and said, “I want what he’s got.” That was all it took, and revival broke out.

Extraordinary need calls for extraordinary prayer, which brings extraordinary results. The prayers of desperate parents and grandparents changed a whole decade and more. The prayers of students changed a campus, then impacted a country. We do two things: we talk to God about people, and we talk to people about God. Then He does one thing–He pours down revival. Revive us again, God!

THE AZUSA STREET REVIVAL

A thirty-four year old African-American led the charge. What happened in 1906 in a small church in Los Angeles opened the door for the Pentecostal-Charismatic Movement. It now claims more than 500 million worldwide. William J. Seymour was a one-eyed son of freed slaves. He started preaching about the baptism of the Holy Spirit before he had experienced it. The next week he came to the church that had invited him and it was locked. Not to be discouraged, he looked for other options. He was invited to a home on Bonnie Brae Street. I know that street. I am a California boy. Crowds gathered until the porch collapsed. They then heard of a property at 312 Azusa Street. Rent was $8 per month.

The first service was held on April 14. Seymour had only two days before been filled with the Spirit. Crowds came as people entered into this new experience of speaking in tongues. By mid-May anywhere from 300 to 1500 attempted to squeeze into the building, all kinds from all places at all levels of education–Black, White, native American, immigrants, Asians, though at the height of the Jim Crow era of racial segregation (and fourteen years before women were given the right to vote).

Services were almost around the clock. Singing happened with no instruments but vocal cords, both in English and in the language of the Spirit. One Pentecostal paper wrote: “Well-dressed preachers came to ‘investigate’. Soon their high looks were replaced with wonder, then conviction, and very often you will find them wallowing on the dirty floor, asking God to forgive them.”

It was common for people who fell down and remain on the floor for long periods of time. Singing was often followed by silence. There was prayer for the sick,  for missionaries, for those who made requests. No altar calls. Brother Seymour was in the front behind two shoe boxes, often with his head in the top one. Services consisted of teaching and testimonies. Remarkable healings took place, like blind eyes restored. When guests would come with skeptical scorn, Seymour would simply say, “Pray, saints,” and God would deal with doubters. No offerings were taken. A box near the door was used for people who wanted to give. The core membership was 50 or 60, but thousands came to drink from the well. A publication called “Apostolic Faith” was started that Seymour and a white women put out. Thousands read testimonies of what was happening on Azusa Street. By 1907 they published 40,000 copies.

They began sending missionaries around the country and around the world. In October of 1906 thirty-eight were sent out. Within two years the movement was alive in fifty countries. Many went out and started new churches, and new denominations rose up, mainly among poor and ethnic people. By 1913 things quieted down at the Apostolic Faith Mission. The media attention slowly stilled. Seymour and his wife stayed and led the small church until he died of a heart attack in 1922. His wife Jennie kept the church going until 1931, when they lost the building.

The LA Times had called it a religious sect and didn’t expect its influence to survive. I hope they retracted their reporting. The church came under fire from people all around the country and from almost every church body, calling the people “holy rollers” and accusing them of misusing scripture and being hyper emotional. We can understand. The same thing happened on Pentecost. This was a new day and a fresh breakthrough, and it would take time to be received by others. How long? About half a century.

ALERT!! HEAVY RAIN PREDICTED!

After some dry weeks, the rain in July and August has been refreshing. The grass and the garden soaked it up. We sing, “Open the floodgates of heaven; let it rain, let it rain!” We are praying that God would answer this prayer for our church, city, state, country, and the nations of the world. He has certainly done it in the past. Think Nineveh. After the preaching of Jonah, God brought conviction upon all the people from the king on down.

Jesus said, “When he [the Spirit of truth] comes, he will convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). The king knew that he and all his people were under the judgment of a holy God. How? The Spirit convinced this pagan ruler. We will meet him and his people in heaven (Matt. 11:42). God could do that in a moment in other cities of the world–Tokyo, Mexico City, Moscow, San Francisco, Dubai.

He will do His part. We have two primary responsibilities:

1. talking to God about people, and
2. talking to people about God.

Most have a stronger focus on one than the other. Daniel Nash was a powerful intercessor for Charles Finney. Daniel arrived two weeks early and plowed up the ground through prayer to prepare it to receive rain. Finney the preacher relied so much on Daniel the pray-er that when Daniel died, Finney left revival preaching and went back to pastoring.

Peggy and Christine didn’t talk much to people about God, but they spent long hours talking to God about people. Peggy was 84 and blind; Christine was 82 and crippled. They seldom left their little cabin home.  But they were convinced through prayer that God was bringing revival to their Hebrides Islands west of Scotland. They urged their pastor to send for Duncan Campbell. He came for two weeks–and stayed for two years. It poured down rain from 1949 to 53. Heaven credits two elderly invalids with calling faithfully on God and cooperating with Him to bring revival rain.

Two truths:

1. WE CAN’T BRING REVIVAL WITHOUT GOD.
2. GOD WON’T BRING REVIVAL WITHOUT US!

How marvelous is that. We team up with God. We do our part–prayer and proclamation, and He does His part–convicting and convincing. Persistent prayer by parents and grandparents of long-haired, pot-smoking hippies brought a powerful revival in the early 1970’s to more than 100,000 young adults in the Jesus People Revival. The epicenter of that downpour was a few miles from my home–Calvary Chapel. Meanwhile, urgent prayer by students at Asbury College in 1969 and 70 brought a sweeping revival on their campus, starting on February 3, 1970. That downpour spread around the country as they sent out teams on weekends. I remember hearing about it as a student in seminary.

So we pray, “I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds. In our day renew it“ (Habakkuk 3:2). “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” (Psalm 85:6). This refrain occurs three times in Psalm 80: “Restore us, O Lord God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved!”  The weather forecasters are calling for heavy rain. I’m praying for it and expecting it! What about you?

WHY PRAY FOR REVIVAL?

 

BECAUSE SCRIPTURE TEACHES US TO.

“Restore us, O God; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved” (Psalm 89:3,7,19). Notice it is repeated three times.

“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” (Psalm 85:6).

“Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:2)

 

BECAUSE GOD BRINGS REVIVAL IN ANSWER TO PRAYER.

Peggy and Christine, age 84 and 82, were so convinced by God that He was sending revival to the Hebrides Island, that they prayed day and night. They finally asked their pastor to give an invitation to Duncan Campbell. He came for two weeks–and stayed for two years, leading a powerful move of the Spirit of God from 1949 on. Credit two invalids for praying faithfully and in faith.

 

Seventeen students at Asbury College were praying at 2 AM on February 2, 1970 when one of the student leaders said, “We can quit praying. He’s coming tomorrow.” He came for chapel–and stayed. Classes were shut down for three weeks because of the convicting and convincing work of the Holy Spirit, bring confession of sins and a fresh love for God throughout the campus.

 

They began sending out students in small teams all around the country. Wherever they went, revival broke out. The students had been praying together for many months and believing God to send revival. Instead of simply saying “Cool, bring it on,” they followed the Scriptures and prayed. Revival gives us two main assignments–prayer and proclamation. We talk to God about people, and we talk to people about God. We can’t bring revival apart from God, and He won’t bring revival apart from us. He looks for praying people through whom He can work. Maybe He’ll find you.

 

BECAUSE HISTORY GIVES US HOPE.

The conditions in America at the turn of the eighteenth century were anything but positive. Most even in the church had lost hope, while some prayed and believed. God moved powerfully on campuses, in churches, and in the workplace. He did it again halfway into the nineteenth century, and again in the beginning of the twentieth century, this time at a small church on Azusa Street. The impact of that revival is still felt more than a century later. We say with Habakkuk about the mighty works of God, “O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known.”

 

BECAUSE A GREAT REVIVAL IS COMING.

The Old Testament ends with a promise and a curse. I’ll take the promise. God says, “Behold! I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, or else I will come and strike the land with a curse” (Malachi 4:5,6). Join multiplied thousands believing for the fulfillment of Malachi 4:5, a revival of relationships, a revival in the home that powerfully impacts society–in every country of the world. We can pray in faith, knowing our prayer is going to be answered–soon and very soon!

WHAT MIGHT THE COMING REVIVAL LOOK LIKE?

 

More and more leaders are saying that revival is imminent. I agree. Revival is God’s business. We don’t serve it up; we respond to a God who causes the wind to blow. Yet we take part in the dance. God engineers revival–we steward it. And we pray it in with passion. Here’s an outlook I recommend we consider:

 

We will respect the past, but we don’t live there. Knowing the history of revival tells us that it includes some important ingredients, like prayer, but the shape it takes depends upon how and where the wind blows. 2017 looks different from 1905, and even the Jesus revival of the 1970s. Computers had not come into their own a few decades ago. The internet could be used to great advantage in a viral culture. If a child is healed of Down syndrome and a million people witness it instead of a hundred, we will thank God for the internet!

 

What if…

• As many people came to faith in Starbuck’s as at the altar? We have seen a transformation of the marketplace into a ministry center the last two decades. In the ‘70s, we were still stuck at church. If we don’t have options, we will lose those who would rather meet us on their turf than ours. Hey, that’s what the word “go” means.
• What if no-names in every healthy church replaced the singular famous revival preacher? We have enough churches ripe for revival that will spring into action. Having no-names share in leading puts the right image before people—the face of Jesus.
• What if the revival was embraced by many churches and revival turned into vival? Visitation becomes habitation, and God decides to stick around. Long-term impact beats short-term explosion.  
• What if we were unable to pinpoint where it started? Then we would conclude it started in heaven. If it breaks out in many places simultaneously, we don’t have people flocking to a place but a church flocking to the people.
• What if folks keep their hands off it, don’t try to own it but steward it as a move of God?.
• What if local churches had their own spin on the revival, each of them responding according to their own needs?
• What if revival meetings included training sessions to take it to them? More out there than in here.

 

Important ingredients:

• 24-hour prayer. Thank you, Mike Bickle, for vision. We have houses of prayer in every major city and many in not-so-major. Down through history, prayer has been the single most important catalyst for revival.
• Multi-generations. Malachi 4:5,6 waits to be fulfilled. An un-fathered generation stands under a curse. This revival will include a Father blessing from heaven and physical fathers renewed to put children above career or golf handicap. It will also feature spiritual fathers reaching out to a younger generation, discipling them, and help them to develop a rhythm that will serve them for the long haul. This will be powerful–and new! This means…
• Five-fold ministry. The apostolic could come into its own. Mature oversight will help give the revival continuity. A team of leaders could also take preemptive action if parts of the revival headed for crazy town.
• Wider participation, including Catholics and orthodox.

 

How do we pray?

Pray for selflessness. Pray for fire and for humility. God exalts the humble.

Pray for discernment. How will Satan come against us? Division. Sectarianism. We’re right.

Pray for unity between young radicals who have often led revivals and fathers who mentor.

Pray for multitudes to be swept into the kingdom.

 

IN-YOUR-FACE REVIVAL PRAYER

 

“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray…” (Luke 11:1).

 

He first gave the “The Lord’s Prayer.” Then He told a story about a man caught by surprise with a late-night visitor. Middle Eastern hospitality dictated his desperation, and he woke up his friend with an urgent request for bread.

 

He received four clear “no’s,” but he doesn’t go away. Listen, we’re already ashamed to wake the guy at midnight. I would have left after the first, “Don’t bother me.” Still he stuck around—and got three more harsh negatives: “The door is already locked.” Does that sound like a “yes?” Then he says, “My children are with me in bed.” What happens if he gets up? I’ve put many a crying child to sleep late at night, then sneak out the door quietly, bump a chair, and the chorus returns in full volume. He is put off by his brash friend.

 

The final “no” would appear to shut him down for good: “I can’t get up and give you anything.” But the man doesn’t leave. And Jesus says, “I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs” (8). The word “boldness” is translated “importunity” in the RSV. The dictionary calls it “troublesome, annoying urging or demanding.” The ESV uses the word “impudence.” It means “rashness without thought of the consequences.” Not a polite word.

 

It is used once in the Old Testament (Greek Septuagint) for a prostitute who finds a victim late at night, “kisses him, and with impudent face she says to him…’Come, let us take our fill of love till morning…’” (Prov. 7:13). Hardly a complimentary expression!

 

That is what Jesus used for the brash intruder, and Jesus encourages us to pray like that. The situation called for a different kind of boldness, not polite but pushy.

 

We see this with the Canaanite woman who encountered Jesus (Matt. 15). She also received four clear no’s: first, the silence of Jesus, then the complaint of the disciples, then the words of Jesus about only being called to Israel, then an apparent insult from Jesus. She persisted, and Jesus healed her daughter at that instant.

 

Passivity kills. Brazen importunity gets heaven’s attention. Examples in recent history: Two sisters, Peggy and Christine (84 and 82) in the Hebrides Islands (1949) whose prayer brought down a mighty revival, and a group of students at Asbury College (1969,70), whose united prayer did the same.

 

Sometimes revival comes because the heart of God calls for it, like at Nineveh. It is unlikely that Israel was praying for Nineveh, or than that God would destroy it. But God prefers to save rather than to condemn (John 3:17). At other times, revival comes because God anoints people to pray. Extraordinary need calls for extraordinary prayer to release an extraordinary visitation from God. Let us get in God’s face until He pours out His Spirit in our city, our land, our world!!

 

TRUTHS FROM OLD TESTAMENT REVIVALS

SAMUEL (I Samuel 7:1-15)

The ark proved a menace to the Philistines who had defeated Israel, so they returned it. While it remained at Kiriath Jearim, “the people of Israel mourned and sought after the Lord” (2). Samuel said, “’If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.’ So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only” (3,4). His pattern fits the whole book of Judges. Sadly, none of them passed the baton to another judge to sustain the revival: “When the judge died, the people returned to ways more corrupt than those of their fathers” (Judges 2:19). Even Samuel, the greatest of all judges, did not raise up godly children to follow him. Good leader in Israel—poor leader at home.

ELIJAH (I Kings 17, 18)

Ahab “did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him” (I Kings 16:30). His marriage to Jezebel brought in Baal worship and he built a temple for Baal in Samaria. Elijah challenged Ahab to a fire contest—and won! That was followed by the slaying of 450 prophets of Baal and maybe 400 prophets of Asherah, all of whom ate at Jezebel’s table. She didn’t like Elijah messing with her mealtimes and put out a contract on his life. Elijah had the momentum for an ongoing move of God, but missed the moment and went south. He could have prevailed over Ahab and Jezebel had he stayed put and led Israel. However, he was the only prophet who raised up a mentor to take his place. Success over the long haul requires succession, and Elisha, who asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, did twice as many miracles as his father in the faith. Good going, Elijah!

ASA (2 Chronicles 14-16)

“Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to obey his laws and commands (14:2,3). Asa deposed his grandmother because she made an Asherah pole, and the nation had 35 years of peace. The king of Israel went to war against Judah in the 36^th year. Asa foolishly made a treaty with Ben-Hadad rather than consult the Lord. When he contracted a disease, he sought the help of doctors but not the Lord. He had 35 good years but finished poorly. His son, Jehoshaphat, likewise started strong, finished poorly.

HEZEKIAH (2 Chronicles 29-32)

Hezekiah reformed the temple practices and reinstated the Levites. Hezekiah invited the nation to come together in Jerusalem for the Passover. And “a very large crowd of people assembled in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread” (30:13). But Hezekiah made two terrible mistakes: he showed envoys from Babylon all his treasures, which brought judgment on his descendants, and he was a better king than a father, and his son Manasseh “rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed” (2 Kings 21:3). Terrible passing of the baton.

JOSIAH (2 Chronicles 34-35)

Young Josiah likewise celebrated the Passover (35:18). He brought revival when the book of the Law was found, bringing repentance and new commitment. He also made two great errors. He foolishly went to battle against the king of Egypt and was fatally wounded. And he did not raise up righteous sons like he was.

For revival to turn into vival, it requires a strong passing of the baton, from leader to leader. Call committees typically stall this process, and momentum is often lost. Better to mentor a replacement and pass the baton, so that momentum accelerates, as it did from Moses to Joshua, Elijah to Elisha, and most remarkably, from Jesus to the apostles! Let us learn from their successes through succession, which sustains revival!

NEW TESTAMENT REVIVAL

Check out this continuous revival centuries ago.

JOHN. How’s this for a mighty move of God with the Baptist? “The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River” (Mark 1:5). Multiplied thousands.

JESUS. “When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee…Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria…Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him” (Matt. 5:12, 23-25). As the miracles increased, so did the massive crowds, often difficult to control or to avoid. There were times when the disciples wanted Jesus to themselves—and could not have Him.

APOSTLES. Some of these Jews who Jesus ministered to were no doubt present on Pentecost, along with people from around the world in Jerusalem for the festival. When the outpouring of the Spirit spilled onto the streets, a huge crowd gathered because of the tongues activity. Peter likely preached to 10,000 or more. “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day” (Acts 2:41). From 120 to 3120, quite an upgrade!

After the healing of a well-known cripple, “all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade” (3:11). Time to preach again. Peter and John got thrown into jail, “but many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand” (4:4).

PHILIP. “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith” (6:7). Persecution after the death of Stephen pushed the church outside of Jerusalem, and even Samaria, hated by Jews, experienced a powerful move of God through the preaching and miracles of Deacon Philip.

PAUL. Antioch, the third largest city in the Roman Empire (after Alexandria and Rome) at 500,000 inhabitants, experienced a move of the Spirit when persecution continued to push the church north, this time including Gentiles. They were received because Peter’s experience in Caesarea with the Cornelius crowd in a living room revival opened the door to non-Jews (11:18). “For a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people” (11:26). Antioch before long overtook Jerusalem as the center of the early church movement.

Revival turns to vival, and visitation becomes habitation when God’s people fully embrace the work of the Spirit and let it transform them. Do it again, God!