The concept of revival has intrigued me for many years. I have heard many messages and read countless books and articles on the subject. As a pastor, I have on occasion emphasized to my church the need to pray for revival in North America, but this emphasis usually arose during times of frustration with my church or with the moral decline in society. Sadly, my interest in revival lasted only as long as my feelings of frustration. Honestly, revival was more of a fleeting fancy – something I viewed as wonderful, yet not something to which I needed to devote any serious prayer.

What’s missing?

The need for revival became more urgent to me with a fresh realization about my church. From my perspective, it was doing well. We were experiencing growth, individuals were making commitments to follow Jesus, and prayers were being answered. The normal routine of a healthy church was evident. Yet, in the midst of these positive observations, something was still missing.

I likened my feeling of “something missing” to that which a family may experience when gathering for a celebration after the death of a cherished loved one. While the routine of the celebration might seem normal, the family would not be able to avoid the fact that something was different. For me, gathering with my church family felt similar. Despite the encouraging signs of growth and our wonderful fellowship, I could not help but feel an absence. This realization gave me a true burden to see revival. For the first time, I began to seriously pray for revival.

A dear friend also in ministry provided even more food for thought on the subject. He indirectly challenged me about my motives with this off- hand comment: “Many have prayed for revival for years, and a few have prayed with sincerity.” His words plagued my thoughts for more than a week as I considered whether my prayers were sincere. In wrestling with this question, I came to realize that my desire to see revival was based upon incorrect motives.

Incorrect motive #1: Revival will clean up our society.

Revival, by definition, means coming back to life. The very nature of revival specifically concerns the issue of God’s people being revived spiritually. Biblically, revival has nothing to do with societies or nations as a whole. Instead, it has to do with God’s people within a society or nation. Unsaved people cannot be brought back to life when they have not experienced true spiritual rebirth in the first place.

In my prayers for our society’s cure, I had claimed 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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

The context of this verse centers on God telling Solomon that when the children of God are being punished severely for their sins (2 Chronicles 7:12-13), he would respond to their humble cries. God said when his children returned to him – when they came back to life – he would hear and forgive them and heal their land. In praying this verse for secular society, I had missed God’s meaning in how he wants to bless and turn around his people.

So, what was I really praying for? I had to admit that my revival prayers were not prayers for God’s people to be revived. Instead, I was praying for a cure to the social and moral chaos evident in our society. Clearly, any change in society would come only as a by-product of a revived Church. Such a move within the body of Christ would indeed have an impact on our culture, but the move could only begin in God’s house, not in society as a whole. A positive affect on our culture would be the wonderful dividend that would follow a revival of God’s people.

Incorrect motive #2: Revival will restore our culture.

I next had to come to grips with the fact that my patriotism was also shaping my prayers. It is not hard to see that our culture is self-destructing as it indulges in materialism, wanton sexual pleasure, and all-consuming human pride – lusting after anything that will gratify self. This behavior is described in 1 John 2:16 (NASB):

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

I believe we are watching the decline of our Western culture and my patriotic pride does not want that to happen. I saw revival as the means to turn around North American culture, the instrument to restore it to some past glory. This presumption assumed that God wants to restore our culture to some former time when morals and spiritual life were closer to biblical norms. Is it possible that God does not want to restore our nation in that way? Since the world is moving toward the ultimate climax of Jesus Christ coming again, could our decline be a part of God’s ultimate plan? Is my patriotic pride coming into conflict with God’s providential will?

And to go a step further, what sort of “past glory” did I envision as the period when we as a nation were so close to that pinnacle of godliness that God would want to restore us to that time? Was the nation really so much more godly 50 or 80 or even 200 years ago that God would not want to revive and infuse new life into that culture also? Every generation in the history of North America has been marked by godlessness and sin. Every generation has been in need of improvement and repentance.

It soon became clear that the restoration I was seeking had to do with my own comfort. Christians long for the days when believers were accepted and respected in our culture. The increasing antagonism that God’s children face in today’s society is not pleasant, but should be expected. Jesus promised us in Matthew 10:22, “All men will hate you because of me...” I had to admit that my prayers for revival were partially motivated by my desire not to be ostracized for my beliefs from society as a whole.

Incorrect motive #3: Revival will make the culture like the Church.

This motive was subtle and deadly, based on the assumption that I am praying for the culture to become more like the Church. It assumes that all is well concerning the heart condition of believers today. And it is deadly, arising out of a self-deception that our contemporary Church is in such good condition that God would want to see the lost become like his Church.

However, the facts are very clear that everything is not wonderful in the body of Christ. Studies show that virtually the only difference between the lifestyle of believers and unbelievers is church attendance. Divorce is just as prevalent in the Church. Believers are often guided more by the culture than by God’s Word. The Church resembles our godless culture far too much in thought and deed. My prayers that society will embrace and become like the Christian Church are pointless when there is little or no difference evident between the two.

A greater issue

Through this self-examination, I realized I was much like Jonah. When the Lord spared the city of Nineveh, Jonah responded with anger and frustration. For Jonah, the issue was the safety and security of Israel. He was not concerned about the thousands facing the judgment of God. In fact, Jonah 4:1-11 shows he felt strongly that the people of Nineveh deserved to be wiped out.

Like Jonah, I was interested in the comfort and well-being of the Church in our society today. I wanted to maintain the status quo. If society became a threat to the Church, then I believed we needed revival to remove that threat. In Jonah’s day, Nineveh did not realize it was in such a desperately precarious position. God had to point out to Jonah that the problem was not with the people of Nineveh – they were doing what came naturally. The problem was with Jonah who refused to have compassion on the lost. Jonah, symbolically representing the Christian Church, received a lesson in compassion from God that was applicable not only to him, but also for today’s body of Christ.

With my focus on the Church’s comfort, I had forgotten compassion and had missed the point that overall, we in North America were ineffective in reaching the multitudes facing God’s judgment. In fact, following in Jonah’s steps, I might even have longed for the coming judgment to deal with those who were threatening the well-being of the Church.

Spiritual blindness

The exposure of my true heart condition allowed me to recognize that prosperity had deceived me into thinking everything was OK. The reality was that my church was not well. We had, in a sense, become like the Laodicean Church. In Revelation 3:17, Jesus told the believers that they were spiritually blind when he stated:

You say, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.” But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

While our “good times” had blinded us spiritually, the reality was that my church was lacking in three important areas:

1. We no longer had a passion for God.
2. We lacked a burden for people and their needs.
3. The promised power for ministry (Acts 1:8) was virtually nonexistent.

The church was very much reflecting what Paul stated in 2 Timothy 3:5 to describe the characteristics people would exhibit in the last days: “having a form of godliness but denying its power.”

This realization also revealed a deeper need. The three missing elements were a direct result of a congregation that was no longer experiencing God’s transforming presence, the very presence of the Holy Spirit in its midst. Yes, we were experiencing some success, yet the fact remained that my church was spiritually bankrupt. Was it any wonder that God had not answered my prayers for revival?

The quest

After all these insights, one question remained: What should be the proper motivation in praying for revival? The answer is simple. We should pray for revival because we want God’s transforming presence dwelling among his people. Everything else – comfort, respectability, safety, security – all these are insignificant in light of what the Church has been called to exhibit.

In the next issue, we’ll continue the quest for true revival and find encouragement in Jesus’ instructions to the church at Ephesus.

Reprinted with permission of Empower Ministries International, Charlotte, NC

	Geoge Cannon is the pastor of Curwensville Christian Church, a rural Baptist congregation in central Pennsylvania. He has also pastored in Central Ontario, Canada. He is a graduate of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, Virginia. He has published two articles in Leadership Journal, one of which was published in the Church Leaders Answer Book (Tyndale House, 2006). He has also been published in Preaching magazine. George and his wife, Lori, have four children. ©Copyright 2009. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Posted Wed, May 27 2009 11:58 AM by MTBEditor