What is revival?

[This is an article that I wrote for our church newsletter a couple years ago.]

Revival is core to what New Hope International Church is about. We want to see people, families, churches, and cities in revival. According to the dictionary, revival means to move from a seemingly dead state to a live one. For Christians, revival means to move from man-made religion to a vibrant relationship with God, with undeniably miraculous results following.

The specific term "revival" comes from English and American history and describes periods where the Holy Spirit acts principally to stir people's spirits. As a result of these episodes, Christians' passion for God is renewed and the lost are inexplicably converted. As masses of people repent and are transformed by the love of God, the society around them changes for the better. The "Second Great Awakening" in the 1800s gave birth to the abolitionist movement (to end slavery) in the United States, for example.

But revival is much more than a historical term. Revival is also prophesied about in the Bible, especially in Ezekiel when God promises to replace Israel's stony hearts with hearts of flesh, and in Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones that are made into a living army (read Ezekiel 36:22 - 37:28). When reading these verses, we find that God emphasizes that He is the one who revives His people. This is an essential aspect of revival that we must understand—true revival is the obvious product of God, the Sovereign Lord, not man. It is not manufactured or engineered. It is not learned through teaching, dependent on human resources, or honed by market research. Revival only occurs when God moves freely in His church. This means there is nothing we can add of ourselves to revival—any human manipulation will only serve to obstruct and distract from the move of God.

Revival is part of God's plan to prepare His church for the end times and Jesus' return. Although God is always at work in His church, His relationship with the church is a tremendous story that winds through history. In the same way that God periodically moved to spiritually revive the nation of Israel (followed with physical blessing) in the Old Testament, God also pours out deliverance, power, and love to His church in certain places and times.

What is a revival church? You can't have a church in revival without people in revival. Revival starts in our own hearts. It starts when each person repents of sin and desires God. The Bible gives us a recipe for revival in James 4:8, "Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." Although we cannot dictate when God will bring revival, we can prepare for revival by repenting and hungering for the things of God.

We believe that each person in a revival church needs to have an intimate relationship with God that radically changes the way they relate to their family, coworkers, and friends. In a sense, each member of a revival church should become a "carrier of revival." This is consistent with history and the biblical model of revival. The first-century Christians saw tremendous revival because of how individual believers lived and evangelized. Their success had very little to do with church organization and came in spite of opposition from Roman authorities. The success of more modern revivals was also dependent on individuals. Even though we know the names of past revivalists, the reason those people's ministries were powerful was because of the radical change produced in their hearers' lives—revival is not just a meeting, but a lifestyle.

Also, a revival church seeks the genuine move of God by allowing the Holy Spirit to operate freely. This is more difficult than it sounds—when God moves, He often breaks man-made traditions, pays no attention to denominational organization, and offends people's sensibilities of what is proper. Jesus' own ministry is an example of how the move of God goes "against the grain" of established, institutional religion. In the same way, more modern moves of God have encountered opposition because of unconventional methods. George Whitefield and Jonathan Wesley, for example, drew criticism because they preached in open fields to accommodate large crowds and because their hearers sometimes had physical manifestations of God's inward work. From open-air preaching to holy laughter, God uses new (but biblically consistent) methods to touch people's hearts.

Because God uses new methods to bring revival, we at New Hope International Church are careful not to "put God in a box" by strict adherence to man-made traditions and practices. This mindset is most evident in our Sunday services, where we try to structure the service to facilitate, not constrict, the move of the Holy Spirit through prayer, worship, and preaching. We are not ashamed of unorthodox methods if those methods deliver people from sickness and the bondage of sin, and produce the life-change that is characteristic of revival.

Another key to being a revival church is to obey the specific call of God, whether on a church level or an individual level. God has a particular fit for each local church in the Body of Christ, and a particular role for each person to play within his or her local church.

We believe God has called our church to bring revival to the nations, which means:

1. Encouraging revival in our own church and community
2. Supporting our pastor's calling to spread revival and work as an apostle to other revival churches

Today, our society is ripe for revival. People are disgusted with institutional religion, ensnared by sin, bound by sickness and poverty—and at the same time longing for a more authentic experience of God. If we act as a human-run organization, depending on wisdom borrowed from the world and our own ability, our church cannot hope to meet this need. Instead, we at New Hope International Church aim to be a revival church that is open to the authentic move of God, recognizes and obeys the call of God, and continually fosters a lifestyle of revival among our members.