Revival

Welcome to trinityteaneck.org a community of people who have met the living God and who want others to share this life-changing experience.

Printer friendly page

Pensamientos para hoy (afterthought for today)

Revival

Although significant outpourings of the Holy Spirit and dramatic increases in church growth and missionary efforts have taken place in the recent past and continue to take place in various places around the world, a real revival movement has not happened since the beginning of the twentieth century. This last great revival happened on every continent and in many countries. The church historian J. Edwin Orr has called this revival "the most extensive evangelical awakening of all time."¹

Here are just a few highlights of that world changing revival: In Wales the revival took place in 1904-05. During that short time of outpouring of the Holy Spirit an estimated 100,000 people in Wales were converted to Jesus Christ.

News of the Welch revival spread to England and the United States where similar revivals occurred. Other similar revivals took place during the early 1900s in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, and South America.

Presbyterian missionaries from the United States working in Korea heard of the revival and in 1907 urged the Koreans to repent and seek God. As a result 30,000 people turned to the Lord in only six months time.

Soon afterwards in Norway the evangelist Albert Lunde held church meetings in the capital city of Oslo where crowds of more than 5,000 people flocked to hear Lunde every night during which he urged the people to repent and turn to Christ.

These revivals had at least four similarities: prayer and filling of the Spirit, preaching of repentance, confession of sin, and church attendance. We find these four features also in the revival that took place in Jerusalem on Pentecost:

Prayer and filling of the Spirit -- "These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer. . . When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. . . And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. . . They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer (Acts 1:14; 2:1, 42)."²
Preaching of repentance -- "Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. . . And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation!" (Acts 2:38, 40)."
Confession of sin -- "Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37)."
Church attendance -- "Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved (Acts 2:46-47)."

Maybe God will grant us the privilege of being part of a new revival at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It can begin with one person who devotes himself to prayer, confesses sin, and lets the Spirit of God fill his or her life. Then, Lord willing, this revival will spread to others. Wouldn't it be fantastic if this revival were to start with us?

Asking God to revive me and use me to spread revival,

Pastor Steve

February 23, 2008

Footnotes

¹ J. Edwin Orr, A Call for the Re-study of Revival and Revivalism (Los Angeles: Oxford Association for Research in Revival, 1981), p. 31 as cited by Neil T. Anderson and Elmer L. Towns, Rivers of Revival (Ventura, California: Regal Books, 1997), p. 299.

² Acts 1:14; 2:1, 42, NASB (New American Standard Bible). Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.

Find more afterthoughts at Mas Pensamientos
(more afterthoughts)

Return to Home Page of trinityteaneck.org