Most pastors could tell you if revival suddenly broke out at their church. It's not hard to miss when the Holy Spirit moves radically among your people and lives are forever changed. What's more difficult, however is pinpointing exactly what revival is. How do we define this wonderful but somewhat mysterious occurrence? And can it even be considered an occurrence in the first place?

 

 

Let's start with what revival isn't. Revival is usually not a scheduled protracted meeting. It is not putting up a sign and advertising revival services lasting for one or two weeks. It is not a meeting of mass evangelism or crusade evangelism even, though this has its proper place. It is also not necessarily church growth. In revival, a church may grow, and people may come to Jesus and integrate into the local church through discipleship, but that is not entirely revival.

 

With that said, let's look at various definitions of revival throughout history.

 

According to renowned pastor Raymond Ortlund, revival is "a season in the life of the church when God causes the normal ministry of the gospel to surge forward with extraordinary spiritual power. ... What sets revival apart is simply that our usual efforts greatly accelerate in their spiritual effects." Ortlund further states that revival is when "God comes down to us." Likewise, John Armstrong entitled his book on revival When God Moves, describing the move of God he experienced in 1970. Indeed, revival is when God comes down, moves among us in extraordinary ways and there is a surging forward with extraordinary spiritual power.

 

In A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God, Jonathan Edwards illustrates what happened in 1734 in Northampton, Mass.: "The Spirit of God began to set in extraordinarily and to work wonderfully among us." More than 20 years prior, his grandfather, colonial preacher Solomon Stoddard, penned a similar sentiment: "Revival was understood to refer to some special seasons wherein God doth in a remarkable manner revive religion among his people." Likewise, International Awakening Ministries president Richard Owen Roberts indicates that revival is "an extraordinary movement of the Holy Spirit producing extraordinary results."

 

Revival is always extraordinary, beyond what we consider to be the normal work of God. According to Stephen Olford, "Revival is that strange and sovereign work of God in which He visits His own people, restoring, reanimating and releasing them into the fullness of His blessing." Revival historian J. Edwin Orr describes it as a "movement of the Holy Spirit bringing about a revival of New Testament Christianity in the church of Christ and in its related community." Malcolm McDow defines revival as "God's invasion into the lives of one or more of His people in order to awaken them spiritually for Kingdom ministry. … [It] is God's interaction with His people in order to energize them spiritually." Just as God said He would do in Joel 2:28, revival is a sovereign and providential work of God in which God pours out His Spirit upon all flesh. It brings an awareness of the presence of the Holy Spirit so powerful that it brings conviction even to the most stubborn and difficult unbelievers.

 

In light of these definitions, I believe that revival occurs when the Holy Spirit comes down among us. He does the extraordinary that would not be accomplished had He not applied supernatural ability to our human efforts. Lives are transformed and Jesus is glorified.

 

In the history of Christianity there is no spiritual happening more apparent than the continuing occurrences of revival. As James Burns writes in Revivals, Their Laws and Leaders: "Certainly no history of the growth of the Christian church, and no examination of the reasons of its survival, would be of any value, which ignored their constant recurrence, and their momentous influence." In addition, theologian Robert Coleman points out that revival "shapes the redemptive activity of the Holy Spirit throughout the Bible."

 

Throughout the Old Testament God breathed life into His people and brought deliverance to the children of Israel. In the New Testament and even today, God is breathing new life into many believers and into His church. These seasons of blessing, refreshing and revival are characterized by brokenness, humility, repentance, boldness, joy and enthusiasm about what God is doing. The prayer lives of those affected are greatly stimulated, and there are revolutionary changes in people as they sense the glorious presence of God. The tangible fruit of these seasons results in physical healing, healing of personal brokenness (emotional and spiritual), lives and homes being put back together, and churches surging forward under the hand of God.

 

Simply stated, these periods as recorded in the history of the church are known as revivals.

 

 

Norman Benz is the lead and founding pastor of Covenant Centre International (covcentre.org) in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where revival broke out in 1997.

 

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