There is Revival

We used to pray for this thing called revival. It was an ambiguous, unattainable thing that we desired and sought after, often mingling our prayers with tears, pouring out our hearts in request of the impossible. We had some idea that God would “come” in his sovereign timing and set the world right, working signs and wonders to turn hearts to himself, with a wave of godly sincerity sweeping our community off its feet and on its face before Him.

We were wise enough to know that this revival wouldn’t be completely a sovereign act, and that he needed people to start with, so we fashioned our prayers and set ourselves daily in an attempt to receive the first droplets of this heavenly downpour. But after years of seeking and wailing and wanting, nothing changed on the outside and so we learned to cope with a reality less than what we longed for and settled in to the steady service our Christian culture had already fashioned for us.

Not all were unchanged. The years of tear-stained prayer had a formative effect on many, and as greater maturity came with the realities of adult life, those foundational years in the presence of Jesus sustained us throughout the good and bad. Others spun off in disappointment, at best becoming nominal with their faith, joining mainline churches who discount the power of God for today and at worst plunging into lifestyles of sin and abandoning their discouraged faith altogether.

But a decade later I found the revival we were looking for. Or rather, one we didn’t expect but had been happening all along. This was not simply a sovereign act after all, a downpour produced not only by the tears of the saints, but fire mingled with blood. This revival, this great turning of hearts full of miracles, this community and nation shaking power was being quietly worked out by an army of laborers flung throughout the world. National missionaries patiently proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus with the supernatural results promised in the New Testament.

Blind eyes were opening on a massive scale. People seeing the light of the truth with their father confirming it in ways that sealed their hearts to him forever. I saw thousands turn to Jesus in a day – greater numbers than on the day of Pentecost. All manner of physical healing, displayed before once skeptical crowds and now-believing family members. I witnessed many who were tormented by evil spirits being set free by the power of the Name, with immediate transformation and abundant gratitude.

This was the revival we had sought after – we were just looking through the wrong lens to find it. Our initial plea was one that would place us at the epicenter of a move of God, where we would personally have a hand in shaping whatever came down from heaven. But this move was already in motion, an unstoppable wildfire birthed not by prayer only but by the blood of those willing to die to see it fulfilled. And nation after nation is presently seeing the result.

Now my prayer for revival has been renewed and changed. Now I pray not that God would rain on me in some selfish “build my ministry” sort of way, but a request for guidance: how can I partner with the revival you have set in motion? I see indigenous missionaries. I see unreached nations. I see a great harvest field waiting for laborers, and so I will go, train, and send many to the dark places of the earth. And we will become a part of the greatest revival the world has ever seen!