PJ Hanley
I came to know the Lord during one of the great revivals of the 20th-Century. My wife and I were saved together at the same time. Shortly afterwards, we went to a church that was devoted to the ministry of the Word and spoke regularly of the restoration of New Testament Christianity. This was typical throughout the seventies and eighties. Many independent churches were springing up, and there was a widespread understanding that the Lord was restoring New Testament Christianity. Nevertheless, this began to change in the nineties, and not as a result of the Toronto revival. Instead, it was largely due to a resurgence in the teachings of Post Millennialism and Preterism, which focus the church on transforming culture rather than saving souls. Thus, the constant mantra of taking back cities, transforming culture, saving America, and bringing heaven down. And all of this is expected to happen through a revival of power and miracles – a great worldwide awakening.
The convergence of these teachings and different streams seeking this revival has led to a church culture where it is the focus of prayer, preaching, teaching, and even worship. In fact, the very meaning of the word revival itself has been altered. Rather than being for the church, it is now for the world. It is nice that we are affected and refreshed in our love for Christ, but according to this new definition, if it’s “real revival”, it will transform the culture. Though there is some truth to that presupposition, it is erroneous to suggest that the purpose of God’s sovereign moves is to transform culture. If that were the case, after five hundred years of revival, we should expect biblical values to dominate, but instead they have been discarded. Despite a state of almost constant revival in the West since the Protestant Reformation of the 16th-Century, not only has our culture not changed for the better, it has also rejected Christianity, embraced Atheistic Evolution, Communism, Humanism, and even a return to Paganism. These are the facts. So, if God’s sovereign revivals were about changing culture, we would have to conclude that, collectively, they failed. Yet nothing the Almighty does fails. Therefore, it is time to reclaim the true purpose of God in revival and dispense with our own.
Divine Interventions
Because of the impact of revival on the church, it is often viewed as the goal we must pursue. Yet revival was never meant to be a goal, but a means to a goal. The goal is not more revival, but maturity in Christ. Thus, the sovereign moves of God have not been about adding new dimensions or understandings, but rather restoring that which was lost. They were divine interventions to save the church and bring it back to God and His Word. They are like Holy Spirit defibrillators that shock the body of Christ into a restoration of life and truth. Indeed, if it was not for the work of God in revival there would be no church. It would have perished long ago, and even with these wonderful interventions, much of it has fallen headlong into apostasy. Nevertheless, the Lord promised to protect His true church and present a pure remnant to Himself.
When we understand revival as divine intervention, then the purpose of God comes to the fore, and we can dispense with the foolish conclusions that have been drawn. One of these obvious fallacies is the idea that the Holy Spirit comes and goes. In other words, He comes with His presence in revival like a flood that lasts for a few years until He leaves, and the revival dies out, leaving us with just a trickle of water. Afterwards, we must pray and fast for revival to come again, until it eventually does. Then the cycle repeats itself. If this sounds crazy, that’s because it is. It is also completely contrary to what Scripture teaches about the work of the Holy Spirit.
“’ I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. After a little while, the world is no longer going to see Me, but you are going to see Me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I in you.’” John 14:16-20
This beautiful passage makes it clear that the Holy Spirit does not come and go, but remains with His church forever. He does not leave us or forsake us. Jesus said He would be with us always until the end of the age. He never leaves us as orphans. However, we are the ones who do the leaving. We often lose our fervour and zeal for Him. We can even become lukewarm and oblivious to His prompting or leading. We can allow other things, including His work, to become more important than Him and lose our first love.5 But thankfully, we can also return to our first love by doing the foremost things, like worship, prayer and being in His presence. We can rekindle our first love and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.6 If we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. Therefore, there is no excuse for us to say we need revival to come in order to be filled again, or we need revival in order to be hot for God. We can be revived by drawing near to Him. We can stay full of the Spirit and be led by the Holy Spirit; otherwise, the teaching of Scripture would be wrong. However, the divine interventions of God were and are necessary to restore, teach, and re-equip the church to fulfill its holy calling. Through centuries of sin and abuse, she had lost the foundations of the faith and was unrecognizable as the body of Messiah. She had lost her way in the darkness and was unable to recover it without waves of His divine power and truth.
An excerpt from “REVIVAL: GOD’S SOVEREIGN INTERVENTIONS RECLAIMING THE PURPOSE OF REVIVAL & RECEIVING THE LAST GREAT WAVE” by PJ Hanley
