Every now and then you stumble across a quote or sentence that instantly clarifies and gives shape and meaning to something that’s been ticking over in the back of your mind.
The concept I’ve been wrestling with is “revival.” Revival is, in my view, what happens when the church gets its act together and comes before God, desperately seeking to know His will and praying for a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit to convict people of their need to discover Jesus as their Saviour. But the thing is that the Bible doesn’t appear to specifically talk about revivals as we know it. Jesus instead empowers the disciples to go out into the world, powered by the Holy Spirit, and preach the good news, heal the sick, raise the dead and “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matt 28:19, ESV). In that context, you get the feeling that revival is meant to be the ongoing, constant work of the church.
So here are some words of wisdom on revival that I came across while researching an essay on speaking in tongues (a subject for another day), from Clarence Finsaas, a Lutheran pastor:
Revivals among Christian people usually center around the recovery of lost truths. In the Old Testament it was the recovery of the lost book, the Bible, which brought about revival under King Josiah. In Martin Luther’s time it was the recovery of that great basic truth, justification by faith. In John Wesley’s day it was the truth of sanctification. In 1900 it was the discovery of the spiritual gifts that God gave to His Church which were lying dormant. This movement was called the Pentecostal movement.”
If you’ve been to Africa, or read the stories of the Pentecostal church’s explosive growth across the continent, then it’s not hard to think of it as revival. I’m still processing the fact that when we visited Uganda’s Kampala Pentecostal Church in October they had 2,000 people in each of their four services on a Sunday. And KPC had 5 churches across the city. Of course, there are big churches in plenty of Western countries too.
But to apply all this to my own journey, discovering the reality of the person of the Holy Spirit, and his manifest power through gifts such as tongues, healing, prophecy and words of knowledge, sparked a revival in my life that led to my decision to begin theological studies at Tabor College. I’m just one guy at College, and there are plenty of other people there who have had their own faith revivals. Call it what you will – the Pentecostal revival, the Charismatic Renewal – but it’s awe inspiring to me that God has poured out his Spirit on this generation. I reckon God’s making good on his promise in Job 8:7 that the church will keep growing stronger and those who seek Him will be restored:
And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.
(Kampala Pentecostal Church in full flight…pic: Diane Clucas, Northside Community Church)
