How often have we seen advertised in the newspaper, or a Sunday bulletin: "Revival Meetings this Week!" or something similar? As we take note of some similarities in each of the past revivals, one factor remains clear that is true in every real revival -- God is the author. God with not bless what He did not begin.After the American Revolution and the Independence of 1776, Americans moved westward. Moral standards declined in the wilderness, and lawlessness reigned. In Logan County, Kentucky in 1779 several ministers met together and prayed, and revival broke out. As a result, "camp meetings" started because of the necessity of outdoor meetings in which 15-25,000 people attended for six days at a time.
In the 1830's, God began what we have come to know as the Second Great Awakening under the leadership of Charles Finney (1792-1875). Finney's methods shaped modern evangelism with his "Altar calls". His teachings largely influenced the Holiness, and Pentecostal movements. When revival broke out, in Boston 50,000 people were saved in one week. Entire towns came to salvation, and estimates are that 500,000 people came to the Lord during his ministry.
In 1857, under the leadership of Walter and Phoebe Palmer from Hamilton Ont., the Holiness revival began, stressing a consecration of everything to God, and social responsibility. Working with converts of Finney, eventually 25,000 people were converted.
At the same time in 1857, in New York, a Dutch Reform minister named Jeremiah Lanphier advertised a prayer meetings in which only six people attended. The next week saw 14 attend, then 23, until there were as many as 12 meeting with 6,100 people praying. It is estimated that one million in the United States were converted in a year. By 1859 the influence of the revival spread to the British Isles, where reportedly another million professed faith.
To meet the needs of the social and religious conditions brought on by the Industrial Revolution, the Salvation Army founded by William and Katharine Booth in the mid-1800's served the needy in England. "General Booth" as he came to be known organized this mission in military fashion demonstrating the love of the Gospel to the poor working class living in slums.
From local missions, to missions in foreign lands, God has placed it in the heart of a chosen few to spread the Good News. The "Father of Modern Missions" an ex-shoemaker named William Carey carried the Gospel to India. China felt the effects of Hudson Taylor, and Africa was greatly influenced by David Livingstone. As a result, to this day missions are still a vital influence in sharing the Gospel in all the world.
D. L. Moody (1837-1899) along with Ira Sankey traveled together holding crusades in the U.S. and in England where several thousands were converted. On and on it continued. There scarcely seems to be a part of the world not feeling the effects of the Gospel. The purposed length of this writing prevents the portentous accounts of the many other revivals that God has wrought in this nineteenth century.
The turn of the century however, has not been without its own revival movements. Billy Sunday (1863-1935) was a pro-baseball player for the "White Stockings" when he was saved in a Chicago mission. In 1903 he was ordained, and held 300 revival meetings during his ministry in which it is estimated 100 million people attended. In his lifetime, as a result of his ministry, two million people made a confession of faith.
In Wales, a revival in 1905 influenced the whole coal mining industry, for when the miners who were converted no longer cursed the horses to get them to work, the horses no longer understood their commands. The effects of that revival spread to a small group in California in 1906, and began what is called the Azusa St. revival, famous for its distinctive manifestations of the Gifts of the Spirit.
From revivals to crusades. From tent meetings to stadiums. From open-air gatherings to over-the-air broadcasts on radio and television. From Oral Roberts, Rex Humbard, and Billy Graham to Jimmy Swagart, Pat Robertson, and the many others whom God has used, the twentieth century is a period of time like none other before it. We are living in an age of instant access to information. Along with the rapid changes in technology have come rapid changes in the opportunities to use that technology to spread the Gospel.
The story is told of an Arab sheik who visited a modern city in America for the first time in his life. He stayed in a modern Inn, with all of the amenities. As he was preparing to leave, he was discovered trying to steal the faucets from the bathroom. His thinking was that the faucets provided an instant and unlimited supply of water, and if only he could take it with him, he could solve the desert's water problem.
Of course we might think this Arab a little silly, not knowing that the taps were connected to a water source of supply in the city, and did not supply the water itself. But when it comes to spiritual comparisons, we might find ourselves caught in the same folly. Trying to initiate a revival by imitating revivals of the past is like the Arab taking the faucet. Without the connection to a source of supply it is without any effectiveness.
I have no doubt God will continue to "shake the church awake" and raise up leaders to "turn on the tap". Revivals are the "faucet" which must be connected to God as the source of supply before the "rivers of living water" can flow upon multitudes of people. A revival is said to be: The inrush of the Spirit into the body that threatens to become a corpse. This can be plainly seen in an overview of the revivals in the past history of the church. More so, in the past two centuries. Each time a generation of people would give way to a selfish pursuit of personal goals with an indifference to the things of God, God would raise up a new leader with a clarion call to righteousness, and holy living before a Righteous and Holy God.
However, just because the church takes notice of the overall indifference to God that is prevalent in this generation, does not mean it can choose to have a revival to solve it. Every move of God in the past, has been tailored to the generation in which that move has taken place. Our goal must be to seek God for the distinct way in which He wills to make Himself known in this generation. Each generation must learn from the past. But more important, they must have their own personal experience. Every generation must learn what they can from the generations before. Not to repeat them, nor to re-live them, but to find for themselves the place where God is taking them now.
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