What is Revival?

Readers of this blog will be aware I've been working through, 'The Story of Toronto', by John Peters. There are inevitable questions which follow any discussion on the Toronto Blessing - What was all that about? Where is it leading? Was it revival or some kind of renewal?

Peters attempts a response to these questions by asking another - How is revival defined? In doing so, he shares some great definitions which are worth repeating here for our stimulation.

'Revival is God coming down in life stirring power amongst His people. It takes place when the church is spiritually low & ineffective.' Dr Eifon Evans, Fire in the thatch & the Welsh Revival.


'Revival is a visitation from God that restores life to the church & produces lasting moral change.' Richard Booker

'Revival is a movement of the Holy Spirit bringing about a revival of New Testament Christianity in the church of Christ & the related community.' Dr J Edwin Orr

'Revival is always the action of God. It is not man. It is God pouring out His Spirit. It is something quite out of the ordinary, something special, unusual, exceptional.' Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Revival

'Revival is God revealing Himself to men in awesome holiness & irresistable power.' Arthur Wallis, In the Day of Thy Power.

'Revival is a season in the life of the church where God causes the normal ministry of the gospel to surge forward with extraordinary spiritual power.' Dr Raymond Ortlund

'Revival is a community saturated by God.' Brian Edwards.

For those of us who remember the thrill of the early Toronto outbreak & spread, our joyful assumption was that this blessing anticipated a great revival. That we have not seen such a breakthrough is no cause for dismissing Toronto. The reasons why this river did not develop into such a flood are too numerous for a few paragraphs here. However, the overall impact on the church has been to raise the bar across the board in terms of our expectations of intimacy & breakthrough.

By these historical definitions, Toronto has brought revival to isolated places. The impact of the blessing in the lives of Roland & Heidi Baker ticks every box. However high you set the revival bar, the Baker's work in Mozambique jumps it with ease - 6000 churches planted, multitudes saved & healed, the hungry fed.

Ironically, Toronto itself is the more normal example that the rest of us have followed. They have not seen their city saturated with Kingdom power in the way that they might have expected early on as trhe birthplace of the movement. However, their hunger has aroused a response around the world which leaves us healthier & hungrier still.
Sixteen years may have passed but we are learning to cry 'More Lord' again!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Myra Wattinger & the voice of God

Don't kiss me - cross cultural fumblings!

The Seven Marks of a Healthy Church