Preparing for Revival
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Tag Archives: revival
The History of Revival
Where Revival Is Needed
Dead Men Preach to Them
I have been reading a biography on Jonathan Edwards. What a dedicated and holy man! He has been called “The Great Awakener,” and was the primary vehicle in the American Revival of the mid-1700’s, along with George Whitfield.
Midway through this biography, George Whitefield, upon returning from America to England summarized the American situation. He said, “I am greatly persuaded that the generality of preachers talk of an unknown, unfelt Christ. And the reason why congregations have been so dead is because dead men preach to them.”
After reading this quote my mind went to Romans 8:6— “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mindset on the Spirit is life and peace.” Hence, I conclude that many preachers in that day were preaching in the flesh and were dead in the Spirit. And that is also true today.
But this was not true of Jonathan Edwards. I was sparked in my reading with the following words of inspiration:
- Edwards viewed the work as a minister to call men to recognize their need to know God personally.
- Edwards believed that his own knowledge of God should be first before preaching to others.
- He set time for prayer, solitude, meditation, and earnest study—13 hours every day!
- He recognized that the plain man (in his congregation) was reached best by the plain style of preaching.
- He said that Christians are to be people of prayer.
- He was all for Spirit-anointed preaching and he set out in his style to address the conscience of men.
Back to Romans 8:6. “The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.” I have been thinking about that verse for some time now, and I think it has been helpful because of its truth. How often during the day I catch myself thinking of fleshly things and have to change my thinking. Everything in the World is of the flesh you know. And so, a Christian must be watchful and prayerful and diligent to set his mind back on the Spirit—to find life and peace.
The Puritans: A book by D. M. Lloyd-Jones
I have finished blogging through the book The Sermon on the Mount, by D. M. Lloyd-Jones. Now I am reading another of his books, The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors. Again, as is the habit of Lloyd-Jones, the book is actually taken directly from his sermons. This book is a compilation of messages from yearly conferences on the subject of the Puritans; they met in Westminster Chapel in London, from 1959 to 1978. And so, I intend to blog through the book as I am reading it. We will see how it goes. The first chapter is on the history of revival, and I intend to just put down in my words those portions that I have highlighted. Here goes.
- He starts out by telling where revival has not broken out: the Roman Catholic Church, the Unitarian Church, and the Anglican Church. And he gives the reason; that they have confined the Holy Spirit.
- But there was great revival in other places: Northern Ireland, Scotland, Germany. The moving of the Spirit came to America through Jonathan Edwards, to Whitefield and to the Wesleys and others.
- Charles Finney was known for the way he created revival by his methods: his evangelistic campaigns, etc. It was interesting how he had sort of a formula to bring it about. Whereas others just waited for it and prayed.
- With some groups there has seemed to be very little interest in revival: the Calvinistic brethren, Charles Hodge, the Plymouth Brethren, and others. They disliked it because of all the emotion and phenomenon related to it; they didn’t trust it.
- Even the Puritans themselves didn’t seem to teach anything about revival.
- The Plymouth Brethren thought it was wrong to pray for revival, because they said, the Holy Spirit had been given already at Pentecost. They said that nowhere in Scripture are we taught to pray for revival.
- The church seems to be divided into two groups: those that are only interested in the emotional and unusual things accompanied by revival, and the group that distrust all unusual things. But they are both wrong.
- The history of the development of the church is largely a history of revival.
- An important point is this: salvation always starts by revival. Salvation is a work of the Spirit. And that work happens suddenly on the soul when the soul is suddenly revived.
- Man cannot start a revival. It comes when God decides. And he cannot stop it either. God brings it, keeps it going and stops it when He chooses.
Conclusion
We are called above everything else to pray for revival. Let us pray for the outpouring of the Spirt of God, just as they did between the Ascension and Pentecost. Let us stir ourselves up to take hold of God.
Update: Bahrain, Mice, Racism, and more
Work. It’s Monday, not a lot going on as far as work. I have a small job on Wednesday; I just have to paint three doors, Tarrytown green. Fun.
Mice. Following up on my latest article about my mouse problem: I haven’t seen any mice for a few days. But I am convinced that I did have one or two mice—and I was not hallucinating. My evidence, besides seeing them, was finding a few black, small droppings under the stove, in back of the juicer, and on the bathroom floor in the corner. Gross! I am more motivated now to clean and make sure I have nothing laying around where they can nest. I would be mortified if I found a nest with baby mice in it. And I asked around to all the other apartments in my building, and no one has seen any mice. Why is it just me?
Bahrain. Just too days ago, Bahrain came on board with UAE. Now we have two nations at peace with Israel, which confirms my previous article on the fact that bible prophecy is now happening; and so, the Ezekiel Invasion (Ezek. 38, 39) is coming soon—which also means that the Rapture is coming soon. It is so exciting to see these things falling into place.
My church looking at racism. I tend not to want to talk about or hear anyone talk about racism. I think that is mainly in our past. And for the most part I think it was dealt with back in the 60’s. But our pastor has chosen to tackle it. Well, so far, I think he is doing a great job. His main motivation is evangelism in our community, which has a mixed race. So, we figure that our church should really have a mixed race of people. And, for the most part, we do.
His text was from Revelation 7:9: “After these things I looked, and behold a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…”
So, he got from that verse that in heaven there will be a mixed race of people: all nations, tribes, and languages. It is a beautiful picture. We should not see heaven as a blend of the races, say all brown people. No. It will be multi-colored. Very colorful! And we will love and accept each other as we are. So, the main message is that we need to humble ourselves, face up to, and talk about where we are concerning how we feel about each other—people of other races. Sin wants to hide; but redemption demands honesty, humility and transparency.
But we also need to be careful and wise. Riots are not the way to deal with anything. Anger will not solve anything. And we know now that there are anarchists that want to take advantage of any hurtful situation in order to destroy our country. We don’t need another civil war. We need prayer and revival, and we need law and order to go along with it.
My reading. I just started reading Live Free Or Die, by Sean Hannity. Good grief. I had no idea that the book would be so deep. I mean, it is like a text book with tons of research. It’s a book I could definitely read more than once. There is so much in it. It is not that hard to read, just so much in it. Oh well, I will just read it slow, a little at a time. It is good. A lot of good information about our great country.
A Blah Day Is Revived
Today is one of those days. Really blah. A low energy day. A day of transition. A day of testing. I don’t even know how to start this blog. Let’s see. What to write about? I woke up this morning in a fog. I didn’t want to get going. I sat on the edge of my bed for the longest time—trying to decide: should I start getting dressed, or maybe just flop back into bed? I had very low energy, even to think things through. Eventually, the battle was won over the bed. I got up. I did my regular things: eye drops, meds, some TV news, my quiet time, then off to breakfast where I am now—at Perkins. I have an omelet, hash browns, fruit and coffee. I glanced through the paper. Nothing worth reading. Usually the comic strips give me a pick-up. Not so much today. They reflect sort of how I feel. Dustin was rejected by a couple gals in a bar; Garfield was told by his cat girlfriend, “I am cute, and you…well, you’re you.” Suddenly I thought of myself. I think I use to be cute, but no more. Oh well. I’ll just be me.
Besides being a day of blah and low energy, it also happens to be a day of change and transition. I just finished reading the bible through, and today I started again in Genesis; and I will also be reading the Psalms. I look forward to it. Hey, looking up! I sort of finished writing on all of my blog categories at least once—except a couple that I’m waiting on. I still need to send something out about my books. I hate trying to sell myself, but I have to do it. I mean, I think some people will benefit from them, so I really should do some promotion.
I also will be telling my story—sort of my autobiography, in many continuous blogs. I’ve never even though much of doing that, but I think maybe it would be a benefit, both for myself and others. There is so much in my life that is blank—no memories. I hope that some things will come back to me. I hope and pray also that somehow I could be a benefit to others.
Well, I’ve eaten my breakfast, the coffee’s cold, and I need to get going—do something. My energy is slowly coming back. I feel somewhat revived! Thank you, Lord.
Stephen Nielsen 