We can be ready!
When I asked Willie McCloud, converted as a teenager during the revival on the Isle of Lewis, whether there was anything we could do to prepare for revival his reply was: ‘there is nothing we can do Nigel, but we can be ready’.
I have returned time and time again to these words, hearing them as a personal challenge to help prepare the church for revival. My sense is we shall never be fully ready any more than the church has been ready for any previous revival. Maybe, however, we can be ready enough?
Christian revivals are often preceded by several common factors that create an environment conducive to spiritual renewal (I’m restricting myself to six, but I think it’s possible to include variations from any of the lists under the following headings):
- Intensified Prayer: An increase in the frequency and intensity of collective and individual prayer. This has often been characterised by extraordinary commitment and fervour, recognising our human desperation for divine intervention and spiritual awakening.
- Deep Repentance: A more widespread acknowledgment of personal and communal sin, leading to sincere repentance and a desire for moral and spiritual transformation. The testimony of past revivals is this typically starts on a very small scale.
- Renewed Gospel Emphasis: A return to foundational Christian teachings, focusing on the message of grace, salvation, and personal relationship with God. This has often, but not always been accompanied by passionate and ‘convicting’ preaching.
- Sincere and Genuine Corporate Worship: An increase in enthusiastic and heartfelt communal worship experiences, fostering a sense of unity and divine presence among participants.
- Emergence of New Leadership: The rise of dynamic and visionary leaders who help people to engage and respond to the fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
- Authentic Social and Cultural Engagement: A proactive involvement in addressing wider societal issues, demonstrating God’s justice, and extending compassion to marginalised groups, reflecting the transformative impact of the revival on the broader community.
As I write I’m looking forwards to our next Webnet Leaders Conference when we’ve asked Ellen Wild to come as our key speaker on the theme: Followers First. It’s a timely challenging theme. We are followers of Jesus both before and above anyone, or anything else in the whole of life.
There’s something here around personal responsibility, but if we have a leadership role of any sorts (and on the basis leadership is influence I would argue we are leaders in some measure) we have an added layer of complexity to grapple with. However, the Holy Spirit doesn’t bypass people and any fresh move of the Holy Spirit, whether it be labelled, renewal, revival, or missional movement, begins with human hearts who are willing and available before God.
So what about me? Am I revival ready? As someone who’s never been as ready as I’d like to be, for any Sunday preaching engagement I’ve ever had, I recognise there can always be more, but I’m trying to maintain a posture place where I’m ready enough. It may look different for you, but I believe this is a season when we all need to re-examine our hearts before the Lord. Here’s where I am with this right now:
- Intensified Prayer. I acknowledge my best efforts achieve nothing if they are dislocated from Jesus (John 15 remains hugely significant as a guide). I’m committed to praying and fasting for the renewal of the church and the revival of Christianity across our nation. Opening our Doors for God is how we’re encouraging others to do the same.
- Deep Repentance. I recognise God is God and I am not. Oswald Chambers once wrote: ‘beware of reasoning about God’s word, obey it’. Aligning my life with the life of Jesus has to be my number one priority.
- Renewed Gospel Emphasis. People across our nation are more open to the gospel today than I’ve ever known. I want to be a player not a commentator, so I want to be open and ready daily to speak into the opportunities I am given. However, my reading of the history of revivals also tells me there was no separation between the ‘good news’ as heard by someone not yet a Christian and an existing believer. In other words, the whole Bible is good news.
- Sincere Corporate Worship. Worshipping God is a devotion of the heart and I am committed to loving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength in community with the people of God.
- Emergence of New Leadership. The fruit of my life will be best evidenced through the lives of others. I won’t be able to measure the impact, but the focus of my ministry here on in, is on developing others. I need to re-learn the lessons from the eighteenth century ‘methodism’.
- Authentic Social and Cultural Engagement. I am a follower of Jesus first and foremost, so this means taking Jesus, as ‘the way’ as seriously as being ‘truth’ and ‘life’. On a personal level, this boils down to aligning my life with Micah 6:8 to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.
So what about you? Christian revival almost always starts with one believer. The Holy Spirit begins with the personal transformation of one believer, which leads forward in a deeper commitment and repentance. There’s are many ‘one’s. It may well be the stewards of the next wave of revival are yet to be saved. Either way, God is looking for those who want him.
