Haveyou ever wondered what causes revivals to occur? Is revival simply a random actthat happens periodically when God gets in a revival mood or is there somethingwe can do as Christians to bring revivals to pass? I’m starting this articlewith the premise that God always wants revival because it doesn’t seemconsistent with His nature that He would ever start and end one. I believe Godwants “Stay-Vival.” Yes, He wants revival and He wants it to stay.
Historically,however it seems that big revivals happen every so often and culture begins tochange, but then things go back to normal. Why? That was the question I askedlast summer as I began a study revival. I was shocked at some of what I foundout.
AsI began to study revival, I didn’t initially find a central theme that caused themto begin, but I found a lot of powerful information on what caused them to end.All major revivals have ended for one main reason: strife. Once I realizedstrife was the common theme that kills revivals, God was able to reveal to methe key to the beginning and maintaining of all great revivals: unity.
Iwant to illustrate the power of strife and unity by examining two major movesof God in history: The Azusa Street Revival and the Revival at Ephesus.
TheAzuza Street revival lasted from 1906 to 1915 and is considered one of thegreatest revivals of all time. In this revival, there was an outpouring of theHoly Spirit and tens of thousands of people were saved, healed, and delivered.This revival gave birth to multiple pentecostal and charismatic denominations.It accelerated the increase of women in ministry. The impact of the AzusaStreet Revival was immense and its effects are still felt over a century later.But why did it end?
1. Different groups within the movement disagreed over whethermen should wear ties. Yep, I’m not making that up. Thousands were being savedfrom a devil’s hell and people thought it necessary to fight over dress-code.How dumb can you get and still breathe?
2. Doctrinal wars over the the finished work of the cross and sanctification. This one is touchy becauseits important to get doctrine right. I grew up in churches that taught baddoctrine for years and that really hindered my spiritual growth. I’m a teacherat heart and I want people to get doctrine right. Correct doctrine is veryimportant for people’s spiritual growth, but here’s the catch; we worship aperson and not a doctrine. And that person, Jesus, came to reconcile people tohimself and then gave us the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, ourjob isn’t to divide, it’s to bring people into agreement – even coming intoagreement with those who have bad doctrine (as much as possible).
Agreat example of this is in the book of Acts with the Revival at Ephesus. In Acts 18, Apollosbegan to preach John’s Baptism at Ephesus. John’s Baptism was what John theBaptist taught – it was a message about the savior who was to come. So getthis, Apollos is preaching about the Messiah who was to come over 20 yearsafter Jesus resurrected. You can’t get much worse doctrinally than Apollos was,but the leadership in Ephesus didn’t excommunicate or disfellowship him. Theleadership (Priscilla and Aquila) went to him privately and explained thegospel to him more thoroughly. Then Apollos changed his message and God beganto use him even more powerfully.
Whatmakes this even more interesting is that in Acts 19, Paul came toEphesus and met some disciples of Apollos. He asked them about baptism and theytold him they had been baptized into John’s Baptism. Paul then shared with themthat Jesus had already come and they believed and were baptized in the name ofJesus. Paul then laid his hands on them and they were filled with the HolySpirit, began to speak in tongues, and prophecy. This event led to the greatrevival at Ephesus discussed in Acts19.
It’samazing how God used Paul, but it’s important to realize that God also usedApollos who had an incomplete message to initially reach these disciples.Apollos laid the groundwork for Paul. If Apollos hadn’t done his part, thesemen might not have been there for Paul to lead them to salvation and thebaptism of the spirit later. The point is revival takes teamwork. And it takesteams that unify in the spirit of Christ and not around doctrine (the unity ofdoctrine is ultimately an illusion anyway because no two people agree oneverything).
3. The secretary of the Apostolic Faith Mission got mad and leftthe Azusa Street revival with the mailing list. Without a mailinglist, the mission could no longer circulate its newspaper which published thetestimonies that were happening at Azusa. Since people stopped getting thenewspaper, they thought the revival had ended and the large crowds quit goingto the services. This ended the Azusa Street Revival.
Revivalsdon’t end because of God. They end because of people. God lives in a constantstate of being vived and He wants His people to do the same. Satan knows thisand fights against the move of God with strife. He sows lies into people’shearts getting them to self promote, take offense, attack others, and walk outof love.
Thekey to initiating the next great move of God is for people to come together inunity. And not unity around doctrine, ministry position, revival strategy, or100 other unimportant ancillary issues; unity around Jesus. Loving Jesus andloving people who Jesus sacrificially came to save and reconcile himselfto. Ephesians 4:3 says to endeavor to keep the unity of thespirit in the bond of peace. Endeavor means with great effort.It takes work to stay in unity. It’s not natural and its not easy, but itsworth it.
Iwant to encourage you to take these things I’ve written and study them out foryourselves. Pray over them and allow the Holy Spirit to help you learn how towalk in unity with other believers. And pray with me for people to yield to theHoly Spirit for so the next great move of God can begin. Revival isn’t random,it happens when people intentionally cooperate with God and begin to agree withHim and each other about the most important theme of the Bible; unconditionallove! And if we will consistently maintain an atmosphere of unconditional love,we can sustain a move of God unlike anything this world has ever seen!
Itaught a message on unity in revival over the summer. I went into more detailthan I can in this short article. If you would like to learn more, click here.
