The Challenge of Sustaining a Revival—Part 1
The Challenge of Sustaining a Revival—Part 1
Many desire revival but are unable or unwilling to pay the price
Preamble
Today, August 1, 2024, the paperback of “A Call to Pray for a Revival”1, a book we wrote, is out on sale. The book focuses primarily on the need to pray for a revival and briefly, in the epilogue, the need to sustain a revival so birthed.
The objective of any revival is not just to birth it through godly prayer—prayer that is continual, consistent, and persistent—but also to spread it through godly preaching, and to sustain it through continual teaching of sound scriptural doctrine, enabling people to live righteously, especially in difficult times. While birthing a revival can be challenging, sustaining it is even more challenging.
Therefore, it is appropriate that we discuss the challenge of sustaining a revival. The Early Church sustained the revival of their time for over 200 years spanning several generations! Although there were apostates during that period, sustained teachings of righteousness smothered their inglorious activities. However, when the teaching of righteousness subsided, so did the revival—it waned and eventually died!
The content of a revival
A revival is usually sparked by concerted, concentrated, and persistent godly prayer, focusing on the sorry state of humanity. Such prayers are made to God in faith. Having been sparked by prayer, a revival then spreads through continuous godly prayer and the preaching of the unadulterated word of God as inspired by the Holy Spirit. To sustain a revival over time, there must be a combination of continuous godly prayer and godly preaching, coupled with sound scriptural teaching, that produces righteous living in the adherents.
Let us note that godly prayer goes hand-in-hand with godly preaching and teaching to spread and sustain a revival. Godly preaching alone, without being followed up with sound biblical teaching, will neither produce nor sustain godly living in the people. No! Sustaining a revival is not a consecutive action in which prayer hands over to preaching, and preaching to teaching. No! It is a concurrent action in which godly prayer, having gained momentum in bringing about a revival, continues even as godly preaching takes root, and so forth.
Noteworthy is that godly prayer and preaching, and the teaching of righteousness, which enables godly living are initiated, inspired, implemented, and influenced by the Holy Spirit, who is the real Author of any revival! Thus, a revival is the presence of God in the lives and communities of people.
This happened on the day of Pentecost as the disciples of Christ continued in prayer days before the Holy Spirit came, sparking a revival in Jerusalem. This revival spread to the rest of the world, sustained by Holy Spirit-inspired teachings which enabled holy living among the people. As the disciples continued to pray, preach, and teach sound biblical doctrines, it engendered godly living, and the manifest presence of God was apparent by the miraculous signs and wonders performed by the apostles, on one hand, and, on the other hand, righteous living free of selfishness, malice, envy, bitterness, etc. Thus, a genuine revival is initiated, inspired, and influenced by the Holy Spirit through those who give themselves to prayer, preaching, teaching, and godly living.
The death of a revival
Once the presence of God departs or becomes nominal in a person’s life or church community, the revival wanes and eventually dies! The presence of God departs once sin and iniquity persist in the lives of those who once experienced and manifested God’s power during the revival. Sin ruins godly prayer, prayerful godly preaching, sound scriptural teaching, and godly living. Therefore, if during a revival, any of these decelerate or altogether cease, the revival dies!
The death of a revival usually begins with unchecked and unconfessed sin in the lives of those who once experienced and manifested the power of God during the revival, who then become detached from the groundswell of the revival. Such individuals begin to wane in their hunger and fervour for Christ and God’s word. They backslide and may even go into apostasy.
At such times, one reads about those who prayed revival into being, preached righteousness to spread it, and taught sound scriptural doctrines to enable people to live righteously to sustain it, who then backslide, and become apostates—all because they allowed sin and iniquity to persist in their lives. As the presence of God cannot remain in the life of anyone who is sinful nor in a gathering of sinful and iniquitous people, everything must be done therefore, to ensure that sin does not get into and remain in a person’s heart or that of the congregation of God. To achieve this, we must refuse to engage in activities that have the appearance of evil, deny ourselves of the pleasures of this world, and promptly repent of sin when it is pointed out by the Holy Spirit.
The challenge of sustaining a revival
As we have already seen, sin and iniquity will kill any revival in its tracks! What leads men into sinning after a great revival has begun, is the activity of the flesh. Many Christians believe that all they need to do to be saved is to make the confessional statement regarding the lordship of Christ over their lives, having repented of sin. Unfortunately, many such individuals, having not been taught the word of God, are unable to withstand the challenges of life when they do come; and challenges surely do come! Little wonder, in Acts 2:42, it is written,
“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
Those who had come to Christ on account of Peter’s preaching on the day of Pentecost continued to be taught by the apostles—the operational word is “continued”! The Lord Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:19-20,
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you …"
This lack of sound scriptural teaching is the biggest challenge in any revival! Hence, a great many young believers do not grow in the things of God and are unable to sustain the fire of revival they once were a part of. It is written in 1 Peter 2:2,
“as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,”
Without a desire (hunger) for the unadulterated word of God, the believer’s growth is stunted, and the revival eventually fizzles out.
Temptations, trials, tribulations, etc., are the fuel that keeps the fires of revival burning. They purge and purify our souls by causing us to draw nearer to God, thus producing godly character in us. Avoiding them will make us unable to sustain a revival. When we give in to temptation and are unable to overcome trials and tribulations, the revival cools and apostasy sets in.
Such was the situation in the Early Church. Once Christianity became acceptable and fashionable, allowance was made for all and sundry to be a part of it and live as they liked. They ignored the due process of hearing the gospel message and accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord after repenting of sin, as laid down by the Lord and His apostles. The presence of God eventually lifted off, and the revival of the day of Pentecost died over 200 years after it began. Ironically, persecutions, constant harassment, and martyrdom fanned the flames of the revival and kept it burning.
In Nigeria, a revival broke out in the 1970s through to the 1990s. Godly preaching filled the air, and teachers who correctly expounded God’s word emerged producing a righteous lifestyle in the adherents. This new lifestyle of chastity and sobriety, coupled with humility demonstrated by those who were once known as ‘party animals’ and hardened criminals, brought many others to Christ and into the church of the Living God. By ‘the church of the Living God’, I am referring to the people who had come to Christ, rather than to a denomination or church building. Unfortunately, many were either not taught the Scriptures or refused to submit to sound scriptural teaching. Soon enough, they fell and some even fell away into apostasy! What happened? The young believers who were excited about the new life in Christ were never taught that the flesh—their old sinful and sin-loving nature—had to be crucified! Several of these ungrounded believers soon became ministers themselves, who could not even teach the fundamentals of the Christian faith as articulated in Hebrews 6:1-2. The result was disastrous, and the nascent revival died!
Also in tow came the prosperity gospel, which signalled ungodly living and ungodly prayers among those who were once a part of the revival. Today, it is common to hear ungodly prayers—people asking God to kill their enemies, provide them with absurd luxuries, bring other people into subjection under them, etc. The prosperity gospel, which is in no way or measure the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, brought a desire for the things of the world to the heart of these untaught and unsanctified believers, thereby weakening their faith, and eventually separating them from God!
When the people became comfortable through prosperity, and temptation, trials, tribulations, troubles, etc. came, they could not resist but succumbed to the newfound lifestyle of comfort ushered in by prosperity teachings, which had by now overtaken sound scriptural teachings in most church meetings. Thus, the people complained, murmured, and grumbled about serving God. Such conduct bred open rebellion against God’s word, and fostered an affiliation with Satan, leading to a preference for worldly living showcased by pride, avarice, malice, envy, bitterness, slander, jealousy, hatred, and murder! However, Titus 2:11–12 tells us that those who have come to Christ must rid themselves of ungodliness and the desire for the world, but should rather,
“… live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age”
The prosperity gospel weakened that revival and eventually killed it. On the other hand, persecution strengthened the revival of the Early Church.
One other factor that kills many a revival, is the lust for power—usually, political and esoteric. Foraying into worldly living including politics is the easiest way to kill a revival. The separation of church and state must never be a cliché but must be sacredly and jealously guarded if revival is to be sustained. It is written in 2 Timothy 2:3–4, that Christians must endure hardship and not be entangled with the affairs of this world but seek to please Christ.
A situation where the church tries to influence the world through political power deals a death knell to revival. Why, you ask? Because a revival is spiritual, but politics is carnal. A revival begins because the Holy Spirit initiates, inspires, and continues to implement and influence it. On the other hand, politics is about human government and the governance of people by those elected by the people to govern on behalf of the people—it is, therefore, worldly. For instance, some untaught Christians try to legislate Christian values on others, becoming in the process, hypocrites, who though not living by those standards, nonetheless set them for others to act as though they are upright. This gives rise to Pseudo-Christians2 and ensures the death of whatever embers may remain of a revival.
Such was the case in the United States in the 2007/8 election cycle when some legislators, and even top evangelical pastors who usually held sway during elections were found to have been engaging in homosexual acts privately while condemning it publicly. Such things put off people who could have been convinced about Christ’s salvation offer.
Then, there is the use of esoteric power by those whom God has abandoned. These individuals claiming to be ministers of God, perform acts that would have qualified as miracles if they were Christians indeed. Such miracles are referred to in Scripture as lying wonders (2 Thessalonians 2:9), which is a signature mark of the disciples of the antichrist. As the Lord calls them, such workers of iniquity, bear no fruit of righteousness but want to be approved of men by their false acts. This invariably turns what these individuals—men and women—call the church, into a laughingstock, further dousing any hope of a revival.
The truth is that many ‘believers’ today are either apostates or living an apostate lifestyle!
In the next instalment, we shall answer the question, what must we do to ensure that a revival is sustained?
This book can be obtained from amazon.com
If you are interested, you can read more about Pseudo-Christians from my articles below:
