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Rethinking Revival
By Jeremy | September 23, 2007
Bishop Roderick Caesar
Why does God bless us? It’s the fulfillment of the prayers of our forefathers, and promises God made to them. What prayer legacy are leaving future generations?Dr. A.R. Bernard
There needs to be a correction in leadership in our nation in the church. We’ve moved away from Christ-centeredness and have moved towards celebrating Christian celebrities. We must rediscover our Christology.
Isaiah 43:18-19 (NLT)
Follows a passage of pending judgment. “But forget all that. It is nothing compared to what I’m going to do. … See I have already begun. Do you not see it?†God is already moving and we can’t even see it.
We’re not here by accident. God is already doing something and He’s calling our attention to and asks: “Do you not see it?â€Â
History
Thirty minutes into Lanphier’s first prayer meeting, no one had showed up. Only six total. He wondered if he had made a mistake. He was a merchant. Gave up his trade position for a salary of <$100 / year. There was nothing extraordinary about that first meeting. But conditions were ripe for revival: greed and materialism on the rise. (Sounds familiar!) Still no one anticipated what was to come. 20 came to the next week’s meeting. Then 40. Then on the fourth week, the nation’s first stock market crash. Became daily as crowds ballooned to more than 3000. Within six months, 10,000 businessmen were gathering daily in prayer (out of population of 800K in NYC). By January 1858, the “progress of the revival†became a standing news headline. Modern communication spread the news nationwide. But mostly it spread by means of people with changed lives. Everywhere, a revival of prayer. No hype. No emotional disturbances. People preferred meeting for prayer than for preaching. Charles Finney, famed revivalist of the Second Great Awakening earlier in the century, said: “We’ve had instruction until we’ve become hard. It is time for us to pray.†Three characteristics stood out: 1) A laymen’s movement. God got preachers out of the way. 2) It was nonsectarian. 3) A revival of prayer. Never before had Americans bowed before the Lord so united. Lasted 1857-1858.What happened afterwards?
This awakening proceeded tumult. “Revival has to be more than saving souls and refreshing the saints.†Civil War: 1861-1865. 1862 – Emancipation Proclamation. Tension about preserving the union and abolishing slavery. In NYC, tension among white laborers and black servants. Former black slaves influxed NYC and northern cities, and the tension grew even more. Racial competition for jobs. National Conscription Act – he only way not to be drafted was to pay $300, and the tension grew along economic lines. 1863, mobs erupted in streets of lower Manhattan. Assaulted citizens, burned government institutions, and ultimately turned on black citizens. Lynched, tortured, raped. Black orphanage was burned. Troops recalled to restore order. Wait a minute! To have such a powerful revival where 1 million come into the kingdom and 1000s of lives are changed, and then in the city where it started to have an outbreak of violence. Did we miss something?We need to rethink revival.
It’s not a week of services with the best preachers and singers and largest crowds. Too often we view it as saving of souls and refreshing saints. But maybe it is more. Maybe God stirs his people and sensitizes his people to become a spiritual indicator of things that are about to come. Maybe when the prophet speaks about a new thing, his concern is that we not mss it. Do we restrict revival by our traditions? It is a spiritual indicator that something’s coming and God is preparing us. It’s an improvement in the strength of something. Passion and fervor towards purpose. Associated with renewal. Replacing something worn out or broken. Begins with personal renewal; then relational; then purpose; then structural; then cultural. What happens on the inside has to effect what’s going on outside. Revival creates an atmosphere of expectation and anticipation. God stirs a hunger, a dissatisfaction with status quo so we begin to cry out. Just maybe he’s begun something, and if he has, I want to see it.Topics: ar bernard, copgny, evangelism, faith, fulton street revival, jeremiah lanphier, revival | No Comments »
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