What is Revival?

As a Christian, you have probably prayed for revival to happen. Growing up, your church may have conducted revival services. For example, we had week-long revival services at my first church the first week in August. When I came, one of the deacons said, “We always have revival the first week in August, so do not change the dates.”

Recently at Asbury University, the participants were not ready to leave after the scheduled end of the chapel service. They continued to sing, pray, read Scripture, and these services have extended to successive days of worship services. On the news, it is reported that a revival has broken out!

Revival is a common term in church and one of the most misunderstood terms. Some will put the words revival and spiritual awakening in the same category. I do not hold to this position. I believe spiritual awakening is when a lost person is saved. Someone dead spiritually is born new; they have new life by faith in the finished work of Jesus.

For those in which revival comes, revival is experiencing a fresh work of God. However, as Christians, there are times in which we become lifeless, lazy, indifferent, and backslide into sin and the purposes of God. When this happens, we are ripe for revival.

There are six main words used in the Bible to describe revival. Those words range in meaning from “to change,” “to bestow life,” “to renew,” “to refocus,” “to awaken,” and “to rise.”

I would define revival this way, “It is an extraordinary movement of the Holy Spirit in God’s people to awaken them spiritually for kingdom work.”

In my next post, we will examine the five historical revival types that have happened.