REVIVAL-MEANS-GOD’S
SOVEREIGNTY
Revival is
not something that human hands or wills can produce; it is something that only
God can provide, according to His own good pleasure.
John Sale
God’s Sovereignty and Prayer, Revival
Commentary, v. 2, n. 1, p. 8.
While revival
originates from God, the Holy Spirit has appointed certain means to be used for
the advancement of His kingdom. The
foremost of these is the preaching of the Word of God accompanied by earnest
prayer. Yet, no amount of human endeavor
can assure results. The same is true of
revival: no measured amount of our activity will guarantee an equivalent
blessing, for God's blessing is bestowed according to His good pleasure (Zech.
4:6).
John Sale
Revival's Source, Revival Commentary, v. 1,
n. 1.
What
characterizes revival is not the unusual means we might employ, but rather the
"extraordinary" degree of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the
normal means that God has given to the church.
John Sale
Revival's Source, Revival Commentary, v. 1,
n. 1.
Quite simply,
it is a fact of history that the church of Christ has not experienced any major
nationwide revival under the conditions of advanced modernity. On the other hand, modernity undercuts true
dependence on God's sovereign awakening by fostering the notion that we can
effect revival by human means. On the
other hand, modernity makes many people satisfied with privatized,
individualistic, and subjective experiences that are pale counterfeits of true
revival.
Dining with the Devil, Baker, 1993, p.
20.
We
cannot organize revival, but we can set our sails to catch the wind from Heaven
when God chooses to blow upon His people once again.
G. Campbell Morgan
We are not to
think that we can organize prayer as if we are in control. The very ability to pray with unction and
faith is given by the Holy Spirit, and although that activity largely precedes
revival, prayer also is an integral part of revival.
Erroll
Hulse
A Call to Extraordinary Prayer for Revival,
Revival Commentary, v. 2, n. 1, p. 3.
Revivals
begin with God's own people; the Holy Spirit touches their heart anew, and
gives them new fervor and compassion, and zeal, new light and life, and when He
has thus come to you, He next goes forth to the valley of dry bones…Oh, what
responsibility this lays on the Church of God! If you grieve Him away from
yourselves, or hinder His visit, then the poor perishing world suffers sorely!
Andrew Bonar
Revival is an
extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit producing extraordinary results… (It) is
literally "GOD in the midst of His people."
Richard Owen Roberts
Revival Terminology in History,
Revival Commentary, v. 1, n. 1.
(Revival)
only come when He sends it. He only
sends it when His people need it. Surely
we His people need it now.
Richard Owen Roberts
Revival Terminology in History,
Revival Commentary, v. 1, n. 1.
Real
revival comes only from God. He alone is the fountainhead. A spiritual awakening
cannot be scheduled, worked up, or humanly engineered.
Lewis Drummond