What is the biblical premiss for praying for revival and if there is one how should we fit this in to our prayer life as a church and the general life of the church?
This is another big topic, and my reply will not do it justice. It has been well observed that, while the Holy Spirit is continually at work, he brings times of refreshing in which he works in extraordinary ways.
Jonathan Edwards, the great 18th Century American preacher, saw two periods of extraordinary blessing during his ministry. He wrote about these in four books, the last one, Treatise on the Religious Affections, being a mature reflection and analysis on revival, in which he argues against both those who say that revival is nonsense and those who were going overboard into emotionalism. It is well worth a read.
The big lessons I learnt from that years ago when I read it are that,
1. The Holy Spirit is sovereign and will bring revival in his own time and in the place of his choosing;
2. We should carry on doing the ordinary things of evangelism, and meeting together for worship, and loving one another, and praying together, and reading the Bible, and serving the needy, because those are the things that the Holy Spirit uses to revive his church and bring unbelievers to himself.
When we read the story of the early church in Acts, we are struck that what was happening was the work of the Holy Spirit, just as the Lord Jesus said it would be (Acts 1:4-8). So it was the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2) that changes those fearful believers into fruitful evangelists.
But we are also struck that the power that was given in that initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit, was experienced in uneven ways. So when they got together to pray after Peter and John had been arrested and told to stop preaching, “the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (Acts 4:31). That was clearly another unusual experience of spiritual power, like the initial experience at Pentecost.
And that happened in answer to their prayer for God to act, “through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (30).
So I take it that it is both right for us to continue doing the ordinary things of true discipleship as we are instructed in the New Testament – including especially engaging unbelievers with the gospel – AND to pray for the special work of the Spirit to revive his people and bring large numbers of people to Christ.
We don’t need special meetings to make that happen. Indeed, we can’t make it happen at all. I think C. G. Finney’s teaching that we need to create the right conditions for the Holy Spirit to bring revival has been a big problem, with a negative impact on evangelism and discipleship worldwide.
But we can and should pray for revival. Oh, that we would see such a revival in our lifetime!
