How to Miss a Revival – Gospel Okoro
In the days when men’s knees are buried in the earth with sincerity, their faces glued with tears and prayers to the cross, and their hearts holding a prism of blood and a liquid desire for the move of God in a generation, we can miss the revival we seek when it eventually comes. Sometimes, even with a close relationship and intimacy with God, we are still blind to the continuation of God’s work on earth through revival.
Wondering how it is possible to miss God’s hand on earth, I went in search of answers. In my quest some years ago, with my heart burning with love and zeal to see the Father’s Kingdom come, I stumbled upon Robert Liardon’s “God’s Generals: The Revivalists” and Leonard Ravenhill’s “Why Revival Tarries.” While reading, a window was opened into the lives of men of old, such as Charles G. Finney, who was a core leader of the Second Great Awakening, and people like John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards in England and New England, who sounded the alarm of the outpouring of the Spirit of God in their lands through prayer. What about the Azusa Revival? It is on record that fire literally burned on the roof of the building where those brethren stayed to pray, but the fire extinguishers couldn’t put out the fire. Sometimes, it came as a rushing wind and cloven tongues of fire on each Apostle’s head. These were typical illustrations of what revival looks like.
Therefore, we can say that revival is a Great Awakening of the church, just as Brother Paul says in one of his letters to the church at Ephesus: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14). It is the quickening of God’s people to their true nature and purpose, in such a way that the church would be restored to a path of holiness and deep hunger for Yahweh. This is what Charles Finney sees as revival: “the return of the Church from her backslidings, and the conversion of sinners.” In the words of Richard Owen Roberts, it is “an extraordinary movement of the Holy Spirit producing extraordinary results.” Therefore, there’s no better way to invite revival than through prayer.
Whenever God’s hand is stirred to move, it is often through an invitation that comes through prayer and a brutal hunger for His Spirit. Not just one or two hours of prayer. Men will have to labor in the place of prayer, to stay in God’s presence, for that is the only way they can be carriers and deposits of God in the lives of people. At this point, the supernatural becomes a natural part of the believer’s life when this line is crossed. But sometimes when we pray too much in this fashion, we tend to doubt what God is doing. And at other times, we simply cannot recognize His move when it comes because we are spiritually blind. We miss revival. And this is how.
When we are stuck with the previous moves of God and fail to recognize His present moves, we miss revival. We limit and streamline God to our previous experiences and expect Him to move in a particular pattern. And if He doesn’t, we think it’s not Him. That’s how many have missed revival. An example is seen in a great man of God, G. Campbell Morgan’s time when he rejected the Pentecostal revival in the evidence of speaking in tongues, calling it the last vomit of hell! Andrew Murray, a 20th-century saint with a passion for prayers for revival, eventually missed it when he got to Wales, thinking he was going to contaminate the purity of God’s work there. Other times, when we see signs like gold dust on people’s feet and head, smoke in a room with air-shut windows, wind, etc., we think it’s not God and so reject it.
God is a God of new things. As such, seeking Him should open our hearts to embracing the new changes that follow. If we’ve lost our first need for Him, we miss His hand. Joseph would have missed the hand of God on earth through his wife, Mary. He expected the baby to be born the normal way, through sexual intercourse. God chose instead to use a virgin to give birth to His son. In such cases, we begin to ask God why He doesn’t first reveal His plans to us. When we do so, we miss revival because it’s meant to be an invasion, not a permission-seeking event.
Another way we miss revival is when we restrain God’s power to only the Church. When God moves, His hand continues through the earth, touching everywhere. After Peter and the disciples received revival, the man by the beautiful gate and many kept by the street corners received their healings. Paul’s mantle and apron healed the sick by the wayside. Jesus was always healing the sick and those demon-possessed. Why keep it within the church? Take it out! Revival is complete when we can see the evidence in the prostitute, ex-convict, drug addicts, corrupt political leaders, the terribly sick, the demon-possessed, and even around the dead. The move of God is not for the church alone. He died for everybody, and it must reach every one of us until the power of God conquers our territories.
We miss God when we live as though we have Him all figured out in our palms. When we think we understand Him, we can miss Him when He doesn’t come in the manner we know. Elijah made this mistake, thinking God would appear in a way he knew, but God chose a still small voice instead (1 Kings 19:12). Even as we keep praying for revival in desperation, let’s not forget to be watchful and know when He comes.