Revival or Gospel Revolution?

“Revival Christians” flock to revival meetings like deer to a pile of corn. There they go to seek God’s presence, as if God is lost and needs to be found. There they go thinking that God’s presence is stronger, not knowing that the One who “fills all in all” lives in them. “Revival” has become a code word for Christians who gather to pray and send the Almighty on errands. “Hypocrites love to pray so that they will be seen by people”, Jesus said.

Why are we waiting on God to send a revival? Because frankly we have nothing to offer. The “bad news” that many Christians call “the gospel”, is nothing but scare-tactics and selling techniques. People have enough problems, and have no interest in more "bad news".

“Revival” means “to make alive”. When we were dead in our trespasses, Paul wrote, God made us alive together with Christ, and forgave us all sins (Col 2:13). I submit therefore, that we need not a Revival among Christians, but a Gospel Revolution.

We talk about how we must reach out. But how are we going to reach out? A longing for revival has become an excuse for reaching out. We rather wait on a supposedly stingy god to “release” revival. How will our nation be saved? How are we going to reach out? Through the preaching of the gospel!

But the Gospel has been stored in a closet, only to be brought out maybe on special occasions such as Christmas or Easter. In many cases the Gospel has been forgotten completely. We need to rediscover the gospel.

No prayer, worship, fasting, or revival meeting, where Christians gather to ask God to revive us, which God has already done, can save our nation. But the gospel saves, for it is the power of God unto salvation.

Many who talk about “keys to revival”, have never experienced a revival. World Impact Ministries has witnessed God do incredible wonders. Millions have had their eyes opened to see the love of God revealed through Christ! What was the key? Unity? No. Although unity is good and something to be strived for, unity is not the key to revival. Paul and Barnabas had a big dispute, yet they saw place after place transformed by God.

So what was the key? In 2 Chronicles 7:14 we read: “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Maybe 2 Chronicles is the key? But wait, did this command work for the Israelites? No, they were taken into captivity. Did God heal their land? No, the Babylonians burned down Jerusalem. So if revival hangs on everyone's willingness to humble themselves, repent and pray, then revival will never happen. The New Covenant is not based on our performance. It is based on the One who fulfilled 2 Chronicles – Christ, through whom our sins are forgiven and through who’s stripes we were healed.

That’s why the Spirit was poured out on Pentecost, despite the fact that God's people had rejected their Messiah. Despite that God's people had not humbled themselves. They had crucified God. Yet 3000 were saved. Thus repentance does not precede revival, repentance is a fruit of the gospel. So what is the key then? The key is the proclamation of the gospel! And the gospel leads people to repentance (Mk. 1:15; Rom. 2:4).

When we are preaching the gospel, we are coworkers with the Lord, and Jesus confirms the gospel with signs. The gospel comes first, then miracles and salvation follow. Every place that was won in the Book of Acts, was won by the preaching of the gospel. In fact, the gospel “turned the world upside down”.

The disciples were commanded to wait in Jerusalem “until” they had been endued with power to become witnesses. After Pentecost, the disciples never gathered to pray for revival. In fact every prayer meeting they had, was for the sake of advancing the gospel, with exception of the time God had to interrupt Peter’s prayer time to send him to give the gospel to Caesarea. But the point is, their prayer was for God to give them boldness to share God’s Word (Acts 4:29).

World Impact Ministries follows the same pattern. There’s nothing wrong with praying and fasting. They are means by which we are strengthened to share the gospel. But never should they take the place of the gospel. Jesus never commissioned us to hold prayer meetings. He commissioned us to share the gospel with the entire world.

We talk about things that hinder revival. And we do that because we need an explanation to why we don’t see revival. But there’s only two things that actually hinders revival. The first hinder is that we believe that there is a hinder. The second hinder is that we are so occupied with removing this supposed hinder, that we forget sharing the gospel. We rather blame others for not following the “steps to revival” than sharing the gospel.

The Bible is full of people who had hindrances, yet God worked wonders in their lives. Consider the woman at the well. She was divorced five times and lived with a man she wasn’t married to. She had many hindrances. The city of Samaria was not qualified for revival. Yet God used this woman, and many Samaritans believed that Jesus is “The Savior of the world”. This Samaritan woman wasn’t even sure who Jesus was. She said: “Come, see a Man… Could this be the Christ?”

And that’s all it takes! We don’t need to wait on God to reveal or release something from heaven. God has revealed Himself through Christ, and He is now waiting on us to run with the Great Commission.