The Reality of Revival

Revival isn’t all sweetness and light!

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Just a heads up on what to expect.

Revival is coming once again. Reading again the wonderful stories of past revivals, I was struck by the events in common across almost every Revival.

The first thing is the drawing power of any Holy Spirit move. In almost every revival since John Wesley had his itinerant ‘revival’ ministry in the late 1700s, huge crowds have always been attracted to The Holy Spirit when He manifests.

Look at the Cane Ridge and Red River revivals — thousands came.

The Ulster Revival, Wales, and Azusa Street were the same.

The Hebridean, Argentine, Toronto, and Pensacola revivals were always crowded beyond the capacity of any meeting place.

This is always an early sign of Revival — people begin to gather in wonder, in awe, in expectation, and often just out of curiosity, drawn to the compelling presence of The Holy Spirit.

Meetings tend to carry on for a long time. Most recently, at Asbury, the meetings continued for days, with people joining and leaving as their time allowed.

Also at Asbury, crowds flocked to the scene — inquisitive and hungry people gathered to see if ‘God is really moving here?’

In earlier Revivals, prayer meetings went on for hours and where several meetings were scheduled in a day, then each new meeting ran into the back of the previous one, thus prolonging them all into one long, continuous meeting!

People often queued for hours before each meeting to try to ensure they even got in!

I recall pictures of Pensacola in the 1990s, which showed huge crowds queuing four hours or more before the scheduled start just to get inside. Hot, cold, wet, or dry, it mattered little — the only thing that mattered was getting inside!

Many a planned meal was either burnt to a crisp or stone-cold again because the family was in one of the never-ending meetings.

Business meetings were missed, flights home were missed, and hotel bookings were lost — all because of a revival meeting.

However, the compensation for all of this disruption of schedules was incredible.

The unmistakable Presence of God.

Hundreds slain in The Spirit.

Thousands convicted of sin weeping in Repentance.

Thousands Saved.

Multiple miraculous Healings.

Many Delivered from addiction or abuse.

Countless other Blessings.

Revival isn’t all sweetness and light!

It’s messy

It’s loud and raucous

It’s inspiring

It’s God saying hello to those who don’t yet know Him

Revival is God’s Love, Glory, and Power Revealed!

 

The Upper Room Encounter

Featured Image by Ismael Paramo on Unsplash

The views and opinions expressed by Kingdom Winds Collective Members, authors, and contributors are their own and do not represent the views of Kingdom Winds LLC.

About the Author

Chris and Linda Bennett, are founders of The Upper Room - A Place of Encounter. Upper Room has at its heart a great yearning to see revival return to the UK—to Wales in particular. The ministry operates in all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They currently live in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, but are called to Wales to help usher in revival.

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