Shock horror! I agree with Adrian on revival

I have to say that I don't have any disagreements with Adrian's quotes from Spurgeon on Revival.

We are in the middle of another 24x7 prayer week in Raunds. I love these and I am certain we are going to have more of them as well as exploring other ways for all the Churches to pray together more.

Some key themes that have emerged this time are:

• the necessity of unity for revival
• the necessity of listening to God for mission and revival
• the vital importance of prayer for revival
• the fervent desire for revival

Be sure that here in Raunds, the centre of the known universe, we are praying like crazy for revival. We are also working together to remove any blocks to the work of the Holy Spirit within and between ourselves.

Last night I was privileged to have the prayer room to myself from 1am to 5am and it was fantastic. Time flew by. I had really only intended to spend an hour there but suddenly realised it was 3:30am so decided to stay until Jane was due at 5am. It does seem a little odd to meet your wife at church who has just got up when you are on your way to bed at 5am :-)

On Sunday morning I am continuing a series on Ephesians. We have been galloping through (not!) and after several months have reached chapter 2 verses 1-5. I will also be looking briefly at 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a with the kids (as that is the lectionary reading they are using in Junior Church). Service theme is "Transformation" and will certainly be revival preparation with clear declaration of commitment which follows on neatly from our covenant service two weeks ago (the light the blue touch paper of the Holy Spirit in our lives and church this year sermon). We are also getting in some extended and intense prayer within the service. I am very excited by all God is doing in this and surrounding communities and am determined that we are going to be along for the ride in the power and strength of the Holy Spirit.

I for one believe revival is coming in East Northamptonshire. How God is going to do it here is not yet clear.

Mind you while the great old preachers are, well, great the language is not exactly accessible and open to people today eg "Can we not entreat the Lord our God to make bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the people in this day of declension and vanity?".

I know Adrian loves quoting all these preachers of the past. It is not my style (plenty of current revival and transformation experiences around the world to use) and yet we can surely agree that we want to see the Holy Spirit transforming our communities.

Comments

[sally]

24/7 sounds excellent Dave- thanks for reminding me why I am fighting with this *B* assignment!

[Dave Warnock]

Sally, You keep fighting! The grass is greener this side :-)

[DH]

Dave, I'm in total agreement with revival. We all need to pray for it. One thing that I think I would add to your "key themes" is how much Holiness unto the Lord plays into revival. I have read many revivals from previous years and a common theme of those revivals is a getting back to Holiness to the Lord and the personal recoginition of sin in each of their particular lives. I personally believe that that is part of revival as well. One really can't recognize a need for a Savior until one recognizes that one is a sinner. At least that is one of the many important things needed for Salvation to truly take place. Revival: Christians motivated by God's Spirit to do more for Christ under His power of the Holy spirit and unbelievers becoming believers and them too ultimately being motivated to do more for Christ under the power of the Holy Spirt.

[Dave Warnock]

dh,

I don't disagree that holiness is needed. But I do not believe that is achieved through heavy shepherding or through focusing on a limited definition of holiness.

In fact I put a lot more stress on revival being about the power of God than about what Christians do. Too often we are brakes on revival, our disunity, our lack of listening to God, our rigid structures, our ignoring the work of the spirit all stop revival in its tracks.

You and I also need to recognise that we probably have to agree to disagree) on what we mean by holiness. Too often (in my opinion) it is viewed in terms of being anti homosexual, anti abortion while being pro violence, pro war, pro social inequality and ignoring justice, mercy and poverty. Sadly I often see claims that only conservative evangelical Christianity can provide holiness. I do not believe that to be the case.

For example the Catholic end of the Church of England (and Roman Catholics) have a superb record of holiness in inner cities in the UK.

My understanding of the Methodist Church is that we began as a holiness movement within the Church of England. I would love to see us return to that. As a holiness movement we were concerned with transformation by God at all levels - personal, individual, family, community and nation. Hence, we were very unpopular with the establishment.

[DH]

Dave, I think we are closer on this than you realize. I don't have a limited definition of Holiness so if that got you sidetracked I apologize for that. The Holiness with regard to revival I believe that is important is personal Holiness and it goes beyond just homosexual, abortion, but also ALL areas of sin. Taking care of the poor is included in this Holiness as well as refraining from all sin or at least be repentant nad proper heart in all we do under the power of the Holy Spirit.

I too agree with this "Too often we are brakes on revival, our disunity, our lack of listening to God, our rigid structures, our ignoring the work of the spirit all stop revival in its tracks." However, any action that appears for God but doesn't at least lead to Holiness I would question it being for God in the first place. If people aren't drawn to refrain from sin whatever it may be and people are still stuck "in their trespass of sins" then what change is taking place? Again if you feel in this thread that I placed undo focus on just particular sins I apologize. This post was more a celebration of how we agree on revival and how it goes about. I just happened to add to that Holiness which I feel is so important for revival to take place or at least a revival that leads to Holiness. Does that make sense? I hope you understand that I too am praying for revival in your nation as well as in mine. I pray we all grow closer to God in thought word and deed and strive under the Holy Spirit like the Bible says "be ye Holy even as My Father in heaven is Holy". (Not that we in this life will be perfect but it doesn't change striving for it as much as we can under His power). I hope this makes sense. May God truly bless you. :) DH

[Tim]

I like Jesus' definition of holiness myself: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself'.

Yeah; that should just about do it...