Asbury Revival
The Asbury Revival made headlines all over the world, with around 15,000 people attending daily, and bringing over 50,000 visitors from other cities, states & countries over a 2 week span. But was it a Bible like Revival? What is a Revival according to your Bible? Do you know where to find the famous Revivals of the Old and New Testaments?
A Revival according to dictionaries is any event that results in renewed attention & commitment to a cause, institution, or relationship. Let’s face it - familiarity breeds contempt, or at least complacency. So marriages, businesses, churches and movements need occasional renewals. They come in the form of Conferences, Retreats and Rallys…
From 1734-43 a Religious Revival occured which was later called the Great Awakening! Famed British Pastor Jonathan Edwards, preached a series of fiery sermons which resulted in 300 new converts to Christianity in a town of only 11,000 people, Northampton, England. This success eventually spawned other revivals in the British Isles as well as Europe.
In 1857 in the city of New York, what came to be known as the Businessman’s Revival occured. The North Dutch Reformed Church of lower Manhattan hired a retired businessman named Jeremiah Lanphier as their new Pastor, to reach business owners who had replaced former church member homes with businesses. Jeremiah began holding a midweek prayer meeting during the lunch hour, which began to be so well attended that he changed it to a daily prayer meeting. When other churces heard about the success they too began to hold lunch hour prayer meetings - and soon the movement spread to other cities across America!
When the nation of Israel detoured from the commandments of God and brought upon themselves the curses HE promised, God would raise up prophets who led Revivals that resulted in the people of Israel getting back in sync with their Deliverer: “Then all the people of Israel turned back to the Lord. So Samuel said to all the Israelites, ‘If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths (Pagan tree groves) and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve Him only, and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.’ So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only. Then Samuel said, ‘Assemble all Israel at Mizpah and I will intercede with the Lord for you… On that day they fasted and there they confessed, ‘We have sinned against the Lord.” (I SAMUEL 7:2-6)
A similar chain of events occured over & over throughout Israel’s history: During the reign of King Asa (II CHRONICLES 14 & 15); King Jehoshaphat (II CHRONICLES 19 & 20); and King Hezekiah (II CHRONICLES 29). In every case, a pattern of acknowledgement of sin, repentance, and ceasing from sin, occured.
So a ‘Biblical Revival’ isn’t just an emotional stirring of the heart through music & prayer meetings - it’s an awakening to sinful behavior that is acknowledged, repented of, and replaced with concrete obedience to God’s word!
King David wrote in the longest chapter of the Bible: “My soul clings to the dust; REVIVE me according to your word… Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it; Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to covetousness; Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things and REVIVE me in your ways… Behold I long for Your precepts; REVIVE me in Your righteousness… REVIVE me according to Your lovingkindness; so that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth.” (PSALM 119:25;35-37; 40; 88)
The Day of Pentecost, which launched the New Testament Church with tongues of fire and speaking in different languages, was a REVIVAL of the people of Israel which opened their eyes to see that this Jesus whom they crucified - was their promised Messiah! On that day, “…Peter standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them… ‘Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders & signs which God did through Him in your midst as you yourselves also know…you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death… Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter, ‘Men & brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” (ACTS 2)
Here we see this old pattern from the Old Testament repeated in the New Testament: acknowledgement of Sin, repentance, and turning back to obedience of God’s word.
Ask God to bring REVIVAL to your heart and mind - and the heart of our nation collectively - that we might experience blessing from God and His Divine protection!