REVIVAL: SEEING THE WHOLE PICTURE
ARTICLE
One important feature of revival, both personal and corporate, is that we come to see more of the entire picture—as it transpires. This is why it is so beneficial to understand, aspect-to-aspect, some of the essentials in the biblical process of genuine God-birthed revival. Personal revival begins with a genuine desire for a God-sent personal revival in our heart and culminates with revival itself. The desire for prayer and personal communion with God accompanies revival, as a revived believer learns to love God’s will. Evangelism and salvation will accompany revival, but revival itself is what occurs in the hearts and lives of believers.
God’s reviving of His saints individually can also be accompanied by God pouring out His
Spirit on a church or community corporately,
bringing about a corporate revival. Whenever God’s Spirit is moving corporately reviving His church, we see His Spirit simultaneously moving to awaken the lost in the community. The lost will come under conviction. (John 16:7-9: “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;”)
While God’s Spirit is reviving His saints and preparing them to bring the gospel to a lost community, He will also be preparing the lost to hear it. This is what we mean by “seeing the whole picture.”