What is a revival?  How do you plan one and make it work?  Maybe that is the problem.  Maybe WE don't plan it and make it work.  I think revival is the responsibility of God.  The successful revivals--and there have been precious few of them--are those which have surprised people.  They weren't necessarily planned such as the one here next week.  They just sort of happen.  They break out.  The Spirit of God "gets loose" in a church, and the first thing you know, you are in the midst of true revival.  Often the evangelist or the preacher is not one of the "big name" people.  That's because it doesn't really matter who it is; what matters is that the evangelist/preacher is committed to the Lord and to His purposes for His church.

We have had "good" revival meetings here over the years.  Why?  We haven't tried to use them as enlistment campaigns.  We have tried to emphasize the reviving of the church and church members first.  We have tried to emphasize solid, Biblical preaching.  We haven't gone to seed on Calvinism, fundamentalism, somebody's view of the second coming and the end of time.  We have emphasized solid preaching, inspirational music, and having a good time when you come.  My overwhelming impression after leading twenty-two and soon  twenty-three of these revivals here plus others in other churches is that you want to enjoy the meeting.  You want to have a smile to break out when someone asks if you are going to the revival.  Yes! You exclaim because you are having such a good time. 

Granted, when the message steps on your toes, it may not be so comfortable.  We tend to expect there to be some accountability in that regard when we have revival.  We don't "swing from the chandeliers," as someone said recently.  We don't put on a "dog and pony show."  We come to the church house to meet God in a special way during revival.  And we have done that--often.  We have never had one of those spontaneous, prolonged revivals to break out in our midst.  God sends those as He wills.  One of those happened down around Crystal Springs several years ago.  We had the pastor of the church in which the revival was taking place to come and share with us at lunch one day.  I remember his telling us that their revival began after a season of intense prayer.  It continued for several weeks, and then it stopped.  The church was not the same after that experience.  No church ever is.  You have to be committed to carrying out that which the Lord sent to you during the revival.  You have to make that an ongoing part of your shared life in the Lord.

Then you realize that you need revival again.  No one revival is the end all of revivals.  Because we are human, we will need the experience of revival again.  We will need that fresh breath of the Holy Spirit blowing among us in the future just as much as we need it now.  So, for now, we admit that we need and desire greatly revival in our midst.  The Lord will bring the revival if He chooses to.  It is difficult for us to realize that as much as we try, we don't bring the revival.  Success or failure of the revival really does not depend on how hard we have worked.  It depends on how strongly present the Lord is.  We don't ever know that until His presence manifests itself--or doesn't manifest itself, as the case may be.

I am looking forward to a wonderful meeting next week.  Perhaps God will send a true revival along with the plans of the meeting.  That would be  fantastic!  Something to remember!