Some years ago I was invited to speak at a "Dreams & Visions Conference." In my first session I shared a message I sensed the Lord had given me while in prayer for the conference. There was tremendous response with three-quarters of the congregation answering the invitation and coming forward to receive a fresh touch from the Holy Spirit. Many were obviously powerfully impacted.
The next day the pastor rebuked me and reminded me that this was a "Dreams & Visions Conference" and not a "Revival Meeting." He informed me that he planned to have a revival meeting at a later time, but this conference was not about revival. I have to admit I was stunned by his response for I had not preached about revival. I had simply followed the leading of the Holy Spirit in my heart and revival broke forth.
If we are to have true, authentic revival, we must make way for the spontaneous and dynamic workings
of the Holy Spirt as Jesus admonished in John 3:8, where he said, The wind
blows where it wishes, and you can hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where
it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Jesus is here comparing the work of the Holy Spirit
with the wind. In the same way that we cannot control the direction and
intensity of the wind, neither can we control and confine the Holy Spirit to
our liturgies and religious programs. The wind of the Holy Spirit blows where
it wishes, both inside and outside the parameters of our church programs and institutions.
This is why an Awakening can be troublesome to church traditionalists,
because the Holy Spirit will not confine Himself to our well-prepared programs
and liturgies. This truth was profoundly expressed by the well-known Christian
leader from South Africa, the late David du Plessis. Addressing the 1948 World
Pentecostal Conference in Zurich, Switzerland, du Plessis exhorted this
international audience,
Nothing can take the place of the Holy Spirit in the
church. So let us pray for a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit than ever
before. And remember, when the flood comes, it will not keep to our
well-prepared channels but will overflow and most likely cause chaos in all our
programs (Hyatt, America's Reawakening, 211).
Dr. Henry P. Van Dusen, president of the liberal Union
Theological Seminary, addressed this same issue in a landmark 1958 article in Life
magazine entitled “The Third Force.” Van Dusen castigated traditional churchmen
for criticizing contemporary revival movements and referring to them as being “on
the fringe.”
“On
the fringe of what?” Van Dusen asked. “Perhaps on the fringe of traditional
churches, but not necessarily on the fringe of Christendom.” Van Dusen then went
on to suggest that Peter, Paul and Barnabas would probably feel more at home in
one of these revival meetings than in the formalized worship of other churches,
Catholic or Protestant.
The
well-known Biblical scholar and theologian, R.A. Torrey, stated,
"The history of revivals is the history of the church." He
believed that the church of Jesus Christ owes its existence to these periodic
renewals, noting that whenever the church faced decay or potential shipwreck,
God sent revival to save it.
Torrey is right. There is no true church without those Spiritual Awakenings that have, from time to time, breathed new life into Christendom. Without question, the modern church is past due for such an Awakening.
The only question is, "Are we willing to let go and invite the Holy Spirit to have free reign and disrupt our cherished liturgies and programs? That is the cost of real revival and how many pastors and churches are willing to pay the price?
This article is derived from Dr. Eddie Hyatt's latest book, America's Reawakening, in which he documents how America was birthed out of a "Great Awakening" and has been sustained through critical moments in his history by subsequent Awakenings. The book is available from Amazon and his website at http://eddiehyatt.com.
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