Revival is a word so often used that a lot of its impact is lost, and much of its meaning. Forget theology for a moment. Revival is a surf lifesaver working on a drowned swimmer – a breath of life! Revival is CPR on a patient who has just experienced cardiac arrest. Revival brings back life from death.
Only the breath of the Spirit of God can revive a dead church. And remember, a church can have a name, or reputation that it is alive, while it is in fact dead. (Revelation 3:1) Hymns that once carried the breath of life can be as dead as the dodo. Sermons that in bygone days saved thousands can be but voices from the grave. A lady in Wales gave me a recording of a sermon preached in the 1930s by one of Britain’s greatest ever revivalists. What then must have been very uplifting was to me almost depressing. Times change. We move on. Or we die.
Is revival optional? Well, is breathing? Ask the revived swimmer, or heart-patient. They’re alive again! So also with revival. Never mind the crying relatives, the shocked onlookers, the general confusion – people are being revived! Get used to it. Get involved in it. Let it change you. Jesus so much wants to revive lives – yours and mine included!