"If one were asked to describe in a word the outstanding feature of those days, one would unhesitatingly reply that it was the universal, inescapable sense of the presence of God. Revival is the exact answer to such a sigh as that of Isaiah 64:1, ‘Oh that Thou wouldst rend the heavens, that Thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might flow down at Thy presence." In 1904 the Lord had literally rent the heavens, and had scattered the satanic foes entrenched therein. The Lord had come down! The mountains were gloriously melted down in His presence." R.B. Jones on the Welsh Revival of 1904 in "Rent Heavens"

Recent events in Lakeland, Florida have served to highlight the spiritual hunger of many people for a genuine divine encounter; a "visitation" that we commonly refer to as "revival". Those same events have also highlighted the need to return to a Scriptural understanding of what we mean by "revival". Scripture doesn’t have a lot to say about "revival," at least not as an abstract concept to be debated. There are references to the need for individuals to be personally "revived," as in Psalms 85:6 where the Psalmist says, "Wilt Thou not Thyself revive us again, that Thy people may rejoice in Thee?" (See also, Psalm 138:7; Isaiah 57:15; Hosea 6:2). The prophet Habakkuk cried out for God to revive His work when he said, "Lord, I have heard the report about Thee and I fear. O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy." Rather than offering us an abstract or theoretical discussion about revival, Scripture simply gives us descriptive examples of times or seasons when God, in His mercy, has opened the heavens and touched His people.

Historians of revival tell us that every great spiritual outpouring of the last 300 years was preceded by a period of time during which two things took place. First, there was a period of time preceding the outpouring when the Church recognized and came to terms with the condition of it’s own spiritual poverty. Writing of the time leading up to the Second Great Awakening (1799-1811), historian J. Edwin Orr observed,

And this leads to the second thing that has always occurred prior to great spiritual outpourings. Desperate Christians began to humble themselves and to pray the prayers of desperate men. In last week’s newsletter we looked at Isaiah 63:15-19 and saw how Isaiah acknowledged and understood the spiritual poverty of his own day. In Isaiah Chapter 64 we will see how Isaiah’s spiritual poverty and desperation resulted in one of the greatest cries for revival and spiritual outpouring ever recorded in Scripture: "Oh, that Thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down".

I believe that we stand today on the verge of another such time and season of "rent heavens" when God is going to visit His people and transform the life of His Church (not to mention touching the unbelieving world with redeeming, healing and transforming power). The River of Ezekiel 47, the River of God’s Spirit, is preparing to flow in power and blessing not seen in over a hundred years. The question that haunts me is simply this: Is the cup of our desperation, the cup which holds the desperate prayers of God’s people, truly full to overflowing? As we seek God in preparation for this outpouring of the River of His Presence we would do well to take a fresh look at what the Scriptures teach us about such a time as this. With this in mind, I want to look at Isaiah 64:1-12.

I understand that there are those of you who are far better at biblical exegesis than I will ever be. So please don’t feel limited by my observations. I want to look at this section by asking a series of questions based upon what I see in the text.

1. Are we seeking God on His terms, or on our terms? There is actually a whole series of questions that should probably be asked here. Such as, do you long for God’s Presence? Isaiah did. Do we? I am amazed by the number of professing believers who show little or no interest in a divine visitation. But if you are longing for a divine visitation, what are you longing for? Do you want God to come and fix your problems (healing, finances, relationships, etc), or do you want God to come and glorify Himself at your expense? And through all of this, are you longing for God to come on His terms or on yours? Would you long for His visitation even if you knew that His Presence might consume you? The Prophet Isaiah, who had stood in God’s presence and who understood the consuming nature of such a visitation, longs for God’s Presence to come down among men. But Isaiah understood that when God’s Presence comes, it comes like a consuming fire, "As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil." Isaiah understood what fire does - it burns, consumes and boils. Times of revival when the Presence of God comes upon people are often described as times of fire, which I believe speaks to us about the "consuming fire" of God’s holiness.

2. What’s your purpose for desiring God’s Presence: I’m personally concerned that there are too many bored believers today who are looking for a new "experience" that will make them "glow in the dark" and "wow" their friends. But the purpose expressed here by Isaiah for the fire of God’s Presence causing the mountains to quake is "to make Thy name known to Thine adversaries, that the nations might tremble at Thy presence." God wants to come to us in a season of revival, in power and in fire, in order to heal and renew His Church and to empower it to reach the nations. Who do we want to reach? What’s our purpose in seeking God’s Presence in revival. Why do we want God to rend the heavens and come down? Is it simply to fix our problems and to make us feel good, or is it to see our homes and families healed so that we can reach our generation for Christ?

3. Are you seeking the God of your own expectations? I’m convinced that God loves surprises. God loves to come at a time of His sovereign choosing, when His adversaries least expect it and think that they have the upper hand. For this reason, there is an element of surprise to what God does in revival. God wants to do something awesome that we don’t expect. Secular historians frequently criticize military planners for preparing to fight the last war, in other words, basing today’s preparations upon the experience of the previous war they fought. The Church does the same thing. We are always trying to re-live or re-create the last great move of God in revival (as I stated in my article "Bronze Serpents, Revival & The Lakeland Phenomenon," for which I was roundly criticized - "ripped a new one" would be more accurate!) . We must not limit God either to the past - trying to re-live or re-create past revivals - or to our own personal experience. Isaiah warns us that in the coming move of God He is going to do things which are outside of the box of both your personal experience and your expectations of past revivals.

4. How long are you willing to wait upon God to act on our behalf? Americans are not good at waiting. We tend to be an "action" oriented people whose motto is "Don’t just stand there; do something!" But the Kingdom of God often operates on the basis of different principles, such as waiting. On more than one occasion God has turned the American motto on its head by telling His people in times of crisis, "Don’t do something; just stand there!" (See Exodus 14:13; 1 Samuel 12:16; 2 Chronicles 20:17). God often tells His people to simply "wait" upon Him. Most of us have never seen what God can truly do because we’re unwilling to wait on Him long enough to find out. Now, I happen to believe in "active waiting." I believe that fasting, prayer and repentance are among God’s appointed means whereby His people can actively wait upon Him, beseeching Him to act on our behalf. This kind of purposeful, active waiting upon God has two results. First, I believe it changes us, as we will see in verses 8 - 12 below. But, secondly, it gives God the freedom to work in such a way that He gets the glory, rather than us. Let me ask you something. If God were to bless all of your plans and activities, who would get the glory? You, or God? While we immediately want to answer by saying, "Well, God, of course?" That’s always the safe, humble Christian answer. But God seldom appears on Godtv (I’ll let you parse that however you wish) and God’s picture seldom appears on the cover of Christianity Today or Charisma Magazine.

In the late 1850s there was a powerful movement of God in revival which swept across America, starting in 1857. By 1859 it was also sweeping through the country of Wales, in the powerful Welsh revival of 1859. One of the men greatly used of God to lead thousands of people to faith in Christ was a Calvinistic Methodist pastor by the name of David Morgan. His traveling companion once related the following story about one of their preaching trips:

I believe that God wants to use this season of preparation and waiting upon Him in humility and obedience for the purpose of raising up a generation of believers who have passed through the fire of His holiness and who can be trusted by the Holy Spirit with great endowment of power; trusted not to steal the glory that rightly belongs to God alone. As this passage tells us, I believe we have yet to see what God will do for a generation of believers who are willing to wait upon God to act on our behalf.

"Thou dost meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness, Who remembers Thee in Thy ways. Behold, Thou wast angry, for we sinned, We continued in them a long time; And shall we be saved? For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. And there is no one who calls on Thy name, Who arouses himself to take hold of Thee; For Thou hast hidden Thy face from us, And hast delivered us into the power of our iniquities."

Often times we do not fully comprehend what it is we are praying for. To pray for God’s Presence is to invite a genuine encounter with His holiness. It should therefore come as no surprise that during times of revival, individuals are often dramatically forced to deal with their own sin. During such seasons of spiritual outpouring, when God’s presence comes among His people in great power and holiness, something happens. Our sins are suddenly forced into the blinding light of His holiness. All of the sin and ugliness of our lives that we have been suppressing and ignoring is suddenly flushed to the surface as the Holy Spirit reveals and convicts us of sin and demands that we confess, repent and forsake. And it often feels like an inescapable consuming fire.

A powerful example of this comes to us from the Korean period of the Great Welsh Revival of 1904, during the winter of 1907. An Englishman, Lord William Cecil, was present during the "terrible" meeting that took place in the Central Presbyterian Church in Pyongyang. He was so excited and moved by what he witnessed that he did what an Englishman does when he gets excited; he wrote a letter to The Times of London, describing the scene:

Again, God rent the heavens, came down, and the fire of His Presence consumed all before it. The fire burned every night that week, until the Holy Fire of God’s Presence had burned its way through the Church and the body of Christ had been cleansed. In the meetings that followed, conviction of sin and reconciliation of enemies took place on a wide scale. Not only was there deep confession of sin, but so much restitution took place that the local unbelieving Koreans were astounded and a powerful move of evangelism took place.

Perhaps one of the reasons why the "unbelieving nations" don’t tremble today is because they don’t see the power and presence of God burning its way through the Church today. In this "season of desperation" as we fast and pray in preparation for the coming outpouring we need to ask God to visit us with His Presence, to reveal our sins in the light of His holiness, to deal with our sins in confession and repentance, so that He can truly empower us to be a light and a testimony which causes the nations to tremble at the greatness of our God.