Results of Revival

We tend to view revival as this elusive event, far off in the mists of history. We look for revival in the future either with hopeful expectation, or the skepticism of discouragement. But we don’t have to wait for a worldwide revival, or even a national or city-wide revival.

You don’t even have to wait for revival to sweep through your local church to enjoy its results. For, as we have already seen, revival has to do with a heart hearing and responding in faith-fueled obedience to God. Large-scale revivals nevertheless must take place heart-by-heart, Christian-by-Christian, one-by-one.

We have already looked at what revival is, and how it comes about, but now let’s turn our focus to the results:

“Surely His salvation is nigh them that fear Him; that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before Him; and shall set us in the way of His steps.” (Psalm 85:9-13)

This idyllic picture describes life lived in right relationship to God. It is full of peace, joy, and beauty. It is characterized by mercy, truth, and righteousness. These are the fruits of revival.

His salvation is nigh to the revived, and swells within them a proper awe and reverence for God, the Judge of all, who so mercifully pardoned. Christ’s saving work was a common theme of the songs written during great revivals of old. Take, for example, these first two stanzas from the hymn, “Here is Love,” often referred to as “the love song of the Welsh Revival:”

Here is love, vast as the ocean,

Lovingkindness as the flood;

When the Prince of Life, our Ransom,

Shed for us His precious blood

Who His love will not remember? 

Who can cease His praise to sing? 

He can never be forgotten

Throughout Heav’n’s eternal days.

On the mount of crucifixion

Fountains opened deep and wide;

Through the floodgates of God’s mercy

Flowed a vast and gracious tide.

Grace and love, like mighty rivers, 

Poured incessant from above,

And heav’n’s  peace and perfect justice

Kissed a guilty world in love.

For the Christian, a revived relationship with God centers on what Christ has done. It moves from the intellectual concept that Christ died for all to the heart-thrilling truth that He died for me.

But here in Psalm 85, salvation from sin is not necessarily what the psalmist is referring to. The Hebrew word has the sense of liberty, or deliverance, even prosperity. I think Psalm 86 illustrates this point beautifully:

“Bow down Thine ear, O Lord, hear me: for I am poor and needy.

Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O Thou my God, save Thy servant that trusteth in Thee.

Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto Thee daily.

Rejoice the soul of Thy servant: for unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

For Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee.

Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications.

In the day of my trouble I will call upon Thee: for Thou wilt answer me.” (vv.1-7)

The psalm goes on in a similar manner, but these verses give us a good picture of what is happening. The revived Christian lives in the presence of God, crying to Him for help, in such surrender to God that sin is confessed and turned from immediately. When our hearts are right with God, we can boldly ask for help, leaning on the truth of His nature, fearing nothing.

A Christian harboring sin or neglecting God does not have this confidence. Rather, the goodness of God reminds them of His justice, and the truth of His readiness to forgive reminds them of the sin they aren’t willing to let go of. Though saved, a Christian in need of revival tends to have a distant or even negative view of God.

In the darkness of a heart yielded to temptation rather than to God, Satan often plants a doubt that God is even good, or the idea that He is somehow malicious or overly stern.

This begins to seem possible for the Christian clinging to sin, because all they see is the justice side. By ignoring or pushing away the Holy Spirit’s conviction, they are ignoring or pushing away the very mercy of God calling them to enjoy the goodness of God.

Revival is the meeting of mercy and truth. Truth brings the consciousness of our sin as it truly is in the eyes of God. Revival reminds us of this truth, humbling and convicting our hearts so that God can pour His mercy on us through forgiveness and restoration.

The revived Christian is a picture of Christ’s righteousness and peace. As we respond to the Holy Spirit’s conviction of sin with true repentance, our lives begin to reflect the character of Christ. Remember, revival is essentially a work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of individuals. Notice the contrast between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit in these verses from the book of Galatians:

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” (5:19-23)

Do you see what a difference the Holy Spirit makes? A large revival is not some mystical event, some magic combination of circumstances and societal conditions, but rather, the contagiousness of Christians walking in the Spirit, exhibiting the righteousness of Christ in the humility of a worshipful heart.

As we live close to God, the fruit of the Spirit replaces the works of the flesh, and two things happen: Christians see it and are convicted and encouraged to seek God themselves, and the unsaved see it and are brought face to face with mercy and truth. That is why revivals start with the saved, but often result in many unsaved coming to Christ.

When we are walking close to God, in obedience to the Holy Spirit, we choose blessing over judgement, and we can rest in the goodness of God, no matter what we encounter from day to day.

We can trust that the same God who kept His promise that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13) is able and faithful also to keep the promise of Romans 8:28 “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”

The results of revival are beautiful and blessed, and point others to God. May we embrace personal revival, walking in the Spirit today and every day!

“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Galatians 5:25