Outcomes of the exile

Dr Clifford Denton offers some thoughts.

These days there is much talk about hopes for revival, but the term has become ambiguous, ranging from expectation for spiritual manifestations in Christian congregations to an entire nation being called to repentance.

Ambiguity on this issue can make us vulnerable and even imprecise in our prayers. This is especially so when people do not exercise discernment: they can believe that any significant spiritual manifestation is an act of God, and fail to test whether false spirits are finding a doorway into assemblies and individual lives.

The word revival is used to describe what Ezra sought from God in the Babylonian captivity to bring order back to Israel, God’s covenant people, and to restore them (Ezra 9:8). This link to restoration is also found in Psalm 85, where the psalmist yearns for Judah to be brought back to order under the hand of God.

The word revival in ordinary English usage implies waking up, consciously returning to a right order. In this sense our prayers for revival in Britain today are rightly focussed on the waking up of the Christian community to their New Covenant relationships with God and one another, and on their greater empowering for ministry within the Church and out to the world.

‘Revival’ is a necessary help from God through His Holy Spirit, at times when our spiritual lights are dimming and when the world encroaches upon us, so that we might be that light to the world again.

A similar idea comes from Peter's exhortation in Solomon's Portico (Acts 3:11-26). He called his hearers to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus, and to waiting as a community for the Lord Jesus' return: “Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets” (Acts 3:21). In this period of earthly perseverance Peter spoke of times of refreshing coming from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19). Undoubtedly Peter saw ahead to times when believers would need this spiritual refreshment to keep them alert and to be the continuing light to the world that Jesus expected, fulfilling the Great Commission.

Tying these things together we surely see that revival, as we choose to call it, is a necessary help from God through His Holy Spirit, at times when our spiritual lights are dimming and when the world encroaches upon us, so that we might be that light to the world again.

There have been times when such re-awakening at the hand of the Lord has spilled over into the nation, resulting in law changes, a multiplication of Church membership, a greater sense of the awe of God and a growth in the influence of the Christian community in the country at large. This was certainly the case at one time in Britain, and may yet be a possibility in the future. But revival is first an act of God among the assemblies of his covenant people, typified by repentance, new waves of prayer and study of the Bible. The exercising of spiritual gifts in the discipline of the Holy Spirit follows, but for service and not self-indulgence.

This week we also publish the first in a two-part critical review of ‘The Turning’, an outreach programme being rolled out across the country in the hopes of stimulating revival. Read it here.