Seeds of Revival
By Marc Vidito
What is revival? Why is it important? How can I see revival in my life and the world around me?
I was born into the tumultuous mid-70’s to Christian parents in the culture of the midwest. When I was around 4 years old, my parents moved to a small town in south-central Kentucky to attend a little Christian college there. This was at a time when many of the hippies from the 60’s and early 70s were re-entering typical societal norms, like going to universities and entering the workforce. Many of these hippies had found Jesus along the way. Therefore, this reintegration was colored by the counter cultural mindset through the lens of a new form of Christianity. My earliest cohesive memories are sitting with these “Jesus Freak” college students in an empty house with guitars, autoharps, and recorders singing simple modern sounding songs about Jesus. The results of revival is the world in which I awakened.
What is revival?
“During a revival, God supernaturally transforms believers and non-believers in a (congregation), locale, region, nation, or the world through sudden, intense enthusiasm for (Yeshua). People sense the presence of God powerfully; conviction, despair, contrition, repentance, and prayer come easily; people thirst for God's word; many authentic (salvations) occur and backsliders are renewed.”
Let’s very briefly examine three movements that were given the name “revival”.
“The Businessmen's Revival of 1857-1858. In 1857, the North Dutch Church in New York City hired a businessman, Jeremiah Lanphier, to be a lay missionary. He prayed, "Lord, what would you have me do?" Concerned by the anxious faces of businessmen on the streets of New York City, Lanphier decided to open the church at noon so businessmen could pray. The first meeting was set for September 23--three weeks before the Bank Panic of 1857. Six attended the first week, 20 the next, then 40, then they switched to daily meetings. Before long all the space was taken, and other churches also began to open up for businessmen's prayer meetings. Revivals broke out everywhere in 1857, spreading throughout the United States and world. Sometimes called The Great Prayer Meeting Revival, an estimated 1,000,000 people were added to America's church rolls, and as many as 1,000,000 of the 4,000,000 existing church members also became “born-again” believers.”
“The widely publicized Jesus Movement, emphasized turning from drugs, promiscuous sex, and radical politics to taking the Bible at face value and finding
(Yeshua HaMashiach) as personal Savior. Not surprisingly, this revival spread to college campuses, most notably the 1970 Asbury College Revival in Wilmore, Kentucky. Within a week the revival had spread throughout the entire country. In 1976 America elected a born-again president, and evangelicalism has continued to prosper from then to now.”
-Pat Morley
A 20 year old secular Jewish drug dealer named Jonathan Bernis found his Jewish Messiah in 1979. During his decade as Senior Rabbi at the synagogue he founded in Rochester, NY, Jonathan took a trip to Russia in 1990 with 200 bibles as part of a small outreach team. Leading many to faith in Yeshua, Jonathan heard the call to minister to former Soviet countries, including still-communist Russia. He answered the call by putting together Messianic Jewish Outreach Festivals sharing the news of Yeshua in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and beyond bringing tens of thousands to faith, including hundreds of holocaust survivors. To date, Jonathan’s ministry, Jewish Voice, has seen over 60k come to faith, has planted or supported over 175 congregations around the world, and offered humanitarian and medical aid to over 1.2 million people.
Read my about pages to see my personal story of revival.
Revival is mass t’shuvah or a return to God. But, it always begins with a small number of people who individual say, “Yes”. They have a moment of decision; they hear the call; they see the truth and are irrevocably changed. In the case of Jeremiah Lanphier, Jonathan Bernis, or, of course, Bono, their personal T’shuvah was followed by a desire to affect change. Lanphier saw despair on the faces of businessmen and offered hope. Jonathan saw spiritual hunger and oppression and offered the truth and freedom; later, like my favorite Irishman, saw physical need and met it.
I have said before that worship is changed lives changing lives. Revival is the that en masse.
“But history tells us that national revivals and awakenings cannot be manufactured. They are sovereign acts of mercy and grace by God Himself, when He supernaturally achieves in a short span what seems otherwise impossible. However, God loves to respond to the prayers of His people (e.g., 2 Chronicles 7:14).” - Pat Morley
Read 2 Chronicles 7:14
What is it that God responds to?
How will He respond?
How does Revelation 12:11 say “They” overcame?
How do the words of our testimony feed revival?
How can you enact irrevocable T’shuvah in your personal life?
How can we as a community?
Once changed, what needs can we meet within our congregational community?
What needs in our external community?
Like the sunflower, a seed of revival germinates when watered by the Ruach, fed by the Word, and the outer shell is cracked by t’shuvah. Then, the flower grows tall bearing many seeds and beautifying its surroundings. Let us turn, grow and bear fruit. Together let’s pray and seek revival.