Personal Revival

For the last few days I have been reading from an account of the travels and revival that followed the Canadian Presbyterian missionary Jonathan Goforth in the early 1900’s.  He had felt a call to China and was influenced through the writings of Hudson Taylor and Charles Finney.  Jonathan and his young bride Rosalind set off for their first assignment in China in 1888.  For many years they struggled as the work was very difficult and the going slow.  During the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, Jonathan was attacked and grievously injured with a sword.  He was able to escape and he and his family returned to Canada for a year.

Goforth returned to China in 1901 with his family joining him a year later.  Jonathan was becoming restless and was inspired by hearing of the Welsh Revival in 1904-05.  It was as if the spirit of revival fell on him.  For many years after this it seemed like everywhere that Jonathan went revival followed.  It was a revival in the churches that was characterized by deep prayer, conviction of sin, repentance, restitution and then evangelism.  Not only were the meager congregations fired up in their newfound hunger and enthusiasm for Christ, but they were filled with an unending desire to live holy lives and share their love for God with all the unsaved in the villages and towns around them.  Christianity grew by thousands of new converts within a few years. *

Goforth outlined what he felt was the indispensable factors in preparing God’s way in revival as: 1) prayer, 2) a “back-to-the-Bible” movement, and 3) exalting Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s.**

I think what inspired and impressed me the most concerning this man’s life was that all he ever did was point people to Jesus and revival followed.  He simply trusted in God to break through the hardness of people’s hearts and expected the Holy Spirit to fall as people responded to the cry of their souls.  This revival period in China (as well as in many other parts of the world at that time) was not focused on great and miraculous moves of God (although they did occur with regularity), it was focused on the individual’s reaching out and yielding their lives to Jesus as holy vessels for His use.

That excites me!  How about you?  I believe that if we wish to see revival in our local communities that we also need to begin with a personal revival of prayer, total reliance in the basic truths of God’s Word and a focus on Jesus as our Lord.  Once that fire is ignited in us, we will each become contagious carriers who knowingly and sometimes unknowingly spread His love, His joy, His peace, His wisdom and His comfort to everyone we come in contact with!  So let it begin with you.  I would encourage you to start praying for a personal revival in you and your family this very weekend!  Then who knows how quickly that fire will spread through your neighborhood!  Have a super weekend.  Stay in tune to His Word and keep asking yourself… “What REVIVAL am I expecting today?”

 

*  For additional information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Goforth and http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b3jgoforth10ca.htm

** Revival Fire by Wesley Duewel – Zondervan Publishing House, page 276