Revival is just the Beginning

by Jennifer A. Miskov, Ph.D., Revival Historian 

Now that we have explored semantics and some development around the term revival and exploring its meaning, let’s go even deeper to the impact it should have on one’s life and what comes afterwards.

In the natural, if someone is sleeping, barely alive, or has suddenly died, they need to be awakened or revived. Many times, someone will use smelling salts (ammonia inhalants) to awaken a person who has passed out or become unconscious. They put this aroma under the person’s nose to breathe it in. Suddenly, when this happens, the person is revived from their previous unconscious state. Once this person has become revived from their formal sleeping state, they do not need to remain in a state of trying to be revived because they have already come back to life. There is no more need for them to inhale the smelling salts. This person must now begin to live more empowered since their awakening.

This can be a metaphor for revival. Some people have become spiritually unconscious or fallen asleep and they need to be re-awakened. Others have become dead inside and need to be resurrected back to life. Once they have been awakened and brought back to life though, now it’s time to move from the resurrected state to the empowered state of living, being transformed, and stepping into their destiny.

Revival is only just the beginning. Once a person is awakened, then it’s time to fully live.

In Hosea 6:2, it says, “After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight.” Here we see that revival is not meant to be a continual state as much as what needs to happen whenever our spirits begin to wither away or die on the inside. Once people are revived, they then need to live the abundant life Jesus died for them to have (John 10:10). Transformation, reformation, revolution, and destiny must follow. Once revived, we must learn to live as burning ones on fire for Jesus constantly remaining full of the oil of His presence.

The Reviver by Rolland Baker

Rolland Baker, co-founder with Heidi Baker of Iris Global is a missionary in Mozambique, has experienced revival firsthand. His insights in the epilogue of his book, Keeping the Fire, are worth noting.

“I return at the end to where I began: with the Person of Jesus. Iris is not about us. It is about Jesus. Revival is not about manifestations or miracles; it is about the Reviver, Jesus our Savior.

We have only one destination, one home, one reality, one resting place, one source, one motivation, one reward, one possession, one point of contact with God, one source of real satisfaction – and that is Jesus…

Everything we value has been found in Jesus. The key to our core values is therefore falling in love with Him. 

Love is a gift of relationship, not just self-sacrifice. The secret place is not necessarily found in a prayer closet or a posture of soaking, or in battling for a just cause, or in a massive prayer and fasting effort. Even the most amazing miracles can leave us lonely and without relationship. We can run out of motivation advancing the noblest ideals and working at all levels to transform society. We can minister until we have no more strength, and still go home and lie in bed without the relationship for which our hearts are made.

Everything is okay with relationship. It is all that Jesus cares about, all that motivates Him. He could do many more amazing miracles to dazzle the world with His powers, but He is interested only in relationship. The entire creation, all the grandeur of the physical world, and all His works are designed to serve one thing: relationship. Revival has no content without it. Renewal and manifestations are pointless apart from it. Miracles only find their meaning it. Joy is shallow and groundless unless rooted in it. Without relationship we are the living dead…

Revival is all about Jesus.

Revival Without God: A Warning

Revival can easily become an idol in our lives and take the place of Jesus. It can possess us and become an obsession. Not that there is anything wrong with desiring revival, but anything that comes before our passionate pursuit of Jesus becomes idolatry. We must always seek Jesus first, yield to the Holy Spirit, and pursue the God of revival. Revival never should become an idol in our lives. Our obsession above all else, including revival, must remain loving Jesus wholeheartedly. As we love God with all our minds, hearts, bodies, and spirits, revival is a natural overflow.

We don’t want to end up one day in front of God sharing how we released “revival” in the world but did it apart from personal and intimate relationship with Him. What would be the point of doing signs and wonders without Him and His presence or without love (1 Corinthians 13)? Moses could have easily had revival, stepped into his destiny, and saw his dreams come true. But without God’s presence, he wasn’t going to move (Exodus 33).

Revival without Jesus is not only empty, it is dangerous. Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23,

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Casting out demons, setting the oppressed free, and performing miracles definitely feels like revival and that the kingdom of God has come in people’s lives. The only problem is that doing any of these works of revival is dangerous when not deeply connected to the Source of revival which is Jesus Himself. It appears from this passage that it is quite possible to do the works of revival without being known by God. This is unsafe ground to walk on. We must do the will of the Father and remain connected in relationship with Jesus as we do these works of revival. In their book about revival, Hansen and Woodbridge say, “You can have signs and wonders, but if you don’t have God, you don’t have revival. God-centered revivals withstand the temptation to treasure the blessings of revival over the one who blesses.”

More than anything, revival needs to be birthed from a place of a deep burning passion for more of God and from an overflowing relationship with Him. As we stay connected to the Source, His steadily burning and increasing flame within us will ignite and awaken many around us, releasing revival wherever we go. As we knit ourselves to other burning ones and learn how to live in the fire of His presence together, we encounter His love and power in a way that radically impacts our world. Let us be a people who burn for revival fire to be ignited in our own hearts and for that to spread to a lost and dying world.

*This excerpt is taken from a chapter in my book Sustain the Flame: Secrets to Living Saturated in God’s Presence and Holy Fire.