....invasion

Then we will not turn back from You; revive us, and we will call upon Your name — Psalm 80:18 

We can’t create a revival. 

We can’t organize a revival. 

But we can agonize in prayer for a revival. 

A revival is a supernatural invasion of God. 

It is something that God does for us and not something we do for Him.

One person defined revival as a community saturated with God. Richard Owen Roberts, who wrote a great book called Revival, described it as “an extraordinary movement of the Holy Spirit producing extraordinary results.”

A. W. Tozer defined revival as that which changes the moral climate of the community.

Revival is nothing more or less than a new beginning of obedience to God. And really, nonbelievers don’t need revival; they need salvation. The church needs revival. Revival is for believers only, but evangelism is for nonbelievers.

Charles Spurgeon said, “To be revived is a blessing which can only be enjoyed by those who have some degree of life. Those who have no spiritual life are not, and cannot be, in the strictest sense of the term, subjects of a revival. A true revival is to be looked for in the Church of God.”

I don’t think most Americans have heard an authentic, biblical gospel presentation. In fact, I think we have a lot of “almost Christians” in our nation today. They know a little about the gospel, but they don’t understand it fully. They haven’t responded to it or embraced it.

When the apostle Paul presented the gospel to Herod Agrippa, the ruler said, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian” Acts 26:28. One of the greatest revivals in human history started with one man, Jonah. Initially he ran from God, but ultimately he came to his senses. 

God has called us, like Jonah, to go and preach the gospel. The question is, are we doing it?

- greg laurie