“I don’t know… It’s what happened to Charlie that drew me here, I guess. I can’t stop talking about it, and every time I talk about it, I start to cry. It feels like something inside me is drawing me back to church.” I heard these words from a precious lady that I had not seen in church in a very long time.

 

This account is not unlike others I’ve read or heard about from other pastors. Since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, lost and wayward sheep have found their way to the church, some for the first time. This strange occurrence has left many pastors (including myself) asking themselves the question, “Is this the revival we’ve been praying for?” Although it may be too soon to tell, it’s undeniable that the Lord is using the murder of a faithful Christian man as His casting net, and He’s bringing many fish into the boat.

 

I personally haven’t seen anything like this since that awful day back in September 2001 when terror struck the U.S. and the Twin Towers fell. I can remember witnessing the resurgence of church attendance, but I don’t remember there being many true conversions. To be sure, I wasn’t pastoring at that time so there was a lot about that movement that I didn’t see.

 

So, the question remains. Could this be the long-awaited revival that Christians have been praying and thirsting for? The easy answer seems to be “only time will tell.” But what is it that time will tell us?  If we look at the revivals in the past and the ministers who participated first-hand in those revivals, they will say a revival reveals itself not by a time of excitement within the church, but a recovery of holiness throughout the entire land.

Like my friend I spoke with at church Sunday, the weight of the presence and effects of sin begins to weigh heavily upon the soul. Sins that were prevalent in society and championed by culture switch from being something we don’t like but don’t dwell upon, to something we can’t stop thinking about and being deeply grieved by. Christians who have found themselves cuddling up to pet sins, become disgusted by their behavior, riddled with guilt and begin repenting and turning to the God of grace. Even sinners who have never been sensitive to or interested in the God who has revealed himself daily through His creation begin to squirm under the weight of their guilt and seek relief in the church. It’s as if the Sovereign Lord imparts spiritual wisdom, from Ezekiel’s prophecy, telling the conscience that the water of life that cleanses and nourishes the soul can be found flowing from the temple of God, the Church (Ezekiel 47:1).

The definition of true revival that comes to my mind is from William Maxwell Hetherington (1803—65). Hetherington was a minister at Torphicen, Scotland who witnessed first-hand true revival of religion in 1800’s Scotland and edited a series of addresses to Scottish ministers, written during that time of revival.

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Hetherington wrote, “When, therefore, men use or hear the term, a revival of religion, it ought to be understood to mean,an unusual manifestation of the power of the grace of God in convincing and converting careless sinners, and in quickening and increasing the faith and piety of believers.”[1]

 

Hetherington is not saying that revival is unusual because God works in a new or peculiar way that is uncommon, but it’s unusual in the way that God uses His common means of grace. In times of true revival, the same clear revelation of the same gospel marked by the same Spirit’s power that may have been ignored for a lifetime comes with such weight and clarity and power that its message cannot be ignored or resisted. The weight of God’s majesty and the burden of guilt is so powerfully manifested that both the careless and the religious, the sons of Adam and Sons of Christ, are drawn to a vigorous pursuit of personal holiness.

 

Hetherington is saying that true revival can not be worked up by exciting charismatic speakers and emotional atmospheres. Although religious excitement is often a part of revival, that is not what defines revival. Revival is about the continued work of Jesus Christ to convert the lost and conform the saved. This is the commission Christ left with the church in Matthew 28:18-20 that will continue until the end of this age.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

 

Every so often, according to the riches of His grace, God sends revival where the church is weak and desperate to revive the church in her commission to convert sinners and conform believers to the image of our Lord.

 

There is no doubt that the church in the west is in one of her weakest moments, she is desperate for the mighty arm of God to bring revival. It would make sense that God would show us his glory and might once more at a time such as this.

 

How Do We Respond to What We Are Seeing?

Is it possible that this is what we’re beginning to see? It’s difficult for me to deny that what Hetherington wrote as an honest first-hand definition for true revival is not appearing to take place now in the United States. Whether it be mere religious excitement, which will fizzle out soon, or true conversions and deeper conformity that will melt into a joyful rugged pursuit of holiness, only time will tell.

 

In the meantime, we must not sit back and observe, we must “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:14) We must continue to pray for revival now as never before, pleading with God for the souls of men and to once-again bring forth great triumph from awful tragedy! The fields of spiritual harvest are as white as they have ever been in this generation. Now is the time to seek that which is lost, now is the time to let the gospel of free grace ring out not only from behind the pulpit but also from the middle of the public square.

 

Conclusion

Whatever is happening, God is certainly working in a noticeable way. If we are asked, then, how are we to respond, let us remember that just as God is using his common means of grace in a heightened way, let us continue in our common labors with a greater commitment to prayer and devotion. We don’t have to do anything we’ve never done before, or try to labor beyond our gifts and calling. Continue to pray, continue to evangelize, continue to proclaim the gospel, continue to point our loved ones and ourselves to Christ, continue trusting the Spirit of God to regenerate and strengthen the souls of His people.

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​[1] William Maxwell Hetherington, The Revival of Religion, Addresses by Scottish Evangelical Leaders (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1984), xxii.

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About the Author:  Jason Gunter is the pastor of Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church in West Plains, MO.