Revival: It's Coming, and It'll be Amazing

Ray A. Seilhamer
Bishop, 1993-2001

September 1995

On May 4, I was among 3000 people gathered in downtown Chicago at Moody Memorial Church to participate in a three-hour concert of prayer. Many of you have participated in a concert of prayer. One person directs the group in praying for specific things, typically for an hour (the time goes very quickly). This one lasted three hours. It was the largest one ever held--not because of the 3000 people in that church, but because of all the others joining us throughout the world.

The event was broadcast live over 1000 radio stations, by television networks into a potential 140 million homes, and over the armed services radio and television networks to bases and ships around the world. Satellite dishes carried the event into numerous churches and other settings, where smaller groups of believers joined us in united prayer. Even the Internet carried it in an interactive format for all three hours.

The concert of prayer was an amazing event, as nationally-recognized leaders flew to Chicago to be part of that broadcast at their own expense. The next day, 110 leaders participated in a Forum for National Revival. We talked about the current preliminary signs of a God-given revival in the United States and beyond. We talked about the full shape and purpose of a God-given national revival. We brainstormed how our churches should prepare for the coming national revival. And we discussed how leaders should work together to serve the coming national revival.

God is touching the hearts of Christians across North America. The time is ripe for drastic change. People yearn for a return to the values that made America great.

I see pockets of revival, such as the "See You at the Pole" prayer movement among high schoolers. Students meet at the school's flagpole, in public, to pray for their government and school leaders. The next one will occur this month, on September 20. Two million teens are expected to participate.

Another youth movement, called True Love Waits, involves students who pledge to abstain from sexual relationships until they are married. It is expected to add an additional one million teens this year.

The Promise Keepers movement has brought millions of men together, uniting them around the desire to be the men, husbands, and fathers God wants them to be. It's influence is being felt not only in the large annual gatherings, but in city movements and in local churches, where men meet regularly to hold each other accountable to their promises.

Revival will bring powerful, far-sweeping changes. It will begin with God's people, but won't be contained within the walls of churches. There will be a fresh awareness of the awesomeness of God, a restoration of true worship, a hunger for the Word of God, new zeal to fulfill the Great commission. And millions of people will turn to God.

Revival comes as a sovereign act of God. God's people must meet God's conditions in God's way. What must we do?

1. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal unconfessed sin in your life--bitterness, unforgiveness, spiritual frigidness, lust, dishonesty. 1 John 1:9 promises that if we confess our sins, God will forgive them and make us clean. So confess your sins with a willingness to forsake it. This frees the Holy spirit to active His power and work through you.

2. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. If you are a Christian, God already lives within you. Great spiritual power and resources are available to you.

3. Seek to live in God's presence as a way of life. Let God motivate and give purpose to every activity of your life.

4. Love with God's love. Let your heart be broken for others. An unending supply of God's love lies within you.

5. Seek God diligently through prayer.

6. Invite God to use you. Take the initiative to be used in your church and community.

Revival has not yet come to American and Canada, but there are signs of God's movement. When revival does come, what will it look like? We don't know for sure. Jesus said that the Spirit comes like a wind: we don't know where it comes from or where it will go.

This article appeared in the September 1995 UB newsletter