Revival

A revival is an event where many people respond to the gospel message in a relatively short period of time and this had a big impact on the communities involved.

In past revivals, the people who initiated these revivals worked very hard for them. As I read about the great revivalists of the past I see a total commitment to their Lord and a total commitment to their ministry. Most of these revivals brought large numbers of people to know the Lord.

These revivals mostly lasted a few years and then ended. These revivals ended when people began to prophesy they would end or when they were sidetracked or when the leaders were worn out from doing all the work. Very few people were taught how to reach out to others. Many of these people did not even reach out to their own children.

Awakening

What many of us see coming is not another revival but an awakening. An awakening is very different to a revival. The number of people who come to Jesus is far greater. The area impacted is far greater. The impact on the communities is far greater. The awakening lasts longer and the resulting benefits last far longer.

What is the difference?

Revivals are a lot of fun, for a while. As time goes on and the number of new believers grows and the number of pastors needed to look after all these new believers also grows. New pastors are either not found or found and trained too slowly so the workload grows to the point where people lose interest and the revival ends.

A revival is based on addition. Few of those who become believers go on to share in the work of looking after all those who keep coming to the Lord. For an awakening to be successful, all those who become believers must then become spiritual parents or mentors to those whom they lead to the Lord and also help out with those who become believers at mass meetings. This process is known as multiplication.

An awakening requires a lot of work up front. There needs to be a team of forerunners. Most or all of this team will be involved in prayer meetings praying for their region. Everyone, not just the evangelists, will need to be able to share the gospel message. Everyone will need to be trained and active disciples and ready to train others in discipleship. There will need to be experienced apostles to lead and prophets to guide.