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Revival: God Could Do It Again!

*Editor’s Note: This is the final installment in our series on the Promise Keepers by one of PK’s founding members, David Roadcup. Here are the other articles in the series: 

  • Part 1: “Promise Keepers: The Beginning” 
  • Part 2: “The First Promise Keepers Event: Witnessing the Power of God” 
  • Part 3: “Promise Keepers and the Power of God” 
  • Part 4: “The Promise Keepers and Spiritual Warfare” 
  • Part 5: “Promise Keepers & Stories of Changed Lives” 
  • Part 6: “Promise Keepers: The Night We Encouraged Our Pastors” 
  • Part 7: “Promise Keepers: Stand in the Gap” 

There is no way I can adequately describe what I saw and experienced through my time with Promise Keepers. The power of the Holy Spirit being poured out onto lost men who came to Christ by the thousands, the calling of weak or lost sons back home, and the strengthening of those rooted in Christ in such vast numbers was all evident as God moved in such an awesome way.

Sins being forgiven, marriages being restored and strengthened, and men called to personal purity, honesty, and integrity in their daily lives stirred this writer to his core. If you have the Lord’s heart for evangelism, for discipleship and for His Kingdom, you can understand my excitement and anticipation concerning the possibility of God visiting us with revival.

Here is my prayer for the church: That God would do it again!

God brought revival to thousands of men through Promise Keepers and He could do it again, if He desired. This time, it would be on the church at large.

This leads us to ask the question, “What would it take for God to bring revival to the church here in America?”

The experience of revival is quite clear in the annals of history. Since the 16th century Reformation, revival has broken out repeatedly. Writer and scholar J. Edwin Orr has written extensively on the history of revival. Tony Cauchi refers to Orr’s research in one of his blogs. In his piece, he points out the “Six Waves” of revival described by Orr. He states,

We are indebted to the prolific writer and scholar, Dr J Edwin Orr, for his extensive and painstaking research into the history of revivals. His work has clearly revealed several distinct and successive ‘great awakenings’ or ‘resurgences.’ These progressive periods of revival are unquestionably the means God has used to counteract spiritual decline in the church and to promote spiritual advance in the world. There have been six of these major periods or waves from the Reformation to the turn of the 20th century, from 1727, 1792, 1830, 1857, 1882 and 1904.

“We have chosen to use the ‘wave’ analogy to illustrate these six periods of time, when God poured out His Holy Spirit, reviving the church and awakening the lost. The life of a wave begins imperceptibly but there is a point when it becomes visible and the water begins to lift. Very quickly it rises to a peak, breaks and then slowly recedes. This process continues with each new wave, drawing up some water from the old one and pushing it onto the next. This is precisely what happened in revival history.

“On or around each of the above dates the church enjoyed a fresh wave of God’s blessing. We call each of them ‘great’ awakenings because, although they incorporated local revivals, their effects crossed national boundaries and were ultimately world-wide in scope.”

What we know from history is this–that God can visit us with spiritual revival. He has done it before. I believe He is willing to do it again.

What brings revival?

When dedicated groups of believers pray and fast together and ask the Lord to visit with His power, it can happen.

When sincere repentance flows like a mighty river and we appeal to our Father to forgive us of our sins, it can happen.

When obedience is the characteristic hallmark of those asking for God’s visitation, it can happen.

There are groups of believers all over our country, right now praying for revival to come. Many men and women are seeking the Lord daily, asking Him to visit us with His power. Scripture tells us that where sin abounds, grace abounds more.

If you are not part of a group praying for God to visit us as a nation, I want to invite you to join us and offer prayer daily, asking the Lord to bring revival to America.

A final note. I attended the National Disciple Making Forum sponsored by Discipleship.org in 2016 in Nashville, TN. We had a little over 400 in attendance at that meeting. In 2017, the number jumped to over 1,400! There is a spirit in that meeting. In the main sessions, in the workshops and in the fellowship, the Spirit of the Lord can be discerned. The Lord’s great blessing is on this movement.

Bobby Harrington and his two entities, Renew.org and Discipleship.org. are dedicated to evangelism and relational discipleship. Strong biblical doctrine is also at their core. I truly believe that Bobby and his team are anointed by God to minister to the church at a significant level.

These are the kinds of ministries that God would choose to bring revival to our land, along with all of the other excellent partners with whom they work.

Bobby Harrington, Jason Henderson, Geary Tanner, Tony Twist, Jim Putman, David Young, Shodankeh Johnson and others are men of prayer and fasting. They are spiritual catalysts in bringing the church to obedience when it comes to the Word of God and prayer. Encourage them in every way. Pray for their ministry and support what the Lord is doing through them.

I want to invite you to join us and offer prayer daily, asking the Lord to bring revival to America.

Friends, let us pray and fast for revival. Let us ask the Lord to bring times of refreshing, repentance and transformation to our hearts and to the church. Let us ask with the Psalmist,

“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in You?” (Ps. 85:6)

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