With Austin Bello & Caleb Turman - two members of the band "Committed" at Tabernacle Baptist Youth Revival in Gainesville, TX.

   Allow me to make this disclaimer: I cannot bring revival to your church!  (Does that sound like an odd thing for a "revivalist" to say?)  I can fervently pray for God's fire to fall upon your town.  I can preach revival messages.  That is my kingdom calling.  But I can't make revival happen.  And because of that fact, I suspect, lies the answer as to why so many churches quit having revivals.  That is why the terms "revival" and "revivalist" have been filed away in the archives, along with images of brush arbors and sawdust.

   Yet, the need for true revival is just as great today as it was 50 years ago.  If I had to choose one need that I have heard expressed over and over again through the years, without a doubt it would be the need for revival.  Just listen to your family of faith the next time you gather together to pray.  You will hear things like - "America is in need of a great spiritual awakening!"  "Our community needs a fresh outpouring of God's Holy Spirit!"  "Our church needs a revival!"

  What do we mean when we say that?  Do we understand what revival means?  Have we forgotten who revival is really for?  Has the expectation of seeing the lost come to Christ and the subsequent failure of that expectation coming to pass led us to conclude that revivals are no longer relevant?  Revivals are for the saved.  When the church gets right, then the lost will get saved.  That will be a natural by-product of real revival.  What then is revival?  Why did they seem to be so fruitful in bygone days and how can they be so again?

   True revival occurs in the atmosphere of prolonged periods before God.  When I agree to come to a church to preach a revival, I ask that church to commit to at least three weeks of prayer before the revival begins.  It is important that the children of the kingdom undergo this time of spiritual preparation before the scheduled services begin.  After these days of prayer, there should be a greater sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and a heightened level of expectation to see God move.

   The great revivals of yesterday were neither rushed in to nor out of!  Instead of four days in October or April, they were often 10 day events that continued on after the original dates had passed.  It was not uncommon for the visiting revivalist to move on to his next obligation while the congregation's pastor continued preaching nightly for several more days.

   Lives change when the bride of Christ puts aside their busy lives to seek the face of God.  Church-wide revivals still have the potential to be very effective in building God's kingdom.  Unlike a week-long camp or retreat, church revivals offer us the powerful transformation of the mountaintop without removing us from the tremendous needs of the lost in our valley's below.