A History of Spirit-Filled Revival

Intro

We are going to try to answer two questions here today. The first question that we will answer is; How are the Holy Spirit and revival connected? The second question that we will answer is; Is our heritage a Spirit-filled revival movement?

Before we get into those questions, let’s take a step back and refresh ourselves on how Pastor Chad started us on this series.

Series Review

Two weeks ago, Pastor Chad started us on a series about the Holy Ghost. Many Christians today have a limited understanding of who the Holy Spirit is, and how the Holy Spirit operates. We spend a lot of time talking about God the Father, and Jesus the Son, but we avoid talking about the Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches a trinitarian view of God, and as United Methodists we believe in that trinitarian view of God, so it is important that we understand all three parts of the Trinity, which is why we are spending this time learning more about the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Chad reminded us in week 1 that the Holy Spirit leads us into three big truths:

The TRUTH of Salvation (people getting saved)

The TRUTH of Sanctification (people becoming more righteous/holy)

The TRUTH of God’s Power (healing, tongues, deliverance, gifts of the Spirit, etc.)

These three things are kind of a summary of what the church should be about, right? Leading people to salvation in Jesus, being discipled/growing, working God’s power and love into all peoples’ lives.

There are moments in the church, though, that these three things are more prevalent, when the church seems to be overflowing with life:

People getting saved in droves

People giving up their sinful habits

God’s power on display daily in huge ways

We call those eras “revival”

Revival is really just those three works of the Holy Spirit on full display.

I’ve never met a Christian who didn’t want revival in their churches, cities and in the world.

How are the Holy Spirit and Revival Connected?

This brings us to the first question that we’re going to answer today. The Spirit is the one who brings about this revival that we seek. If you want to see this played out, look no further than the story that we have recorded for us in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel, chapter 37. This is one of the craziest, coolest and spookiest stories in Scripture, and it certainly fits in with our society’s obsession with the spooky that we seem to celebrate each October.

Where is the Spirit at work in this revival story this morning?

Ezekiel 37:1 NRSV

The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.

PRAYER:

The first verse of our passage today says, “The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord...”

Ezekiel was a prophet who started his life as a priest before the exile into Babylon. He was a man that spent time with God, he spent time in God’s presence, talking with and listening to God. If you’re new to this, we call this spending time with God, spending time communicating - both speaking and listening - we call this prayer.

When Ezekiel was in prayer, he had all kinds of crazy visions and wild things that the Lord revealed to him. But as we see here in verse 1, it was the Spirit of the Lord that was leading Ezekiel.

It is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord, that leads us in prayer. Prayer and the Spirit have always been linked to revival in the church. Before the Spirit is poured out in Acts, Jesus ascends to heaven and what do the disciples do? They gather together in PRAYER - and the Holy Spirit shows up!

The second way we see the Spirit at work is by LEADING.

The second part of verse one says, “… he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and he set me down in the middle of a valley...” When we pray, we are able to tune in to what the Spirit is saying to us and maybe to get a glimpse into what the Spirit is doing, but the Spirit also LEADS us into the next step.

Here is the tricky part: Just because the Spirit leads us, does not mean that we will actually follow his lead. There is a step of obedience required on our part. We must be willing to follow where he leads. Unfortunately, we often are unwilling to follow where the Spirit leads. Sometimes the Spirit leads us to g somewhere or do something that is uncomfortable and we come up with all kinds of reasons why NOT to follow the Spirit’s lead.

We all do this: as a worship leader, I’m in front of fairly large groups of people every Sunday morning. I try really hard not to care what people think of how I look, or what I’m wearing, or how well I’m singing, or playing my instrument, but it’s hard - it’s human nature to want to be liked, to want affirmation. One Sunday, I was leading worship and we were singing a song called “We Fall Down.” This is a song about bowing before the Lord in worship. As we were singing, I felt, or heard in my head, very clearly, “get on your knees, bow before me.” This of course is all happening in a very short period of time while I am leading the congregation in this song. A number of thoughts run through my mind. “People will think I’m crazy,” “They will just think that I am trying to draw attention to myself.” “They will think that I’m trying to show how holy I am and that I’m just being boastful.” “How am I going to kneel and play the guitar?” The end result, I didn’t kneel. After the worship songs were finished and I returned to my seat, I wasn’t sure what had happened. Had I heard the Spirit leading me to do something and ignored that leading, or had I wanted to do something for my own glory and successfully pushed that thought away? A few minutes later, another worship leader stood up to lead us in prayer. She read from a Psalm and encouraged the congregation, if they were able, to get out of their seat and kneel before God as we prayed together. At that moment, I knew that I had missed an opportunity to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. I had missed it because it made me uncomfortable and I worried about how others would interpret my actions.

There are many reasons why we don’t follow the Spirit’s lead, but most of the time it is because we are being led to do something that seems uncomfortable, or embarrassing, or it just doesn’t fit into our schedule for the day. In our story from Ezekiel, the people of God are in exile, in captivity, far from home. Where does Ezekiel want to be led? To a valley of dry bones? I’m guessing this wasn’t what Ezekiel had in mind, but he went anyway.

Breathing Life

Ezekiel 37:2–10 NRSV

He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.” So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

Remember from week one, Pastor Chad taught us a couple of words, one in Greek and one in Hebrew. Does any one remember what those words are?

Pneuma and Ruach - these words mean, Spirit, breath, wind

In the valley of the dry bones, the Spirit of God - the Breath of God - enters into the dry bones and they LIVE.

In our lives today, the Spirit of God meet us in prayer, leads us where we need to go, and then BREATHES life into the situation.

You can summarize revivals in a hundred ways, but they mostly boil down to those ingredients, all reliant on the Holy Spirit to do it.

Life is what Jesus promised to his followers in John 10 - LIFE to the fullest.

Breathing life often means TWO things:

Infusing life where there is none (adding to our lives)

Revealing our purpose, giving us spiritual gift with which to work.

Cutting away the death still present in us (removing the junk)

We cannot be alive and dead, remember?

Sin brings death, so sin must go!

The Spirit helps us cut the sin in our lives to become more righteous and more life-filled.

Sometimes this part is hard, but it is the ONLY way to LIFE.

Is our heritage a Spirit-filled revival movement?

This leads us to the second question that we hope to answer this morning: Is our tradition one of Spirit-filled Revival?

The Church of England in the time of John Wesley was spiritually dead, dry bones long given over to their own desires.

Their preaching held no power or resemblance of Jesus

Religion and preservation of tradition were the gods of the church

Sounds a little too familiar, yes?

Insert the Moravians, a small group of devoted Christians who met together in a group called the Fetter Lane Society (so named because they met in a house on Fetter Lane).

Their sole purpose and hearts’ desire was to seek the Lord through spiritual growth and intense accountability - and they did so regularly.

They held a Watch Night Prayer Service, a worship service held on New Year’ Eve, this one in 1738. They shared in what they called the “love feast,” a shared meal with fellowship followed by communion.

Listen to John Wesley’s own description of what happened that evening:

“Mr. Hall, Hinching, Ingham, Whitefield, Hutching, and my brother Charles were present at our love feast in Fetter Lane with about 60 of our brethren. About three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of His majesty, we broke out with one voice, “We praise Thee, O God, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.””

Do you see the patter here?

Prayer, Power, and Recognition of their place before God.

Within months, John Wesley and George Whitefield were preaching to thousands of people at a time, leading thousands to Christ. Charles Wesley’s music is still some of the most sung music in the world.

These three things: Prayer, Power and Spiritual Growth, were seen again and again in every place that they ministered. The Methodists were the original Pentecostals. They were the revivalists, “enthusiasts” they called us.

Historians estimate that between 1738 and 1791, over 1 million people came to Christ because of the men who came out of this prayer experience on Fetter Lane. Randall Davidson even wrote that Wesley practically changed the character of the English nation

And why was all of this happening? Because the Holy Spirit was at work through us.

The Holy Spirit is the one who brings revival.

The Holy Spirit is the one who brings revival, but to whom does he bring it?

To those who seek him earnestly in prayer

To those who will follow him where he leads

To those who desire the fullest life Jesus promised to His followers.

Now that we have answered these questions, what do we do with this information? How do we go forward from here?

Do you want revival? Do you want revival in your home? In our church? In our city? In our nation? In our world?

Are you willing to fall on your knees in prayer, crying out to the Spirit for revival?

Are you willing to go where the Spirit leads? To do what the Spirit calls you to do?

Are you willing to cut out of your lives the things that are holding you back? Are you willing to give up some things that you really enjoy, if the Spirit reveals to you that those things are keeping you from experiencing revival in your own life?

It happened in the valley of the dry bones

It happened to John Wesley

It happened to our ancestors.

It can happen here.

The New International Version Jude

24 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

2 Peter 1:19–21 NRSV

So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.