In light of the healings that have been happening in Lakeland, I've started reading Leonard Ravenhill's "Revival God's Way" once again and it's been provoking my heart in a profound way. I'm collecting my thoughts for a small series of posts on the topic of revival.

I'm convinced that revival is what the church so desperately needs. But I'm also convinced that it is not going to come in the way we are expecting it to, nor will it be nicely packaged, predictable, or containable, and will certainly not come without offending the hearts and minds of the church. The revival to come is one of the ways God will shake everything that can be shaken before His return. (Hebrews 12:26-29) I'll develop these concepts further in upcoming posts. But today I'll just start with this provoking quote by Ravenhill:

Any true revival can be proven by the fact that it has changed the moral climate of an area or nation. Perhaps the offense of true revival is that:

It cannot be organized. (The wind bloweth where it listeth.)
It cannot be subsidized. (It does not need financial backing.)
It cannot be advertised. (There is nothing more self-advertising than a fire, and revival is fire from heaven.)
It cannot be computerized. (God alone knows the extent of His power.)
It cannot be regulated. (We cannot lay a theological track for it to operate on.)
It cannot be rationalized. (It is a divine mystery beyond finite minds.)
It cannot be denominationalized. (It leaps over doctrinal barriers.)
It cannot be nationalized. (Preachers by the hundreds have been flying to Korea to see what God has done in that country. Most have gasped at the packed churches and returned sad that our mechanical services are so sterile.)

Many people express an interest in revival. There are not so many deeply concerned about it, and fewer still burdened for it, still fewer heartbroken for it. Yet, spiritual revival is not an alternative for the nations right now. It is imperative.

-Leonard Ravenhill, "Revival God's Way", p. 64