Pastoral Vision (22)
“So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked…” Revelation 3.16, 17
It seems pretty obvious to me that revival, renewal, and awakening are the great need of the day. Politics has its place as does cultural change, but without revival, renewal, and awakening, these are just window dressing. Moving the deckchairs around on a sinking ship.
Revival is a widespread movement of God’s Spirit bringing repentance and recommitment to Jesus to the followers of Christ. Renewal follows from revival as believers and local churches recover their mission to spread God’s grace by bearing witness and making disciples. Awakening is how the world responds to revival and renewal, as multitudes are led to faith in Jesus and incorporation into His Body.
This is the need of the day. But I fear that believers and churches are so weighed down with a variety of sins—a merely personal salvation, addiction to worldly diversions, failure to thrive on the Word of God, a self-centered approach to worship, a variety of compromises with the wrong-believing culture of our day, and so on—that we cannot even see the need for revival, renewal, and awakening.
For surely if we did, we would seek it with tears.
The Rev. John Bonar was Minister of Larbert and Dunipace in the early 19th century when he penned his reflections on the revival that swept Scotland at that time: “So long as the Church is weighed down by a body of sin—so long as there is in all her members a law in the flesh which warreth against the law of the mind—so long as without ceasing there arises from her the voice of distress, ‘Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death!’ the enlightening, convincing, and converting influences of the Spirit will be required at each step of her process through the wilderness. And so long as the world remains a valley of the shadow of death, everywhere times of revival will be required—everywhere needed—everywhere to be sought” (Ministers of Scotland: Lectures on Revival).
There is never a time in which churches are not candidates for revival, for our experience of the life of faith is never as rich or full as it could be, and our churches are never as vibrant and missional as they should be. So we must always be seeking the Lord for revival and not allow complacency to settle into our lives or ministries.
Pastors and shepherds must stir their people with extraordinary visions of what God can do, and then they must lead them into extraordinary labors of prayer, pleading with God to do what only He can do.
Resources for Shepherds: Revival, renewal, and awakening
Resources are available to help you in leading your church to revival, renewal, and awakening.
What does it mean for a church to be revived? Our book Revived! addresses that question and marks out the path that can lead to revival. Learn more and order your copy by clicking here.
The psalms are a great source for leading us to pray for revival. Our book Restore Us! shows you how to use the psalms in seeking the Lord for revival, renewal, and awakening, and how to lead others to do so as well. Order your copy by clicking here.
Finally, not persuaded that your church needs revival? Then at least you can pray for those which are so captive to contemporary culture and winds of false doctrine, that they might be set free to seek revival, renewal, and awakening. Our book The Church Captive can help you in praying for churches worldwide. Order your copy by clicking here. Or order it in a free PDF here.
Order any one of the above books, and we’ll send you a free copy of Preparing Your Church for Revival. Learn more about this book by clicking here.
Finally, we invite you join one of our many prayer groups seeking the Lord for revival, renewal, and awakening via Zoom. For a complete list of available groups, send me an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
From the Celtic Revival
Tomorrow’s Crosfigell offers a prayer from the afterglow period of the Celtic Revival (ca. 430-800 AD). It’s one we all can use:
My speech—may it praise You without flaw:
May my heart love You, King of heaven and earth.
My speech—may it praise You without flaw:
Make it easy for me, pure Lord,
to do You all service and to adore You.
- Anonymous, Irish, 12th century[1]
Why not join us for Crosfigell, for this and all our excerpts from the period of the Celtic Revival? The great saints of that period—many of them anonymous like the poet above—have much to teach us about knowing, loving, and serving Jesus in our day. You can subscribe to Crosfigell and all our other teaching letters by clicking here.
If you haven’t visited our bookstore in a while, you’ll be pleased to see that we are making progress in putting all our books into PDF format so that you can download them for free and place them on your e-reader. Plus, once you’ve downloaded a copy, you can freely share it with your friends so that you can read and discuss our many books on Kingdom living together
T. M. Moore
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Support for Pastor to Pastor comes from our faithful and generous God, who moves our readers to share financially in our work. If this article was helpful, please give Him thanks and praise.
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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[1] Davies, p. 260.
