The coming revival, which will be another Great Awakening, will bring a touch of God, which is powerful. It will also bring a new anointing that will burst forth a renewal of power. Only now do we see the very trembling of this revival, its new anointing and its renewal of power. Shortly, God will burst forth the new wind of revival where either sinner will run to the altar of repentance, or they will run away from the power of God. It will be as it was in the great revivals of times long past. Yet, more power will be seen; this new wind of God will be a revival of holiness, a revival of power, a revival of reverence, a revival of healings, deliverances, signs, wonders, and miracles. The old signs and wonders will come back and be present; angels will constantly be seen; people will fall out as dead and whole congregations will be seen as dead; people will be frozen to the floor. All that which God did in the past (and much more) is coming and is almost here!
The coming revival will follow the pattern of the Old Great Awakenings that occurred in America–A Great Awakening is a series of small or large revivals.
This is the key in understanding the coming Great Awakening. This pattern has been used by God for all the Great Awakenings in the past, including those that occurred in America and those that occurred in the Ancient Church.
One key thing in the Great Awakenings of the past was the fact that the revivals were birthed by powerful preaching endowed with the power of the Holy Spirit going forth first as a convicting force to shine light on the sins of the sinners and the state or condition of the saints. We must remember that real revival is birthed into by the fear of God and by prayer, reaps genuine repentance that is confirmed by signs and wonders, is tempered by persecution, and is witnessed also by many genuine conversions.
The Great Awakenings of the Past in America:
First Great Awakening (1734-1760)
Second Great Awakening (1790 [1801]-1840).
Finny part of.
Third Great Awakening (1850-1900).
Fourth Great Awakening (1901-1906).
Pentecostal.
There were many results especially great revivals that brought forth healings and miracles thereafter. 1930′s, 1940s and 1950s.
Caused problems with doctrines.
Fifth Great Awakening (1960-1980).
The pattern of the old Great Awakenings:
Powerful prayer–Prayer coming from God to the believer and the believer speaking out and decreeing what God said.
Power singing of songs or hymns. Sometimes this was omitted, Why? It was found out that long worship services stopped the convicting power of the Holy Spirit upon saints and sinners alike.
A kind of preaching where the power of God was released as the minister spoke through the congregation.
Jesus was focused on; He was their center. It all about Jesus from the beginning to the ending. A few times, preaching in a service was omitted or shortened, but this was not the rule.
The Great Awakenings did not allow them to be Christless revivals, but Christ centered revivals.
The power brought on hard conviction, repentance, healings, miracles and other godly manifestations.
Salvation was not easy; the people experienced salvation in a groaning way so that they would keep it, and most did keep it.
No preaching like this, very little moving of God.
When they focused on signs and wonders alone, the revivals fell into trouble.
Signs and wonders were the end results of the moving of the Holy Spirit in the revivals, not the beginning.
In the Second Great Awakening, John MeGee reported that at Desha’s Greek, “Many thousands of people attended. The mighty power and mercy of God was manifested. The people fell before the Word, like corn before a storm of wind, and many rose form the dust with divine glory shining in their countenance.”
Peter Cartwright wrote about the Second Great Awakening thus:
But there was a Divine unction attended the word preached, and thousands fell under the mighty power of God, and thus the Methodist Episcopal church was planted firmly in this western wilderness, and many glorious signs have followed, and will follow, to the end of time……….I have seen more than a hundred sinners fall like dead men under one powerful sermon, and I have seen and heard more than five hundred Christians all shouting aloud the high praises of God at once; and I will venture to asset that many happy thousands were awakened and converted to God at these camp meetings.”–An 1856 Edition, Autobiography of Peter Cartwright.
When the Second Great Awakening lost sight of the Word of God and the importance of that Word, the manifestations became more and more of Satan and flesh and less and less from God. This was true of the First Great Awakening, the Azusa Street Revival, and the Welsh Revival to just name a few of the Great Awakenings.
In the Second Great Awakening, some of the manifestations that were either of Satan or purely of flesh: Treeing the devil was a bizarre attraction. The individual and even groups usually got down on all fours and barked up the side of a tree. The person was always followed by the crowd, and they shouted and encouraged the actions with “Sic Satan, sic ‘em, sic ‘em.” Another exotic behavior was when women fell to the ground in gross, indecent positions.
Such excesses and counterfeit manifestations have often flooded in particularly towards the end of a true Revival, when the devil has been trying to get in and completely destroy or discredit it.
Page 28, Samuel Blair in the First Great Awakening wrote, “I think there was scarcely a sermon or lecture preached here through that whole summer, but there were manifest evidences of impressions on the hearers; and many times the impressions were very great and general. Several would be overcome and fainting’ others deeply sobbing, hardly able to contain; others crying in a most dolorous manners; many others more silently weeping; and solemn concern appearing in the countenances of many others…..They could generally offer as a comfiture evidence of their being in an unconverted, miserable estate, …when they heard laid down from God’s Word….
One church leader observed, “While the church sleeps, the enemy busily sows tares among the wheat. Nothing short of an outpouring of the Spirit from on high will uproot them, and save our land from becoming prey to atheism and ungodliness.” In response to the conditions around them, Welsh pastors began a season of intense prayer. As they prayed, a small group claimed to experience God’s power in their preaching as they challenged their congregations. Among the group was Pastor Joseph Jenkins, who led a church in New Quay, Cardiganshire.
The motto of the revival in Wales was born out of Roberts’ experience that day: “Bend the church and save the world.”
We must again thirst after the Word and after powerful preaching which will cause the power of God to be released upon the congregations. And we will see the next Great Awakening!