UNBLOCKING THE WELL OF THE LIVING WORD

Each daily devotional below begins with an excerpt from a transcript of Duncan Campbell telling the story of how the 1949 Hebridean revival began. (1)

The Mystery of Revival

Duncan Campbell said:-

“… But this I can say the moment that happened in the barn, a power was let loose in Barvas that shook the whole of Lewis …I say ‘shook Lewis’…. ‘God stepped down’… the Holy Spirit began to move among the people… and the minister writing about what happened on the following morning said this… “You met God on meadow and moorland… you met Him in the homes of the people… God seemed to be everywhere.. What was that? Revival? Revival? Not an evangelist; not a special effort not anything at all of power; not anything organised on the basis of human endeavour; but an awareness of God that gripped the whole community so much so that work stopped.. What was happening? People were meeting in groups… young men gathering in the field… They were talking about this strange consciousness of God… that had gripped the community… In a matter of days I received a letter inviting me to the island… I was at that time in the midst of a very gracious movement on the Island of Skye; it wasn’t revival, but men and women were coming to Christ and God was glorified in the number of prominent men who found a saviour at that time… but it wasn’t revival.”

John 3:8 ‘The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit.’ Jesus, Himself compared the operations of the Holy Spirit with the ways of the wind. Mark Stibbe says (2) that Spiritual awakenings or revivals, ‘are seasons in which the wind of the Spirit comes upon a community like a tornado’. In the normal course of Church history, the wind blows quietly and a steady stream of people is gently moved to enter the kingdom. A revival, on the other hand, is a sudden, sovereign and supernatural visitation of God. Revival is like the mighty outpourings of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) – a mighty tornado from heaven which sweeps thousands into the kingdom in a very short space of time. A revival is therefore something exceptional and something mysterious. (3) ‘Human beings can no more create, manufacture or orchestrate a revival than they can a tornado. Revivals are first and foremost visitations of the Holy Spirit in which whole communities are impacted with the personality of Jesus Christ. Like tornadoes, revivals come suddenly and powerfully. No one knows where they will start, where they will move to, or how long they will last. Everyone hears their effects – shaken institutions, the wailing of the penitent, cries for mercy and so on. But no one can predict their origin or destination.’ The revival in Wales between 1904 and 1905, was a significant twentieth century awakening. The direction of the wind of the Spirit could not have been predicted. It travelled from South Wales to India, America (Los Angeles) and Korea. This is the mystery of revival. God alone knows where the wind of the Spirit will blow. A revival is born not of the flesh but of the Spirit, and its trajectory is set by the wind of the Spirit, not by the will of man.

Another picture of revival is of a water spout .. a well of water suddenly unblocked and shooting up out of the ground. The Orthodox Church has always understood “The word of God” biblically to mean Jesus Christ. Here are ten characteristics of the revival portrayed in the book of Acts that revealed the presence of Jesus Christ the LIVING WORD being unblocked, in a fresh new way that can be found in the biblical account in the book of Acts.

1. THE PRE-EMINENCE OF JESUS. He was leading his church in the book of Acts. The early church were not following their own plans.

2. HOLINESS…. The Lord took away their lives of Ananias and Sapphira because of a simple lie.

Tom Wright (4)says that Luke in writing the book of Acts was underlining that the early church was now the new temple that was holy. He says that this story is an indication that the people of God were now the temple of the body of Jesus because the holy presence of Jesus was in their midst in this story of Ananias and Sapphira

3.REPENTANCE. We know from Isaiah 49 that God made Jesus’ mouth like a sharpened sword. When Peter got up to preach they were cut to the heart because Jesus the living word of God was in their midst

4 THE WORD OF GOD SPREAD, Acts 6:7, 12:24, 13:49, 18:20 . This phrase comes up four times..the presence of Jesus the Living Word spread throughout the Mediterranean world and Acts tell this story.

5. THE STORY OF GOD (ISRAEL’S STORY), which was interpreted as prefiguring Jesus’ coming as Messiah was told again and again by early apostles, in Acts 2 and Acts 13. The book of Acts is a continuation of this story

6.There was the hallmark of ADVENTUREonthe apostles. They were on an adventure believing in and following Jesus, this was not boring institutional religion.

7 CULTURAL DIVERSITY The membersof the new church that broke out when 3000 people were added on the first day, were intercultural, from many different language groups. Is your local church intercultural?

8 PRAYER AND FASTING . Acts 13:2, 14:23 At key times of setting apart leaders and elders, the early church fasted and prayed. Is fasting part of your lifestyle?

9. SIGNS AND WONDERS The miraculous was another hallmark of the early church and evidence that Jesus was in their midst.

10. THE FEAR OF GOD. Fear is mentioned 17 times in book of Acts primarily as the phrase ‘God-fearing.’ The lack of the fear of the Lord in our midst today is maybe the clearest evidence that we need another move of God.

Lord we long for a sudden, sovereign and supernatural visitation of God. Come, Lord Jesus, and breathe the breath of your Holy Spirit on us again we pray, and unblock the well of the Living Word, that the glorious presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Living Word might be made manifest in our midst once again.

References

(1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXIZOSWvXaE

(2) Mark Stibbe, Revival, 29.

(3) Mark Stibbe, Revival, 31.

(4) N.T Wright, Acts for everyone, Part 1.