Revival and Spiritual Awakening Requires Prayer and Evangelism

We are wrapping up our Revival Boot Camp this week. Tomorrow I will post a summary of the Gospel Message used during the Great Awakenings.

There is much prayer going on in America and around the world for revival and spiritual awakening. People are praying for God to pour out His spirit in the last days. Prayer is required as a prelude for revival, but it is not enough. No revival has ever occurred with just prayer. In order for the Lord to pour out His spirit, there must be an anointed preacher or evangelist preaching the revival message. This message includes the use of the law and the gospel message.

Revival preachers during the Great Awakenings would use the law or the 10 commandments to break up the stony ground hearts of the listeners. After the crowd was under deep conviction, the evangelist would then present the gospel message. If you present the gospel message to a crowd full of hardened hearts, the message is foolishness to them. However, when you present the gospel to a heart that has been properly prepared, the sinners will repent.

Read Acts 1:14 and Acts 2, to see what happened in the first revival meeting of the early church. In Acts 1:14, the disciples and the women were continually devoting themselves to prayer. Notice they formed a prayer group rather than praying alone. In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit is given. Then in Acts 2:14, the Spirit-filled Peter begins to preach a sermon. We took a close look at this sermon in my post “How Did Peter Preach the Gospel Message?”. In his message, he was specific about sin, told the crowed to repent and presented the gospel message, which can be found in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8. Tomorrow I will summarize this gospel message.

As a result of his sermon 3000 souls were saved. This simple formula has worked for all Great Awakenings. We need dedicated prayer groups who will pray until revival comes. We need Spirit-filled pastors, evangelists and lay people who will preach/teach the revival message. Until this happens, revival will not come to America. To learn how to be Spirit-filled see my posts on “4 Steps to Being Filled With the Holy Spirit”.

Please pray that the Lord will raise up fearless prayer warriors, pastors and evangelists.