TIMES OF REFRESHING

I am highly optimistic that revival is not a phenomenon that belong in the past; I specifically believe that the Church is about to experience the greatest revival in history.  The words which form part of Peter’s sermon at the gate of the Jerusalem Temple, strengthens my conviction on this issue:  “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:  Whom the heaven must receive until the time of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 4:19-21).

The Apostle Peter, looking with prophetic insight across the ages, predicted a situation that began to exist in the church a few centuries after the Apostolic age. If we understood Peter, we should not be discouraged at the weak spiritual condition in which the contemporary church finds herself, in the face of Militant Atheism, secularism, liberalism and sundry enemies of the Christian faith.  The expression employed by Peter, “times of refreshing”, suggests there will be times of declension followed by a large-scale renewal of interest in spiritual things – what the evangelical churches have described as “Revival”, these five hundred years. 

We are familiar with the pattern: spirituality decreases, false converts whose Christianity is merely nominal enter the church in large numbers due to a lack of solid, spirit-empowered preaching, God’s people are forced to introduce human technique of evangelism, such as the church growth movement, and contemporary worship as in our own day, and worse still, a variety of human ideologies arises to compete for peoples hearts, comprehended today in a secular view of reality, such as relativism, and religious pluralism.  This situation encourages me to state that, ‘Times of Refreshing’, is about to burst on the international scene again.

Additionally, Peter’s words suggests that, all the Revivals that have occurred in Church History, have been in the eternal plan of God, so revivals are included in God’s eternal plan: God “…worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Ephesians 1:11).

I am even ready to state that Peter here predicts the Revival we call the Reformation, The 18^th Century Revivals under Wesley, Whitefield, Edward and others, and the 19^th Century Revivals under Finney, Moody, Spurgeon and others!

ANOTHER REVIVAL PREDICTED

On the basis of Peter’s word, the contemporary church is to expect another revival and prepare for it by prayer and fasting; already the usual sign that precedes revival have begun to appear: God’s people have commenced praying again!  The Apostle Peter intends us to understand that Revival will precede the second coming of Christ:  “…when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached to you:” (Acts 3:19-20).

THE MATTHEW 24 REVIVAL

In Matthew 24, our Lord Jesus Christ makes a similar statement:  “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14).  The word ‘witness’ suggests that the preaching will be with power, to the extent that humanity will be impacted, in other words a global revival!

The certainty of this revival, can be demonstrated by considering that the other ‘signs’ of Christ’s second coming, mentioned by the Lord Himself – earthquakes, food shortage, global conflict, widespread lawlessness and immorality, are being fulfilled daily before our very eyes.  Global revival is next on the line!