Revival Rising: Preparing for the Next Great Wave of Awakening

By Mark Nysewander

The history of the church is full of revivals. While these potent movements of the Holy Spirit are not constrained by one location, language, or cultural identity, there are consistencies that help us understand the climate and spiritual posture in which God works at an accelerated pace.

In Revival Rising: Preparing for the Next Great Wave of Awakening, Mark Nysewander explores the dynamics of high-impact revivals, believing that even a limited knowledge of the supernatural realities in a revival can stir us to contend for God’s next wave of power.

This challenging book will undoubtedly inspire you, and might even shock you. Press in, and allow the Spirit to excite you toward another awakening no matter what it looks like. God still speaks through these past waves of power. As you read, you might hear a voice from history calling out, “Will you pray for the next revival until it comes?”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Seedbed
• Release date: Sep 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781628243628

Book preview

REVIVAL RISING

REVIVAL RISING

Preparing for the Next Great Wave of Awakening

MARK NYSEWANDER

Copyright © 2016 by Mark Nysewander

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked RSV are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Cover design by Strange Last Name

Page design by PerfecType, Nashville, Tennessee

Nysewander, Mark.

Revival rising : preparing for the next great wave of awakening / Mark Nysewander. – Frankin, Tennessee : Seedbed Publishing, ©2016.

xi, 132 pages ; 21 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 125-132)

ISBN 9781628243604 (paperback : alk. paper)

ISBN 9781628243611 (Mobi)

ISBN 9781628243628 (ePub)

ISBN 9781628243635 (uPDF)

1. Revivals. 2. Religious awakening--Christianity. 3. Evangelistic work. 4. Church renewal. I. Title.

BV3790 .N97 2016          269/.2          2016951638

SEEDBED PUBLISHING

Franklin, Tennessee

Seedbed.com

To the simple believers across the earth seeking revival.

CONTENTS

Preface: A Word of Caution

1 Revival Power

2 Revival Life

3 Revival Culture

4 Revival Experience

5 Revival Glory

6 Revival Love

7 Revival Humility

8 Revival Witness

9 Revival Freedom

10 Revival Hope

11 Revival Worldview

12 What’s Ahead?

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Notes

PREFACE

A WORD OF CAUTION

Some few . . . experienced the power of God and things too deep to be described.

—FROM THE MUKTI REVIVAL¹

Revival Rising explores the dynamics of high-impact revivals. The above quotation from the Mukti Revival warns of the difficulty in understanding these unusual dynamics. Although it can be challenging, we must try. Even a limited knowledge of the supernatural realities in a revival can stir us to contend for God’s next wave of power.

For that reason, you must read this book with your heart as well as your mind. If the dynamic described in a particular chapter inspires or even shocks you, don’t push back. Instead, allow the Spirit to excite you toward another awakening no matter what it looks like. These dynamics are mined from some past revivals and Paul’s letters to the churches. If you want to know the context of one of the historic revivals mentioned, appendix 1 has a brief description.

Stories and quotations from these older revivals are used not because they are any better than what God might be doing now. Rather, time has proven their lasting fruit. A contemporary move hasn’t had enough time to pass that test. In short, historic revivals are now judged legitimate even though their dynamics may still be hard to accept.

Before you begin, here’s a word of caution: God still speaks through these past waves of power. As you read you might hear a voice from history calling out, Will you pray for the next revival until it comes?

God’s call demands a response. If you hear it, I trust your answer will be a bold, Yes.

Each wave is a revival;

it rushes forward

with impetuous haste and with exultant joy;

it carries everything before it,

and then,

having spent its strength,

recedes,

only to be succeeded by another wave,

and yet another.

To the careless onlooker

it seems as if nothing were gained,

but behind the ebb and flow of wave

is the unconquerable power

of the tide.

—James Burns

Revivals: Their Laws and Leaders²

REVIVAL RISING

AWARENESS OF GOD

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Revival power comes in surprising force. Duncan Campbell travels the Isle of Lewis off the coast of Scotland in 1949, where revival spreads like wildfire. In one town many reject his message that there’s a Savior from sin. Because so few are attending the meeting the team prays throughout the night.

---

I turned to a young man in the meeting and said, I feel led of God to ask you to pray, and that dear man rose to his feet and prayed. . . . He said, Lord, You made a promise, are You going to fulfill it? We believe that You are a covenant-keeping God, will You be true to Your covenant? You have said that You would pour water on the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground . . . and I tell Thee now that I am thirsty, oh, I am thirsty for a manifestation of the man of Thy right hand—and then he said this—Lord, before I sit down, I want to tell You that Your honor is at stake.

. . . Believe it, or disbelieve it—and you can verify this if you like—the house shook like a leaf, the dishes rattled on the sideboard, an elder standing beside me said, Mr. Campbell, an earth tremor. I said, Yes, and I pronounced the benediction immediately and walked out to find the community alive with an awareness of God.¹

1

REVIVAL POWER

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his call, and may fulfill every good resolve and work of faith by his power. . . .

—2 THESSALONIANS 1:11–12 RSV

The Urgent Need

God’s power is essential for daily life, but it can’t stop there. Every generation is called to go after the most forceful display of divine power. Martyn Lloyd-Jones declares, There is no more important subject of the Christian church at this present hour, than this very question of the need of revival . . . it is second to none.²

It’s the most important issue to us because our culture is winding down. Any spiritual energy and order we have is quickly disintegrating. Churches aren’t exempt. Movements that exploded on the scene with God’s power are now fossilizing into institutions.

One pastor describes his condition as clinging to the decaying threads of a past experience. It’s true. We’re all living on the diminishing energy of the previous revival. We can’t go much longer. That former wave has receded.

But James Burns gives us hope, suggesting that even a receding wave is gathering in power and volume to return, and to rush further in.³

Revving up human effort isn’t the way to bring in the next revival. Only a determination to enter God’s gathering power will bring it.

Don’t give up because the wave hasn’t come yet. Instead, examine if you are in the early currents of that coming surge.

Something from the Other World

Even if you’re anxious because everything seems to be winding down, is revival really what you want? Often most of us simply desire a small blessing added to our human efforts. We seek God for a little boost.

But participants in past revivals describe it as anything but a little boost. David Brainerd says, "I