The Provision of Renewal / Revival

Someone wrote, 'Dear John, I have been unable to sleep since I broke off our engagement. Won't you forgive and forget? Your absence is breaking my heart. I was a fool, nobody can take your place. I love you. All my love, Belinda. P.S. Congratulations on winning this week's lottery.'

Revival is a bit like this, wanting to get back what we’ve lost with God. (And sometimes it’s messy with mixed motives.)

There is little agreement on what renewal, revival and awakening mean. For some these words refer to differing intensities of Holy Spirit impact on individuals, churches and communities. In this study I will look at a few Hebrew words from the Old Testament that are translated as revive, noting God’s provision of revival.

1. Renewal / Revival comes from the Cross of Christ

One of the Hebrew words from the OT for revival is ḥâyâ and it’s found in Hosea 6:2.

Hosea 6:2 (ESV) “After two days he will revive (ḥâyâ) us; on the third day he will raise us up,

that we may live before him.”

Here in Hosea 6:2 ḥâyâ has the meaning “raise up” and “live”. It can also mean revive, make alive, restore, be whole (and the like).

Hâyâ captures something of the richness of revival.

And Hosea 6:2 indicates that revival comes because of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Hosea 6:2 (ESV) “After two days he will revive (ḥâyâ) us; on the third day he will raise us up."

Some merely see “the third day” in this verse as meaning soon. Others also see in it a prophetic hint of the resurrection of Jesus. The Apostle Paul saw “the third day” as “according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor.15:4); and I don’t think it’s mentioned anywhere else in the OT.

Revival comes not because we have been good enough or have prayed and fasted enough, but because Jesus came down to this earth, lived a perfect life for us, took our sins away by is death on the Cross, and then rose again on “the third day”.

I read the following about a Texas farmer who lived in poverty for many years. One day a crew came and tested for oil on his land, found a vast reservoir of oil, and the famer became a very wealthy man. But the oil and the potential wealth had been there available under the ground all though his many years of poverty. When he bought the land he got the mineral rights. But he didn’t know the oil was there.'

Do we know that revival is there and available because Jesus was crucified and then raised “on the third day”?

Various other Scriptures point to the Cross as the provision of revival:

Zechariah 12:10-13:1

John 7:38-39

Acts 2:33

Galatians 3:1-5

Because of the Cross and “the third day”, revival is provided.

2. Renewal / Revival comes through the Word of God

Psalms 119:25 (ESV) “My soul clings to the dust; give me life (ḥâyâ) according to your word!”

Psalm 19:7 (ESV) “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving (šûḇ) the soul.”

šûb, translated “reviving” means ‘to turn back'. It is also translated ‘refresh, rescue, restore, bring back to life’.

The story is told of 'a rich, deaf old man who was fitted with a hearing aid which enabled him to hear again. After a month he returned to the doctor, who asked if his family was pleased that he could hear again. The old man replied, "Oh, I haven’t told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I have changed my will three times this month." '

God doesn’t have hearing problems He doesn’t change His will, which is revealed in His Word.

As we read, trust, feed on, and pray through the Word of God, He releases the promised revival.

3. Renewal / Revival comes when God comes down

This is the heart and essence of revival, the manifest presence of God.

Isaiah 64:1 (ESV) “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence.”

And God comes down when we choose to get down before Him in repentance.

Isaiah 57:15 (ESV) ‘For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive (ḥâyâ) the spirit of the lowly, and to revive (ḥâyâ) the heart of the contrite.”’

Standing proud in, self-righteousness, and lack of repentance is a killer of revival. We don’t even think we need it and we assume we can do it ourselves!

See how pride kept Jesus outside in Revelation 3:17-20.