Tag: revival

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Revival in 2026?

I remember when, as the pastor of a local congregation, I asked the church to come together for corporate prayer at the start of a new year. We spent time in confession of sin. We committed the ministries of the church to the Lord. We prayed for our nation. We prayed for missionaries around the world. We prayed for unity and love to prevail in our congregational life.

We knelt. There are many postures associated with prayer in the Bible. One of them is kneeling. “For this reason I kneel before the Father,” Paul said in Ephesians 3:14.

Over 100 years ago in Wales a revival movement was begun through prayer. Thousands of people were brought to faith in Christ. The influence of the revival led to moral reform in towns and cities all over the country. Christians who had grown cold and indifferent in their faith became fervent again. They confessed sin and began to seek to please God by living holy lives. Churches were filled with eager worshippers. Newspapers published stories about the progress of the revival.

A young preacher named Evan Roberts had limited education, but he knew how to pray and to lead others to pray. God used him in a significant way to further the spiritual awakening. But chroniclers of the movement are careful to point out that it was not Roberts but the Lord Jesus who was the center of attraction. He knew, and the people knew, that he was not the secret of the success of the revival, but only one of the Lord’s chosen instruments.

If Roberts was invited to preach in a church or town, he said he would come on only one condition: that no announcement would be made as to where he would be speaking. He wanted the people to come to the meetings to meet the Lord Jesus, not just to hear him. And thousands came. Surely it was this kind of humble dependence on the Lord that made room for the Spirit to move. The spiritual awakening spread from Wales throughout England and to other parts of the world.

From this we learn that genuine revival is a supernatural intervention of God in the lives of Christians. It cannot be programmed or scheduled by humans. It produces repentance and confession of sin. It results in instant obedience to the known will of God. It produces changes (uncomfortable corrections) in the lives of God’s people. Revival is not the same thing as evangelism, but when God’s people are revived, many people are converted to Christ.

We cannot, by human means, produce a revival. But we may certainly pray for revival. No nation on earth is in greater need of a spiritual awaking than our own in 2026. What if individual believers began to pray for revival in their own lives? What if these believers gathered a few friends to pray specifically for God to revive them, and their churches? What would happen?

Jesus said he would be present when two or three gathered in his name. Believers would be built up by the “one another” encouragement of others. We would discover there is more than one way to look at an issue and to pray about it. We would benefit from the faith of others as we pray together. United prayer pleases God, especially when it is the prayer, “your will be done.”

Is it God’s will to send a revival in 2026? We may pray for it. The Welsh revival was a revival of prayer. God listens when his children pray.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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“Standing Down” to Pray

Several years ago the secretary of the navy ordered what he called a two-day stand down for the entire United States Navy. There had been too many accidents at naval installations and ships in a short period of time. He instructed that all officers and enlisted personnel spend two days reviewing all procedures and safety policies. An entire military service stopped what it was doing to look inward and evaluate itself.

It might be a good idea if the churches of America would slow down and do the same thing. Many congregations are busy with activities, most of which are well-intentioned. But what if we stopped what we are doing long enough to think deeply, to repent of worldliness, and to pray for the spiritual wellbeing of God’s church?

The church of which I am a member has been doing this. Our pastors have initiated a weekly time for folks to come together for no other purpose than to pray for the health of the church and its witness in our community.

I have been attending church prayer meetings all of my life. It seems that many, if not most of the prayers that are offered have to do with people’s physical ailments. Prayers for health and healing are appropriate. But when I read the prayers of Paul in the New Testament, I notice that they put the emphasis on spiritual, not physical health.

An example is found in Ephesians chapter 3. There is nothing in Paul’s prayer about material prosperity, nothing about physical healing, nothing about earthly success, or deliverance from difficult circumstances. It is a prayer for the church to experience God’s love, power and fulness. When was the last time you were in a prayer meeting when somebody asked God for these things?

Here is an example of how we could be praying for ourselves, and for fellow believers in our churches.

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and upon earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power through his Spirit in your inner being, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled  to the measure of all the fulness of God” (Ephesians 3:14-19).

Strength

Here is a prayer that the church may receive and experience God’s power. This is the strength that comes from the Holy Spirit who lives in the hearts of believers. The prayer that Christ may “dwell” in our hearts is a prayer that he may make himself at home. He is not to be treated as a visitor or a guest, but is to be the master of the house! This is where our spiritual strength comes from.

Stability

Pauls’ prayer mixes agricultural and architectural metaphors. “Rooted” means deeply planted into Christ. “Established” means built solidly on the foundation of Christ. The New English Bible translates this “deep roots and firm foundations.” What a prayer for us to pray for one another!

Knowledge

Once we have been planted and built, the result the Lord desires for us is that we may comprehend, or understand by deep experience a knowledge of Christ’s love. His love is wide enough to encompass people of all nations, long enough to last for eternity, deep enough to save the most hardened sinner, and high enough to bring us to God in heaven.

Fulness

This is a prayer that the church may experience  the fulness of God in Christ by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Surely after the rapture, when we no longer battle besetting sins and human limitations, we shall see Him face to face and live in the fulness of his presence. But this is a prayer for our lives now. This is a prayer for the church’s sanctification and growth toward maturity.

What a bold, audacious prayer! It is worth “standing down” to pray this way. It is an example to us of how we may pray for spiritual health in our churches and for revival in our nation, not to mention the experience of Christ’s love for ourselves and others in all its dimensions.

Pastor Randy Faulkner.