I’ve lived through a revival.

I came to faith in Christ in 1977, during the latter years of what has been called the Jesus Movement. Throughout the seventies, I was aware of something unusual happening in our country. People were describing themselves not just as Christians but as “born-again Christians.” It was the shorthand way people would differentiate themselves from nominal churchgoers.

The events of the past two weeks have brought evangelical faith to the forefront of our American conversation once again. This moment is different from what happened after 9/11, when “God Bless America” began appearing on fast-food marquees. I’ve seen estimates that more than 100 million people watched at least part of the memorial service held Sunday to honor Charlie Kirk’s life. Those who watched heard political messages, to be sure. But they also heard a clear gospel witness from people like Secretary of State Marco Rubio—along with perhaps the most powerful moment of the event, when Charlie’s widow told his presumed killer that she forgives him.

So are we seeing the first wave of the revival we’ve been hoping and praying for in our land?

Is This Revival?

Scrolling through social media, we are seeing posts of self-professed atheists describing a change of heart. People who haven’t been to church in a long time are coming to see what’s going on. That’s certainly one indication of a move of God’s Spirit.

But I think a bigger indicator of revival or awakening is when we start to see formerly complacent, lukewarm Christians reenergized and reinvigorated. It’s when we see Christians joyfully, boldly, and lovingly sharing their faith with family and friends.

Let’s be honest. Most of the time when we talk about the need for a revival in our country, what we mean is that other people need to get right with God. But revival doesn’t begin out there. It begins with us—in the house of God. Revival begins in our hearts, not in their hearts.

Let me give you some definitions of what a revival or an awakening is.

J. I. Packer says it’s “God’s quickening visitation of his people, touching their hearts and deepening his work of grace in their lives.”

Andrew Murray says “A true revival means nothing less than a revolution, casting out the spirit of worldliness, making God’s love triumph in the heart.”

And Martyn Lloyd-Jones says “revival, above everything else, is a glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is the restoration of him to the centre of the life of the Church.”

Sometimes, this experience of revival happens in a single church or a community. And sometimes it happens in a region. Or a country. The impact of a reviving work of God can be felt worldwide.

It is not something that happens gradually, over a period of years. It is something that happens over a period of weeks and months. When it happens, it is disruptive. It brings change, at least for a season.

Here are some of the characteristics of a genuine season of spiritual awakening. People experience: 

  • Rightly placed fear of the Lord.
  • Increased hunger and thirst for God’s Word.
  • A growing desire to live godly, holy lives.
  • Sobriety about the reality of their sin.
  • Desire to turn away from sin.
  • Extended time in prayer.
  • Greater burden for the lost.
  • Willingness to more readily share their faith.
  • Pull to pray for and support the work of world missions.
  • Intense desire to get to church.
  • Relationships reconciled as a result of being quick to repent and quick to forgive.
  • Sacrificial love for and from others.
  • Delight and excitement in worship, sometimes visibly moved.

You may read a list like that and think “There are a lot of things on that list where I fall short. I guess I need to get my spiritual act together . . . start praying more and get to church earlier.”

But that’s not the point.

These hallmarks of a genuine awakening aren’t prescriptive, they are descriptive. These aren’t the things you do to try to bring a revival. These things describe what happens when God’s people are awakened.

Living “Revival Ready”

Revival is a sovereign work of God. We can’t engineer it. We can’t push a button or play a particular hymn slowly or somehow use methods that prompt a revival.

But we can have hearts that are open . . . and seeking . . . and desiring a stirring—a work of revival in our own lives and in the lives of God’s people.

I think there are three things we can do to be living “revival ready” lives.

We can long for revival.
We can live for revival.
We can pray for revival.

We can pray prayers like this one from Habakkuk 3:2:

O LORD, I have heard the report of you,
and your work, O LORD, do I fear.
In the midst of the years revive it;
in the midst of the years make it known;
in wrath remember mercy. (ESV)

We can ask ourselves what might happen if the fruit of the Spirit—love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self control—was so evident in our lives and so undeniably true that it’s what people noticed first about us. 

But the place we have to begin as we think about revival is within our own hearts and lives.

We begin here, with a prayer like this one from Psalm 139:

Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my concerns.
See if there is any offensive way in me;
lead me in the everlasting way. (vv. 23–24)

Does your heart need to be revived? Do you need a fresh work of God’s Spirit in your heart? I have found these diagnostic statements from Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth to be helpful, clarifying, and convicting as I think about whether I need God to stir a fresh love for Jesus in my own heart.

When do we need revival? We need revival . . . 

  • When we don’t love Jesus as we once did.
  • When earthly interests and occupations are more important to us than eternal ones.
  • When we have little or no desire for prayer.
  • When we would rather make money than give money.
  • When our Christianity is joyless and passionless.
  • When we know truth in our heads that we are not practicing in our lives.
  • When we make little effort to witness to the lost.
  • When we have time for sports, recreation, and entertainment, but not for Bible study and prayer.
  • When we do not tremble at the Word of God.
  • When preaching lacks conviction, confrontation, and divine fire and anointing.
  • When we seldom think thoughts of eternity.
  • When God’s people are more concerned about their jobs and their careers than about the kingdom of Christ and the salvation of the lost.
  • When God’s people get together with other believers and the conversation is primarily about the news, weather, and sports, rather than the Lord.
  • When church services are “business as usual.”
  • When believers can be at odds with each other and not feel compelled to pursue reconciliation.
  • When our marriages are coexisting rather than full of the love of Christ.
  • When our children are growing up to adopt worldly values, secular philosophies, and ungodly lifestyles.
  • When sin in the church is pushed under the carpet.
  • When known sin is not dealt with through the biblical process of discipline and restoration.
  • When we tolerate “little” sins of gossip, a critical spirit, and lack of love.
  • When our singing is half-hearted and our worship lifeless.
  • When our prayers are empty words designed to impress others.
  • When our prayers lack fervency.
  • When our hearts are cold and our eyes are dry.
  • When we have ceased to weep and mourn and grieve over our own sin and the sin of others.
  • When we are bored with worship.
  • When people have to be entertained to be drawn to church.
  • When we start fitting into and adapting to the world, rather than calling the world to adapt to God’s standards of holiness.
  • When we don’t long for the company and fellowship of God’s people.
  • When people have to be begged to give and to serve in the church.
  • When our giving is measured and calculated, rather than extravagant and sacrificial.
  • When we aren’t seeing lost people drawn to Jesus on a regular basis.
  • When we aren’t exercising faith and believing God for the impossible.
  • When we are more concerned about what others think about us than what God thinks about us.
  • When we are unmoved by the fact that more than an estimated three billion people in this world have never heard the name of Jesus.
  • When we are unmoved by the thought of neighbors, business associates, and acquaintances who are lost and without Christ.
  • When the lost world around us doesn’t know or care that we exist.
  • When we are making little or no difference in the secular world around us.
  • When the fire has gone out in our hearts, our marriages, and the church.
  • When we are blind to the extent of our need and don’t think we need revival.

O Lord, pour out Your Spirit on our land. Send a deep revival, we pray. And may it begin in each of our hearts today.

One more thing about revival—it never comes apart from the Word of God. Spend next weekend immersed in the wonder of God’s Word with the True Woman ’25 livestream. You’ll hear from Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, Pastor Kevin DeYoung, Jackie Hill Perry, Mary Kassian, Dannah Gresh, Kelly Needham and more during this immersive experience. It’s more than a conference. It’s a watershed moment. Register now.