Revival in Canada

Can We Expect Another Move of God?

For me, the week between Christmas and New Year is a very special time. It’s a time when I decompress, rest in indulgent ways (like a 2 hour nap on Boxing day), clean out my desk, go for long walks, and listen to God. I intentionally don’t book anything social or plan to do any work, I need time to rest and listen in a deeper way than I generally have time for.

That week at the end of 2022, God met me, filling the quiet, restful, space with a fresh vision of revival in Canada.

He began by speaking to me in prayer, as I saw images of unlikely churches experiencing an awakening and renewal of the Holy Spirit- all over Canada. Their faithfulness led to being trusted with heavenly treasures. Prophecy flowed with heart-piercing, heart-healing accuracy, young adults flocked in, not for entertainment or the cool factor, but because of the intensity of God's presence. I saw in my spirit, images of churches growing in extraordinary ways, yet not to the point of chaos, certainly stretching—but not beyond their capacity for discipleship. What a hopeful vision!

Then the Lord began reminding me of what has been in Canada. As I started cleaning out my desk, ruthlessly getting rid of clutter, and filling the recycling box to overflowing, I came across some miss-filed articles about Henry Alline (Canada’s first revivalist, circa 1778). I pondered the deep devotion of his life, brought about by a Paul-like encounter with Jesus. His devotion overflowed into his preaching, hymn writing, and church planting. He had seen Jesus and his “soul had been melted down by His love”.¹ 

I then found the bulletin from Pastor Bob Birch’s funeral and began to remember how this simple, holy, man, pastoring a nondescript Reformed Episcopalian Church, encountered the Holy Spirit under the ministry of Denis Bennett and ended up hosting much of the Jesus Movement on Canada’s west coast.

Then, on a social media feed, comments by Wheaton professor Ed Stetzer popped up. He reflected that 2022 bore an uncanny resemblance to 1968, the year that the Jesus Movement began to emerge in California, and next month, a film documenting that move of God was being released.² Hmmm…

Breadcrumbs that point to a stirring? Have you considered recommitting to pray for revival in 2023?

How does that question hit you?

ASCENDING THE MOUNTAIN

I’ve discovered over the years, that God rarely leads us in straight, linear paths— we are not on a journey from point A to point B and then on to point C. Rather, He actually leads us in circles, as if we were spiraling around a mountain, climbing higher all the time, revisiting the same vistas we’ve seen before, the same priorities, even reconnected relationships— but from a higher, more mature, elevations. Think about the “full circle” moments in your life. Think about the way that Bethel or Jerusalem become revisited with layer upon layer of God’s story added. Circles, revisited vistas.

Perhaps you have prayed for revival passionately in past seasons, but more recently you’ve moved on to different primary focuses, just like that path circling around the mountain shows you new sights. Perhaps you’ve been in a different place, looking at different vistas so that even the thought of praying for revival feels forced and out of sync with where the grace is in your life. However, it might just be that the revival vista is right around the corner and there is now a familiar stirring in your heart. Could the Lord be wooing you to pray for revival once again?

THE BAGGAGE OF REVIVAL PRAYER

As we consider this, it means we need to come to terms with the reality that prayer for revival has gotten muddy, confused with other things, and in recent years it’s picked up quite a lot of baggage.

• For some, there’s an assumption that by “revival” we mean a resurgence of the Toronto Blessing-type move of the Spirit, where the goal would be to “get blasted in the Spirit” and see supernatural activity. I love this, don’t you? But that’s not enough. So when these ones pray for revival that’s what they envision, but most other intercessors have a vision of deep repentance, restoration of holiness, the fear of God, and widespread salvations. This stark difference in what we mean by “revival”  means that we start pulling in different directions, creating confusion and strife as we try to pray together.
  

• For others, prayer for revival is understood as travail and “paying the price” with agonizing, intense, prayer for the lost and grief over the lack of holiness in the Church. Emotion, grief, and tears become the metric rather than faith and dependence on the Spirit which we use to determine if prayer was fruitful or anointed. However, many intercessors would be uncomfortable with this expectation, concerned with the works and striving that this posture can foster. Is revival entirely dependent on us wanting it badly enough? Where does God’s sovereignty fit in? Again, these different assumptions and approaches can leave us divided in the prayer room.

• A third group might be those who see revival as a stepping stone to the “greater goal” of reformation/ transformation, and reformation is typically code for Christians being strategically placed in federal politics and government, for the election campaign of Christian MP’s being blessed, and for laws reflecting biblical values to be passed. While Christian influence in politics is generally a good thing, setting that as our prayer goal— above the priority of the Church being genuinely revived— is not a biblical perspective. It reveals that we have a tragically low vision of the Church, perhaps seeing her only as a means to the end of the comfort of a more culturally Christian nation.

I’ve only listed a few ways that we divide, but there are others. It’s no wonder that many have shifted away from corporately praying for revival. Revival prayer has become splintered with so many different meanings and expectations. We need a greater vision, a higher vision, to reunite us.

I’m not an expert on revival, even though I’ve studied it, written three books on it, traveled to revival sites, and prayed for national revival for over 40 years. I’m not an expert because nobody really is. There is always an element of mystery and mercy in revival that defies a formulaic approach. You can’t predict revival, you can’t make a revival happen, you can’t fast or pray your way into a revival. God is in charge, He comes near when He chooses to, in His wisdom and kindness. So who can say, “these are the sure steps to revival”, or even “these are the keys to revival”? Certainly, there are common elements, such as prayer, brokenness, humility, and repentance. But there are many times when these things are present,  and still, even small regional revivals don’t happen. It’s not a formula, or a transaction, revival is a mercy.

Yes, absolutely,  prayer is vital, but who can say which comes first?

Does God move because of prayer or does prayer awaken because God is moving? I believe that God, in His grace, provokes prayer. He woos us to prayer so that we can partner with Him in what He’s doing (Rom 8:26,27, Jn 17:24).

WHAT THEN IS REVIVAL?

Revival is primarily Jesus— in His blazing beauty and goodness—revealed to a generation who has never truly seen Him, or if they have, their vision has faded and grown dim like the eyes of Eli (1Sam 3:2).

Then the result of seeing Him, of Him drawing near, takes the collective breath of a generation away— in a gasp of wonder and worship.

A group of people seeing Jesus, without the dimness of our spiritual cataracts, can result in hundreds of thousands of salvations, restored marriages, powerful, miraculous deliverances from dark lifestyles, and an insatiable passion for worship, for prayer, for the scriptures. It revitalizes the corporate life of the Church, with renewed love, sacrifice, reconciliation, healing, and evangelism. We then start to mirror Jesus to the world around us and start to be identified as a city set upon a hill.     

REVIVAL AS MERCY

I read the Bible through every year and last year as I was reading Lamentations, I was  struggling a bit with the bleakness of the opening chapters. It’s a book that was historically read by the Jewish community on the 9th of Av, the day of Jerusalem’s destruction to remember and mourn. It’s often read by the Church during Lent. There’s a lot of imagery to lead us into lament, just like we see by looking at the troubles in our nation today.

But then I came to the centre of the book, Lam 3:21-24. 

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

‘The Lord is my portion’, says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’”

Familiar words, words many of us have sung and memorized. But did you notice how frequently Jeremiah tells us that the mercies of God are renewed?

Every morning.

God chooses to give us mercy every day, day in and day out, when we’re doing great, and also when we’re falling behind, doubting, and stumbling.

Now extrapolate this truth about God’s daily, intentional choice of mercy, a choice that wonderfully reveals His character— extrapolate this into the idea of revival. Revival, such a glorious expression of mercy that falls like rain on the “just and the unjust”(Mt 5:45). A visitation of mercy that sweeps the undeserving and the faithful alike, into a life-changing revelation and encounter with Jesus.

Could we imagine this same, attentive, purposeful, merciful God, for decades not ever drawing near, but rather abandoning an entire generation as it spiraled into greater and greater darkness?

This generation has not had a strong witness of the gospel, either from the pulpits or the lifestyles of those who claim to be Christians. We’ve been in a time of our nation shifting into a post-Christian worldview, and that has caused many Christians to react in fear or anger. In many settings, we’ve taken our collective eyes off of Christ as the centre of the Church and put ourselves and our lifestyle success as our idols. We’ve divided badly and publicly over covid measures and politics. A whole generation is deconstructing their faith and high-profile leaders have recently been exposed as having lived double lives. We can’t brush off these body blows, but neither should they cause us to lose hope. We have a God of mercy, who draws near and reveals himself when we need Him the most.

For Your mercy reaches unto the heavens, And Your truth unto the clouds. Ps 57:10

For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; Ps 103:11

And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. Lu 1:50

The mercy we need is the mercy of Jesus revealed.

There are hopeful breadcrumbs that are signs that the Lord is renewing an invitation to pray for revival in this hour. Could we unite our hearts, and together, fix our eyes on Jesus — setting all our faith in His mercy rather than our ability to make something happen?  Perhaps this year, as Ed Stetzer muses, the move of God we’ve all longed for will begin to emerge.

Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he has mercy upon us. Ps 123:2

1. Excerpt from Henry Alline’s journal as cited in Canadian Mantles of Revival

2. https://jesusrevolution.movie