The Five W S of Revival — E.A. Johnston

The Five W’s of Revival in Psalm 68

Turn in your Bibles, friends, to Psalms 68. For in Psalms 68, it's a great revival psalm, for in it we find the who, what, where, why and when of revival, also known as the five W's of revival. Well, let's look at our text.

Here now is the Word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His Holy Word. Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance when it was weary.

Revival as Plentiful Rain for a Spiritually Dry Church

I will pause there, friends. The five W's are the fundamental information-gathering tools of journalism, who, what, where, why and when. These methods of inquiry are also used strategically to do problem-solving, first to find the root of a problem and then find a solution.

Well, let's apply these five tools to our text today and see what we come up with. First, we must determine the subject. The subject central to this verse is rain. We must ask the first question, what?

What kind of rain? Our text says a plentiful rain or an abundant rain, like a strong rain shower in the spring that completely soaks the ground with life-giving moisture. Revival is often referred to as rain falling, falling in effusions.

We hear the term where God has sent plentiful effusions of grace upon his people in revival. So the sense here is of a need. The people, the land, is thirsty and there is a need for rain. The pre-existing conditions of revival are an interesting study in themselves, friends.

When does the church need revival? Obviously, when things are dry, dry spiritually, when the church is in a backslidden state and away from God, when the people of God are in a sad spiritual declension, then there is a great need for revival, a need for a plentiful rain from heaven, from above.

God Alone Sends Revival

Now that we've answered the what, let's determine the who. The who of this verse. Who is it that sends the rain? Man or God? Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain. God is a sovereign agent in revival.

Man cannot produce revival, no matter what our friend Charles Finney says. Only a sovereign God can send revival to his church. Only God can send spiritual awakening in the land. We must get this straight in our minds, friends, and in our theology.

If we have any hope of seeing revival in our day, well, let's investigate the where of our questioning. Where did God send the plentiful rain? Clearly, in the text it states that he sent it to his people, not to the world, but to his people Israel, his inheritance he refers to them.

Revival’s Purpose and Timing

The rain is for their benefit. It's specifically for them. Well, we must ask the next question, why? Why did God send it? It tells us the answer in our text. To confirm thine inheritance, in other words, friends, to let them know he cared about their every need.

They are his children under his care. He confirms this by the action of a plentiful rain that he sends to them. Well, let us now inquire the fifth question of reasoning here, when? When did he send his people this rain?

When they needed it the most. Their throats were parched. Their lips were dry. Their hearts were weary. God in our text declares that he sent the rain to them in a quote, when it was weary. Let me ask you, friend, are you weary today?

Spiritual Weariness Amid Social Degeneracy

Are you beat up as a Christian living in the land of Sodom, like righteous Lot was weary of the sins so prevalent around him, like the apostle Peter writes of him, and deliver just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.

Lot could hear the Sodomites in the gate of the city gloat over their recent sexual conquests. He had to listen to their disgusting conversations between them. He even saw them raping one another in alleyways in broad daylight.

His soul cringed, and he was vexed over such perversion and abomination. Our society today is filthy with perversion and sex, and it's obsessed with nudity. Starlets and harlots wear naked dresses that aren't dresses at all, but just an excuse to go out in public naked.

Back when America had a fear of God in the land, that kind of behavior would have resulted in immediately being arrested for public indecency. But now it's commonplace in society to go around naked, and Christians just have to learn to live with it.

It seems that amidst all this degeneracy in society, where there's no longer any moral compass in the land, there's also no authority in the church. The church seems powerless to do anything about it.

The Church’s Need for Awakening and Holiness

Unfortunately, the modern church is fast asleep on her pillows of conformity and compromise. And it is because of the sad spiritual condition of the people of God that we desperately need revival today, friends.

Oh, how we need a plentiful rain from heaven to awaken us from our slumber and refresh us spiritually so we once again can engage with the enemy and push back the darkness in our communities. When God shows up in revival, sin runs for the shadows like a rat in the basement when you turn the light on.

The Manifest Presence of God in Revival

We've explored the five W's today of revival in our text, but look, friends, at the preceding verse in Psalm 68. Look at verse 8. Let's read it now, for in it we find the person of revival. The earth shook.

The heavens also dropped at the presence of God. Even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. I will stop there, friends. Oh, my, how wonderful it would be if some of our pulpits today would shake and smoke like Sinai altogether on a smoke where God shows up in authority again, where preachers can preach with authority from on high and actually influence society instead of blend in with it.

The manifest presence of God in revival is what the church in America needs today. The manifest presence of God in revival is what the church in Great Britain needs today. So does the church in Australia, in Canada, in Africa, in India, in China, in South America, and everywhere else where the people of God are weary, where they need some refreshment from above.

Revival Begins with the People of God

We need desperately, friends, a plentiful rain today to wash away all the filth of society and invigorate the church to stand her ground, to push back the darkness in the land once again from a newfound fear of God and in the power of God.

Why? Because our young people today, they're godless. They're going to hell all around us, and the church can't even reach them anymore. We don't even have a powerful gospel for them anymore. We've watered it down so much, it doesn't even have the power to save a flea.

Oh, friends, we need a spiritual awakening in the land that will shake this nation with a God consciousness from coast to coast. But it begins, it begins where? It begins with the people of God. Let us search our own hearts as we pray.