Revival Conference 2007 - Don Currin Interview — Don Currin

Revival as God's Presence and Refreshing

This is Don Curran, speaker at Revival Conference 2007. Mr. Curran, in your opinion, what is revival?

Well I think that some very simple definitions would be very appropriate here. I know that Duncan Campbell said that revival is the conscious awareness of God's presence. If we're looking for a more biblical definition, it would be times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.

Revival as the Latter Rain and God's Sovereign Timing

It's what James speaks of as the latter rain, and I believe that there are appointed times that God in His sovereignty chooses to pour out His Spirit.

Why North America Lacks Revival

Why do we not see revival today in North America?

Well I think that Leonard Ravenhill probably gave the best answer. He said the reason we're not having revival is because we're content to live without it. North America has too many toys. If we're looking for what I believe to be major impediments to the Spirit of God and revival, I'd have to say that complacency would probably top the list.

Materialism and the Loss of Perceived Need

Also there seems to be an obsession with materialism. We are increased with goods. We have need of nothing, including God. And so consequently, here we are. We're sucking from mud holes, and that's exactly what the prophet Jeremiah warned the people of there in Jeremiah chapter 2.

He says you have committed two abominations. You have hewned out broken cisterns which can hold no water because you have forsaken the Lord God. So what we're doing is we're substituting things, monetary things, carnal things, for Christ, sufficiency of Scriptures, and the need of God.

So I feel like it's because we're just so inundated and so consumed with world and covetousness and materialism, pleasure, that we're not looking to the Lord. We don't really need Him. I would make this comment too.

Losing the Church's First Love

I think just an excellent definition, even as one of the speakers in the conference mentioned in Ephesians chapter 2, the problem with the church of Ephesus is that they had left their first love. And leaving your first love is losing your sense of needing God, and that's where we are today.

We have lost our sense of needing God.

Prayer as the Catalyst for Revival

What is our role as God's people in revival?

Well, I agree with Matthew Henry who said that when God intends extraordinary mercy for His people, He always sets them to pray. And there is no doubt across the board, as we study historical revival, what precipitates a movement of God is that there will be a revival of prayer.

Now where does that begin? Does that begin in people where we stir up ourselves to take hold of God to pray and to seek Him for revival? No, I believe it begins in the heart of God. God moves upon His people through the preaching of His word, perhaps just through an unusual leading, but He's leading us to pray.

And it seemed like, humanly speaking, that's the very catalyst that God uses to spawn these times of revival. I believe it was Dwight O. Moody who said that every great revival, every great movement of God can be traced to a kneeling figure.

So it's in the revival of prayer that I believe that a revival of holiness is birthed.

Persevering in Hope for Future Revival

If you only had one more opportunity, one last chance, to address the church in North America, what would you say?

Well, I would say, do not be weary in well-doing, for in due season you will reap if you faint not. Just because you have prepared for revival in the past, perhaps it was on a local church revival scale, perhaps it was a group of churches that came together, maybe it was just a couple of other brothers that had the same kindred spirit and heart for revival you did, but you had prayed and you had believed and you had prepared yourself for an outpouring of God's spirit.

And God did not choose at that time to send it. Don't let that dampen your hopes for future revival. I remember Roy Heshin made the statement years ago, that a minister in England made the statement that he feared that the hope of revival had died in the long waiting.

And so understand, David said, I would have fainted if I had not believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And just because God has not done it in the past when you've anticipated it or prayed for it, does not mean that He will not do it in the future.

Don't let your lack of expectations being met in the past breed an unbelief that thwarts expectation that God could do it in the future.

Amen. Thank you very much.