Characteristics of Revival — Bill McLeod

Characteristics of True Revival

I'm to speak tonight on the subject of characteristics of revival. I think it's necessary to speak on this, I didn't choose the topic, but I think it's quite necessary to speak on this because of what is passing for revival today.

I know in Winnipeg where I live, there's a certain program that comes on once a week, I watch it sometimes, and I have yet to once hear one message from the Word of God, shouting and dancing, two or three thousand people dancing and waving their hands and hollering and falling on the floor and barking like dogs and stuff, you know, and they think this is genuine revival.

One of the things that bothers me about it is this, they constantly appeal to Wesley and Whitfield saying that they had these kind of manifestations and they believed in them, and they quoted from Arnold Balamore's two books on Whitfield, and I couldn't believe it, I had the books, I looked up their quotation, and in the very next paragraph, in the very next paragraph, you see at the beginning they did think it was from God.

Whitfield came to the conclusion sooner than Wesley did that it was not of God, and John Senech, a preacher in England, a good friend of John Wesley's, begged Wesley to stop countenancing this kind of thing because, he said, it is hurting the cause of revival.

And Wesley and Whitfield, they all quit this kind of thing, as a matter of fact Wesley talked about some of it being nothing more or less than demonism, but when these people talk about Wesley and Whitfield they never mention the next paragraph, and that bothers me.

Conviction of Sin Through the Word and Spirit

Anyway, characteristics of a true revival, I think we should start with conviction of sin, and that comes by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, and sometimes people are persuaded to accept Christ, who has never been convicted of their sin, and they pray the right prayer, supposedly, I sat with a preacher one time at an airport, and a fellow sat next to him, a guy in the Air Force, and I was interested to see how they deal with this because he was known to be a real witness for God, and went something like this, he found out where the boy was from, where he was stationed, what he was doing, how old he was, and then he says, now son, do you mind if I pray a little prayer for you?

And the kid says, no, that's okay, so he prayed a prayer for him, and in the middle of his prayer, now remember, he hadn't said a word about Christ, hadn't said a word about sin, hadn't said a word about salvation, hadn't said nothing of the gospel, and in the middle of his prayer he says, now son, don't you think it would be a neat thing if you just prayed this little prayer, Jesus, come into my heart?

The kid said, yeah, that's okay, pray it, he says, so the kid prays it, and he whacks him in the back and says, hey man, you're saved, you're a child of God! And the kid says, no, that's nonsense, I just fell off the bench, but that kind of thing.

Paul reasoned, he preached to Felix, a king back in those days, and he says, he reasoned of righteousness, and temperance, and judgment to come, and Felix trembled. He trembled, he didn't get saved, but he was certainly, I'm sure, under conviction, because of the preaching of Paul.

And sometimes we're afraid to hurt people's feelings, or to be considered negative, by saying too much about judgment, or hell, or whatever. We forget that the gospel, if you look at it carefully, the context concerning many gospel texts, informs us that the gospel is not just John 3 .16.

It says, therein, that is, in the gospel is revealed the righteousness of God. And then in the next verse, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who hinder the truth by unrighteousness.

This is part of the gospel. Paul said, writing to church in Rome, that God was of power to establish you, he said, according to my gospel. That's part of the gospel, too. And sometimes we give just one little sliver of the gospel, as it were, and forget the rest.

In order to stay popular, I'd rather be popular with God than popular with people. God is described as being the one with whom we have to do. He said, unto me, every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess.

And Paul said, so then, every one of us should give account of himself to God. I say, he's the one with whom we have to do. So it matters a great deal what he thinks. It doesn't really matter what people think.

Let's preach for conviction of sin, whether people like it or not. Otherwise, their profession of faith will not amount to anything. Some of these churches, you know, you have a whole crowd Sunday morning, let's say 500 people, Sunday evening you've got 80, Monday night you've got 40, and that's probably the real church, what you have on Monday night.

All right, conviction of sin. We've seen people under such conviction of sin that they could not drive their car home. One fellow left a meeting, he got into his car, he tried to drive, he couldn't, he couldn't coordinate, the Spirit of God is such a hold of his heart, he could not coordinate to drive the car, he came back from the meeting and begged us to play with him.

Another fellow custodian in a building where I had some meetings, he came to me after one of those meetings, he was a Christian believer, he said, I can't even coordinate to sweep the floor with a broom.

Repentance as the Necessary Response to Sin

The Spirit of God is such a hold of my heart, so we had to play with him, and he met with God. So, conviction of sin. And then, I would say, secondly, would be repentance. I read something the other day, speaking about Clinton Company in Washington, and the article said, everybody is repenting, and nobody's confessing.

You know, it's too bad this happened, it will never happen again, we guarantee that, we don't know how it came about, everybody's repenting, nobody's confessing, I don't think they're repenting either.

What is repentance? Billy Sonny used to say, repentance is not two drops in a handkerchief, he said it's cash on the barrel head. That's a little different way of putting it, but we understand what he meant.

Jesus told a story in Matthew 21 that illustrates repentance in a very clear light. A man said to one of his sons, son, go work today in my vineyard. And he said, I will not. But afterward, he repented and went.

That's simple, right? He changed his mind. And Jesus went on to say, after saying this, he said, John, that's John the Baptist, came unto you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but Republicans and the harlots believed him, and you, when you'd seen it afterward, did not repent that you might believe.

Do you know what that means there, people? You can't believe if you've not repented. Repentance comes first. Paul said in Acts chapter 20 that whenever we're preaching two things, repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

A lot of the preaching there is faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ, but nothing about repentance towards God. And I say again, you can't exercise true faith in Christ if you have not repented. I say 55, let the wicked forsake his way.

That's repentance. And then righteous man has thoughts. Let him return to the Lord. You have mercy upon him, to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. I will not, but afterward, he repented and went.

Regeneration by the Power of God

But that's the order, repentance, and then faith. Another characteristic I think of true revival, of course, would have to be, if a person is a sinner, it would have to be regeneration by the power of God.

John chapter 1, it says that people were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. You can't do it, you can't get it through your family line. No cleric can do it for you.

We're born of God, or we're not born at all. And sometimes we rush people into an experience which is not real, and then nevertheless, because we were in a hurry to put another notch on the barrel of our gun, that we got somebody else saved.

I remember reading Helen Roosevelt, one of her books, back in the 1950s in Africa, and they had a lot of evangelism, a lot of people professed to be saved, none of them seemed to be walking with God. So they got a bunch of men, I think 15 or 20 men, who seemed to be walking with God, and gave them each a responsibility list to follow up these people and to disciple them so they'd walk with God.

And at the end of three years of this program, everybody was backslidden. Including the disciples. And then they realized they needed revival. And they started praying for revival and nothing happened.

They had one extra prayer meeting a month, that didn't do it. They tried one extra one a week, that didn't do it. Finally they got to the place where they decided to have a prayer meeting every night of the year until God came.

And one night, God came. Then hundreds were savingly converted and walked with God, because they were converted by the Spirit of God. Regeneration. The washing of regeneration, Paul wrote about. The washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which is shed in us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Renewal of the Mind and Holiness

Anthropism is a Christian dance renewal. In Romans 12, Paul, as you know, said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, which means before you present your body, you have to deal with your sin.

Holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service or response. And then he says this, and be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove or discover what it means, what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

So for us as Christians, it's a renewal of the mind by the power of God. We're not to be conformed to this world. There's an awful lot of pressure in any culture, but more so perhaps in North America than any other place in the world.

Tremendous pressures on us. They put you in a showcase, you're accredited to your teaching, they soak you with convention through and through. One of the poets said long ago, and it's hard sometimes, but God knew it was this way and would be this way, might get worse.

Simply then, God said, be not conformed to this world. Don't let them push you into their mold. Be a man-made Christian, a man-made Christian worker for the glory of God. Walk with God. When Abraham was about 100 years old, God said, I'm the almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect.

By the way, that perfection in the biblical sense, Jesus explained in the Gospel of Matthew, is perfection in love. Because the illustration he used there when he talked about being perfect, was just the fact that his heavenly Father sent rain in the fields of the unjust, as well as in the field of the just.

Restitution as Evidence of Revival

That's in the context. And so perfection in love, which is certainly possible because the love of God is shed abroad or poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us. Then restitution.

That's another mark. I'm sure, like in crusades sometimes in the last meeting, I might ask a question like this and say, how many people can say that you've had to make some kind of restitution during these meetings?

And sometimes, I say, the hands will go up. About 40 years ago at a Bible camp I was directing back in Canada, a girl about 10, she stole a box that belonged to me. I don't even remember that. She's a missionary in Africa today.

She wrote me a letter a while ago and told me how she stole this box. And she says, it's bothered me ever since. And she asked if I could forgive her. I couldn't even remember the box, you know. But what a sweet thing, you know.

She wanted to make this right. It wasn't very big. I was holding meetings one time and God reminded me that when I was a kid about 7, with two other kids, we used to go into a 5, 10 and 15 cents, we used to have those in Canada.

I don't know about down here. But we'd go into these stores and we had a little plan. Two of us. The first guy would admire the toy and stick it on the edge of the counter. The next guy would accidentally hit it with his elbow and knock it on the floor.

And the third guy would come along and if nobody was looking, he'd pick it up and put it in his pocket or in a bag or whatever. And we got away with a lot of stuff. And God reminded me about this. And I remember I said, hey God, wait a minute.

I was only 7. God said, I want you to make it right. So I wrote a letter and enclosed the check. I thought it would cover the cost. I really had very little idea as to what the cost would actually be.

But I did the best I could. I don't know why he wanted me to do it. But I wrote a letter, enclosed the track, said something about the Lord in the letter. And there's no doubt that somebody on the other end, God had a message for.

And even if he doesn't, if God asks you to make restitution, do it. One fellow told me, he said, you know, I experienced a revival. For six weeks I walked with God and bang, he said, the whole thing blew apart.

I said, so what was it you wouldn't do? And he said, well, I owe a guy 800 bucks and I don't like him, I don't want to pay him. Well, I said, don't you have it? Oh, he said, I've got lots of money. That's not the problem, but I hate this guy.

I said, well, you're going to have to start loving him with a pure heart, fervently, and give him the money back with a little interest. You know, that's what you're going to have to do. And he said, it'll kill me.

And that's what he needed. But restitution, listen, we've known of people, one guy was in some meetings we had and he was wanted in three Canadian provinces and he raped a girl in Ontario. And I don't know what the other charges were, I don't remember.

And he came forward and got saved one night. And immediately he wanted to make everything right. So we had him, we contacted the police and they told us to bring him in, so we did. And he confessed the whole thing there.

And they found the father of the girl he'd raped and he gave his testimony on how he'd been saved the night before. And the dad said, if I'd met you on the street I'd have smashed you in the face. But after listening to what you're telling me about Jesus, we don't want to lay any charges.

And you know, nobody would lay any charges. And he flew back to Bronx, Ontario and picked up his wife. She was living in common along with some guy and had two kids. And he brought his wife and the two kids back to Brown and Manitoba where we were holding meetings and she got saved the next night.

Thank God. But he was willing to go to jail, just to be right with God. I remember a fellow one time in Omaha, Nebraska. He talked with a judge friend of his, told him what he'd been doing and asked what he was looking at.

And he said, you're looking at 12 years in jail. And so he asked us to pray for him, which a number of us did. And he gave himself over to the authorities. What they did, they put in a couple of detectives to check him out and follow him around for a while, see if the guy was clean.

And they followed him around for six months, called him back in. They told him in the meantime, don't ever leave Omaha. If you leave Omaha and we catch you, we'll throw the book at you. So he never left Omaha.

At the end of six months, they called him in and said, you're clean. Walk with your God. You know, those that honor me, God said, I will honor. Those that despise me will be likely esteemed. The restitution is certainly a mark of genuine revival.

Because people cover things up and they can sit on them for years. You almost totally forget about them until the Holy Spirit comes and makes us see them. That's what we need. That's a characteristic, I think, of true revival.

Love, Forgiveness, and the Fruit of the Spirit

And it's certainly love will be. You know, it's a funny thing when it comes to love. Some Christians say, well, you know, I'm not that kind. I say, what do you mean? You mean you're not saved? No, I'm just not that kind, you know.

Well, I say, let's look at 1 Peter 1, verses 21 and on. Seeing you have purified your soul and obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto, in the Greek word there means motion toward. Motion toward what?

Unto unseeing that's a genuine love of the brethren. Seeing that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently, being born again. See, some people say, well, I'm born again maybe after 15 or 20 years because they hear testimonies that affect, you know.

I'll get to the point where I can be emptied of self and filled with the love of God. But according to these verses in 1 Peter 1, it should happen now that you're born again, you're supposed to love one another with a pure heart, fervently.

He's not even talking about a later experience. In 1 Peter 4, 8, have fervent love among yourselves, for love shall cover the multitude of sins. A couple in Canada, he was a doctor, he was a student in our church at the time of the revival, and he and his wife knew the revival truths and walked with God.

They had four children, moved up to a place called Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, and they decided to go to China on holidays, and so they asked her parents if they would look after the kids in their absence, and they did.

And one day, grandma and grandpa took them for a walk, and a drunk teenager ran into them. Grandma died within minutes, and grandpa died a couple of days later. None of the kids were hurt because they were on the ditch side.

They had an awful time finding Blanche and her husband in China, but they got them back and they had a funeral. A son-in-law of mine had a funeral for them. I knew this couple that were killed, I knew them well.

I remember some meetings we had one time, we actually came running down the aisle to get right with God. They were godly people. And Blanche was very, very, very close to her mom and dad. How did she handle it?

As a Christian believer, walking in the light. She found out that the cop, the teenager that was driving the car, he was in jail. So she went to see him, and here's what she did. She introduced herself, she said, you know, you killed my mom and dad, and I love them very much, and I miss them very much, but I just want you to know that I don't hold that against you.

I love you, I forgive you for what you did. And then she explained the gospel to them, and the kids fell on their knees and got saved. There are other Christians that would hate that kid for 20 years.

Rooted and grounded in love. And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. When you think of being filled with the fullness of God, you have to think at the same time of being filled with the love of God.

You can't have the one without the other. It's not a question of having some sign that you're filled with the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, love, suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control.

Prayer and Dependence on God's Promises

As it says in Ephesians chapter 5, the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Characteristics of revival. Prayer, certainly prayer. People have never prayed, some of them that we know are praying an hour a day or two hours a day.

It's unusual. You know George Miller, the famous man of faith and prayer, he said he prayed an hour a day or two hours a day and then he prayed an hour a day with his wife and he said I can never get the work done if I don't pray at least two or four hours a day.

So you would probably say well he couldn't have been a very busy person. Oh yes he was. He had 2 ,000 orphans and he had a staff of between two and three hundred. He had no government help for this institution he ran in the downs at Bristol, England.

He had to pray it all in. He prayed in millions of dollars. He never let people know what his needs were, just God. He ran that thing for years on the streets strict faith principle and God never failed him.

He was an extremely busy person but somehow dear people he managed to read the Bible through 200 times. He read the Bible through 100 times on his knees. He made the time people because he didn't have a longer day than you have.

He didn't have any more hours than you and I have. But he knew how to space them. He knew how to use them. How to use time, redeeming the time because the days were evil and his days were spent to the glory of God.

No wasted time. Prayer. Remember he had a prayer ledger 85 ,000 answers to prayer when he was 85 years of age. He lived I think to be 94 so I don't know what the whole total would eventually be. But he had 30 ,000 prayers that God answered the day he prayed them and 55 ,000 prayers that took longer than a day.

Maybe a month or a year or 10 years or 20 years. He had such a simple faith. The promises meant everything to George Muir. By the way, I don't think, I don't see the book on the table here but you can get it I'm sure in local Christian bookstores.

If you can't, you can get it through the Canadian Revival Fellowship. It's called Delighted in God. It's a new book by the life story of George Muir by a fellow named Starr and it's a tremendously challenging book.

Giving and Generosity in Revival

We need it today and people are doubting the promises of God. And of course giving. Paul was running to the church at Corinth and he referred to the people in Macedonia. He said in a great fight of affliction the abundance of their joy.

And their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. A friend of mine went to Korea South Korea one time and he was to he did some preaching in some churches there and then he asked some of the workers there if it would be okay if he did a series on tithing.

And they said no, no, no, no we don't want you to do that. And he said well don't you believe it's biblical? Well they said it's not that they said these people are so far beyond the tithe we don't want to go back to that.

So although they were in great affliction the abundance of their joy they were filled with joy because they were walking in the light and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.

And in the same chapter when Paul said he that sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly and he that sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully he was talking about giving. Do you know how that ends?

Do you know how sometimes that context ends? He said God is able to make all grace abound towards you that you always having all sufficiency in all things may abound for every good work. What is he saying?

He's saying God is able to give you money to carry on any good work you want to carry on. But people not if there's glue on your fingers. The reason why God doesn't give some of us very little very much is just for the very reason he knows it isn't going to go any further.

You know I think it was Billy Sonny used to say some people put a nickel on the collection plate and then they sing God be with you till we meet again. You know this kind of thing. So giving humility.

Humility Before God

I remember a pastor one time in the crusade. Many people had met with God and they were all I didn't know this but they were going to the pastor and asking his forgiveness because it was very critical of him and this kind of thing.

And finally the message got through to his heart there's got to be something wrong with me. He was a proud person but he humbled himself and went before God and just asked the Lord well God if there's got to be something wrong with me or all these people wouldn't have these things against me.

And God showed him and God woke him. And he went to the Pope the next night and God showed me I'm one of the proudest people in the whole country. He said dear people I don't know how you put up with me all these years.

It was a great time. A great time of blessing. But he humbled himself and the Bible reminds us you know in James chapter 4 draw near to God and he will draw near to you cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded be afflicted and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned to mourning and joy to heaviness humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up.

If we get low down, low down enough, God will lift us up. Do you know what God called us? He called us a pot shirt. Do you know what a pot shirt is? Clay pot. Woe unto him that strives with his maker.

Let the pot shirt strive with the pot shirts of the earth. What is God saying? You're going to strive with somebody. Don't strive with me. Pick out another pot shirt like yourself. Do you know what they use pot shirts for?

Evangelism as the Fruit of Love for God

They use pot shirts for carrying a little bit of water in, sometimes a little bit of dust in them and sometimes to carry fire from one place to another. Just a pot shirt. Humility. I can't cover all the ground that probably ought to be covered here tonight.

These are some of the major things we've noted over the years. We've seen the word of God and things we've noted God doing in the hearts of his.

Children in times of real revival. In Saginaw, Michigan, I had a crusade there years ago. The Baptist Church and the Alliance Church got involved. And later on, about 18 months later, the pastor from the Alliance Church wrote me a letter and he talked about a lady in his congregation and he said that lady was so shy she couldn't stand up before two people and say anything.

He said she met with God in the crusade. He said she's led 100 people to Christ since the crusade. She said she's a dynamo. She didn't read a book on how to do it either, but she had a meeting with God.

And certainly when people love God, they're going to love the souls of men. I remember running an afterglow and a school teacher got up and said you know I'm a Christian and a school teacher. I don't think I love him because I never talk about him.

Could you people pray for me? And he got up and went back to his seat and another fellow got up and said I'm just like him. He said I'm a school teacher too and I'm a Christian but I never talk about Jesus to anybody and I sing that song too.

He said but would you pray for me? And his wife got up and said I'm just like my husband. Can you pray for me? And he and went his seat and another up and said I'm a about Jesus song too. He said for me?

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About Jesus. Can you And his all things all things work together for good for them that love God. Because we're called according to God's eternal purpose. As we pray for revival, let's not think in terms of some big demonstration.

Let God do it in any way he wants to do it. A healthy exercise is to know as much about historical revival as you possibly can. You'll find that God is constantly working in different ways. The 1858 revival, and Edwin Orr considered it to be, and I think he was right, the greatest revival that we've ever known, and the cleanest.

There was absolutely no bizarre manifestations of any kind in that revival, and that's one of the reasons why a certain section of evangelicals today never refer to the 1858 revival, because it doesn't suit their purpose.

There were 50 ,000 converts a week during that revival, and at that time, the United States of America had the same population that Canada has now, about 30 million people. Can you imagine what it would be like if that happened again today?

I mean, 50 ,000 converts a week? Because the Spirit of God was working, people had been praying. It didn't just happen suddenly without any introduction all over America. People were praying for revival, and God answered, and I would say, let's keep praying today.

Let's pray for God to demonstrate himself, his love, his grace, his mercy, his power, in any way he chooses. Then we'll give glory to the God of heaven, which is really all we can do. I've often thought to myself, you know, if I am less than nothing, why does God even bother with me?

And yet, in spite of the fact that in relation to God, we're less than nothing, we're important to God. In all their affliction, he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence went with them. And I know that God's supreme purpose in drawing us to himself is that we might have fellowship together.

Fellowship With God Through Christ

And I close with a verse, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, God is faithful by whom you are called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. That which we have seen and heard, we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us.

And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Let's pray.