What is Revival?
The following content is adapted from the teaching of Tim Keller.
A Simple, Biblical Vision
Revival is a word Christians use a lot, but few can define clearly. Is it emotional worship? Packed church services? Public confession? Miracles? Long meetings? Drawing from Scripture, church history, and pastoral experience, Tim Keller offered a beautifully simple definition:
Revival is the intensification of the ordinary work of the Holy Spirit.
Not something strange. Not something manufactured. Not something new. Revival is when what the Spirit already does in every believer happens more deeply, more widely, and more powerfully across an entire church or community.
The Holy Spirit’s ordinary work includes:
Convicting of sin
Converting hearts
Assuring believers of God’s love
Producing holiness (sanctification)
When those realities intensify across many people at once, you have revival. And when that happens, certain things always follow.
What Happens When Revival Comes?
1) Sleepy Christians Wake Up
Believers who have been spiritually drifting suddenly feel both deep conviction over sin and deep assurance of God’s love. They are no longer numb. No longer going through the motions. Faith becomes alive, joyful, serious, and personal again.
2) Nominal Christians Are Truly Converted
Churches are often filled with people who assume they are Christians because they attend, serve, or belong. During revival, many of these people realize: “I thought I was a Christian. I never actually understood grace.” They come to genuine faith for the first time.
3) Non-Christians Come to Faith
As believers come alive and the church becomes spiritually vibrant, outsiders notice. People are drawn in not by marketing or programs, but by the unmistakable sense that God is present among His people.
What Are the Marks of a Revived Church?
There have been several consistent signs of revival seen throughout history:
1) The Gospel Is Recovered
Revival almost always begins when a church rediscovers the gospel. This is not moralism (“be good and God will accept you”) and it is not carelessness (“how you live doesn’t matter”). But the true gospel: saved by grace alone, through faith alone — a faith that changes your life.
2) Repentance Becomes Normal
In revival, repentance is not rare or forced. It is ordinary. During the early 1900s revival in Pyongyang (modern North Korea), Christians who had cheated local shop owners went back to confess and repay them. That’s revival fruit.
3) Corporate Worship Feels God-Saturated
This is not emotional hype. It’s something different. As described in 1 Corinthians 14, unbelievers walk into worship and say: “God is truly among you.” There is a weight, seriousness, and awareness of God’s presence.
4) Disciples Multiply
You can have church growth without revival. You cannot have revival without church growth. Because people who are awakened by grace cannot keep quiet about Jesus.
So How Does Revival Usually Begin?
True revival cannot be manufactured. Only God can send the fires of revival. But history shows that certain conditions are often present when revival comes. These are the conditions of building an altar and praying for revival fires from above.
1) Extraordinary Prayer. This is always present. No exceptions. Many historians attribute the roots of the First Great Awakening to a 100-year unbroken prayer vigil by a group of believers called the Moravians.
2) A Fresh Grasp of Justification by Grace. A reawakening to the power of grace has is a common cataylist to ignite spiritual awakenings among individuals and groups.
3) Renewed Individuals. Often revival begins in a few people whose joy, seriousness, and sense of God’s presence spreads to others.
4) Personal Gospel Application. Through conversations, counseling, and small groups where the gospel is applied to real struggles.
5) Faithful Use of Ordinary Means. Preaching, prayer, worship, shepherding — sometimes with creative new approaches God uses for a season (like outdoor preaching for Wesley and Whitefield).
Why This Matters for Our Church
Revival is not about chasing an event.
It is about seeking:
Deeper repentance
Deeper assurance
Clearer gospel preaching
Serious, God-aware worship
Intentional disciple-making
Persistent prayer
When those things intensify across a people, revival is already beginning.
Credit: This article is adapted and simplified from the teaching of Tim Keller on revival, drawing from his reflections on Scripture and church history.
