Historically, the second primary ingredient to revivals has been repentance on the part of many Christians, on a mass scale. This kind of repentance involves the heart as much as the head. It leads, hopefully, to the change which comes to our spirits when we finally know a deep conviction of sin, whether one or many, followed by both grief over, and forsaking of, such sin.
The term repentance is not a popular one in the 21st Century Church in many parts of the world today. Particularly in the West, our self-centered surrounding society has often infiltrated the Church, and part of that self-centeredness can manifest itself in elevated levels of personal pride. We can bear such pride without even being consciously aware of it and, being the opposite of godly humility, such pride does not exactly lend itself to genuine repentance from sin.
The Word of God tells us to “examine ourselves.” Last week we talked about prayer. Perhaps one of the most effective things we can pray for, individually and corporately, is for the Holy Spirit to show us both our pride and perhaps a “minimizing attitude” towards sin that may lie behind it. If the Spirit answers by gently convicting us that we have been/are doing wrong, we can choose to humble our hearts before God, ask for, and blessedly receive the pardon our Lord bought for us on the cross.
In the past when a spirit of repentance came upon large numbers of people who sought it, revival often followed quickly in that spirit’s footprints. So, it still can be today.
Based on two-thousand years of church history we can confidently say that sincere prayer and deep repentance among large groups of Christians are the two single most prominent markers of coming revival.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 51:17 (ESV)
