Biblical Holiness - A Key to the Coming Revival

We are in a time of great need for revival--and there are stirrings in various parts of the nation that are very encouraging. On some college campuses students are repenting of sin and getting right with God. At the International House of Prayer University (IHOPU) in Kansas City, God has recently been pouring out his power and presence in unusual ways. Read about it here. Is a much broader spiritual revival just around the corner?

In order for revival to come, the people of God need to awake out of their slumber and work diligently to see our nation and world changed for Christ. True repentance and faith with a corresponding holy lifestyle will be the engines that propel this coming awakening. But the revival won't break out among us without clean hearts that produce changed behavior. Inner holiness of heart and mind must produce an outer lifestyle of goodness and righteousness that can touch other lives with God's love.
 
This type of full-blown revival occurred a number of times in the life of Israel. It's also happened in many other nations, including our own. This return to biblical holiness is part of a cycle of spiritual awakening that I will lay out below. Notice the progression in the diagram.  In the chart, inner holiness refers to purity in  people's attitudes and motives. Outer holiness refers its display in outward behavior.

Cycle of Spiritual Awakening 

Spiritual State          Holiness             Characteristic

Revival                    Inner & Outer     Freedom

Decline                    Outer only          Legalism

Rebellion                 None                  License

Awakening              Inner man          Liberalism

Revival                    Inner & Outer     Freedom

Notice that in true revival the Church is righteous in heart and lifestyle. In this spiritual state of freedom, the heart is right with God and the outer conduct matches the inner commitment. This is a full-blown awakening with right attitudes and actions. As a revival begins to decline, the first thing to go is the purity of heart. Believers leave their first love and heart faith dies. All that's left of righteousness is the outer behavior learned during the true season of revival. This is the spiritual state of legalism.

As hearts get further from God, even the outer standards of righteousness crumble. Casting off the hypocrisy of legalism, the new generation rebels against any form of righteousness. Now we're in rebellion against God in heart and lifestyle. This spiritual state becomes nothing but license to do anything we choose.

We're now at rock bottom. In desperation, people begin to pray and God begins to awaken his people. As they respond, renewal blossoms in the heart as God restores faith. At the beginning of the awakening, the emphasis on righteousness is clearly that of the heart. If it does not progress further, this spiritual state produces liberalism. Hearts come back to God, but outer conduct still contradicts the principles of his Word.

As the awakening comes back to a state of true revival, rekindled hearts begin applying their faith to every aspect of their outer lives. We're now back to a faith that is working by love--an inner heart purity that shows itself in good works and deeds. We're back to the spiritual state of freedom. If not maintained, decline sets in and the cycle begins to repeat itself.

To understand this cycle better, let's look at a historical example. During the latter years of Charles Finney's life--the late 1850s and 60s--America experienced the Great Revival. Thousands of people turned their hearts back to God. The nation returned to many outer forms of  righteousness in conduct and morals. It was a time of inner and outer righteousness that brought the nation great spiritual freedom. It lasted for many years, even during the trauma of the Civil War.

After the war, the revival ended; people began to stray from their renewed faith. The inner light of many lives began to go out. What was left was the outer righteousness: good conduct, dress, morals, and family life. These things were a restraint on evil in society, but the motive was lost. Over time, the principles simply became a legalistic relic of a former period. After two world wars helped keep the nation from fast decline, the bottom began to drop out. Up rose a generation of young people who looked at the legalistic morals of their parents and grandparents and decided it wasn't real. They were right. It was hypocrisy.

The 1960s brought a full-blown rebellion against all outer forms of morality. With defiant hearts and immoral lifestyles, the hippie generation wallowed in licentiousness, killing the remaining outer vestiges of goodness. By the late sixties and early seventies, God began to pour out his Spirit through the Jesus revolution, the charismatic renewal, and the worldwide Pentecostal revival. As young people gave their hearts back to Christ, the emphasis focused on inner purity. Soon churches saw long-haired, dirty-clothed Jesus-people sitting in their pews. Their hearts were right, but they retained the outer badges of rebellion. This awakening produced youth with a heart love for Jesus--but with a morally liberal lifestyle. And many cried of legalism when anyone talked about outer conduct.

So the awakening didn't grow into a full and true revival. Hearts were touched, but not enough to change a nation. Because of this incomplete cleansing, the nation continued its slide into loose morals and outer unrighteousness via a dull conscience. The revival was still born.

Our world today desperately needs a full-blown awakening of God's Spirit. Economic decline, the demise of the family, and numerous global concerns surround us on every side. In developing countries, poverty is rampant and billions of people live without Christ. In the Western world, the rapid decay of a once-Christian conscience, has left us spiritually and morally bankrupt and economically poised for judgment. The darkness seems to blacker by the day.

Yet, God's light is beginning to shine. In parts of Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim and Asia--people are awakening to the building crescendo of God's assault on the darkness.

What's going to happen in America? Will the light triumph, or the darkness snuff it out? Only God really knows. One thing is certain: There has never been a more critical time for God's people to wake up. It is high time for believers to arise and shine the light of Jesus Christ into every dark area.

That can only take place through an awakening of our hearts and minds. We must be free from sin and clear minded to attack the darkness. We must be passionate in obedience and sensitive to his commands. It's time for another nation-changing revival. It happened before. It can happen again.

It's time to repent and pursue after holiness (Hebrews 12:14). That just might be a key to the coming revival.