Heart Talk For Today

Friday- April 7 2000

A Sure Sign Of Revival

Every revival movement sees an awakening in the individual and in the church environment…of a deep sense of sin. In the intense spiritual light, the sin and guilt of the awakened soul…stand out in terrifying blackness. Not only are the cardinal sins laid bare in all their hideousness, but the convicted see themselves as in a mirror. They see themselves as God sees them. Every fault: every meanness: every deviation from the truth: every act of self-interest, of betrayal, of hypocrisy, confronts them. Their sins drag them to judgment. They cry out in their despair. And awful terror seizes them. Under the pressure of the Holy Spirit they often 'fall to the ground' (a figurative expression, but possible, in fact…not talking about 'slain in the spirit,' which I believe to be…a 'counterfeit' ) with loud cries and tears. The conviction of sin burns them 'like fire.'
Yet this "terror of the Lord," remarkable though it may seem, is not the terror of punishment. It is inspired by a sense of having rebelled against the divine love, of having failed to give glory to God, of having crucified Christ afresh. This is the sin, which, above all others, gives to the awakened soul at such times, its sharpest bitterness.
Under the pressure of this agony of conviction, men openly confess their sins. They go through the long and terrible catalog, hiding nothing. Their one intense longing is to cast their sins for ever from them, and to be brought into reconciliation and to be at peace with God.
"I simple cannot describe the scene," says one who passed through such an experience. "It made one think of the Judgment Day. God had come among us. All knew it, and every heart was open before Him. For myself, I had the most intense realization of the holiness of God, and of my 'uncleaness' in His sight."
In times of revival a like conviction falls upon many in the church environment. A new consciousness of sin is awakened collectively as well as in the individual. Those who have wondered, realize how far they have wandered and how untrue they have been to their Lord…how little glory they have given Him. There passes over them a wave of deep conviction and of shame. They humble themselves in the 'dust' and in deep humility confessing their false witness, their worldly practices, their indifference to the spiritual wants of those around them. Then there follows a time of reformation, when the evil practices which in a time of low ideals they have permitted, are dragged out and condemned. Then turning with joyful heat to spiritual things, they seek by united prayer, by intense zeal, by sublime sacrifice, to bring into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ those who remain without. Fresh life is poured into their hearts.

main page