Over the last 13 years, I have watched as many “revivals” come and go. Most are simply little flash fires that spring up, but have nothing to sustain them. Please, don’t be so quick to label good feelings, intense services, or manifestations of the Holy Spirit as “revival.”

These are just a few of the things that do accompany revival. However, wisdom says it is better to observe, and allow time to prove itself when something springs up, rather than to slap a label on it.

Signs of true revival are obvious: it touches a whole of a body of believers, and they become carriers of God’s life, presence and power. When people are carrying revival, they are continually being challenged by the Holy Spirit and the Word and transformed from glory to glory. The depth of the Word, mixed with the dynamic activity of the Holy Spirit produce a genuine move of God which lasts over more than a few weeks or months.

True revival involves a restoring of the things of the Word of God within the people of God. The power of the Word of God must prevail. And that brings conviction, which, when responded to properly, produces more freedom, more Christ like character, and more commitment.

I’ve heard of pastors who have bragged, “The Holy Spirit was moving so much, that I couldn’t preach the Word of God.” I say, “When the Holy Spirit is moving among your people, that’s the time to preach the Word to them.” That is when they are the most open and enabled to respond to the truth of the Word.