Revival and Personal Revival

Another theme I haven't yet developed here as much as I'd hoped to is about the nature of revival and our need of the Holy Spirit to come in power in these days. I did give a link to SermonIndex where you can hear the sermons from last Fall's Revival Conference, and some of them are very inspiring. http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/viewcat.php?cid=720.

Of course we need the Holy Spirit to come in power in ANY time, and we need Him as individuals whether we have revival or not. I mentioned below, in the post about the woman's head covering, how I recently discovered a very inspiring teacher, Zac Poonen. I can't recommend his writings and sermons enough. This is a page of his books, which can be read online: http://www.cfcindia.com/web/mainpages/bookshelf.php#zac

A famine of hearing the word of the Lord Pt 8

I haven't followed up on the Bible Versions topic as I had hoped to do, especially in giving more references to information so others can track it all down.

Here I'll just link to a talk by Scott Johnson on the New King James Bible:
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=8508220339

In his weekly teachings Johnson mostly reads from various sources on topics that relate to the last days we are living in, to alert the church. You can download the PDF document here,
http://media.sermonaudio.com/mediapdf/8508220339.pdf that he's posted at Sermon Audio on the page alongside the audio button, which gives the material he's reading from, and includes various graphics you need to see for yourself in some cases. The material for this teaching covers the occultic and Catholic source of the triquetra symbol printed at the front of the NKJV(at least older editions of it -- until people started complaining) and many of the changes in the text, most of which are the same as all the new versions, showing that the NKJV is VERY far from just an updating of the KJV.

Listen carefully, the changes are both meaningless useless nuisance changes and changes that change the meaning of the text.

When you become aware of the kinds of changes that were made, you must see that they are designed to obscure and confuse, they are far from clarifying.

This teaching alone ought to demonstrate that the new versions aren't just new translations, let alone mere updatings, they are something diabolical and destructive.

I think Johnson must be right that all the changes from version to version are there because a new one must have sufficient differences from earlier versions in order to qualify for copyright. Which means the motive is money, so it's the money motive that leads them to commit this sin against the church of causing chaos, confusion and disunity.

Precept Ministries' call to weekly revival prayer

I just want to emphasize this move of theirs, as it is just what I've been wanting to see happen, and they are in a position to influence many across the nation to make it happen. Inspired by the Fulton Street prayer meetings of 1857 in New York City, that led to a great revival and the conversion of hundreds of thousands, they are calling for weekly prayer at noon on Thursdays through the election and even to Christmas Day.

UPDATE: I found the exact same instructions for this prayer project through James Dobson's Focus on the Family where it is linked but not attributed.

http://listen.family.org/images/CallToCorporatePrayer.pdf

At least I suppose that means it's getting some wide coverage.

http://www.precept.org/site/PageServer?pagename=gen_PrayerForOurNation

I'll quote most of their page here:

A CALL TO CORPORATE PRAYER ON BEHALF OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

God has laid it upon our hearts to call the people of the United States of America to prayer on behalf of our nation.

In the inspiration and tradition of the Fulton Street Revival of 1857, we are calling for a grassroots movement of prayer around the cities of America for the welfare of this nation. Many believe that with the upcoming presidential election, the future of our country lies in the balance. . . .

Thursday Noon Prayer Meetings through the November Election
In the tradition of the Fulton Street Revival of 1857, we are calling those who fear God to come together for corporate prayer every Thursday at 12 noon for 30 – 60 minutes of prayer in churches and places of business. Ask God to rend the heavens and come down again in His mercy and lovingkindness, to visit this nation and turn our hearts back to a fear of God as He is revealed in His Word, the Holy Bible.

SUGGESTIONS FOR THURSDAY PRAYER MEETINGS

Some have asked for guidelines for these prayer meetings. These are given in light of that request with the prayer that the Lord Himself, by His Spirit, will clearly direct our prayers.

WHEN AND WHERE

We suggest that these prayer meetings take place across our nation:

• Every Thursday at 12 noon to 12:30 or 1 pm beginning on May 1, the National Day of Prayer and continuing at least through the elections or until Thursday, December 25 when we honor the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• In homes, churches and places of business which open their facilities so that people can conveniently gather together for corporate prayer.

BEGINNING AND SUSTAINING CORPORATE PRAYER TIMES

• Prayerfully seek God’s direction as to who you are to approach in beginning these prayer meetings and where they are to be. God has been stirring the hearts of people to pray and there are many pockets of prayer going on already. Remember there is to be no competition—rather a joining in the work of God.
• Once you have a place to hold the meeting, ask God how to spread the word. This could be through church bulletins, public service announcements on radio and television, posters, cards to hand out to others, email and the internet. Finance what God lays on your heart. (Stations and networks across the nation will be carrying radio and television spots calling the nation to prayer.)
• Seek God regarding a moderator who can begin and end the prayer meeting on time and possibly ring a bell after 5 minutes of prayer. Begin and end on time.
• Have slips of paper at the door so those coming to pray will understand what is taking place and the guidelines for this time of prayer.
• Ask God to draw people to these prayer meetings. You pray. God will gather.
• Possibly begin with one hymn or song of worship but no more as the people have come to pray. Be very conscious of time if the prayer meeting is only to last for 30 minutes rather than an hour. Remember it is a time for prayer.
• Read a Scripture that causes the people to focus on God and/or the condition of the United States of America. Some suggestions are:

Isaiah 63:19 – 64:4
Daniel 9:3-19
Ezekiel 14:12-20
Ezekiel 22;
22:1-12 22: 23-31
Ezekiel 9
2 Chronicles 20

• Confess the sins of our nation and cry out to God for mercy. Ask Almighty God to visit our nation in the power of His HOLY Spirit.
• Take your petitions to Him knowing “we do not have because we do not ask” or “we ask and do not receive because we ask with wrong motives – to spend it on our pleasures” rather than to conform to His holiness. (James 4:2-3, NASB)
• Pray that our nation will return to a fear of God, that multitudes will be convicted of their sin and turn to Him that they might live righteously before Him. “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34, NASB)
• Diligently seek God to be merciful to us in the leader He will give us as the President of the United States. Leave politics out of your prayers and remember “It is He [God] who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding.” (Daniel 2:21, NASB)
• Do not become discouraged if few attend the prayer meeting. Continue, persevere in prayer. At the Fulton Street Prayer meeting Jeremiah Calvin Lanphier prayed by himself for the first 30 minutes, when he was joined by one other person. Eventually five more joined him. Only six came to that first prayer meeting, but the Spirit of God grew it until it outgrew the church and they had to open the church down the street.

God will bring His people. You are only responsible for you. Do what God has called you to do and trust God to do the rest. This is a grassroots movement, which means it begins with people just like you who hear God’s call and move in faith’s obedience.

We believe that if God does not move in mercy in answer to our prayers, America will be judged. Corporate prayer, repentance, and the mercy of God are our only hope.

Thank You, Lord, for inspiring Kay Arthur to call for this prayer commitment, and I pray that You will draw many to it and that You will hear from heaven and heal our land.

Again, I'd like to add that repenting on behalf of all the sins of the churches belongs in here somewhere -- since the nation would not be in this situation if the churches had been living up to our call, and maybe some of my suggestions below will also ring a bell for some -- as well as a reminder that some groups could commit to fast as well as pray, and some groups could commit to meet more frequently or at more length also. The revival in the Hebrides came after a few months of prayer meetings by the church elders on two nights a week well into the night. The more prayer, the righter the prayer, the better.

Praise the Lord for this move.

Why we haven't had a great revival

Wondering if God might not want to give us a widespread revival in America, pondering what might be the reasons. (I mean the orthodox churches, the ones who adhere to the true gospel. There is no question why the apostate churches will not see revival, those that deny the supernatural for instance, the virgin birth, those that accept homosexuals as not needing repentance, even as pastors and so on; or the signs-and-wonders enthusiasts of the charismatic movement. They have their own "revivals" and they aren't what I have in mind).

Everything we need to be repenting of in our times of prayer for revival can be a barrier to revival if not repented of. When revival comes in great power, according to most of the descriptions I've read, it comes first in a conviction of sin that puts people into an agony of guilt before pressing them to repentance.

How far can we be from His will and still be blessed by an outpouring of His Holy Spirit? Are there areas of our practice in our Christian lives that need repentance, that could inhibit revival, that most of us are not even aware of?

How much does it matter if a church uses the new versions as opposed to the KJV? Could the uncertain sound of the trumpet (as it were) in the new versions keep Him from blessing a church? (see previous entries on this subject). Well, there have apparently been some local revivals in the last few decades where this wasn't an issue as far as I know, but I'd still like to see us go back to the KJV because the new versions have a shaky foundation and at least the KJV translators were many and they were Godfearing men, and they were NOT deprived of the best texts either.

How much does it matter that women no longer cover our heads in church? I have no doubt now that this is what Paul, and therefore God, wants of us. How much is God willing to overlook? Would it affect how susceptible a revival might be to demonic interference in it? If we want to protect a revival from such interference shouldn't we seek to be as obedient as possible even in the small things? And perhaps the head covering really isn't all that small an issue. Paul's exhortation is so specifically about the head I don't see how anybody can turn it into something else, can say that the covering of the head was merely a cultural symbol of female submissiveness in Paul's day, so that we can freely exchange it for any symbol of femininity in our day. I dunno. It's about the HEAD, people. It's about displaying the male head which is the glory of Christ, and covering the female head which is the glory of man, also her hair which is her own glory, in the presence of God. I dunno, but for the last two millennia women covered their heads in church, and out of church as well, which you can see in paintings of various periods in Europe and America, but interestingly, in pre-Christian Greece and Rome they did not cover their heads, at least not consistently. It seems to have begun with Paul's exhortation.

Related to this, does God mind that women have capitulated to the culture in so many other ways too? That we wear makeup and cut our hair short and so on? How far can we go toward dressing as fashionably as possible or as we can afford? How far can we go in accepting cultural standards, taking them for granted, just because they don't mean the same thing in our culture they would have meant a hundred years or five hundred or a thousand years ago? (Keep in mind that the culture of Europe for the last two millennia was strongly influenced by Christianity, and America until the 20th century as well, but the west today can hardly be said to be so any more).

These are just a couple of "little" things that have been different in the last century by comparison to previous centuries, making me wonder if they may be connected with the lack of a major revival in our time.

Another is the growth of the charismatic movement. They claim many revivals, but a great deal of the phenomena in those events are either fake or demonic. Leonard Ravenhill in many books and sermons strenuously exhorted people to seek revival, but he never saw revival himself in answer to his prayers, and in wondering why not I considered the possibility that his acceptance of some of the charismatic phenomena might be a reason.

Just ponderings.

I hope that Kay Arthur's attempt to get people praying for revival across the country will bear fruit.

Women should cover their heads in church

Last year I did a study of 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, which teaches that women are to cover our heads in church. It involved reading many articles and online books, and hearing many sermons on the subject.

I had never been in a church that teaches that women are to cover our heads, so it was surprising to discover that there are such churches, and surprising also to come to the conclusion myself from my study that it's certainly what that passage requires of us.

Some churches I'd attended simply taught nothing at all on the subject, though various women in different churches understood the required covering to be long hair, basing this on verse 15 of the passage where Paul speaks of long hair as a natural covering to women. (I've reproduced the passage below so you can check this out there).

My church at the time subscribed to the position of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, http://www.cbmw.org/ which holds that the covering required by Paul is to be understood as merely the cultural symbol in Paul's time of female submission to male headship in the church, and since it doesn't have that meaning today we should substitute whatever conveys that meaning in our time. (However, one thing I found out in my study was that it was NOT the cultural symbol of submission they claim it was, and besides seeing this in pictures on Google Image of pre-Christian Greek and Roman male and female dress, all the proof you really need is the fact that Paul is exhorting them at such length to do this. A secondary point is that there is absolutely NOTHING that conveys that symbolic meaning in our time anyway. We have to learn from Paul that covering the head has that meaning TO GOD AND TO THE ANGELS.) Check out Questions 31 and 32 on this page: http://www.cbmw.org/Online-Books/Fifty-Crucial-Questions/Fifty-Crucial-Questions#31

Nevertheless, interestingly, at their website they also offer for online reading a book by Mary Kassian, Women, Creation and the Fall, in which she has a chapter about the meaning of this passage and concludes that it does refer to covering the head and that it applies to us today. http://www.cbmw.org/images/onlinebooks/women_creation_fall.pdf Go to Chapter 9, page 92, about halfway down the PDF document. You can skip to the end of the chapter to find her conclusion that the head covering is still applicable today and that she would "encourage" women to cover their heads in church.

OK, I found I could copy out the quote. Here it is, from page 104 at the very end of the chapter:

In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul exhorts the Corinthian church to adhere to a custom he had taught them: Women were to veil themselves in the public assembly of believers, and men were not. This was a distinctly Christian custom observed out of respect for the principle of headship. The reasons Paul gives for this custom are cross-cultural. They appeal to creation and the laws of nature. This reveals to us how intricately the principle of headship is woven into the created order. Whether one believes that women should veil themselves today (as I would encourage) or that headship could be affirmed by other appropriate forms of dress in our day, the conclusion is the same: The headship principle is so fundamental, so central to the functioning of the local church that it must be be evidenced symbolically in the Christian meeting. Headship is the same principle which underlies marital structure. And this vital doctrine lays foundation for the balance of New Testament teaching on the role of women in the church.

The reason it took me so much time and effort to get to what now seems like a pretty straightforward reading of the passage, is the variety of interpretations held by different branches of the church, and the vehemence with which they are held.

Just recently I discovered a preacher quite new to me whom I appreciate very much, Zac Poonen of Bangalore, India. I'm a bit of a heretic to some branches of the church, particularly the Reformed, in that I'm attracted to the "higher life" teaching, which is often dismissed by them as "mysticism," a word that is badly misused by them in my opinion. That's a whole discussion unto itself, but I mention it because that is Zac Poonen's attraction for me also. In exploring his sermons because of this interest in his basic message, I discovered that he happens to have a teaching on the passage about the head covering and was very happy to find that he agrees with me! And says it wonderfully succinctly: http://downloads2.sermonindex.us/16/SID16538.mp3 (There is no counter on this audio device and he covers the whole chapter, also spending about six minutes at the beginning on the first verse which doesn't apply to this topic, so to get just the part about the head covering see if you can set the pointer about a sixth to a fifth of the way along the track. The message runs about 18 minutes.)

1 Corinthians 11:

2 Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.

3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.

5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.

6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.

7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.

8 For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.

9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.

10 For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.

11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.

12 For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.

13 Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?

14 Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?

15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.

16 But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.

Nationwide weekly prayer for revival? Oh I hope so!

This letter has been going around the internet, a report on well known Bible teacher Kay Arthur's supposed prediction of a coming famine. It's not quite accurate (Kay did not get a direct word from God and distrusts such claims, she arrived at her prediction on the basis of the Bible alone), and at the end I'll also quote a reply from Kay Arthur many bloggers have also been running:

From the Pastor's Pen, Musings from the Senior Pastor of Valley View Church in Louisville, KY From Beth Moore, Published by Pastor Joel on July 7, 2008 at 08:12 am under Revival.

Dear Ones,

On June 27th and 28th I attended a conference in Atlanta called Deeper Still. Internationally known speakers Kay Arthur, Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer were there and I looked forward to a special time of worship and having God convict me of my sins and lead me to areas in my life where I need to change. I have been to similar conferences for years, although none this large and with so many well-known speakers. There were over 20,000women in attendance at the Phillips Arena in Atlanta - they said it was the largest crowd ever.

I had an idea of what to expect from the conference, but nothing prepared me for what actually happened. I feel led to share my experience with family and friends. This is important, so stay with me!

When Kay Arthur took the stage you could just tell that her spirit was heavy and there was a certain "heaviness" in the atmosphere even before she started to speak. She said that she had been literally physically sick to have to bring us this message and right out the gate she said, "We are in grave danger." She said that God had revealed to her that a literal famine is coming to America. Physical, not spiritual. She said that God is moving in judgment against our nation. I know I can't describe this well enough, but the atmosphere was ominous.

Kay is a seasoned speaker and she had to BATTLE to get through her message. She stumbled over scriptures and had an extremely difficult time. At times I was almost expecting her to collapse. At one point she just had to stop and pray. There was no person, myself included, that I could see who did not have tears streaming down their faces. As you may know, Kay Arthur is normally a very confident, composed speaker, but she was literally in a spiritual battle and it was taking place right before my eyes. I have never seen anything like it.

She went on to give 7 things that Christians must do during this time and I am going to give those to you now:

1. Jer 4:3- Break up the fallow ground- return to Me. Repent. Get on your face before God and ask him to break your heart with the things that break His heart.

2. Mourn- Jer. 9:17-18 and Ezekiel 9. It is time to weep because our nation's sin is incredible.

3. Pray- Jer 36:7- Pray fervently, passionately for America.

4. Love God's Word- Jer. 20. You MUST love the Word of God and be in the Word of God. I was particularly convicted here because I know I have not been as deeply in His Word as I need to be. She said we must get serious about this.

5. Love others as Jesus loved them. Jer. 31:3 and John 13:34.

6. Introduce people to Jesus Christ. It's time to get serious about this. This is no time for timidity. Jer 31:31; Jer 33:1-9 and 15 and17.

7. Rest. If you will do these things, then rest in the fact that you have done God's will. She said that it is going to be vitally important for us to get enough physical rest.

She went on to say that God has not given us a spirit of fear and that if we are obedient to Him, we will be protected. She said to read Ezekiel 14 over and over until you understand it. This is what God will do if a country turns against Him. She said that this is going to be a calamity (she used the word calamity in such a way that you knew this is going to be no small thing for our country), and gave many more scripture references, but what I have given you are the main points that she made. I hope you know that I would not have sent this to you if I had not been profoundly affected by it and feel it is of great importance to share it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you will do with this information what you feel led by God to do. Love in Christ Jesus, Beth

I googled for more information on this and found that it isn't quite what Kay Arthur said. A personal reply from her has also been showing up on the blogs, in which she says she didn't receive a direct word from God, she based her prediction on the Bible. This is one blogger's quote but they're all the same: http://steevo.sampasite.com/steevo-s-non-binding-opinion-lea/blog/here-s-something-more-accurate-a.htm

We are ripe for judgment in the form of famine among other things. I've been predicting food shortages as well. If we are aware of the sins of this nation and the judgments God shows us in scripture that He brings against the sins of nations, and have been paying attention to the economic downturns, particularly the disasters to crops in recent months, it's something a Christian can see coming.

I couldn't find Kay Arthur's own site earlier, had something wrong in the search, but finally got it right. Precept International Ministries.

Praise the Lord, she's calling for revival prayer -- refers to the famous Fulton Street prayer meeting that brought revival in the 1800s in New York as a model for a grassroots prayer meeting across the nation!

Oh happy day! Oh our Father in heaven, I hope this is from You. May it spread. May every community however large or small start regular prayer meetings for revival in this nation.

We might as well work from her guidelines so we'll all be on the same page:

http://www.precept.org/site/PageServer?pagename=gen_PrayerForOurNation

On that page they lay out a plan for churches and small groups across the nation to pray on Thursdays at noon for half an hour to an hour through the election.

I'd hope that some communities might want to meet more frequently but it isn't necessary. I'd hope that some groups would have fasting as a part of their prayer day. And I'd also like to add that I think the focus should be predominantly on the condition of the churches, even more than the nation.

As the church goes, so goes the nation.

Judgment begins at the house of God.

It's the church that has been failing the nation. Here let me put in another plug in for the 2007 Revival Conference I linked in my last entry here. Many of the speakers specifically pointed to the church as the reason for the nation's decline. http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/viewcat.php?cid=720.

Also, the doctrinally orthodox churches tend to ignore the churches that misrepresent the gospel to the world, but they claim Christ's name, so we should be publically repenting for their sins as if they were our own as well.

Can we / should we expect revival in our day?

Some say we can't because of the widespread apostasy in the churches, that it's simply not God's will for us at this time. Some say we shouldn't because a revival of the doctrinally weak and experience-driven churches would be a disaster. A. W. Tozer said something along these lines. I've personally feared even to pray for revival because of my experience with the counterfeit revivals that have come down through the charismatic movement, which too many people today identify with revival.

Leonard Ravenhill probably remains the strongest voice for true revival we have, and his books still inspire. Why Revival Tarries is perhaps the most influential. It inspired a young man a few years ago to start a website that is a collection of sermons mostly aimed at revival. I personally have found the 2007 Revival Conference hosted by this site and available on audio on video at the site very inspiring. http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/viewcat.php?cid=720. I don't agree with all the doctrinal positions represented -- some in fact I reject altogether -- and some of the preaching even seemed to me to miss the meaning of the very scripture quoted to support a particular point, but for the most part the preaching strongly calls for reformation of the churches and personal life as foundational to revival and presents a true picture of true revival. And at least in my own personal case I can say this preaching has strengthened me in a way other preaching has not, to the diligent seeking of the Lord He calls us to.

I have to suppose I'd be even more inspired if the speakers were from the Reformed tradition, where the preaching is more reliable, but it seems that, for many reasons, in general the Reformed aren't seeking revival. Some do think we may be having a reformation of sorts with the apparently growing popularity of Reformed doctrine, and this could be the foundation for a genuine revival. I tend to agree with this position. In the late 90s I was very happy to find a Reformed church starting up in my area in a sea of churches of every kind of lamentable doctrinal position. Reformed preaching aims to build us up in the knowledge of scripture and convict us and console us from scripture alone. It typically approaches the Bible book by book and explores each book verse by verse so that its message is fully appreciated. Gradually my local Christian radio http://www.pilgrimradio.com/ has also turned toward Reformed preaching and it's a feast for the hungry Christian who has been wandering in the desert of weak and even false preaching.

Yet I find myself restless again. Something is missing. Dare I say the Holy Spirit is missing? It's a feeling I've had for a very long time. I keep being drawn back to the need for revival. There is nothing in the charismatic churches I could ever want to return to, EXCEPT that they keep alive a sense of the power of the Holy Spirit. However, much of what they impute to the Holy Spirit is false so that looking to them for inspiration is out of the question. On the other hand, in the Reformed context, although the presence and work of the Holy Spirit is certainly desired, solicited, and expected, there seems to be a contentment with the Word preached to a congregation that in my view remains predominantly fleshly. There seems to be an assumption that if the Word is being preached accurately, the Holy Spirit has led it and blesses it. I've come to have my doubts about this. The preaching of the Word itself all too often seems to stay on the level of the letter, rarely reaching the spirit. Sometimes the preaching of one of the "higher life" preachers will be able to convict me through the Holy Spirit of a sin I can recognize, and even give me the strength to face it down, while a similar preaching on the exact same topic from the Reformed camp may not move me, or in fact it depresses and discourages me, because (I've come to think) it is coming from the preacher's own mind rather than his mind as the instrument of the Holy Spirit.

There is also a tendency toward jocularity that jars one out of any spiritual appreciation, at least in my personal experience. All in all there is way too much flesh in the service, despite the strong orthodox preaching, despite the determination to stick to the most spiritual music and so on. Again, I have found that my own struggles to obey have not been strengthened in this environment. Can even the most doctrinally sound preaching be done in the flesh? Alas, I fear it can be. Can the most spiritual music be sung in the flesh? That too. I know there are many sincere and dedicated Christians there, but I do have to say it feels like dead orthodoxy to me.

I do appreciate the point made by Jim Eliff that genuine revival comes as a result of true preaching of the word. http://www.ccwonline.org/prreformation.html

. . . let me make an easily misunderstood statement: Revival, as we commonly understand it, would be ill spent on such doctrinally deficient churches as we find today. This may seem a strange comment to make since I, like many of you, have actually hoped for and preached for revival. But my conviction has to do with the usual, one-sided understanding of revival prevalent in most circles. As A. W. Tozer said, “A revival of the kind of Christianity which we have had in America the last fifty year would be the greatest tragedy of this century, a tragedy which would take the church a hundred years to get over.”

Merely bringing to vibrancy or bringing to life the experience of the believer alone may be extremely useful for dead orthodoxy—orthodox or correct belief without life. But we do not, on the main, have dead orthodoxy today. We have live heterodoxy. Hetero means “other” or “different.” Heterodoxy is divergent or even heretical belief. Reformation is that word we use to speak to the recovery of the correct doctrines and their vigorous application to all of life.

We should not want a revival of experience alone without true reformation.

No, we shouldn't, but there is something odd about Eliff's way of describing revival here. Is it even possible to have true revival in a heterodox or doctrinally deficient church? Would God come to such a church? And what does Eliff mean by "experience?" Is it possible to have an experience of God without a true knowledge of God? But certainly a false revival can come to such churches, so solid discernment is needed. Eliff speaks also of a "flash flood" of Holy Spirit conviction of sin that is short-lived, but this is hardly dangerous -- disappointing no doubt, but not dangerous, compared to a false revival that snares many into demonic deception. (I'm sure the devil can prompt false conviction of sin too, but that's another subject.) But Eliff is certainly right, you can't have true revival without solid preaching.

If we are as close to the very end of the world as I and many others think we are, perhaps we can't hope for a general reformation among the churches. Perhaps those that ARE reformed should be looking for revival, however.

Or perhaps the only solution for those of us who are hungry for revival is to seek personal revival on one's own. This is what I have been doing.