THE HOLY SPIRIT IN A REVIVAL – R. A. TORREY

Two passages of Scripture might well form the watchwords of every true revival, watchwords that should never for a moment be forgotten. The first is a portion of Zech. 4: 6, “Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts’’; the second is, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63). In the conduct of any real revival, the Holy Ghost must occupy the place of supreme and absolute control. Revival is new life, and only the Holy Ghost can impart life.

I. THE HOLY SPIRIT’S PART IN A REVIVAL

Let us look definitely at the Holy Spirit’s part in a revival, or, in other words, at what the Holy Spirit must do if there is to be a true revival.

1. In the first place, the Holy Spirit must inspire us to and guide us in prayer. In regard to the great revival that is to come some day to Israel, God says, “I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of sup­plication.” So also, if there is to be a true revival in any church or community or nation, God must pour out upon them the spirit of grace and of supplication.

The work must begin with Him. We are living in a day when there are many indications that God is doing His part to do this very thing for us. Prayer is the vital breath of a true revival. Prayerless revivals are a sham. But we know not how to pray as we ought, and if there is to be acceptable and effective prayer, the Holy Spirit must help our infirmity and teach us how to pray (Rom. 8: 26, 27). We need to cry to God that He will not only pour out upon us a spirit of grace and of supplication, but that He will also by His Holy Spirit teach us how to pray. Doubtless He is already doing this in a measure, but we need a larger measure.

2. The Holy Spirit must have the superintendency and direction of all the revival activities. It was so in the apostolic church, which was a revival church. The Holy Spirit chose the officers (Acts 20: 28), He directed where His chosen servants were to preach and work (Acts 13: 1-2), He oftentimes directed in a most minute way, and in ways that those directed did not altogether understand (Acts 16:6-8). All the plans for the revival, and all the details of the plans should be sub­mitted to the Holy Spirit for His guidance; He should be the recognized chairman of every committee.

3. The Holy Spirit must give power to the preaching and to the testimony. When Jesus gave to the disciples the great commission to go out and evangelize the world, He said, “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.’’ Paul in writing to the church at Corinth said, “I was with you in weak­ness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wis­dom of men but in the power of God.” Again, in writing to the church in Thessalonica, “Our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.” Whoever does the preaching in the revival, whether it be the pastor or the evangelist, the whole depend­ence for results from the preaching must be upon the Holy Spirit. Whoever testifies, we must look to the Holy Spirit to give power to the testimony. Many a preacher of very small gifts has been mightily used of God because he and the people looked to the Holy Spirit, and many a man of naturally large gifts has accomplished nothing of real and permanent value because the dependence was upon him and not upon the Holy Ghost.

4. The Holy Spirit must convict men of sin. Jesus said in promising the Holy Spirit to the disciples, “and He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin. ” A revival without conviction of sin, deep, pun­gent, overwhelming, is not a true revival. It is true that a great many may be converted and born again with­out the deep and overwhelming conviction of sin that others have. They may come in as quietly as Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened, but when there is a deep and true work of grace, there will be a deep and over­whelming conviction of sin on the part of many. It was so on the day of Pentecost; as Peter preached in the power of the Holy Ghost a loud cry went up from men who were pricked in their heart, “Men and brethren, what must we do to be saved?” There has been similar conviction of sin at every genuine and lasting revival since. This is beginning to be so in the church to-day. From all directions come reports of deep conviction of sin. Now it is the work of the Holy Spirit to convict men of sin, and we must depend upon Him to do it. We must ask Him to do it. We must expect Him to do it. Nothing is more futile than to try to convict men of sin by any unaided powers of reasoning that we may possess. The nat­ural heart is so blind, and especially so blind as to its own condition, that the supernatural grace of the Spirit is necessary to open the eyes of the soul to its real condition. But the Holy Spirit, where depend­ence is placed upon Him, is constantly administering His power to convict even the most careless of sin.

5. The Holy Spirit must regenerate. Revival is new life, and new life to the unsaved comes through regeneration, and it is the Holy Spirit’s work to regenerate. Men are saved not through works of righteousness which they themselves have done, but according to God’s mercy, who saves us by the wash­ing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3: 5). “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’’ If there is to be a mighty revival in any church, min­isters and people must look to the Holy Spirit to regenerate men. He can doit; He is doing it every day where dependence is placed upon Him. He is touching the hearts of men and women, seemingly almost beyond the reach of the grace of God, and quick­ening and transforming them by His almighty power. Let us ask Him and expect Him to do it in our own community. What He did in Saul of Tarsus in Damascus, He can do in many another Saul of Tarsus in Chicago, or in any city or village of the land.

6. The Holy Spirit must sanctify, consecrate and fill. A revival means not only life for those dead in tres­passes and sins, but, furthermore, new life, life more abundant, for those who already have some life. It means complete surrender to God, a setting apart for God, a filling with God, for Christians; and all this is the Holy Spirit’s work. He is the sanctifier and the filler (i Pet. 1:2; Eph. 5: 18). Many are trying to cleanse and fill themselves. No! no! Look to the Spirit to do it for you and for others.

II. HOW TO SECURE THE HOLY SPIRIT’S WORK WITH POWER

We have seen how much depends in a revival on the Holy Spirit’s work, how, in fact, everything depends upon Him. Some one might think, then, that all we have to do is to sit down and wait for the Holy Spirit to work, but this is not so. The Holy Spirit is always willing and anxious to do His work if the proper con­ditions are supplied. It is true that the Holy Spirit, like the wind, bloweth where He willeth, but He always willeth to blow where He can consistently, that is, where certain conditions are supplied. What are these conditions, or, in other words, what must we do to secure the Holy Spirit’s work with power?

1. First of all, we must recognize our need of Him. The Holy Spirit only works with power when men deeply realize their need of Him. In many a so-called revival men feel that they are themselves quite suffi­cient for the work in hand. They think that if they can only have the right plans, and the right machin­ery, and the right advertising, and the right sort of singing and preaching, the desired results will follow. For some years in our country, we have been trying these machine-made revivals, and the result is a sorry and sickening failure. We must feel our utter help­lessness and dependence upon the Holy Ghost. Do we feel that to-day? Much that is said and written about the coming revival would seem to indicate that we do not.

2. In the next place, we must take our eyes off from men. If we get our eyes on any man, or any company of men, the Holy Ghost cannot work. God tells us that He has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty, and the base things of the world, and things which are despised, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are. Then God tells us why He has chosen the foolish things; in order that no flesh should glory in His presence (i Cor. i: 27-29). God will not give His glory to another, and if we get our eyes fixed on any man, God will withhold His power and blessing. “Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie, in the balances they will go up, they are together lighter than vanity.” Power belongs unto God and to Him alone, and if our dependence is upon men of low degree or men of high degree, the almighty power of God will not be manifested.

If we wish the Holy Spirit to do His glorious work, we must keep our eyes fixed upon Him, and Him alone.

3. We must surrender absolutely to the Holy Spirit’s control. We have already said that He must control everything, but we on our part must gladly recognize His right to control, and submit whole-heartedly to it.

God gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey Him (Acts 5: 32). If we would see a mighty work of God’s grace, the deepest longing of our hearts should be that in all our meetings everything about them should be surrendered absolutely to the control of the Holy Spirit. Then shall we see great things.

4. We must pray. If there is anything absolutely clear in the Word of God, in Christian history and in individual experience, it is that the Holy Spirit is given in His fullness in answer to definite prayer (Luke 11: 13). The Holy Spirit was given at Pente­cost after a ten days’ prayer meeting; and if He is to come in mighty power in these days, there must be much private and much united prayer.

5. We must furnish some one for the Spirit to work through, and something for the Spirit to use.

(1). The Holy Spirit works through men. When Cornelius was to be converted, and there was to be a revival in Caesarea, the Holy Spirit did not go directly to Cornelius; He sent Peter, and Peter presented him­self as an agent for the Holy Spirit’s power. So must we do. The Holy Spirit convicts men, but He con­victs them through us. In speaking to His disciples Jesus said, “It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart I will send Him unto you, and when He is come [that is, come unto you] He will convict the world in respect of sin.’’ So it is evident that the Holy Spirit who convicts the world does it through the believer. He comes to the believer and convicts the world through him. Will we now present our­selves to the Holy Spirit as the agent through whom He may do His glorious work any way He chooses? It may be in invitation work, in tract distribution, in per­sonal work, in singing, in preaching, in any way He will. There is a great revival coming. The Holy Spirit wants agents for this work. How many of us are willing to be His agents, absolutely at His dis­posal?

(2). The Holy Spirit not only works through men, but He works through a certain instrumentality, that is, the Word of God (Eph. 6: 17). If the Holy Spirit is to work mightily, we must get the Word of God into our heads and into our hearts and upon our lips. On the day of Pentecost, the Word of God which Peter had been storing in his heart for years, got onto his lips, and a mighty revival followed. In Acts 6: 4 Peter and the rest of the disciples decided to give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. What the result was we read in verse seven, “The Word of God increased and the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great number of priests were obedient to the faith.’*

When any church can be brought to the place where they will recognize their need of the Holy Spirit, and take their eyes off from all men, and surrender abso­lutely to the Holy Spirit’s control, and give themselves to much prayer for His outpouring, and present them­selves as His agents, having stored the Word of God in their heads and hearts, and then look to the Holy Spirit to give it power as it falls from their lips, a mighty revival in the power of the Holy Ghost is inevitable.