Alongside the revival markers of the sovereignty of God and the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit, the Truth comes to set people free (John 8:31-32). While revival is a renewal of the life and power of God working in His body, the church, it is also often an awakening to lost or forgotten truth about Christ and the gospel. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6) and this becomes diminished along with how we access all the Father has for us when the truth is also diminished. Revival comes to restore truth so we can walk in greater, fuller freedom again.
The truth of the Word is also the anchor in revival that prevents eccentricities and fleshly self-interest from skewing the work of the Spirit. Charles Thompson in "Times of Refreshing: A History of American Revivals" writes: "Preach, therefore, without the Spirit, and it is vain. And for life, movement, guidance of the people, the Spirit without the truth is vain." He also writes that "popular excitement that is not pointed to rest in the doctrines of the cross is only hurtful." Active and effective five-fold ministers can cause the church in revival to "no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ" (Ephesians 4:14-15).
The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17). The cutting away of the things of the flesh and the release of what God's Spirit truly wants to accomplish only happens when Spirit and Truth operate together in unity (Hebrews 4:12). The revival some seek is not the revival God desires. The solution to a church actively promoting the truth without the power of the Spirit is not to have the Spirit without truth. Neither a dull thick sword nor a sharp thin sword are effective. The Spirit and the Word work equally, totally and fully together in producing the revival God desires.
To say there are no restrictions in the Spirit (at least as some would say it) is to deny the character and nature of God. The Truth encompasses that character and nature. All life flows within structure, order and boundaries designed by God. Life can explode on the scene. Many revivals have begun with such an explosion. For that life to remain and grow, it must flow within the bounds of truth. When God spoke into the "formless and void" to bring life and light, He did so with order and boundary (Genesis 1:1-5).
Excited to see a revival soon,
Merril
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