Seeking hope - Must we really co-labor with God to see revival?
(Article by W.A. McKay)
We are apt to regard a revival as a kind of miracle or as some arbitrary manifestation of the Almighty’s power, given in his own time and without any reference to any action of his Church as a preparation for it. There is no use trying to “work up a revival,” we often hear said. “A Revival,” it is urged, “depends upon the sovereign will of God, and we are not to move until there are unmistakable signs that God is about to commence a work of salvation, lest we run before we are sent, and injure the cause of the Church.” All such reasoning is based upon an erroneous conception of the divine method.
Undoubtedly a revival is a work of God, otherwise we need not pray, “O Lord, revive thy work.” But God works through means in the spiritual as in the natural world; and he has ordained that his people shall be co-workers with him in extending his kingdom. They are to plant and to water, in order that he may give increase. It is the Spirit that quickens believers and converts sinners; and the Spirit is given not in any arbitrary manner or without regard to the human will, but in answer to prayer and to render the human agency successful. A revival is thus in an important sense the result of means employed by the Church. If the Church is seeking a revival, she must “awake and put on her strength;” she must stir herself to take hold of God. Isaiah said: “As soon as Zion travailed she brought forth children;” and it is true of the Church today… (more…)