How to Pray for Revival

We often say we’re praying for revival.  But are we?  Is just saying, “Lord, send a revival” actually praying for revival?

First, what is revival?

Stephen Olford defines revival as:

“the sovereign act of God, in which He restores His own backsliding people to repentance, faith and obedience.”

If, as Olford suggests, revival is God restoring His people, who have backslidden, to repentance, faith, and obedience, then perhaps just asking the Lord to send revival isn’t enough.

In 2 Chronicles 7:14, the Lord outlines four conditions necessary for revival.  In order to be revived, we must:

1. humble yourselves;
2. seek My face;
3. pray; and,
4. turn from your wicked ways.

King David, in Psalm 51, models this for us.  When the prophet Nathan confronted David about his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, David humbled himself.  Instead of responding with arrogance or being hard-hearted, David turned to the Lord.  He confessed his sin,  acknowledging that his sin was actually against the Lord Himself.  David admitted that Lord would be justified in however He decided to judge.  He cried out to God, asking Him to cleanse him of his sin and to create a clean heart in him.  David asked the Lord not to take His Holy Spirit from him and to restore the joy of salvation to him.  He also asked the Lord sustain him with a willing heart — he asked the Lord to help him keep a humble heart that seeks the Him and to guard his heart and mind against further sin.

We need to be like David in how we pray for revival.

We need to be like David in how we pray for revival.  God used Nathan to confront David with his sin.  We need to ask the Holy Spirit to search us and reveal any personal sin or corporate sin in us.  We need to be humble once He confronts us with that sin — to turn to the Lord and confess it as sin.  We need to recognize that we deserve whatever discipline or judgment God may decide to give.  We need to ask the Lord for forgiveness and for mercy.  We need to ask Him to cleanse us and to give us clean hearts.  We need to ask Him to send the Holy Spirit to us once again so we can experience the joy of His Presence.  We need to ask the Lord to give us willing hearts that continue to seek Him and to rely on Him for the grace to continue in obedience to His Word.

Let’s make a commitment to really pray for revival.  Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to convict us sin, let’s repent of that sin, let’s allow the Holy Spirit to wash us clean, and let’s rely on the Lord to keep us in His grace.

Revival starts with us!