by Jennifer A. Miskov, Ph.D.
One of the best things about teaching a class on the History of Revivals this past semester at Vanguard University is that I got to explore more revivals throughout history than I had previously done. I also got to do it together with fresh minds who were eager and hungry to learn and process together. The following is one thing I learned during this journey of exploring the History of Revivals with my students at Vanguard.
What I learned by teaching History of Revivals class
1. God can move freely outside of and even within, tight structures
In the diametrically opposite structures of these revivals, the one constant was that space was created for the spontaneous moving of the Holy Spirit.
Case Study: Revival of 1857-59
Before I taught History of Revivals class at Vanguard University, I believed that there was one constant in revivals that was important to keep in mind when positioning for and stewarding revival in our day. Because I have spent so much of my time and heart focusing on two of my favorite revivals, The Welsh Revival and the Azusa Street Revival, I previously made the assumption that one mark of revival is that
“Time is irrelevant when God shows up.”
The meetings in the Welsh Revival had no start or stop time. At Azusa Street, there were continuous meetings around the clock. God moved in a significant way in both of these movements and in a similar way in many other revivals. Eye witness of the Azusa Street Revival Frank Bartleman, described the meetings like this:
The services ran almost continuously. Seeking souls could be found under the power almost any hour, night and day. The place was never closed nor empty. The people came to meet God. He was always there. Hence a continuous meeting. The meeting did not depend on the human leader. God’s presence became more and more wonderful. In that old building, with its low rafters and bare floors, God took strong men and women to pieces, and put them together again, for His glory. It was a tremendous overhauling process. Pride and self-assertion, self-importance and self-esteem, could not survive there. The religious ego preached its own funeral sermon quickly.[1]
The Lord wrought very deeply. Several were under the power all night on one occasion. There was no closing at 9 o’clock sharp, as the preachers must do today in order to keep the people. We wanted God in those days. We did not have a thousand other things we wanted before Him.[2]
When it was time to teach on the Business Prayer Meeting Revival of 1857-59 that happened in New York, it messed up my theory based off of the Welsh and Azusa Street revivals. I thought God really liked to move in revival when there were no constraints placed upon time. As we studied this revival, we noticed that there was strictly one hour set apart for businessmen to gather together during their lunch break to pray. There was a clear start and stop. And the crazy thing was that even in this tight structure, God moved and spread revival throughout the land all in the model of a one hour lunch break prayer meeting model. As we continued to dive deep into studying revivals and looking at each uniquely while seeing the broader scope as well, I struggled with this one hour reality.
I had spent so much of my own efforts trying to break this box. When I stewarded our meetings at Destiny House every Friday, I made it a core value to not have a set stop or end time but just finish whenever the Holy Spirit was done. That was the one day a week where I didn’t want to put a time constraint on God or box Him in in anyway. I modeled our meetings after the similar core values found within the Welsh Revival.
The Revival of 1857-59 didn’t fit nicely into any of my previous paradigms. But then in the midst of teaching this class and processing with the students, I realized that there was a similar pattern between this revival and the Welsh and Azusa Street revivals.
Even though their structures looked very different, the constant theme in each of these and others was that in however long or short the time was, they all made space for the Holy Spirit to move freely and spontaneously through whomever He chose. While the Businessmen’s Prayer Revival had a time limit of one hour, within that time, there was a priority to make space for the Holy Spirit to move through whomever felt a burden from the Lord. There was protected space and invitation for each person to bring something to the table and have a voice. Each was encouraged and invited to pray however they felt led by the Spirit. There was no platform. It was an even stage where each member of the Body of Christ could “play.”
While there are many patterns and insights we can learn from revival history, we can’t necessarily imitate previous revivals to get the same results. We can learn from history in how to better steward revival but the only way to get there ourselves is by walking in communion with Jesus and yielding to the leading of the Holy Spirit by saying Yes to whatever that looks like.
[1] Frank Bartleman, How Pentecost Came to Los Angeles, 58-59. “…We had no ‘respect of persons.’ The rich and educated were the same as the poor and ignorant, and found a much harder death to die. We only recognized God. All were equal. No flesh might glory in His presence. He could not use the self-opinionated. Those were Holy Ghost meetings, led of the Lord. It had to start in poor surroundings, to keep out the selfish, human element. All came down in humility together, at His feet. They all looked alike, and had all things in common in that sense at least. The rafters were low, the tall must come down. By the time they got to ‘Azusa’ they were humbled, ready for the blessing. The fodder was thus placed for the lambs, not for giraffes. All could reach It.”
[2] Frank Bartleman, How Pentecost Came to Los Angeles, 102. “…And He did not disappoint us. One sister sang and spoke in ‘tongues’ for five full hours. Souls were saved. The saints were wonderfully built up and strengthened by the presence of the Lord. A number received the ‘baptism,’ and the mission became full fledged for ‘Pentecost.’ One Sunday night the hall was packed out, to the middle of the street. I went to the hall one morning to look up the folks, who had not come home. Several had stayed all night. I found them lost to all but God. They could not get away. A very shekinah glory filled the place. It was awesome, but glorious.”
