Revival is that the Holy Spirit comes down upon a number of people together, upon a whole church, upon a number of churches, districts, or perhaps a whole country. That is what is meant by revival.
And the effect of that is that they immediately become aware of His presence and of His power in a manner that they have never known before.
I am talking about Christian people, about church members gathered together as they have done so many times before. Suddenly they are aware of His presence, they are aware of the majesty and the awe of God. The Holy Spirit literally seems to be presiding over the meeting and taking charge of it, and manifesting His power and guiding them, and leading them, and directing them. That is the essence of revival.
And what does that mean? Well, there are general characteristics which you will find in every revival that you can ever read about. The immediate effect is that the people present begin to have an awareness of spiritual things such as they have never had before.
They have heard all these things before, they may have heard them a thousand times, but what they testify is this: “You know, the whole thing suddenly became clear to me. I was suddenly illuminated, things that I was so familiar with stood out in letters of gold, as it were. I understood. I saw it all in a way that I had never done in the whole of my life.” The Holy Spirit enlightens the mind and the understanding. They begin not only to see these things clearly but to feel their power.
What are these things of which they become so aware? First and foremost, the glory and the holiness of God. Have you ever noticed, as you read your Bibles, the effect on these people as they suddenly realized the presence of God? Like Job, they put their hands on their mouths or like Isaiah they say, “Woe is unto me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.” They have just had a realization of the holiness and of the majesty and the glory of God. That always happens in a revival.
That is what happens in revival and thus you get this curious, strange mixture, as it were, of great conviction of sin and great joy, a great sense of the terror of the Lord, and great thanksgiving and praise.
If God’s people are sincerely serious about prayer and devote the time to this godly exercise, the christian church will greatly experience a tremendous visitation and outpouring of the Holy Spirit.