revival delusion

By Edwin Christiaan | 5/12/2022 | www.instituteoflove.net

A deception that the Christian church has been proclaiming for decades is the promise of a mighty wave of revival coming upon the Earth. Allegedly, it will be the biggest revival move ever seen in history, with millions of people all over the world repenting and coming to faith in Christ. Some claim this “revival fire” will begin in the United States, while others say it will spring forth in Europe, and yet others predicting it will begin in Africa. 

Those same church leaders who promise this sweeping, End Time revival are the ones who secretly dream of being the ones God uses to lead such a mighty move. Everyone, it seems, wants to be in on the last mighty move of God, as it supposedly brings in a large harvest of souls right before the return of Christ. 

But where are they getting this information from? There is nothing in the Bible about a revival of major magnitude coming! 

Throughout my more than 25 years in the ministry, I have personally met and seen many preachers who promise their followers that revival will begin in their church and spread out from there throughout the city, to the nation, and then to the entire world. 

Often, I have heard these preachers brag about how God has called them to lead multitudes of people to salvation and healing. They tell their people that revival can happen again, right now, if they just press in enough and work hard to “create an atmosphere” for the revival to come. They call is P.U.S.H, Pray Until Something Happens. Week after week, year in, year out, they preach to their church members that God is “about to” pour out His Spirit upon them. And yet, even with all their hard work, continuous fasting, increased worshiping, and harder praying, nothing truly happens! 

In these cultish church environments, it is normal to experience a tense atmosphere of desperation for revival to come. Members live in a constant state of pursuing the carrot hung before them; that revival will one day come and change everybody’s lives. Their lives are basically on hold, as they firmly anticipate a mighty move of God that will finally give them the “exciting” Christian life they always dreamed of. 

As these preachers deliberately whip up the hype further, they also capitalize financially by adding to the promise of revival the need to sow into it. Revival would mean more people, and more people would mean more money.

However, since the long-awaited revival never comes, these preachers must keep reinventing their message to keep the people’s hopes alive, and keep them sowing money “in preparation” for it, as they say. 

The last couple of decades, we have seen an increase in conferences geared toward young people so-called being equipped to “carry the torch” of revival. There is great emphasis on being sent out to evangelize, all for the purpose of keeping the revival idea going. As long as people believe a great revival will happen, Christian preachers can continue to exploit them financially, by profiting from their seed money, conference fees, worship seminars, webinars, merchandise, and meetings of every kind. 

The truth is, despite people’s heartfelt prayers and efforts to see God bringing revival, there is no revival coming! In fact, Jesus predicted that in the Last Days, what we will see, is far from it. 

Look at what He is saying here: 

“Nations and kingdoms will go to war against each other. People will starve to death, and in some places there will be earthquakes. But this is just the beginning of troubles. You will be arrested, punished, and even killed. Because of me, you will be hated by people of all nations. Many will give up and will betray and hate each other. Many false prophets will come and fool a lot of people. Evil will spread and cause many people to stop loving others.”

Matthew 24:7-12 CEV

That doesn’t sound very revival-ish. 

And to confirm, the Apostle Paul said this:

“For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.” 

2. Timothy 4:3-4 NLT

“You can be certain that in the last days there will be some very hard times. People will love only themselves and money. They will be proud, stuck-up, rude, and disobedient to their parents. They will also be ungrateful, godless, heartless, and hateful. Their words will be cruel, and they will have no self-control or pity. These people will hate everything good. They will be sneaky, reckless, and puffed up with pride. Instead of loving God, they will love pleasure. Even though they will make a show of being religious, their religion won’t be real. Don’t have anything to do with such people.” 

2. Timothy 3:1-5 CEV

“But evil people and impostors will flourish. They will deceive others and will themselves be deceived.” 

2. Timothy 3:13 NLT

I hope I have made a clear case, by the Word of God, that what is largely taught about revival in the Christian church is a lie. 

Furthermore, since the church is so untrustworthy because of false doctrines on especially money, I would like to ask for one good reason God would entrust the Christian church with a massive revival, sending new converts to these congregations, just for them to be fleeced out of their money and put under the bondage of the Law of Moses? Why would God place vulnerable, new believers in such toxic environments, riddled with false doctrines and teachings?

He wouldn’t. The church is nowhere near ready for such a responsibility. And it won’t be ready anytime soon either because it doesn’t practice introspection and humility. It doesn’t even want to scrutinize its own methods and repent from its own flaws. 

Currently, the Christian church has no credibility in the world, as it does nothing to change its surrounding communities for the better, let alone make a difference nationally. 

Christians are shamelessly doing business with God’s Word instead of practicing caring and sharing. And the revivals that supposedly happened during the last century, were no revivals at all. All the manifestations like falling in the spirit, shaking violently, and Holy Ghost laughter is all nonsense. Even with so-called reports of healing, almost all of the famous revivalists were not people of godly character. 

Often, supernatural manifestations not of God were mixed into it all, allowing much demonic activity to flourish. 

This resulted in the influx of New Age philosophy into the church, the worship of angels, the Jezebel spirit ruling churches, sexual impurity, substance abuse, sexual abuse, spiritual power abuse, and so much more. 

All that to say that what we have heard, read, and what we are told from the pulpit is not necessarily true. We are living in a time where the Christian church has lost credibility in the eyes of the world because of our sinful behaviors. Sadly, it can be said about Christians that they do worse things than unbelievers. Yet, we are the ones who should be setting clear, godly examples for the world to follow. 

All that being said, there is still hope for the church if it returns to what is actually true revival; the practice of caring and sharing. Remember how the First Church were conducting themselves, making sure no one was lacking anything. These actions of caring and sharing had a real impact on the world! Unbelievers were coming to them on a daily basis to give their lives to Jesus Christ! If we want to turn things around, we should begin to follow in their footsteps and do the things that bring honor and dignity to God’s name!