In every transforming revival, there has always been some one or ones who “prepared the way of the Lord.” This is what is missing in most contemporary discussions about revival.
People are summoned to great gatherings where they are encouraged to pray, and prophets promise a soon-coming awakening.
But the preparation for transforming revival is personal before it is corporate. God must do a deep work in us, breaking us, reducing us until we cry out for the transformation of our own hearts before we cry out for our communities.
Read this testimony of a group of missionaries in India seeking revival in 1940:
While living alone, I got desperate, God showed me first that my life was practically prayerless except for my anemic morning and evening “devotions.” I saw the need for intense and persistent intercession, so I “gave myself to prayer.” Then followed deep conviction of personal sin and backsliding. One thing after another had to come out, and my heart was completely broken as time after time I saw His wounds and heard His Royal Pardon. I marveled at His longsuffering, and trembled in case He should ever leave me in anger at last. I felt this fear until I saw His crowning glory.
The church in Laodicea was in great need of reviving (Revelation 3). The greatest contributor to the mediocre spiritual life in the church was their self-deception. “You say . . . but you do not realize . . .“ (v.17)
May God have mercy on us and remove the filters from our eyes that we might see what He sees and be granted the grace to repent.