What Comes After Revival?
We are living at a critical moment in American history. How we respond today will go a long way in determining the future of our nation— or whether our nation even continues to exist as the United States of America.
We will either continue to fall into moral and spiritual confusion, ultimately crashing and burning, or we will break up entirely as a nation, pulling apart at the seams. Either way, without revival we are in very critical condition.
Revival alone will not get the job done. Revival alone will not turn the tide. It must be a revival in the church that leads to a reformation in society, an outpouring that leads to awakening. Otherwise, to repeat, we are doomed. A powerful revival movement, without a national awakening, would just delay the inevitable or, worse still, simply make us more accountable. It really is revival and awakening or we die. Or do we really think that the right political candidate or the latest social program will solve our problems and cure our ills? Not a chance.
How do we fix things when most American adolescents are “viewing online pornographic videos with motions and sounds, depicting every potential sexual act that can be imagined” and when “the majority of kids are exposed to porn by age 13, with some exposed as young as seven, according to a 2020 survey”? How do we fix that?
How do we fix all this or even begin to chip away at these problems, short of a sweeping spiritual revival that will produce a moral and cultural revolution? There is no other way to turn the tide.
Some would protest that we’ve been here many times before in our history, with doomsayers repeatedly claiming that the end of the world was near. “It’s all over,” they shouted in years past. “America is doomed!” And yet here we are today, decades (or centuries) later, still economically strong, still powerful, still one nation. Perhaps I’m overstating things?
But here is the threefold, jarring reality: 1) It was powerful revival movements in the past that turned the tide and saved the nation. Nothing less will do so today. 2) In many ways, we have been on a steady moral and spiritual decline since the counterculture revolution of the 1960s. So it really is revival or we die. 3) There is no guarantee that America will not go the way of the Roman Empire, fading into oblivion, or have a fate similar to the USSR, breaking into fragments.
After all, if the covenant nation, Israel, could suffer dispersal, exile, and near complete destruction, continuing to exist as a people only because of the sovereign mercy of God, why should we assume that America’s blessed destiny is guaranteed?
Our only hope is a sweeping national revival that turns into a powerful cultural awakening.
To learn more about Michael Brown’s ‘Turn the Tide,’ visit MyCharismaShop.com