The Spirit of Revival
I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. Isa. 44:3.
forms of the Spirit’s operations are here set forth, the ordinary and the extraordinary. Even the ordinary work of the Spirit is expressed by the strongest figure, ‘T will pour water,” but His extraordinary ministry is described by a more emphatic figure, ‘T will pour floods upon the dry ground.” These floods represent the occasional outpouring of the Spirit of God in seasons of great revival which the church is witnessing now in many places and which earnest Christian hearts are longing to see everywhere.
Such seasons of mighty blessing are powerful witnesses for God, awakening the attention of a careless world and compelling even the most sceptical and indifferent to recognize the reality and power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Such seasons, for a time at least, lift up a standard against the enemy and check the prevalence and power of evil as no mere human words or authorities ever can. God becomes His own witness and the scoffer and the sinner are awed and humbled before the majesty of the Lord. Let us pray for such a mighty outpouring of the Holy Ghost in our day. We are warranted to expect such manifestations of divine power especially as the coming of our Lord draweth nigh. These are to be the very signs that will herald His return, ‘T will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh,’’ He says, ‘’and I will show signs and wonders before the coming of that great and notable day of the Lord.”
The prophet describes the individual blessing that will follow these gracious outpourings.
I. Conversion. “One shall say, I am the Lord’s” (Isa. xliv. 5). The Holy Spirit will lead souls, one by one, to Christ. How beautiful it is to read in the account of the Welsh revival of people springing up all over the meeting spontaneously and confessing the Saviour they had just found. It was not through preaching, but through personal dealing with the Holy Spirit who was present pleading with souls all over the place, and they yielded and confessed Him one by one just as they settled the great transaction. Any one can be saved the moment he is ready to confess Christ as his Saviour: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” This is a personal confession directly to God and He accepts it and records the name of the confessor in the Lamb’s book of life.
2. Confession. “Another shall call himself by the name of Jacob’’ (Isa. xliv. 5). This undoubtedly represents the identifying of the individual with the Lord’s people. When the Holy Spirit truly leads souls to Christ, they always want to belong to His people. How quickly all censorious criticism about churches and church members disappears and the true and humble spirit turns to the children of God for fellowship, sympathy and help. It is the duty of the young convert to attach himself to the fold of Christ, and although there may be many imperfections in the visible church, yet it is far safer to be inside than outside and all who truly love the Master will want to be identified with some branch of His cause.
3. Consecration. “Another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord” (Isa. xliv. 5). This represents that closer covenant into which it is the privilege of the individual soul to enter with the Lord Jesus. Dr. Phillip Dodridge recommends to young Christians to write down their covenant and formally sign it and ratify it, and then preserve it, and he suggests a very solemn form in which the soul may give itself to the Lord and claim His covenant blessing.
There is no doubt that such personal covenants have brought great blessing to those that have faithfully kept them and as we look back upon the records of our own lives we shall find that even where we have failed “He abideth faithful.”
4. Higher spiritual blessing. The next clause, “and surname himself by the name of Israel” (Isa. xliv. 5), seems to express the highest spiritual experiences. Israel stands for much more than Jacob. It marks the second stage of the patriarch’s spiritual life when the Supplanter became the Prince of God. When the Holy Spirit comes, He leads the willing heart in the deeper and highest things of God. He shows the young convert that it is his privilege to be baptized with the Holy Ghost, to receive the Lord Jesus as an indwelling presence, to be delivered from the power of self and sin and to enter into a life of abiding victory, rest and power.
Indeed, these are among the richest fruits of every true revival, and no wise Christian worker will be satisfied until the souls committed to his care have been led into all the fulness of Christ. This is presented here as a voluntary act and as the privilege of all who are willing to rise to it. God does not force His best things upon us, but offers them to our holy ambition.
Shall we, as we realize this mighty promise, rise to it for ourselves and claim, even as we read these lines, these showers of blessing, these floods of power and these glorious fruits for our own individual Christian life and the cause and kingdom of our Lord.