In January 2020, I was invited to pray with a small group from my church for revival. I am embarrassed to admit this now, but I was skeptical to do so. I knew very little about revivals at the time. What I did know did not motivate me to pray. 

However, as I read the first version of the Rend the Heaven prayer primer by Alan Frow, and as the group prayed together, I realized quickly that revivals were true! In fact, revivals are well-documented events in the Bible and in history where the Lord moved powerfully to revive his people. And the impact of revivals on churches, cities and nations is clearly evident in history. I was shocked. 

I began to question why I had not learned about revivals in my years of studying and teaching history. The extent of my recollection of revival was reading a few paragraphs about George Whitefield in my AP U.S. History class in high school and then referencing those same paragraphs when I taught the course years later. A reasonable explanation for my ignorance was that I attended and taught in secular schools. It’s understandable why secular historians skim over revivals in history. Revivals cannot be explained in purely secular terms. To understand and appreciate revivals, faith is required. 

As I researched more about revivals in history for the expanded version of the Rend the Heavens primer, I found that God continues to break through the skepticism of his people to revive hearts, churches and cultures; with noticeable effects.  

Timothy Keller, in his foreword for the expanded edition of Richard Lovelace’s classic book on the history of revivals, Dynamics of Spiritual Life, stated: “Because of the default mode of the human heart, revival is a pattern repeatedly used by the Holy Spirit to reconnect Christian communities with the power of the gospel.”¹

In the next few entries, I will document some of the revivals in recent history where God changed “the default mode” of his people’s hearts, which profoundly impacted the culture in which they lived. 

God changed the skeptical “default mode” in my own heart as I read and prayed for revival. May the Lord revive your heart as well as you seek him, pray, read about revivals in history, and cry out the classic revival prayer: “Do it again, Lord!” 

[1] Keller, Timothy. Preface. Dynamics of a Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal, by Richard Lovelace, Expanded ed., InterVarsity, 979, 8.