The Church Must Go Backward Before it Can Go Forward
ChÉ Ahn
The 20th century revivalist Vance Havner once said , “ What we call revival is simply New Testament Christianity , the saints going back to normal .” It might seem counterintuitive at first , but we must return to God ’ s standard before we can advance in the spirit . Revival history shows us that the Church must go backward before it can go forward .
Every time revival breaks out , it involves believers going back to the Early Church and restoring a truth from God ’ s Word that was lost through religion . This is all to move forward with the new move of God . Fred and Sharon Wright , in their book The World ’ s Greatest Revivals , record that each of the major revivals in church history “ emphasizes essential truths about the nature and purposes of God that have been ignored , discarded , or lost by successive generations of professing believers and well-meaning church leaders and theologians .” When people are desperate for God and return to the truth of His Word , the resulting “ proclamation of rediscovered truth ” acts as a catalyst for a fresh outpouring of God ’ s presence , leading to revival .
In the apostle Peter ’ s Pentecostal sermon , Acts 3:19 includes a call to return to God preceding times of revival : “ Repent therefore , and turn back , that your sins may be blotted out , that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord .” Verses 20-21 then talk about how this is part of restoring every truth from God ’ s Word : “... and that He may send Jesus Christ , who was preached to you before , whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things , which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began .”
Here we notice the pattern that God ’ s people
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