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Kurt and Warwick discuss the challenge of personal daily renewal on the latest episode of the Great Southland Revival podcast.

As part of our Great Southland Revival podcast series, I recently caught up with Warwick to talk all things revival. Our conversation covered a lot of territory — from a biblical definition of revival, to Warwick’s favourite revival from history, to some of the lesser-known revivals in Australia’s past.

We also spoke about how our vision for our upcoming book Great Southland Revival came about, what it will take to see revival in Australia once more, and the personal challenge of daily renewal. Be sure to catch up on the episode below.

Warwick tells me that he has been reading stories of revival and books about revival for the better part of 50 years. It is a subject he is very passionate about. When it comes to revival, Warwick explains, “What I see is that God meets the lowly and humble. Sometimes it is only the humble who are revived.”

The Welsh Revival

An example Warwick provides to illustrate this is his favourite revival from history: the 1904 revival in Wales that subsequently spread into Europe. “It occurred almost entirely among lower class people, minorities, people who would normally be looked down upon, miners, immigrants,” he explains. “God met them in their point of need.”

Another reason Warwick is drawn to the Welsh revival is that it wasn’t built on the personality of a single leader. “What I like about it is that no one got the credit,” he explains. “Only God got the credit.”

Evan Roberts was arguably the ‘leader’ of the Welsh revival, but Warwick tells me that Roberts “didn’t want to own that title”. Rather, the Welsh revival was “a sovereign move of the Holy Spirit as a result of people praying for that sovereign move.”

The Challenge of Daily Renewal

A message that comes through loud and clear in my interview with Warwick is his passion for daily renewal. “My sadness is that revival always ends,” he explains — “so my life has been a quest for continual revival.”

Warwick adds that “this book project has pushed me to ask what I believe about revival [and] why I’m praying for it… I find that the great challenge for me is that I will engage myself in personal revival. My personal goal is personal renewal and revival every day.”

A story Warwick shares with me is his interaction, many years ago, with a Catholic Father involved in the charismatic renewal movement. Seeking to strike up a conversation, Warwick asked Father Jacque, “How is the renewal going?”

“He looked at me with beautiful sparkling eyes and a great big smile,” Warwick explains, “and in his thick french accent he said, ‘Brother, unless we are renewed every day, there’s no renewal’.”

As Warwick clarifies, the challenge is not how’s the renewal ‘out there’ is going, but how the renewal inside you and me is going.

Hope for Revival Today

The last question I ask Warwick concerns the hope we have for revival as the days grow darker in our culture.

“We are living in perilous times,” Warwick tells me. “We’ve got a war in the Ukraine, which could escalate into a third world war at the drop of a hat. We’ve got China which wants to take over Taiwan. We’ve got nations beating the drums of war.”

Moreover, there is an epidemic of sin all around us. “At times I struggle to pray for revival for Australia because… we’re so godless,” Warwick laments. “We’ve introduced homosexual marriage. We’ve legalised adultery and no-fault divorce. The next push will be for the legalisation of pedophilia… We’ve abandoned God and truth [and]… as a result of all this, our nation is in a shocking state.”

But the promises of God are bigger than our failures, Warwick reminds me. “The good news is that Jesus is bigger than our sin, rebellion and wickedness. Jesus Christ is our only hope,” he affirms.

The darkest day in history was the day of Jesus’ crucifixion, Warwick explains. And yet, 50 days later, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church, paving the way for the greatest missionary expansion in history. “Right now, once again, we are waiting for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit,” he adds. “We need an Acts 2 moment right now in our culture.”

“That’s our hope,” says Warwick. “My hope for revival for our nation is not in myself. It’s not in the church. It’s not in my ability. It’s in the cross of Christ.”

Be sure to listen to our full conversation here.