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We have seen how the Body of Christ is revitalised through the fifth phase of revival, as defined in David Bryant’s book, The Hope at Hand. Now we come to the sixth phase:

“Penetration. The revived church begins to influence and impact the society in which it finds itself. Through its witness God gives a reformation of society in morality, righteousness, and justice, and a renovation and rebuilding of the structures of a society to be more compassionate and just.

Above all this, evangelization unfolds as the revived church goes forth to bear witness of Christ within every structure of society, at every level, among every people, and within every situation and need. The power of such penetration by the church rises in part from how the fear of God has come, first on God’s people through revival and then on unbelievers who sense the presence of God in the midst of a revived church.”

It was actually because of a sermon I watched on the now-defunct Hillsong Channel, which not only inspired this article, but, in fact, this whole series on revival. I first watched it in the middle of last year. It was delivered at Hillsong London by Mal Fletcher, who, according to his bio, is ‘a media/social futurist and commentator, keynote speaker, author, business leadership consultant and broadcaster and was the founding National Director of Youth Alive in Australia, a large faith-based organisation teaching positive values to young people which saw (and continues to see) literally thousands of teenagers come to know Christ.’

Societal Reform

I found the sermon so compelling that I can’t help but use it as the basis for this article. He began with a brief history lesson:

“England at the start of the 17^th century was not a particularly attractive place in which to live: 50% of the population were considered poor, 20% were very poor and there were absolutely no opportunities for social or economic advancement.

By the dawn of the 18^th century England had a massive Gin problem. Gin was cheap to produce, and you didn’t need a license to produce it or sell it, and for a great many people in England it was the only real escape from a very dreary existence.

But into this society marked by alcoholism, poverty and high mortality rode a man, who along with a series of colleagues, instituted reforms that changed the face of England and Britain. That revival inspired social reform. The ‘Clapham Sect’ was a small band of Christians who met regularly in London.

They met to talk about reform. They were drawn from the worlds of politics, academia, economics, publishing, banking and more. And one of its leaders, the parliamentarian William Wilberforce, fought for decades to end the practice of slavery in the British Isles and the British territories.

And that ‘Clapham Sect’ instituted not only the first anti-slavery groups, but one of the first anti-pornography groups in the world. One of its members helped to found the RSPCA. And the ‘Clapham Sect’ worked tirelessly to reform the prisons.

One Writer has said this: ‘By the end of the 18^th century the ethos of ‘Clapham’ had become the spirit of the age’. These Christians, and others like them through history, have taught us something very important. Revival empowers reform.”

I’m sure there are many reading this who believe our age to be as corrupt, and perhaps even more so, than England was at that time. But I think we need to see such things from a higher perspective, that every time in history when righteousness is repressed and societal norms are eroded, you will find that level of decline and depravity. As John Wesley, who was a direct influence on a number of those in the ‘Clapham Sect’, said, ‘What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.’

Ours is far from unique, and far from the worst.

Our focus should not be on the state of the culture, except as a means to spur us on to prayer and to seek out ways to bring about those previous phases of revival which have been the focus of this series so far.

This is where Fletcher begins, by quoting 2 Chronicles 7:14:

“If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven, and I will forgive their sins and will heal their land.” (NIV)

At this point, Fletcher makes an astounding statement, which really took me by surprise, but which I now find compelling:

“Contrary to what some people will tell you today, we do not live in a society that is post-Christian. If anything, our society is pre-Christian again. We live in a society where people don’t know very much about the story of Christ or His power to transform a life, a relationship or a career. Or an entire community. we live in a pre-faith age.”

I think the next portion of the sermon reflects the previous phases dealt with by David Bryant:

“How do we share our faith with a culture that doesn’t share too many of our assumptions on ethics, morality, truth, the Bible, or much else? Romans 12:2 tells us to ‘be transformed by the renewing of your mind’, so that we don’t accept the culture of the age but transform the culture of the age.

Transformation of the world around us begins with a change in our thinking. And these are the things we need to do if we’re to bring faith to a pre-faith environment.

And the first one is this. We need a fresh understanding of revival, of what it means, what God intends it to produce.”

In relation to this, hearing him speak about that ‘fresh understanding of revival’ was the motivation for me to undertake this whole series. This is also why I find the kind of overview that Bryant’s book provides is also valuable, as it breaks down the process into phases of development that are comprehensible, and that can be recognised once they begin.

Lasting Renewal

Fletcher then proceeds to go deeper into God’s response to Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:

“The promise is a response to a public prayer that Solomon was praying at the inauguration of the first temple in Jerusalem. He was praying that if the people of Israel should lose their passion for God, that God would not respond to them in kind, that He would actually respond in the opposite spirit, that He would love them still and repair their hearts and restore their faith and draw them back to Himself.

He was essentially praying for what some Christians now call ‘revival’ in advance. As a result, this is a scripture that many people turn to first when they want to talk about this subject of revival.

When God acts in response to intense prayer, the first people changed are the people doing the praying. When we pray, according to 2 Chronicles 7:14, the first thing God does is forgive our sins. So, strictly speaking, when we talk about revival, we’re talking about something that happens to the church.

Some church historians prefer the word ‘awakening’ to ‘revival’. I like the word ‘awakening’. It says what revival is.”

Here, Fletcher notes what all too often occurs after the Holy Spirit acts on those prayers, falling on the church in waves and manifestations of power, bringing healing and joy. But I’ve written before about times that I have witnessed in my life where the manifestations of power were used as a kind of spiritual parlour game for the church’s enjoyment. And God withdrew His hand.

“Throughout history, there are many instances of churches that have experienced an awakening born of the Holy Spirit, who, two years after it happened, are praying for a new one. What’s the point of praying for an awakening if you’re going to drift back to sleep when the excitement dies down?”

Here is where Fletcher both aligns with Bryant’s sixth phase and provides us with the antidote to that drift back to sleep:

“The second thing I noticed from 2 Chronicles 7:14 is that when God acts in response to intense prayer, He wants to take things beyond the Church. He wants to bring healing to the land! Revival isn’t intended to be an end in itself. It is the means to an end. And that end is reform. Revival empowers reform!

When Jesus taught us to pray, He taught us to ask for one thing first, and that is the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:9-10). The Kingdom is very important to Jesus. He mentions it so many times. And the relationship between the Church and the Kingdom is a very important one in the New Testament.

It’s a bit like this: the Church is to the Kingdom what family is to society. Family is the fundamental building block of society. You can’t say you’re working in the best interest of society if you are in some way destroying the family.

By the same token the Church is the fundamental building block of the Kingdom. You cannot really say that you are a Kingdom Christian working for the Kingdom if you are not in some way actively engaged in the work and the vision of a local expression of the broader Church.

The Kingdom is with you wherever you go in terms of its values, its ethics, its priorities, in the way you live. My definition of the Kingdom is this: It is wherever the loving or benevolent rule of Christ is transforming human hearts in relationships, then the cultures and institutions to which humans belong.

The Kingdom of God is wherever Christ is acknowledged to be king. Find ways to let the Kingdom transform the world around you.

Revival by definition is most concerned with placing the Kingdom in human hearts. But reform is concerned with the other part of that definition, placing the Kingdom in human cultures and institutions, which in the end affect human hearts and decisions.”

My own thinking, while preparing this, is that we also need to remember whose kingdom we are overthrowing. Satan’s kingdom also manifests in the human heart, and is then expressed in the world around us through the same properties mentioned by Fletcher: “values, ethics and priorities”. They are what have shaped the other things Fletcher referred to: ‘cultures and institutions to which humans belong’.

So doesn’t it make sense that the pathway to cultural transformation is through the spiritual transformation of ‘human hearts in relationships’, chiefly forging a relationship with the King of kings, which effects a dethroning of Satan in the ‘cultures and institutions to which humans belong’?

Church Militant

I believe that it’s at this very point where, whenever we reach this phase in the future, that we need to remember the old adage, ‘The price of safety is eternal vigilance’. Our involvement in spiritual warfare is 24/7/365. This doesn’t mean we spend all our time checking around every corner of our lives in case the enemy is laying a trap for us. Because we are not alone, as we have an ‘inner warrior’ fighting for us against a foe He has already defeated, we can rest assured that we will be protected, even if God permits a time of testing. So we need to always keep in close contact with the Holy Spirit, knowing that He is victorious, so He will lead us to victory.

As that victory is assured, that knowledge allows us the luxury of being able to focus on those people whom God places in our midst who don’t know Him. Their salvation is what Moravian leader Count Zinzendorf described as God’s ultimate purpose: ‘That the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering.’

And our personal victories, which raise our confidence in Him, along with our corporate revival, must be directed towards cultural reform, as Fletcher shows:

“In history, there have been many revivals within churches that now lie buried within the sands of time. Why? Largely because they didn’t lead to any reform. The revival was nice, and it did what it was meant to do. It awakened the church, but the church, once awake, didn’t get on with what it should have been doing.”

In other words, our personal victories over the enemy are not just for our own growth, but to build us up in faith and maturity so that we begin to think outside of the four walls of the church.

Here, Fletcher briefly mentioned a number of areas of life in society that are in desperate need of reform. He mentioned the critical shortage of housing in Britain, something we in Australia are also experiencing. He also mentioned a crisis in education where one-third of British schools are in debt, and even basic wi-fi is limited. And he mentioned the economy, ‘especially digital debt, as people use less cash, and spend more as a result’. And, of course, now we have the complexities of cryptocurrencies to contend with.

And there are so many other areas in need of reform, far too many to cover in this article.

But here we get to what I believe is the heart of the matter, and where the heart of God for His Creation is to be found. We need to remember that God is in the process of restoring Creation and everything in it. That means everything that He gave Adam and Eve authority over, everything from our own hearts to the structures of society and how they operate. And it’s this that Fletcher next taps into most passionately:

“Our society is waiting for Christians who are revived but are hungry to bring reform!

The secular world we live in needs to see evidence of revival in the guise of reform. So as we talk about revival, as we pray for revival, that’s fine. As long as you understand that it’s meant to go beyond revival. It’s meant to produce reform.”

Fletcher then goes on to the second thing in bringing faith to a pre-faith world, which is our use of technology. And as a futurist, I’m sure this is one area on which he gives much time and attention. This comes across in his realistic view of technology, and his positive view of it as a vehicle for revival and reform:

“There’s nothing wrong with technology. There never is. The future is not the product of the technology we use. It’s a product of how we choose to use it. Technology makes us more efficient, but it doesn’t make us more human. Or humane.

Technology needs reform in the way we use it. And it needs reformers. And we will face challenges with technology whether or not we have a spiritual revival. But revival empowers reform. Reformers can radically change the way people use technology.”

In all of this, from the basics of one-to-one witness to positive reforms in how societies function, as well as in the use of technology and the ever-changing landscape it presents, I believe that we are now in a time where the prophetic ministry will escalate in both maturity and influence. I see this influence in “green shoots” ministries targeting Christian entrepreneurs, encouraging them in relation to their financial success being used for Kingdom purposes.

This may take the form of philanthropic projects that provide breakthrough in areas which had previously defied even the hope of a solution. It will almost certainly involve radically positive ideas in relation to technological progress. It may also provide funding as well as counterintuitive prophetic “blue sky thinking”, bringing not just a change to how things are done in a certain area, but transformation.

I’ll give you an example of what I mean. Last year, my wife and I watched the fourth series of a groundbreaking program on ABC-TV. The first two were “Old People’s Home for 4-Year-Olds”, where toddlers are introduced to elderly residents in an aged care facility. And the second two were “Old People’s Home for Teenagers”, where it’s teenagers instead of toddlers. It is one of the best, most uplifting real-life series we have ever watched!

It was a revelation watching how this social experiment panned out in both instances. The positive change those toddlers made in the lives of the elderly residents was profound, and even more so when they were coupled with teenagers, where the transformation was in both directions. As those are the two groups in our society most afflicted by loneliness and clinical depression, it was truly inspiring to see how bringing those two groups together through targeted activities brought real and lasting transformation to both.

Every time we watched an episode, I was thinking that these are the kinds of transformational ideas that Christians should be coming up with. And I believe we will in the future, as I believe God is preparing so many “green shoots” ministries for that very purpose, to bring about reform.

Revival is coming! And I am convinced that it will come under the supervision of both the apostolic and the prophetic. Which brings me to Fletcher’s summation:

“As we as a church pray for revival in this season, let’s also look for ways ahead of time to turn that into reform. Otherwise, there’s no point praying for revival, because revival empowers reform. While we pray for revival in church, let’s work to produce reform even now in the wider world.

You say, ‘How do I start that?’ You don’t need to be William Wilberforce and have a voice in Parliament. You just need to make certain decisions that are righteous and godly in your everyday work, and pray, ‘God give me innovative ideas. Show me things that other people here don’t know so that I can begin to bring reform, and be salt and light in my environment. So that I can be a city on a hill that cannot be hidden’.

This means that the Church is meant to be a microcosm of what a city could be. What education could be. What media could be. What politics could be. What law could be. What health care could be. What design could be. What architecture and house building could be. What child minding could be. What Kindergarten teaching could be. What parenting could be. What fostering could be. Whatever it is you do, it’s a calling!

How can you do it in a way that brings reform? That’s the prayer we need to pray alongside the prayer for revival.”

The only thing I would add is that I am deeply convicted by the fact that God’s greatest desire is to see as many people who are lost brought into the Kingdom. As the most quoted passage in the whole of Scripture states:

‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.’ (John 3:16-17 NASB)

As the Body of Christ, the recipients of Christ’s authority to act in His Name, we are called to ‘so love the world’, and give ourselves completely to God’s cause, which is restoration of what was marred by the Fall, both the people and the wider culture. Or, as Bryant expressed it:

“… a reformation of society in morality, righteousness, and justice and a renovation and rebuilding of the structures of a society to be more compassionate and just… within every structure of society, at every level, among every people, and within every situation and need.”

This is where our focus needs to be. It is the focus God is calling us to. All of us! And there’s no time to waste!

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Photo by Andrea Piacquadio.