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The Principle of Ebb and Flow

Most Christians today are unfamiliar with the big picture principles of revival. In the classic Revivals, Their Laws and Leaders, James Burns identifies eleven laws or principles of revival. These principles don’t tell us what to look for. Though they’re intriguing, though they draw us again and again to Scripture, they aren’t clues for coming revival as much as they’re foundational truths about how spiritual awakening has taken place throughout history.

First is the Principle of Ebb and Flow. Communication of any big truth, such as spiritual awakening, rests somewhat on an effective analogy or word picture. In illustrating revival, Burns uses the image of a wave. “Any progress (that moves us closer in our relationship toward God),” he wrote, “Is like the incoming tide. Each wave is a revival, going forward, receding, and being followed by another. To the onlooker, it seems as if nothing is gained, but the force behind the ebb and flow is the power of the tide.”

Think of how the “wave action” of revival makes sense. Like a wave, our age will have its own peculiar characteristics. The activity of prayer, the turning to God we see building gradually today, is unique from any other spiritual tide in history. Like a wave, revival will crest at some point.

The culmination will be relatively short before the wave follows its natural course and recedes. It’s impossible to live “at the peak” or “on the crest” forever. A revival will move us to new heights and revitalize us. Like reaching the top of a mountain, we know our time on the summit is limited. The exhilaration of the view is what inspires us when we go back down to live in the valley.

This is the ebb and flow of revival. Spiritual awakening also only lasts for a brief time, but its impact can linger much longer. Where have you felt God at work in your own life? Is the “ebb” of being drawn back to the truth of your own broken nature or the “flow” of His unseen but very real power moving you forward to Him? Both movements are from the same loving God. “The Law (or Principle) which moves the mighty tides of the ocean,” wrote Burns, “is the same which ruffles the surface of the little pool made by the rain on a summer afternoon.”