Collegiate Day of Prayer Global: 40-Day Prayer GuideSample

Day 4: No Revival Without Revived People

By James Choung (James serves as the vice president of strategy & innovation for InterVarsity USA, and lives in greater Los Angeles with his wife and three kids.)

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?

– Psalm 85:6

What is revival? We researched what revival looked like in history, learned from its dynamics, prayed about it, and attempted to tackle a definition that might be helpful for our movement. After nine months, we landed on a definition:

A season of breakthroughs
in word, deed, and power
that ushers in a new normal
of Kingdom experience and fruitfulness

It’s in and out. It’s internal and external.

Our souls may be revived, but that should spill over into mission. It bears fruit. It is not just meant to connect with individual souls, but true revival also brings a change in our relationships, in our communities, and in our societies. It breaks out into the world. It really has to create a new normal, not only in us but around us: a new normal that is good and just.

And it’s also personal. Revivals are not moments, but movements, and yet they often start in someone’s soul. Seminary professors Malcolm McDow and Alvin Reid put it this way: “Revivals always start with personal encounters with God and travel through concentric circles to their conclusions. . . . Revival always starts with that one or those few who are serious with God, are ignited by God, and who become flames from which others can be set afire.”

It’s such a pattern that we can be confident enough to say this: no revival in history started without revived people. In a very real sense, revival starts within someone or within a group of people. Early twentieth century evangelist Rodney “Gypsy” Smith was once asked how to start a revival. He replied, “Go home. Lock yourself in your room. Kneel down in the middle of the floor, and with a piece of chalk draw a circle around yourself. There, on your knees, pray fervently and brokenly that God would start a revival within that chalk circle.”

We can’t ignore the personal experience of revival. It’s a seed. It begins small and unnoticed in the soil of a desperate heart, but can also escalate into a people movement that spreads its branches broadly enough so that communities and even nations may find refuge in them.

Will you ask God to start a revival in you?

Prayer Points:

• Ask God how to start a revival in your own heart.
• Pray that your personal revival will be a catalyst for revival in people around you.
• Pray that personal revival will be fanned into flames of revival in your community.

Excerpts from Longing for Revival: From Holy Discontent to Breakthrough Faith (InterVarsity Press, 2020) by James Choung and Ryan Pfeiffer.