Every great revival in church history began the same way. Not with a programme. Not with a crusade campaign or a booking of the largest auditorium. It began with desperate, hungry people falling on their faces before God and emptying themselves of everything that was not Him.
The Welsh Revival of 1904 began with a young man named Evan Roberts who spent years crying out to God in the early hours of the morning. The Azusa Street Revival of 1906 began in a humble building with a small group of people who had nothing to offer but their brokenness. In every case, the fire fell where pride had been removed.
Surrender Is Not Weakness
Surrender is not weakness. It is the highest act of spiritual intelligence. It is the recognition that what God can do through a yielded vessel is infinitely greater than what a self-reliant person can accomplish on their own. God does not pour new wine into old wineskins. He waits for the container to be emptied before He fills it.
2 Chronicles 7:14 is still one of the most precise prescriptions for revival ever given. "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." Four conditions. Every one of them is an act of surrender.
Revival Begins with You
The believer who prays for revival must first examine whether they themselves are surrendered. You cannot pray in public for what you are refusing in private. Revival begins in the individual heart before it spreads to the congregation, the city, and the nation.
If you want to see God move in your generation, begin with your own life. Surrender what you have been holding back. The fire of God does not fall on altars that are still occupied by the wrong things.
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