What is Revival?

"Revival is one person acting Christlike with another person....While some revivals have been known for their great preaching, true revival is sparked by the simple acts. One person at a time.....In the long run, it's not what happens out here in the field is it? Whether there's one preacher or twenty. What matter is what happens to them when they go home. That's when we'll know if something significant has taken place. If lives are changed. That's the proof of salvation. Not what a person says or doesn't say, or how loud he says it. If he's not more like God afterward than he was before, he wasn't in it, he just wasn't in it". Bill Bright & Jack Cavanagh; 2006, "Storm", Howard Publishing.

I always thought I knew a lot about revival. I was brought up in the Assemblies of God, baptized in the Churches of Christ and received my first gift of the spirit in the Catholic Church.

Most people do their study first then go out on the `Ministry field' - I did things a little differently. I must be the only person who was never accepted into Bible College. In 1979, I had great plans for my future - but they all went down the drain, when I had what they then called, my first `breakdown'. I finished my Year 12 exams, failed and then `nobody wanted me'.

So I joined Covenant Players - a Christian Theatre Company that travelled Australia (an the world, but I never got that far), presenting the gospel through drama. It was a great time - I was ministering to people from Perth to Cairns, staying in homes, church halls and sometimes the back of a van. I wasn't really any good as an actress, but I was great at sharing the joy of the Lord. They tell me, I never stopped smiling. I travelled for 3 years, and the greatest `revival' I had in my life was discovering that God doesn't only visit the Churches of Christ.

One day we visited a monestary, and my friend who was a Catholic, was most disturbed because I had shared communion with them. I hadn't known any differantly. That evening we went to the evening Mass and I promised my friend I would be `good'. But communion for me is was of the most importants parts of my worship - especially since I had discovered that there are brothers and sisters in every denomination. I felt empty - so I got down on my knees and I asked God to fill me. If I couldn't take communion, I needed some other way to worship - it was then I started praying in tongues, and it was a beautiful experience.

It has never become something I have done in the open - except once when I sung in tongues at my brother-in-laws pentecostal Church. I had just lost my little sister and I was grieving; and music is part of my healing process. Of course they didn't know that - and I don't think we've ever been asked to join them at Church again. Seriously - this gift is something the Lord has given me to enhance my prayer life and my worship at times.

But even then - I don't see this as a revival experience. At the time it was exciting, and I shared it with a few people; but there was still something missing in my Christian life.

To cut a long story short. After 3 years with Covenant Players, I got married, had a family and settled down to a quiet life of faith; serving the Lord in the little ways I could. In 1996, with some encouragement from my husband I entered University - I was going to become a teacher. It wasn't easy - the devil really worked hard to stop me - but I made. In 2000, when everyone else was celebrating the Millenium, I was celebrating my GRADUATION.

So where to now. Well being a lovely sheltered Christian girl, I was sure the Lord would me to some lovely Christian school. No way!! You see, true revival is sparked by simple acts - in my case, out in the `BIG WIDE WORLD'. My first job was in a High School - a behaviour management class of Year 9 & 10 boys. I learnt a new saying: "Boys (and girls) should be put to sleep in Year 9 and woken up in Year 11." Each one of these boys had no goal - except to go on the dole or grow drugs. But 3 years later I watched some (not all, I have to admit) graduate Year 12, and a number now have good managerial jobs - on farms, in sporting facilities and McDonalds - but jobs just the same.

This year I watched some of my Learning Support students graduating Year 7, and I was excited as I thought about what they could accomplish, with a little bit of help `from a friend'. I felt FILLED, I felt TIRED, but I knew that this was what REVIVAL was all about.

God now has a new group of students he wants me to reach, another group of children to touch - both at school and Kids Club - and I can't wait for the new REVIVAL!!

"I love to sit on the mountain top, cause I love to feel my spirit sour.
But I've got to come down from the mountain top,
To the people in the valley below.
So they can know, that they can go,
To the Mountain of the Lord."
Brown BANNISTER (1977), AG Productions.