It is a powerful work of art. An old man sits on a stone couch, his wizened face illuminated by an ominous glow from his right. His body is slightly raised from the rock wall behind him. His right hand is unseen, reaching for his back — massaging his aching muscles -- caused by his hasty flight, perhaps? His weary head is propped up by his left hand. On the table next to him — a table made of the same stone upon which he sat — was all that he now possessed: a robe, a bowl containing odds and ends, what looks to be a jug and a Bible . . . all and only what the old man could carry from his house in the city to this stone perch.

There is no voice from this painting, yet the man’s face communicates his soul’s anguish. The gnarled visage is as his body; tired, worn, discouraged. His eyes are turned downward and slightly to his right, languidly gazing in the direction of that glow. There is almost a hint of boredom as though he was witnessing something before him foreknown and long anticipated. It was never before seen, yet familiar and expected.

The conflagration he witnesses is the destruction of a once great city, a city which was once the host to the very glory of Yahweh Himself. The streets of Jerusalem once echoed with cries of brokenness before God’s holiness and shouts of praise for His mercy and goodness. The people were once a planting of the Lord where God and His word were welcomed and sought. Now, centuries after that golden age, Yahweh visits the city again, this time in divine wrath upon its rebellion. Once there was the fire of God’s glory; now the old man is audience to the fire of God’s judgement. The countenance of the old prophet weeps, “Years of faithful labors for my God, and before me is the fruit!” The work of art is Rembrandt’s Jeremiah the Prophet Contemplating the Destruction of Jerusalem. (To see this work of Rembrandt, click here).

Are you one of those servants of God who hunger to see a genuine outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit? Do you long to see an extraordinary work once again as was seen in the Great Awakenings of past centuries? Do you crave in your spirit to see multitudes of sinners broken under their sins and crying out to God for mercy? If these things are true about you, then would you prayerfully consider these questions?

! Have you experienced the heartache of faithful labors in preaching the gospel, petitioning the Lord in prayer and fervently contending for the faith, only to behold the masses yawning and fidgeting, waiting for “this fanatic” to be finished? Little conviction to the soul, scant brokenness over sins, few cries to God for grace and mercy. At the end of many seasons of cultivating, sowing, watering, weeding, the time of harvest finally arrives and we come to the storehouses with a mere handful of decent fruit.

! Have you experienced the bitterness of heart in watching other ministries compromise the preaching of the word, use the wisdom of the age in ministry and preach lightly on sin and repentance? Does the taste in your mouth grow even more bitter when you see them drawing in the multitudes, while a scant few seek to hear the pure milk of the word?

! Have you read the historical accounts of revival, eagerly drinking in the stories of abundance poured out from above, rejoicing in the awe of a mighty God who is able to humble the proud heart of sinners? Then you view your own ministry and upbraid yourself with accusations like, “What’s wrong with me that God doesn’t do that where I labor?” You preach in hopes of seeing revival, but all around you are signs of divine judgement.

The power of this masterpiece is appreciated only if we are familiar with the history of the latter days of the Southern kingdom of Judah and the prophetic labors of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah. Jeremiah began his long ministry during the reign of king Josiah. Ah, godly king Josiah! Now, wouldn't the transformations carried out by this tender-hearted monarch qualify as a revival? Didn't the prophet Jeremiah witness one of the greatest, most sweeping changes in a nation of all times?

As a sixteen-year-old, Josiah began to seek the Lord in the eighth year of his reign and in the twelfth year began to purge the land of idols (2 Chr. 34:3). A year later, during the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah (Jer. 1:2). Five years after this, the scroll of the law is found in the temple which sets off unprecedented reforms in the nation.

“Behold, I am bringing evil on this place and on its inhabitants, even all the curses written in the book which they have read in the presence of the king of Judah. Because they have forsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands, therefore My wrath will be poured out on this place, and it shall not be quenched.” But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus you will say to him, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel regarding the words which you have heard, ‘Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God, when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before Me, tore your clothes, and wept before Me, I truly have heard you,’ declares the Lord. ‘Behold, I will gather you to your fathers and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, so your eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring on this place and on its inhabitants.’” 2 Chr. 34:23-28

There you are, Jeremiah. This is the nation to whom you will be preaching. These are the people to whom you will be ministering. You will be a prophet to a people who have provoked the Lord to wrath by their incessant idolatry and whose judgement is sure. Even king Josiah’s best news was not great news. No revival. No promise of a great outpouring. No hope of immediate mercy. The good news: Your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place . . . The bad news: The evil will inevitably come. The king was given greater mercy than the prophet. The prophet would have to see the evil. He would have to faithfully thunder the word of the Lord as the doom of the nation slowly approached. He would witness the destruction of a nation. He would be called to preach to this congregation. No wonder he was called “The Weeping Prophet.”

I pray that my heart is willing to take on the role of a prophet of God should He so call. . . . another Elijah who prays the fire down from heaven and causes a nation to tremble in the presence of God (1 Kings 18). However, I see myself more often in the role of those lads who poured water on the sacrifice. That was done at the command of God’s prophet, but it was all dried up after the fire fell. I want to address issues that may pour water on some of our notions on revival, but I pray that it will not quench the fire for revival. May God’s fire yet come and lick all my soakings out of the trenches! The truth is that there are men of a prophet’s class — holy, godly men driven by the fire of the Holy Spirit — who will preach with the utmost of God’s anointing and see little if any fruit. No mighty effusion of the Spirit, no great awakening, no mass conversions. The Scriptures show us examples (besides Jeremiah, note his contemporary Ezekiel). History shows us examples, also.

For a saint who longs for revival, this is one of the most difficult truths to bear. You may be blessed to see a revival on the order of Pentecost. You may be the instrument in God’s hand for another Great Awakening. On the other hand, God may have you as a man after the lineage of Jeremiah. You may have been known by God before you were formed. You may have been given the words of God to speak to a rebellious people. You may have been given a special anointing in the preaching of His holy word. But it may be that there is one thing that God has withheld from you: a promise of extraordinary fruitfulness.

There are spiritual giants who stand out in the histories of revival: Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, John Wesley, Asahel Nettleton, Evan Roberts to name a few. Have you ever heard of the name Richard Greenham as a champion for revival? No? It’s no wonder since he would have been considered a dismal failure by our modern standards. J.I. Packer, in his excellent work on the Puritans, Quest for Godliness, tells us of the character and ministry of Mr. Greenham. He ministered near Cambridge from 1570 to 1590, rising daily at 4:00 a.m. and preaching sunrise sermons four days a week before his flock went off to work in the fields. He preached twice on Sundays and catechized children twice a week. Mornings were spent in the study and afternoons were spent visiting the sick or conversing with his neighbors as they plowed.

Of his preaching, it is said, “he was so earnest, and took such extraordinary pains, that his shirt would usually be as wet with sweating, as if it had been drenched with water, so that he was forced, as soon as he came out of the Pulpit to shift himself . . .” He was much sought after, even beyond the boundaries of his own parish, for his wisdom and skills as a counselor and had uncommon abilities “. . . to relieve and comfort distressed consciences.” His own self-description of his ministry was, “preaching Christ crucified unto my selfe and Country people.”

Certainly we would see the Lord crown such a ministry with a hundredfold fruit, wouldn’t we? Shouldn’t we expect such earnest labors be graced with a glorious outpouring of the Spirit upon this dear saint’s church? It was not to be. The fruit of Richard Greenham’s ministry during his lifetime (take special note of that phrase, “during his lifetime”) was notoriously sparse. Mr. Packer tells us, “. . . for all his godliness, insight, evangelical message and hard work, his ministry was virtually fruitless. Others outside his parish were blessed through him, but not his own people.” Mr. Greenham said to his successor, “I perceive noe good wrought by my ministry on any but one family.” One family in twenty years; won’t that look good on your report to the denomination?

Few are unfamiliar with the sermons and ministry of D.M. Lloyd-Jones. “The Doctor’s” faithful labors and solid preaching are blessings to many and his example is an encouragement to many ministers. He was blessed to see a modest outpouring of God’s Spirit in the early days of his ministry in Wales, and surely the latter glory of his ministry would be greater than the former, wouldn’t it? Again, it was not to be. Ian Murray’s superb biography of Lloyd-Jones recounts that, in speaking of revival in the latter days of his life, “Dr. Lloyd-Jones had yearned for something in his own day which. . . .he knew he was not going to be permitted to see.” Lloyd-Jones said, “I never thought it was going to take so long. I thought I was going to see revival. . . .”

Who has not been blessed by the ministry, sermons, writings and rebukes of Leonard Ravenhill? His passing in 1994 left a breach in the ranks of God’s warriors that will not be easily filled. Certainly, he has seen some “mercy drops” fall during his meetings, but did he see a great outpouring such as his heart desired? Jacob Aranza would often ask him what he was going to give as the title to his autobiography. “Once his reply was, ‘The Prophet That Failed. For over fifty years I have continually prayed for revival in America and it has yet to come.’”

Evaluate your calling from the Lord. It could be that God has called you — you who have studied the Great Awakenings, learned revival theology and now hunger for God to “rend the heavens and come down” — it could be that God has called you to follow in the footsteps of Jeremiah, of Richard Greenham, of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and of Leonard Ravenhill, and a host of other faithful servants who walked in the power of God, but never saw the power of God come down. They labored long in the field, but others enjoyed the harvest.

Does this disturb you? This is one of those issues that elicit a response like, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” A great sin going on in pulpits today is the attempt on the part of so-called gospel ministers to extract the teeth out of the truth of Scripture. Just as we cannot take the cross out of the gospel and still have a gospel, so we cannot muster an army of godly saints if we are unwilling to deal with the exacting truths before us in the word of God concerning revival. How can we who long to see God pour out His grace once more upon sinful America even contemplate that we might never see it? May I offer some principles that might guide and encourage us?

1. Be sure that your brokenness before God is indeed brokenness for God and not brokenness for revival. The doctrine of brokenness is fundamental to any teaching that promotes revival. Yet, do we sin by seeking brokenness to the end that we will be used in a Great Awakening, rather than to be broken simply because this is the sacrifice that God desires? The doctrine of brokenness demands that the saint be broken to God’s will — period! The saint is to be broken to God’s will wherever His will might lead us. The saint must be broken whether He leads us to a field ready to be harvested, or to a rocky, barren, rock-and-weed-infested plot of mission field where you will plow and dig, weed and water, fertilize and sow, only to die on that field with (or without) the knowledge that others will be picking the fruit. This adds to the hurt: those “others” who pick the fruit may not have as great a hunger for revival as you do! Shall we negotiate the will of the Almighty? Shall we say, “Lord, not my will but Thine be done . . . as long, Lord, as I get to pick the fruit?” We won’t if we have the least concept of biblical brokenness.

Why do you want to preach in the power of the Holy Spirit? The unbroken heart says, “I want to preach in the power of the Holy Spirit because I want to see revival.” Yes, even the unbroken heart can seek revival. A man can seek revival from motives that are self-serving. Jonathan Edwards was mightily used of God in the great Awakening and his name is much more widely known than Richard Greenham, isn’t it? Movements of revival have that ability to make famous the name of the instrument in God’s hand whether he desires that fame or not. For a man who prefers a name for himself above the glory of God, revival is an effective vehicle. Beware of this! The broken heart cries, “I want to preach in the power of the Holy Spirit because my God calls me to do so whether He blesses me with revival or not!”

2. We must place the ministry of plowing and sowing as being as essential in the quest for revival as the ministry of the harvest. Dr. Packer summed up the sketch of Richard Greenham’s life in this manner: “In rural England in Greenham’s day, there was much fallow ground to be broken up; it was a time for sowing, but the reaping time was still in the future.” To use the farming imagery (as is so common in the Scriptures), what kind of fruit would the harvesters be picking if those who were to plow, sow and cultivate did a shoddy job? Little, indeed.

Why do we see so little genuine revival today? We can point at many things, but it is perhaps partly because that in this generation, there has been such a slothfulness in the ministry of harrowing, that the purest of gospel seed sown today comes to bear no fruit. Yes, it takes time to make the “soil” of men’s hearts fertile, to deal with the “weeds” of sin, and to extract the “rocks” that promote spiritual shallowness. There has been such a carnal lust for quick results and immediate ecclesiastical gratification (reporting increasing numbers to the denomination) that care in preparation for God’s workings has become passé. Revival preparations today consist of a couple of seminar sessions on counseling those that come forward during the altar call or “giving assurance of salvation.” It has nothing to do with long seasons of careful application of biblical truth to souls — lost souls, seeking souls, and saved souls.

“But what of the promises of God? Would God let His word go forth and nothing come of it?” No, indeed, God will not withhold His promises from faithful labors. Consider these thoughts from Galatians 6:9, And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary. First note that the very nature of gospel labors can bring us to a point of growing weary. May all books that teach “Ministry Made Easy” and “Gospel Fruit With No Sweat” be anathema! Exhaustion, weariness, and fatigue are common by-products in Christ’s service. Second, note that we reap “in due time.” That, I believe, is the time of God’s own choosing, not our own. Sow diligently, water faithfully, but the timing of the increase is in God’s hands.

God gave much grace to D.M. Lloyd-Jones when he realized that he would not see revival. Remember we left him saying, “I never thought it was going to take so long. I thought I was going to see revival. . . .” Let us hear the rest of what he has to say: “. . . I am not complaining. It wasn’t God’s time and this preparatory work had to be done.” He compared himself to a Welsh preacher by the name of Griffith Jones (another you’ve probably never heard of). Griffith Jones “was a little-remembered figure, born in Carmarthenshire in 1683 and significant not so much for what he achieved as for what he did in preparing the way for others. Griffith Jones was ‘the morning star’ of the great awakening of the eighteenth century in Wales, the forerunner of the better-known men who were to follow.” Iain Murray continues on the character of Dr. Lloyd-Jones, “. . . . his mind was not on the question of how posterity would remember him, it was on the success of the gospel. . . .If he could die believing that he had been permitted to do something to prepare the way for better men and greater days, that was enough.”

Is there lack of discernment in your field regarding the condition of the “soil?” Is it a day when there is a greater need for breaking up the ground rather than harvesting? Are you looking for fruit where the ground remains hard, littered with stones and infested with weeds? In our hunger for revival, we can make a fatal mistake in our relationship with the Lord if we are not careful. We can be so hungry for an abundant ministry that we ignore the pursuit of a faithful ministry. We can be so desirous to reap widely that we forget to plow deeply.

3. Models for revival can be dangerously misused and bring carnal pressure and guilt upon pastors to produce results rather than to live holy. Here I am not so much speaking of the tendencies of revivalism that bases its success upon “the right use of the right means.” Men who promote this sort of atmosphere by their Finneyistic philosophies can be most wearisome to the faithful pastor. Outside of that sinful realm, though, there is a subtle, even self-imposed pressure to imitate the results of genuine, God-centered revivals. When there is no stirring on the part of the people, we begin to club ourselves as the one to blame. To be sure, we could find in ourselves impurity that could be hindering the workings of the Spirit, but is that always the case?

True revival has always been defined in terms of the sovereign workings of God. That is, God visits a people with revival when He so chooses. There were times in the history of God’s church where the accounts show no records of great outpourings of God’s Spirit. Was this an indication that there was a total absence of godly saints? No, they were quite present, continuing to pray, petition, and plead at the throne of grace. Faithful, fervent preaching of the gospel was going on. What were the results? Men and women were being offered up in the fires of martyrdom by the thousands without, it seems, any divine intervention except grace to die with a good testimony for Christ on their lips.

Where was the presence of God? This is a complex question, but in brief: He was not manifesting Himself in a Great Awakening. He was not pouring out His Spirit with abundant conversions. Still, the promise of the Father was being poured out from heaven. The anointing then was for His saints to testify to a hostile, hateful world by dying with grace. The “results” of a faithful life was a fiery death. This is consistent with God’s word. To be sure, some who walked by faith “. . . conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection . . . ” (Heb. 11:33-35a). We could add, “. . . some saw mighty outpourings of God’s Spirit.”

But is that all that happened to those who walked by faith? Let the record continue: “....and others were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, illtreated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground . . . ” (Heb. 11:35b-38). No, these who walked by faith as truly as the others did not see a great outpouring of God’s Spirit in the form of a Great Awakening. The final word seems dismal: “And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised . . . ”(Heb. 11:39).

We can gain approval for our faith and still not see revival. In our hunger for revival, we can be in danger of becoming narrow and myopic in God’s dealings with us. It was said of the apostle Paul that wherever he went, there was either a revival or a riot. True brokenness before God is being as willing to have the riot as the revival. It is being as willing to have the response that Stephen had to his preaching (martyrdom) as Peter had to his at Pentecost (many conversions).

We often speak of the “blessings” of many converts under our ministry. Truly, these are blessings, but are they the only blessings of which the Scriptures speak? How about this: “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me. Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:10-12). Is our heart before God in such a condition that we are as willing to receive the blessings of persecutions, insults and false reports against us, as we are to receive the blessings of revival? Perhaps we would cultivate a more balanced sense of spiritual reality if we were to take Foxes’ Book of Martyrs as seriously as we take Gilles’ Accounts of Revivals.

4. The reality of God’s ways is that there does come a time when He determines to bring a harsh, remedial, or even a final judgement. There are some chilling words that the Lord gave to Jeremiah concerning his prayer life for the nation of Judah. Take note:

“Son of man, if a country sins against Me by committing unfaithfulness, and I stretch out My hand against it, destroy its supply of bread, send famine against it, and cut off from it both man and beast, even though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in its midst, by their own righteousness they could only deliver themselves,” declares the Lord God. “If I were to cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they depopulated it, and it became desolate so that no one would pass through it because of the beasts, though these three men were in its midst, as I live,” declares the Lord God, “they could not deliver either their sons or their daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the country would be desolate.” (Ezek. 14:13-16)

A word of peace to a people is a lie when God has determined judgement. In no way am I suggesting that this is the word that is for America today. Neither am I saying that we should cease interceding for this nation. Keep in mind that it could be the case, but frankly, the Lord has not given me that revelation. The point is that God has gained every bit as much honor for His holy name by sending a judgement in His wrath as He has in sending a revival in His mercy. The question is, “Are we ready to boldly hold forth the truth of God if God, in His infinite wisdom, decides to withhold a revival and send instead a judgement?” Such was the ministry of Jeremiah.

The ministry is not over after the days of judgement. Let’s remember Jeremiah for a moment. He was one of those who survived the Babylonian invasion. He was one of those left behind to live in the ruins and tend the land of Judah. A few were left behind with him. These few, we might note, were no more compliant to the word of the Lord than they were before the invasion (read chapters 42 &43 of Jeremiah). Yet, the Lord continued to speak through Jeremiah and the prophet continued to preach to those obstinate people. No revival. No brokenness. No outpouring. It was a post-judgement congregation. But the faithful prophet preached on.

Jeremiah’s words of hope that are scattered throughout the prophecy bearing his name are indeed full of glory. The thing is, Jeremiah himself never saw the fulfillment of those prophecies of hope. They were to benefit those who came after him. The prophet never saw the Restoration of which he prophesied as taking place seventy years after the Captivity. He was six centuries removed from the New Covenant he spoke of that was fulfilled in Christ. Jeremiah preached faithfully to a people facing judgement, he persevered with a people who experienced judgement, and he died never seeing, on this side of glory, the hope that God had promised to His people.

You saints who hunger for revival, the glory is ahead of us! Christ will be victorious! The glory will descend! But it may not be as we pray for. It may not be the glory as it fell upon the congregations in the First and Second Great Awakenings, or the Revival of 1858-59, or the Welsh Revivals. It may not be in our lifetime. It may be the glory that is preceded by the last trumpet. Not that there is anyone who will complain, mind you. But should we not seek a baptism of Holy Ghost fire that will give us unction to preach as fervently in judgement as in revival?

There, dear readers, is my pot of water poured upon the sacrifice. May God be willing to send the fire whose flames will lick up every drop! Until He does, though, may God give us all hearts that long for nothing other than Him and His glory, whether that glory is manifested in an abundant outpouring of His Holy Spirit or a fiery judgement upon a deserving nation. Until He reveals which that is, press on! Press on!