Our most pressing obligation is to do all in our power to obtain a revival that will result in a reformed, revitalized, purified church. Each generation of Christians is the seed of the next, and degenerate seed is sure to produce a degenerate harvest.
– AW Tozer –
Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late—and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work. To pray for revival while ignoring the plain precept laid down in Scripture is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble. Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience.
– AW Tozer –
There is not so much difference before God, between children and grown persons, as we are ready to imagine; we are all poor, ignorant, foolish babes in his sight. Our adult age does not bring us so much nearer to God as we are apt to think. God in this work has shown a remarkable regard to little children; never was there such a glorious work amongst persons in their childhood, as has been of late in New England.
– Jonathan Edwards –
from A Narrative of the Revival of Religion in New England
The preacher who neglects to preach to himself has forgotten a very important part of his audience. We must first address our own soul. If we can move that by the words we may utter, we may hope to have some power with the souls of others.
– Charles Spurgeon –
We are called to change the world, not be changed by the world.
– Eric Ludy –
We must not think of the Church as an anonymous body, a mystical religious abstraction. We Christians are the Church and whatever we do is what the Church is doing. The matter, therefore, is for each of us a personal one. Any forward step in the Church must begin with the individual.
– AW Tozer –
The saintly Andrew Bonar used to soak his pillow with tears every Saturday night in Scotland as people below trampled the streets returning from the taverns and shows. He would cry from the depths of his agonizing heart, “Oh! They perish, they perish!”
There’s going to be no renewal, no revival, no awakening, until we’re willing to let Him once again break us.
– David Wilkerson –
Revival is no more a miracle than a crop of wheat. Revival comes from heaven when heroic souls enter the conflict determined to win or die—or if need be, to win and die! “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”
– Charles Finney –