I have mediated before on the same questions you have posed on your sermons and have asked myself why we are not experiencing a Revival in our time, where God’s Spirit is in our midst and works mightily to convict us of sins, to melt the harden-cold hearts and subdue our will, which is still set in opposing His will, and even now, opposed to His reviving Spirit.

I honestly believe that we do not see the Revival or desire it because:

# We selfishly pray that the revival must be started by our church, congregations, community, etc, so that we can claim the glory and boast about the revival, “It started through our prayers, by our church, by our Pastor, by….”. We are lovers of self, money, ungrateful sinners and Christians, proud, disobedient and “We have the appearance of godliness, we are religious for the sake of religion, but we reject the power that can make us godly (2Tim 3:5), and that is the power of God the Holy Spirit.
# You see revival tents and churches advertising revivals as if they can bring out the Revival of the Spirit by their own works, “Revival” has just become another marketing ploy to garner church members and ultimately boost church coffers.
# We pray the Lord’s prayer and we declare “Thy kingdom Come…”, unfortunately we still can’t comprehend that statement and what it will surely mean to us, were we to allow God’s Kingdom to truly come; a change of heart, actions, speech, material possessions, hating everything that is evil, changes in the way we interact with others, the way we do business, they type of businesses, denominational segregation. This is the same for a true Revival.

# Perhaps consciously and honestly we pray for revival, because we realise how much God’s Spirit and power is needed to bring out the miracle works of salvation, lasting salvation, holiness, healing, etc and that, just maybe, the Church of Christ, the Country and the Continent and the world may be convicted of sin, Righteousness and godliness and we will see an exodus- a return to God. Subconsciously, we do not want a Revival, for the same reasons as set above, as when the God of light is in our midst and at work, no shadow of darkness will be left or allowed to co-exist with Him, no evil thought, no evil action, no spiritual lukewarm-ness or coldness will be allowed by Him, All will be naked and exposed before Him (Heb. 4:12-13), All will be brought down to kneel to before Him who is Just and Righteous.

Until we earnestly seek God with all our hearts (Jer. 29:13), our prayers for Revival will remain just mere dreams and we’ll exhaust our lungs praying for something we earnestly do not desire, praying to a God we do not believe, seek or aim to find, a Triune God we do not love, ever so close and yet far from our hearts. Our seeking of Him will become a fruitless exercise ( a Big Foot quest) as He will always remain this ‘elusive and aloof’ God, and not an ever present loving Father who wants to be found, who wants to do His Will, only if we allow and Let Him to be, our heavenly Father.

Will I see a Revival of the Spirit in my time? Wil I see a revival of the likes of Azusa, the Hebrides and others? Yes, I believe it and I do sense a change in the Spirit, there is spiritual acceptance/knowledge and discernment that things will not remain the same as they are now, change is coming, the Spark has been ignited, the Holy Fire is ablaze, it just needs a slight breeze to burn the tinder, and the praying, believing, Revival seeking, God loving Christians will be that needed ‘breeze’ to start and flame the Fire, and that Fire will surely come. Yes, May God truly revive us, for Christ Jesus’s sake.