Micro-revival

'Micro' (meaning 'extremely small') and 'revival' are not two words or concepts that we would typically throw together. When we hear the word revival, we think automatically of God's BIG and 'in your face' moves, like hundreds of thousands of people being saved, churches bursting at the seams, our neighborhoods being impacted, and broader society being transformed to visibly apparent degrees. Of course, these are some consequences of God moving in revival.

However, we need to learn that things generally develop from micro to macro in God's economy, from extremely small to large scale.

Our Creator demonstrates this in nature with reproductive life. Whether it's a seed in the ground that eventually produces a forest or the human seed and egg that produces the miracle of a living person – God's significant accomplishments often start from tiny beginnings.

Revival always starts small. Essentially it begins in the hidden recesses of the human heart. Not only is revival a thing of 'small beginnings,' but it is also utterly silent and imperceptible in its origins. Revival begins as the invisible Spirit of God stirs our unseen human spirits with conviction and passion.

The greatest miracle of all was undoubtedly the incarnation of the Son of God in the womb of a Jewish teenage girl. Perhaps the greatest supernatural event in history went unnoticed, except for the angel who announced it and for Mary, the host. All we are told with a backward look is that Mary would experience the Holy Spirit descending upon her and the power of the Highest overshadowing her as she conceived the Son of God (Luke 1:35).

I suspect that everything that God conceives in us begins silently and almost imperceptibly like this, even if not as dramatically as Mary's annunciation and conception. Some obscure and secluded place in our hearts may entertain the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit's power, and some heavenly vision will be born to change the world.

Jesus brought the kingdom of God, which prizes the lowest and the least. The poor in spirit are His champions. Humility and obscurity of the unsung and inconspicuous are the perfect breeding grounds for Him to sow seeds of revival. The Father delights in using unknown and ordinary people in unremarkable and unnewsworthy places to fulfill His heavenly purposes. It has always been His way.

Florrie Evans was only a young girl in a youth meeting in a chapel in Loughor, a small town in Swansea, but she was the touch point for the Welsh Revival when she stood to her feet and fervently exclaimed, "Oh how I love Jesus with all my heart!"

In November 1949, revival began on the island of Lewis in the Scottish Hebrides. Reverend Duncan Campbell, who was invited to come speak, describes the seed-like beginnings of this outpouring of the Spirit:

Two old women, one of them 84 years of age and the other 82 - one of them stone blind - were greatly burdened because of the appalling state of their own parish…those two women were greatly concerned, and they made it a special matter of prayer.

A verse gripped them: 'I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground.' They were so burdened that both of them decided to spend (so) much time in prayer twice a week.

One night, one of the sisters had a vision. . . she saw the church of her father's crowded with young people. Packed to the doors, and a strange minister standing in the pulpit.

Reverend Duncan Campbell was invited to come preach to those who began crowding into the church by the hundreds, packed to the doors, just like one of the women saw in her prayer. Many people gave their lives to Christ as they experienced the outpouring of God’s Spirit during the Hebrides Revival.

And it all began due to the prayers of two ordinary elderly women in a humble cottage, praying for their community for hours on their knees.

In my own province of Ulster (Ireland), four young men met in a schoolhouse to study scripture and George Muller's diaries that led to what we know as 'the Year of Grace'. During the 1859 Ulster Revival, around one hundred thousand souls were swept into God's kingdom in that one year.

The truth is that revival starts micro, extremely small in our hearts. Jesus and our communion with Him is continual personal revival. Walking in this 'normality' of life in God and His goodness, we each become 'revival on legs'.

So, focus on positioning yourself to be a resting place for the presence of God, and never underestimate what God might do from your micro to the world's macro!

"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin" Zech 4:10 NLT.