Revivals start with individuals. Revivals start with us! Then God uses individuals to spread revival. In Lk 5 we see a beautiful illustration of this process with Peter. For more stories on how God uses individuals to start revivals see my book GRACE OUTPOURINGS: 21 Days Revival Devotional . Lk 5 is a powerful story of individual revival:
1.Humbling
Peter and his fellow fishermen had been fishing all night and caught nothing. They arrived home in the morning very disappointed. However, after Jesus had taught from Peter’s boat, he tells Peter to go back out again to fish. Peter is still exhausted and he knows that it was not a good time to fish. But instead he humbles himself and agrees to Jesus’ proposal.
On letting down the nets he caught so many fish that the nets were almost breaking and they needed the help of another boat to contain all the fish. When we humble ourselves, we open a door for the huge resources of heaven.
We need to get to the end of ourselves. This is how revival starts. When we stop doing it in our own strength and let God do it.
2.Repentance
Up to this point, Peter was a fisherman not Jesus’ disciple. Peter had heard Jesus many times but not received the call yet. Now the kingdom of heaven had invaded his life in a tangible way. He saw the incredible abundance of heaven and the best fishing day in his life.
At this Peter fell down and confessed, “Go away from, I am a sinful man” (Lk 5:8) because of the kindness of Jesus. Paul says that it’s “God’s kindness leads you towards repentance” (Rom 2:4).
Peter had a profound revelation of Jesus, that he was not worthy of this enormous blessing and this incredible Jesus on his boat. For this abundance to continue he needed to repent.
Our sins are a barrier to the Holy Spirit owning our lives and using us in revival. So we need to repent. This is how revival starts. But this often comes when we encounter Jesus afresh and his kindness like Peter.
3.The Call
After demonstrating that he has control over all natural resources and then revealing who he is, Jesus then takes Peter and the fishermen a step further.
Jesus calls them all, Peter, Andrew, James and John to follow him and they obeyed!
It was a call not just to follow him but to become revivalists, to ‘catch men’ instead (Lk 5:11).
How individual and corporate revivals connect
So this is a mini revival. Peter begins by humbling himself, then he repents, experiencing a divine encounter, and finally he follows Jesus. In so doing he eventually leads a revival in Acts 2 that transforms the world. Revival starts with Peter, and then spreads. Individual revival leads to corporate revival.
We see this in the life of Howell Harris, the Welsh revivalist. At 21 years of age, before he knew Jesus, he sought to live a better life, but the more he tried the more he failed and realised that he couldn’t succeed. There was a long process of humbling and repentance until finally he encountered Jesus and forgiveness through the cross.
Harris was so filled with divine love that he immediately began to share his new-found faith with everyone. It started with his friends, then neighbours and then to anyone he passed by. He began to preach at public places, calling people to the Lord. By 3 years he had organised all the new believers into 30 societies and by the end of 5 years he had organised 60 societies! Harris was recognised as the one who God used to start the First Great Awakening in the UK.
We see the same pattern. Humbling, repentance and the call to revival.
This is exactly what we need today.
For more on how revivals start,, see my other blog called, “FIVE WAYS TO ATTRACT A DIVINE VISITATION“