Revival - Revival Today // 4 October 2026

Afternoon, all.

It's good to be back, back here with you.

Over the last few weeks, we've been looking at revival at various elements of revival, where it's happened, how it's happened, and this afternoon I'm drawing that series to a close with uh the title Revival Today.

Earlier on in the uh year we went through um a series on Joshua, and uh as I was preparing uh this this verse from Joshua 3, Joshua 3, verse 5, uh really stood out to me.

Joshua 3:5

And it's it's this Joshua told the people, consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things amongst you.

And that's that's the that's our verse for today, okay?

Hold on to that.

As we look across the world and uh we see where revival is actually happening now, um, it seems to be happening in the places where believers really have no other option than to throw themselves on God's mercy.

Um, often where it's happening, people are poor, they're powerless, they're persecuted, they're under pressure, but they still are gathering to pray, they're fasting, they're looking at God's word, they're confessing their sins to each other, they're forgiving people that are doing terrible things to them, and they're being healed.

And it's because they have nowhere else to go.

They have no other choice other than completely depending on God.

Now that's a situation that for us in the West, uh, and particularly for us in the UK, that that's that's somewhat alien to us, isn't it?

You know, we're we're millionaires compared with probably 99% of the world's population.

Um, our economy might be in a bit of a mess right now, but like really most of us are not going to go home wondering where our next meal's coming from, or whether we're gonna have a roof over our head, or whether we're gonna be persecuted for our faith.

But for people elsewhere, that is the case.

So, where is where is revival happening right now?

Well, in Iran, since the uh Islamic Republic took over, there's been terrible persecution there.

And yet the underground church in Iran is quite possibly the fastest growing Christian community in the world.

They reckon that there's there's uh there's probably now nearly a million Christians in Iran.

In Thailand, uh, village-to-village uh evangelism is bringing thousands of people to faith in Jesus.

There have been mass public baptisms over the last months.

One of the largest reportedly recently was 1,435 people got baptized in one day.

That's not bad going, is it?

We get excited with one, 1,435.

And again, it's believed now in Thailand there's nearly a million Christians.

In Myanmar, there has been a little enclave of Christians for many years, um, despite it being like a 95% Buddhist country, and they're they're persecuted terribly.

Um, literally, aircraft dropping bombs on them and artillery shells being sent to them.

They've been, if you like, they've been sort of ethnically trying to cleanse them from being in Myanmar.

And yet, despite all that, the churches and the schools that the churches are run are thriving, and uh thousands of people are coming to know the Lord as we speak.

In Algeria, there's a group of people called the the Kibal people, they're in the northeast of Algeria, again suffering terrible persecution in the Islamic country that they're in.

Uh, but again, it they're they're making disciples, tens of thousands of people are coming to know the Lord in Algeria every year, and they're actually now sending missionaries to other Algerians overseas.

In India, it's uh it's there's a horrible caste system in India, but the lower caste uh are coming to the Lord in their thousands, and it's now believed there are 35 million Christians in India.

In Africa, to be frank, the whole continent is on fire, on fire for God.

They reckon that there are 750 million Christians now on the African continent, and there's still rapid growth happening in Zambia, in DRC, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, and it's driven massively, interestingly, by Pentecostalism.

In China, uh in recent decades, there's been again a massive explosion of Christianity, and most of it either in villages or in the underground church for fear of persecution.

And they reckon there's 15 million now Christians in China, but that's only 1% of the population.

Some people are actually saying that they think those government figures are wrong, and it's closer to between 100 and 200 million Christians now in China.

And then in South Africa, in the Amazon basin, God is on the move.

There's thousands of remote villages that are converting and being baptized.

And if we thought 1,400 baptisms was uh was a lot, they reckon in the first half of 2026 alone, there's been 14,000 baptisms in those villages in Brazil.

Now, as I said, Pentecostalism or the charismatic movement is uh is key worldwide.

So Islam is is allegedly the biggest growing religion, but that's actually by birth rate, it's not actually by conversions.

Pentecostalism is actually the fastest growing faith movement worldwide.

35,000 new converts each year.

And they reckon that by 2050 there will be one billion Pentecostals worldwide.

What are the themes in these countries where people have come to faith?

Well, as I said already, it's it's places where there's poverty, where there's persecution, and people are totally reliant on God because they don't have anything else.

They have to rely on the goodness of God.

And it's happening where they're forgiving the people that are persecuting them and their commitment is to fervent prayer.

Every time you see one of these moves of God, it's backed by fervent prayer.

That's all quite sobering, isn't it?

When you think that the gospel flourishes where people are persecuted and where they're struggling just to survive.

But the thing is, those guys know that prayer changes things.

They know that if they if they come to God, that things change and he strengthens them and he equips them.

And maybe we could say, you know, the church in the West, we've almost been too comfortable for too long.

We've been sleeping.

Maybe that passion for prayer, that urgency for prayer within us has gone somewhere.

We've been lulled almost into this self-reliance rather than being completely reliant on God, which is what these people in these nations have to be.

You could say that we've become maybe lazy or spiritually obese.

So, what is happening in the UK?

Well, it's not all doom and gloom, I have to say.

Overall, the the church attendance into the UK is going down, but that's certainly not the whole picture.

The Church of England says that their attendance over the last five years has gone up each year.

I was surprised by that.

I thought that wouldn't be the case, but it has gone up every year.

The Evangelical Alliance says that the churches that are growing are those that are evangelical and Pentecostal in nature.

Uh, the people that are holding to biblical truth, the people that are welcoming everybody from the community, and where people are actually tangibly experiencing the presence of God.

And we're seeing that in one church.

We're seeing attendance rise.

I think we're we're um we're probably like 20% up year on year, I mean terms of KT, something like that.

Yeah.

Yep.

Um, and we're seeing across the UK an increase in young people coming, and men particularly.

Uh and across one church, I don't know the exact number, but we've got something like 20 different nationalities, maybe more than that, that are represented.

Another thing seems to be changing in in the UK as well.

I don't know if you noticed, but like at the World Cup, if you watch the football, did you notice how many of the players were actually on the pitch praying before games?

And actually, some of them were praying with the opposition after games, even whether they'd won or lost.

And earlier this month, um, New Zealand and South Africa were playing a rugby test series, and at the end of that test series, all of the teams got together on the pitch around the semicircle and they finished that test series by praying.

I've never seen that in my lifetime, never seen that sort of thing happen.

We're in a moment where people, they might not be completely uh poverty stricken like they are in some other countries.

Some people I know are, but but people are feeling a lack of hope.

They're feeling a lack of purpose, they're feeling a lack of security.

And uh and I think they're open to conversations about spirituality that again, probably in my lifetime, people haven't been that that open.

You know, we won't maybe experience right now those persecutions and the trials that some of our brothers and sisters around the world have to go through.

But I still think we've got a harvest field here in the UK of people who are desperate to know hope and they're desperate to know the person who brings hope.

They just don't know who it is yet.

If the church has been asleep, it's because we individually, I guess, have been asleep.

We've been lethargic.

You know, those things that we witness when we see revival, it's it's people are passionate for a move of God, they're persistent and powerfully praying, like I've said already.

They're often, often that's how only just a few people, a few people get so passionate about prayer and they get together, it changes something.

Faith rises, people get saved, communities, as Scott said several times, communities are changed when revival happens.

So the question is, I guess, for us individually and the church is is that where we are?

Are we desperate to see God move?

Are we longing to see God move in such a powerful way that our communities are changed?

We've said several times in this series we we can't make revival happen.

You know, we can't say if you do this or you go there or you do that, that revival will happen.

We can't.

It's it only happens by a move of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

But what we can do is we can personally look at us.

We can look at what maybe needs to change in our lives, what needs to be put right in our lives, the things maybe we need to repent of.

And I guess we need to be asking ourselves, what are the things that are stopping us from really giving everything of ourselves to God?

Is it fear?

Is it lack of faith?

Is it materialism?

Is it that we're worried about what other people might say about us?

Do we have a real passion for reading the word of God and consuming what God wants to say to us?

Do we have a passion for prayer?

How are we outworking in our day-to-day life the fact that we're actually Christians?

You know, there's that whole thing, isn't there?

Would there be enough evidence to convict you if someone someone was to fight?

Yeah, is there enough evidence in our lives of actually our faith and our uh our belief in God?

What are we demonstrating on a daily basis that shows that Jesus is the most important thing in our lives?

And how are we sharing the good news with others?

When there's a personal revival, it will impact those around us.

You know, you can tell when someone's on fire for God.

You can't hide it, you know, and it's catching.

When you see someone like that, it's infectious.

And sometimes when I guess when I look at my own life, I recognize that maybe I'm not on fire.

Maybe I'm more like a little burning ember than actually a raging inferno.

And I've been really challenged as I've been preparing for this.

Like, are people looking at me and saying he's on fire for God?

Because that's what we need to be.

I think part of the problem is, as I've said already, right now Christianity is low risk for us.

You know, society might be pushing some strange ideologies and things like that, but generally the worst that happens is people might laugh at us or, you know, they might poke a bit of fun at us, or sometimes say we're a bit bigoted, or whatever.

That's what it's like for us.

I used to work at Mission Aviation Fellowship, and we would regularly get accounts from the developing world, places like Bangladesh, where if you become a Christian, it's life-changing in every single respect.

Because the chances are if you become a Christian, your family will just disown you.

You'll probably lose your house, you'll probably lose your job.

And in some circumstances, your family will either turn you into the authorities or they'll actually kill you themselves in order to get their honor back as a family because you've dishonored them as a family.

If you make a decision to become a Christian in Bangladesh, it's life-changing.

It really is in every respect.

In that environment, you have to be 100% sure of the decision you're making because it has massive implications if you decide to follow Jesus.

For us, Christianity risks being cheap.

For people in these countries, it costs them everything.

I recently read this um this book by Gavin Calver and his wife, that he's the uh CEO of the Evangelical Alliance.

I highly recommend it.

I have a copy here, which I've read, so if anybody wants it after, come ask me.

But they in that book they basically talk about how the church in the UK needs to get back to what was happening in Acts, to exhort us to really throw ourselves uh into what God wants for our lives.

It's called unleashed.

You know, and I believe as a as a group of people, as me individually, we we need a reset.

I feel like we're at this moment where we need a reset and actually to get to grips with what it is that God really wants from us.

In Joshua 3, that I read earlier on, if you start at the beginning, it says, early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over.

After three days the officers went through the camp, giving orders to the people.

When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you're to move out from your positions and follow it.

Then you'll know which way to go, since you've never been this way before.

But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits between you and the ark.

Do not go near it.

And then Joshua told the people, consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.

I think we're in a moment of consecration.

What's ahead of us potentially are things that we have never experienced.

We've never been that way before.

We've never seen revival in our lifetime.

But we know that if God moves and that we're ready, then He can do, and I believe He will do amazing things amongst us.

But we have to be ready.

The early church were totally dedicated to prayer and to the Word.

They were 100% reliant on the Holy Spirit.

You know, they didn't leave Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came on because they knew in their own power they couldn't do anything.

But once the Spirit came, anything was possible.

They prayed like their lives depended on it, because they did.

They studied the word, they listened to the apostles' teaching, they preached the good news about Jesus everywhere they went, even when persecution came and scattered them, they preached about it where they went.

They did good works to their brothers and sisters, they did good works to those that didn't know the Lord yet, and they did miracles in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer, the word, works, and miracles.

That's what the early church looked like, and that's what we should look like.

If we're truly desperate to see God move, then we have to start living like we're truly desperate to see God move.

Last week Scott quoted Evan Roberts, who was one of the guys at the beginning of the Welsh Revival, and he said that there were these four points in Evan Roberts' sermon, and uh I'll just remind you of that.

So the first one was confession of sin, making things right with God and with those who are around us.

The second thing was getting rid of anything that was dubious or stopping us in our lives from actually being and doing everything that God wanted of us.

The third one was swift obedience to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and the fourth one was open declaration of the good news of Jesus.

So, what's the application of all of this for us?

Well, firstly, I'd like to say be encouraged, because around the world, tens of thousands of people every day are coming to know the Lord.

It's a good news story in every sense of the word.

Secondly, God wants to move in us.

God wants revival across the UK, He wants that.

You know, if we give ourselves to Him and we allow Him to use us, God will bring revival.

His desire is that none should perish.

Says in Scripture, His desire is that none should perish.

So it's true.

And he isn't sending people to hell, people are going there of their own free will.

They have a choice, they have a choice of what God says is the right way or not.

So, what are we willing to do personally about making disciples, about our family and our friends and our work colleagues and our community?

When I spoke here three weeks ago, I think it was, um I felt God wanted to like give people the opportunity to be filled with a spirit or to be refilled with the spirit.

And there was some response to that.

We prayed with some people afterwards, but as I was preparing today, I really felt God was saying, we need to go there again.

Because it's not just for some people, it's for all of us, and not just today, it's a daily thing.

We need to be filled with the spirit daily, because without him we can do nothing.

You know, if we're honest with ourselves, each and every one of us today has sinned against someone or against God, everyone.

And I think we should just start.

This might get a bit awkward, okay.

I'm gonna tell you, it's quite gonna be awkward because there's gonna be some silence.

But I think we need to start by just allowing God to speak into our lives and to point out what we have done today that needs forgiveness, to confess it to him and to put it right with him.

And it might be that you need to confess to someone else or you need to apologize or ask for forgiveness from someone else.

And then you I'll leave that with you and God.

But we're just gonna, if you can just bow your heads, we're just gonna take a moment now and just allow God to speak to us.

Father, we just Lord, we thank you for what you have done for us.

We thank you, Lord, that that as David said, you have made a way, you are you were willing to lay down everything that we might come and be restored to you.

And Lord, we know that we need to, every day we need to come and just put ourselves right again with you, Lord, for those things in our lives which are uh not right.

And so, Lord, in this moment of silence now, I just pray that you would, for each of us, you would just show us, Lord, what it is that we need to confess and then help us to put it right, Lord, to ask for forgiveness and to turn our backs on it and to move forward.

And then Father Lord, I pray that you would come now.

And Lord, as we're just in this silence, that again, Lord, you would just show us anything in our lives, Lord.

Maybe that's not sinful, but Lord, but things that are maybe blocking us, being a barrier, being a distraction from us being completely, Lord, turned over to you.

Lord, would you do that now?

And then Lord give us the courage to take action on those things, whatever it might be.

Lord Jesus, we thank you that when you left your disciples, you said that you were going to send the Comforter, you're going to send the Holy Spirit that He might dwell in each believer.

We thank you, Lord, that your word shows us that the Holy Spirit is available for every believer.

That the gifts of the Spirit are there for every believer.

And Lord, we know that without you we can do nothing.

But with you, Lord, all things are possible.

So Lord, in these moments now, Father, I pray that by your Holy Spirit you would just come again.

Lord, if people have not received that baptism of the Holy Spirit, Lord, I pray that, Father, as they are just in their seats right now, that Lord, you would come, that Lord, you'd fill them, that Lord, you would uh you'd indwell them in such a way, Lord, that there will be evidence, Lord, of you coming into their lives by your spirit, that Lord, things will change, that you would give them courage, Lord, that wasn't there before to speak about you, that Lord, that you would give them the words to say in those situations where sometimes in the past maybe they've just felt they don't know what to say.

Lord, by will you come by your Holy Spirit in Jesus' name?

In Jesus' name.

Just speak out whatever it is that the Lord is putting on your lips.

And as as we're singing, I maybe God will give you a different tongue as you're singing.

Maybe you'll just sense something of his presence.

The final thing I want to do, there will be prayer available afterwards.

If anybody needs prayer for anything specific, there'll be people at the back.

But the final thing I want to do is my experience in life is that when I have asked God to give me opportunities to share my faith in the following week, he does.

And uh so I want us all now again just to take a moment inside us.

If there's someone that's really on your heart that you would long for them to come and know the Lord, or if there's not, let's just take a moment and let's ask God to give us opportunities this week to speak about Him, to speak His hope and His life and His truth into people's lives.

Okay, let's just bow our heads, Father.

You are so good to us, Lord, and I pray this week by the power of your spirit, you will make opportunities, Lord, for us to speak about you, to tell people what you've done in our lives, and Lord, to bring hope and a purpose to their lives.

Lord, as we're here now, Lord, just speak words, speak names of people into our hearts, Lord, that you you you want us to pray for and pray for opportunities, Lord, that we might share who you are and how good you are.