Fresh Fire: Hope for a Christ-Centered Revival

A few months ago I attended a gathering of Christian leaders who have a common prayer on their hearts—some of them having carried this burden for many years. It is the hope that God might one day soon visit our churches and nation again with a powerful revival and spiritual awakening.

At the conclusion of the gathering, David Bryant (one of the coleaders) placed a plush and ornate chair on the platform to represent a throne. He challenged us to take a sheet of paper and write out a one-paragraph prayer for revival that we wanted to offer “before the throne of Christ.” In an act of worship, we knelt and left our scrawled-out prayers on the chair.

All the prayers were then compiled and sent back to us several weeks later. As I scanned the 40-some unsigned prayers, I quickly spotted my own. I recognized it because it has been the prayer on my heart for so long. In its unedited and quickly written form, here was my prayer that day:

Father, You know my heart. I desperately want You to release the fullness and glory of Jesus Christ into Your Church, that we might be cleansed, healed, restored, unified, and sent on mission to the world to reflect the power and glory of Christ. Revive us, oh God, with a passion for holiness and a zeal for the salvation of the lost. Please hear my cry, oh Lord!

Other prayers expressed similar longings. Among these leaders with hearts for revival, the cries were increasingly urgent. There were a few who had lost just a bit of their hope for revival—after praying for so many years and waiting on the Lord, wondering. But many others expressed renewed hope after praying together with like-hearted friends and hearing stories of God’s stirring in a few places in our nation.

God, What Is on Your Heart?

About a month later, when the staff of Prayer Connect prayed about and discussed possible themes for this issue, these questions were posed: “What do we believe God most wants to say to His Church in the coming months? If we had just one shot at another issue of this magazine, what should the theme be?”

The answer came quickly: “The hope for revival and the need to pray with urgency.”

You will learn more about revival in this issue from writers who come from a variety of perspectives. Our desire is to capture the hearts of those who have been leading, speaking, and praying for revival for a long time—and remain very close to the heart of God on this matter.

As you read this issue, may your heart be seared with “Fresh Fire: Hope for a Christ-centered Revival.”

—Carol Madison, editor, Prayer Connect