THE GREAT AWAKENING AGAIN

Psa. 85:6  Will you not revive us again,

that your people may rejoice in you?

About twenty years ago I became strangely enamored with the years just preceding the American Revolution. It was characterized by the birth of American evangelicalism by an outpouring of God’s Spirit on our land. Historians call this the Great Awakening. Thousands of colonial Americans experienced the new birth; some would say a national identity was birthed out of this common spiritual experience. As we are approaching the 250 year mark of the birthing of “One Nation Under God”, our country is drifting far away from her moorings. It is becoming more obvious everyday that we are in need of another Great Awakening. I was recently listening to the Christian recording artist Leeland. He has an album entitled the Great Awakening. The title song is actually a poem by Lawrence Tribble written at the end of the first Great Awakening that Leeland put to music. Here are the words of that poem.

AWAKE

(a poem by Lawrence Tribble, written on the eve of the American Revolution)

One man awake, awakens another.

The second awakens his next-door brother.

The three awake can rouse a town,

By turning the whole place upside down.

The many awake can make such a fuss,

It finally awakens the rest of us.

One man up with dawn in his eyes,

Surely then multiplies.

We have experienced several outpourings of the Spirit during my lifetime. none of these movements have had the profound impact that the one which birthed our nation had. In the beginning stages of the outpouring in our church in 1994, I became painfully aware of how revival starts in a very personal way. In order to pray for revival I had to be willing to let it start with me. What was the painful part? Revival starts with change. I had to be willing to let the Lord work a change in me before it could progress any further. That is what this poem, ‘Awaken’, is about. ‘One man awake, awakens another. The second awakens his next door brother.’ This is a description of spiritual awakening. It all starts with an individual. It starts when one man or woman becomes hungry for God. In 1734, this hunger flowed out of Jonathan Edwards and ultimately spread throughout the thirteen colonies. In 1738, the one man to awaken was George Whitfield in his dorm in England, England and the western world were dramatically effected. Maybe you will be that one man today. Only when you are awake can you awaken your next door brother.