Many Christians are praying for revival. Fewer have stopped to ask what revival actually is, why it comes and goes, and what it will look like when God moves again. Scripture gives a clear promise to stand on: “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions” (Joel 2:28).
That promise is not reserved for pastors, prophets or apostles. Any believer can get under an open heaven and hear from the Lord. And there are good reasons to believe a fresh outpouring is coming.
A Word, and a Spark
In this message, preached at Citylight Church in October 2025, Pastor Jason Mayfield shared a season from early 2023 when, after weeks of rising spiritual intensity, he sensed the Lord saying that a great outpouring would hit the nation within 18 to 36 months. Three weeks later, revival broke out at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky.
Asbury was not “the big one,” but it was a spark. That is how great awakenings usually come: a trail of smaller outpourings before the fire breaks open. The Azusa Street revival of the early 1900s, for example, can be traced back through smaller revival fires in Kansas and Texas and across the ocean to Wales.
Studying the history of revival also suggests a rhythm. Great moves of God seem to come every few decades, and by that reckoning the church is due for another.
Of course, any prophetic sense of timing has to be held with humility. Paul reminds us, “For now we see in a mirror dimly” (1 Corinthians 13:12). The goal is not to chase every rumor of revival but to be ready when God moves.
The Revival Cycle: Formation, Consecration, Visitation
One of the most helpful ways to understand revival is as part of a continuous cycle in the life of the church.
Formation is the season of building foundations. Bible reading, prayer, gathering with the church, sound doctrine and solid teaching shape what we believe and what we expect from God.
Consecration comes when all that time in the Word and in prayer grabs hold of you and pushes you deeper. You begin to set aside things that are not sinful but simply frivolous. For one person it is television; for another it is football. The spiritual heat turns up.
Visitation is the sovereign moment when God looks down and pours out His Spirit. This is what we call revival. One pastor who led a church through revival in the late 1990s described it simply: “In revival, everything works.”
Revival Is Not Arrival
Here is where the church has gone off the rails again and again throughout its history. When God pours out His Spirit, we confuse revival with arrival.
But revival is not the destination. It is part of the cycle. Visitation should send us back into formation, where we build on what God has done. A moment on the mountaintop guarantees nothing; Moses came down from Sinai and broke the tablets in anger (Exodus 32:19).
You will not live in revival forever. It will come to an end. But if you re-engage the cycle each time, you will grow deeper and deeper in the Lord.
What to Expect When God Moves
### Salvations First
The first and greatest fruit of revival is souls. At Pentecost, the Spirit fell on a room of about 120 believers, Peter preached, and “there were added that day about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41). Revival is a blessing for the saints, but it is about far more than goose pimples. It is about people coming to Jesus.
### The Supernatural
Revival also brings the supernatural work of the Spirit. Four things typically come with a visitation from heaven:
- Prophecy, including words of knowledge, wisdom and encouragement.
- Tongues, as people are baptized in the Holy Spirit.
- Healing, the divine healing that is every believer’s portion, poured out in a greater measure.
- Falling under the power of God.
That last one strikes many people as strange, but it is not a modern invention. When the glory filled Solomon’s temple, “the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God” (2 Chronicles 5:14). In the 1700s, accounts from the ministries of John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield describe people falling under the power of God during preaching.
Two Marks of the Next Move of God
### 1. Preaching Must Be a Priority
No revival has lasting substance without strong preaching. When the fire of God falls on a church, people come from everywhere. Lost people come, so the gospel must be preached. Believers come too, and they need more than an experience. They need revelation.
Revival fades. The Word of God does not. God says His word “shall not return to me empty” (Isaiah 55:11). A true move of God will carry both the presence of God and the preaching of the Word.
### 2. Ministers Laying Hands on People Again
Over the last couple of decades, many pastors have stepped back from the altar. Altar calls are given from the platform and then observed from a distance. Part of the reason is a good one: every believer is part of “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), and the church has rightly encouraged believers to pray for one another.
But the priesthood of every believer and the authority God gives to ministers are not a problem to solve. They are a tension to manage. The next move of God will be marked by ministers stepping back into the altars with apostolic authority, laying hands on people, and seeing the power of God flow, intentionally and not off in a corner. The book of Acts shows this pattern again and again: “Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:17).
Signs of a Stirring
There are signs that something is shifting. Barna’s research on Gen Z has found young men now attending church at higher rates than young women, a striking reversal of a long pattern, and many in that generation took in Christian teaching online long before they walked into a church. Wise believers will not sensationalize these signs, but they will pay attention.
The Eyes of the Lord
Revival is not something we manufacture. It is something God gives. But Scripture tells us what catches His attention: “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).
Jesus told the religious leaders of His day, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Matthew 22:29). The church needs both: the Word and the power of the Spirit. When a church commits itself to His Word and His presence, opens the Scriptures to everyone, and makes room for anyone to encounter Him, it becomes the kind of place the eyes of the Lord keep returning to.
Revival is coming. The question is whether we will be ready, and whether, when it comes, we will keep building.