REVIVAL – (A lesson from Sampson about the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit)
Judges 15:18-20 (AMP) Samson was very thirsty, and he prayed to the Lord and said, You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant, and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised? And God split open the hollow place that was at Lehi, and water came out of it. And when he drank, his spirit returned and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkore [the spring of him who prayed], which is at Lehi to this day.
Background: Sampson had just killed 1,000 men with the jawbone of a donkey! This was a man who was endowed with supernatural power, a strength that far exceeds anything you could gain by working out at the local gym. Where did His strength come from? Samson was a miracle baby. His Mum was barren until a divine encounter with an angelic being, who had a message from God saying she’d have a baby. When she told her husband, he was so amazed that he asked for another angelic visitation so that they could receive further instructions on how to raise this child. This he did, and you can read about this amazing experience in Judges chapter 13. As one reads the following chapters we see how the ‘spirit of the Lord came upon him’ and he carried amazing feats like killing lions with his bare hands.
We also have unusual strength from the Spirit of the Lord:

Romans 8:11 (NKJV) But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

The original Greek word for ‘power’ is dunamis meaning, ‘ability, power, force, strength and abundance, power to do miracles, power of armies’.
Let’s take another look at Judges 15:18-20 . Here are some keys to revival from this passage of scripture:
1. Sampson was thirsty:
Before we can spark revival we need to come to a place of absolute and intense desperation. The word ‘desire’ (in the verse below) speaks of a ‘desperate longing and intense craving for’.

Psalm 38:9 (NKJV) Lord, all my desire is before You; And my sighing is not hidden from You.

On this theme, A. W. Tozer wrote, ‘Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people.’ He added, ‘Before we can be filled with the Spirit, the desire to be filled must be all-consuming. It must be for the time the biggest thing in the life, so acute, so intrusive as to crowd out everything else’. Apparently, Mr Tozer never received any formal training for ministry. It is said that His preaching as well as his writings were but extensions of his prayer life. Oh, for more men and women who desire nothing else but God!

Tommy Tenny believes, ‘The only way God's presence will break out over an entire city and region is if His people learn how to entertain His presence in their undying hunger for Him and carry it with them. This kind of hunger burns so brightly that it gives no place to ‘respect of persons’ or personal agendas. Labels and religious jargon fall away and lose their power in its heat. The only thing hunger will recognize is the Source of its satisfaction’. Mr Tenny expressed his hunger in this prayer: ‘Lord Jesus, my soul aches at the mere mention of Your name. My heart leaps with every rumour of Your coming, and each possibility You will manifest Your presence. I'm not satisfied with mere spiritual dainties - I'm ravenously hungry for You in Your fullness. I'm desperate to feast on the bread of Your presence and quench my thirst with the wine of Your Spirit’.
2. God split open a rock and gave him water:
Sometimes we need a miracle for the living water to gush forth. For us, the source is not a rock in a hollow place at Lehi, instead, it’s a sacred place deep within.
John 7:38-39 (KJV) He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

The Greek word for ‘belly’ is koilia which means, ‘the innermost part of a person, a cavity within, and the womb’. This is referring to that very special place deep within where our spirit is impregnated by the Holy Spirit. From this wellspring within we can draw from the endless well that will never run dry.

Isaiah 58:11 (NKJV) The LORD will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

Isaiah 12:3 (NKJV) Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells (Heb: spring, fountain) of salvation (Heb: deliverance, help, healing, welfare, prosperity, and victory).

‘So, the idea of joyfully dipping water from the wells of salvation sounds pretty good. But where do we find such a well? In here, on the inside, where everything that is important resides. Jesus said, "The Kingdom of God is within you." The well of salvation we seek is not out there, it is in here. Salvation is not something that comes from without and is pressed upon us, but it’s the Spirit of God stirring up in us new life, and new vision, and yes, even joy.’ - Jack McKinney

Psalm 36:9(a) (AMP) For with You is the fountain of life;…

But, like Sampson, is there something that needs to be ‘slit open’ for the water to gush forth? I believe so!

Those of us who carry the flame of revival in our hearts know too well that something has to be broken before the power is ignited. If you are truly passionate about revival God will bring you to a place where, like Job you will end up saying, “I was at ease, but He has broken me asunder (shattered me)” (Job 16:12). This is not to debilitate you, rather it is to prepare you to be gloriously anointed for revival. Peterus Octavianus, a man greatly used by God in the 1973 revival in Borneo, reminds us, ‘Revivals do not begin happily with everyone having a good time. They start with a broken and contrite heart’. Smith Wigglesworth believes, ‘You can not take people into the depths of God unless you have been broken yourself. I have been broken, and broken, and broken. Praise God He is near to those who have a broken heart. You must have brokenness to get into the depths of God’.
Sampson’s spirit returned and he was revived:
Here we see an account of someone’s spirit awakening and revival being forthcoming.

The Webster's 1828 Dictionary defines the word ‘revive’ as: ‘a return, recall or recovery to life from death or apparent death, as the revival of a drowned person, return or recall to activity from a state of languor, as the revival of spirits, recall, return or recovery from a state of neglect, oblivion, obscurity or depression, as the revival of letters or learning, renewed and more active attention to religion; an awakening of men to their spiritual concerns, to renew in the mind or memory, to recall; to recover from a state of neglect or depression, to comfort; to quicken; to refresh with joy or hope.’

The Hebrew word for revive is chayah meaning, ‘make alive, nourish up, preserve alive, quicken, recover, repair, restore, or be whole, keep alive, preserve, save, save alive, and make whole’.

The best definition I discovered during my extensive research is this: ‘A work of God's Spirit among His own people ... what we call revival is simply New Testament Christianity, the saints getting back to normal’. - Vance Havner
In John 6:63, Jesus says, ‘It is the Spirit who gives life’. The Greek word for ‘life’ is zoopieo meaning, ‘to produce alive, cause to live, make alive, give life by spiritual power, to arouse and invigorate, to give increase of life, endued with new and greater powers of life, and of germinating, springing up, growing’. The Holy Spirit within is the source of ever-increasing invigorating, revitalizing, life. But wait there’s more! Jesus said He came to bring ‘life and life abundantly’ (John 10:10).The origin of the word ‘abundant’ is zoe meaning, ‘superabundance, overflowing, more than enough, and above the ordinary’! This describes what ought to be the normal Christian life.

Jesus spoke of revival when He said,

John 14:12 (KJV) Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

If the majority of Jesus’ activity on earth was the working of miracles, then shouldn't we spend much of our time doing the same? We claim to be followers of Christ yet so often our actions reveal otherwise. Call me radical if you want, but I personally believe that we have become accustomed to a style of Christianity far inferior to what God intended. Normal Christianity ought to be vibrant with signs, wonders, and miracles regularly occurring.

‘Our lives should be charged with supernatural power. We should be constantly seeing God’s hand in the marvelous converging of circumstances. We should be experiencing His guidance in a miraculous, mysterious way. We should experience events in our lives that lie beyond the law of probability. We should be aware that God is arranging contacts, opening doors, overruling opposition. Our service should crackle with the supernatural. We should be seeing direct answers to prayer. When our lives touch other lives, we should see something happening for God. If our lives are lived only on the natural level, how are we any different from non-Christians? God’s will is that our lives should be supernatural, that the life of Jesus Christ should flow out through us. When this takes place, impossibilities will melt, closed doors will open, and power will surge. Then we will be supercharged with the Holy Spirit, and when people get near us, they will feel the sparks of the Spirit’. - William MacDonald

Jesus said as He returned home, “tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued (Gr: ‘clothed’) with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). I believe being endued with power from on high was in reference to being anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit so much so that it triggers revival.

‘Power from on high is God’s answer to the spiritual paralysis of this hour! The redemptive, resurrection, risen power of the Savior guarantees us power over all internal weakness, and over all external potentialities. The greatest waste of all time is that of the Church trying to do in the flesh what can only be done in the Spirit. We neglect to avail ourselves of the vast, measureless power of God through the operation of the Holy Spirit upon us, and then through us. In a world of expanding, material power, shall we sit at ease in Zion with shrinking, spiritual power? God forbid!’. - Leonard Ravenhill

Come on, saints, its time to get ‘back to normal’! Allow God to break open the resource that lies within! Let streams of living water gush through your life so your passion for revival will become so contagious that ‘at-ease-in-Zion-Christians’ will be stirred out of their complacency, and souls will be added to the kingdom.

Delwyn McAlister
anointedhandmaidens@clear.net.nz