Throughout history, there has been many religious revivals and several Awakenings. Revival is something that every Believer talks about but rarely experiences. Even when they do, it never endures. Why is this? Is it because we live in the flesh still? Or is it something more that we lack??
I will review and summarize some of the American revivals to see if there is a commonality and move to an oft overlooked conclusion.
First Great-Awakening 
The first American Awakening happened in the early 1740’s and was led by Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield.
“The Great Awakening represented a reaction against the increasing secularization of society and against the corporate and materialistic nature of the principal churches of American society.”[1] This was no surprise if one knows that Puritan New Englanders were more or less the leaders of British America at that time. Religious piety was the Rule and not the Exception in Puritan society which is why the two men above were leading the crusade against Secularization. Jonathan Edwards “preached justification by faith alone with remarkable effectiveness. He also attempted to redefine the psychology of religious experience and to help those involved in the revival to discern what were true works of the Holy Spirit. Although the call for a return to complete faith and the emphasis on the omnipotence of God can be seen as the very antithesis of Enlightenment thought, which called for a greater questioning of faith and a diminishing role for God in the daily affairs of humankind, Edwards explicitly drew on the thought of men such as John Locke and Isaac Newton in an attempt to make religion rational.”[2]
Second Great-Awakening 
The second Great Awakening occurred right after the birth of our present day nation in the1790’s and lasted all the way to the1840’s. Our present regime, hailing from 1789, created such great aspirations in our newly formed nation that it was nearly religious in nature. In fact, it was just that as there was no such thing as separation of Church and State from the beginning.
“The Second Great Awakening produced a great increase in church membership, made soul winning the primary function of the ministry, and stimulated several moral and philanthropic reforms, including temperance, emancipation of women, and foreign missions.”[3]
Key Figures from the Second Movement were Timothy Dwight the 4th and Charles Finney, an itinerant preacher who popularized tent meetings that are almost extinct today. New American denominations arose from this period that became popular were the Baptists and Methodists and indirectly, the Mormons. Although the Mormons are not acknowledged for their activity in the 2nd Awakening by Christianity, they are very much a child of the 2nd Great-Awakening as evidenced by their soul winning, temperance and missionary activity to this day. We will look at this sect again in a while…
Third Great-Awakening
The 3rd Awakening occurred during a period of 1857-1861. Although Christianity will say to 1859, I include the years to 1861 because of the international character of this revival.
It started with a group of men meeting regularly for prayer in NYC, that only increased in time. Apparently, a Market panic in 1857centered in NYC accelerated this Movement.[4] Millions of people came to Messiah in this short period and it may have been blunted by the beginning of the Civil War but even that war had a distinct religious flavor to it when you think about it: the North and South fought over a principle that was centered squarely on the Bible: whether to allow slavery to continue or not. And we can definitely count this issue as a spill-over from the 2nd Movement (“moral reform”).
The leaders of this period were Jeremiah C Lanphier who initiated the prayer meetings at Fulton st NYC, also dubbed the “businessman’s revival” and D.L. Moody, who took his fire to the British Isles. A couple more American sects arose during this period and immediately afterward, the 7th day Adventists and Jehovah Witnesses who are worldwide movements to this day.
Fourth Great-Awakening 
The 4th Awakening was the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles CA 1906-1908. “The Azusa Street Revival is not commonly considered one of America’s great revivals like the First (1730-1755) and Second (1790-1840) Great Awakenings because it did not affect the nation on a broad scale. However, Azusa Street may have had the largest worldwide impact of any revival that began in the United States.”[5]
The tool Elohim used in this Revival and Awakening was a black American named William J Seymour who was an invited guest speaker to LA but ended up staying permanently. The catalyst to this revival was a determination to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost.[6] While all Awakenings involve some miraculous movements of the Ruach, the Holy Spirit, this particular Movement revolved entirely around the Spirit of Elohim working among the people. There were healings, speaking in tongues and various miraculous provisions given such as had not been seen since the original Awakening recorded in Ma’asim/Acts 2. Whereas the revival recorded in our book of Ma’asim had spawned a new sect, Messianism (Messianic Judaism in their day), this revival spawned a new denomination also, the Pentecostals and Charismatic Movement. And just as the original Awakening bought many ethnicities together who spoke in known foreign tongues, this Awakening bought together many ethnicities who spoke in both known and unknown tongues, at a time when America was still racially segregated and women didn’t have a right to vote! The initial impact was only local to LA, which is why Christianity trivializes it but as stated above, their impact went beyond 1908 and also rippled around the world.
Fifth Great-Awakening
The last Awakening that Believers acknowledge is the one known as “The Jesus Movement”, wonderfully depicted in the movie, “Jesus Revolution”. It too centered in California and the leaders of this Movement were Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee, who started the Cavalry Chapel and Vineyard churches, respectively. Greg Laurie was also a disciple of Chuck Smith but went on to expand the work of his mentor. G. Laurie is a living testimony to this day.
This Movement was born in a time of an American cultural movement that was characterized as “anti-establishment”, anti-war, vicarious-living, tree-hugging hippies. While secular and atheistic America points to the Woodstock concert of 1969 as the turning point in contemporary America, the Lord used the empty souls from this “Peace and Love” movement to create a true, lasting Movement that brings us to the 21st century.
Hippies were not into “established” religions, much less Christianity but they did love their neighbors and loved good music and drugs. California attracted a lot of hippies and VW buses and at the beginning of the 1970s, the Spirit of Elohim moved on a charismatic young Lonnie Frisbee who initially was discipled under Chuck Smith. Pastor Smith, who recognized the talent of Lonnie, stepped out of the way and watched Lonnie lead hundreds and hundreds of new, young Believers to Pastor Smith’s congregation. The Movement went viral as we say today and it became a sort of counter-counter-cultural movement. So powerful was this Awakening that even hell-bound Hollywood created many shows that can be aired on Christian TV stations to this day.
The unique situation of this Awakening was not so much all of the people that came to Messiah during this period but especially how it dovetailed with miraculous events in Israel: Israel retaking Jerusalem in 1967 and surviving the invasion of 1973. These events bought many religious and non-religious Jews back towards Messiah and because of this Awakening, modern Messianic Judaism was reborn after a 1700 year dormancy. While the zeitgeist of this period bought in many Jews and gentiles, the initial surgency can be said to have fizzled by the mid-70s. The ripple effect lasted many years later though much like the 2nd Awakening.
What can we learn from this?
The title of this writing is “Why do Revivals never last?” and up to now, I have used “Revival” and “Awakening” synonymously but before we answer the thesis of the subject, I would like to make a distinction between Revival and Awakenings.
“Revivals have to do with spiritual renewals in churches….Awakenings happen in the larger society, sometimes even outside the church”[7]
This is a really good definition in my opinion because it captures the essence of these two phenomena: Revivals are more local whereas Awakenings are broader: they break out the doors, spill into the streets, and ripple across the county and regions and often beyond. As we have witnessed in History, Revivals, while genuinely spiritual, don’t last whereas Awakenings have a lasting and permanent effect on society.
Revival and Awakenings should not be considered necessarily as Opposites on a spectrum. Far from it; while you can have a Revival without an Awakening, you can’t have an Awakening without a Revival, which begs the question to be answered: why do Revivals fail to generate Awakenings in whatever society/ locale in which it begins?? That is the real question among Believers….
Many Factors
There is no simple answer to why Revivals never last or fail to materialize into societal change. To start with, we could say as Yeshua observed, “The Spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak.”(Matt.26:41b) but that doesn’t explain it as both phenomena energize the Flesh to do “Works” as Christianity would say. It isn’t because everyone has “free will”; the “free will” of unbelievers have been overcome in Awakenings. What else could it be??
Let us examine the common factors of the Awakenings and go from there.
Every Revival (and Awakening) have had charismatic preaching involved. Believers take a more intense kavanah or intention to praying and bible studying and/or listening to the gifted Preacher. The third Great-Awakening involved businessmen coming together at noon to pray everyday, probably during the lunch time if we were to dig further. The Azusa Awakening went 47 days straight in assembly.
Another factor is the “soul-winning” element. Every Believer wants to bring in a new convert to their kehillah or church but it seems to happen on its own during Awakenings. The Ruach is more active during these periods. Missionary trips are more prevalent, such as the 2nd Awakening and the Original Awakening.
Yet another factor is the willingness to strive against some cultural norm. This shouldn’t be overlooked; it definitely was a motif during the first, second and fifth Awakenings. In the “Land of the Free”, it should surprise no one that Moral Reform of some kind is going to be prevalent in almost every generation of America because our natural state is toward Sin and Transgression. Hence the need to be “counter-cultural” as the term has evolved. Awakenings are successful because the greater Society sees the need for it too and partners with, or rather, converts into the Body of Believers who are under the anointing of the period.
Last but most important Factor
I have listed several factors thus far as to why Revivals fail or fail to grow. There is yet one important factor that Believers fail to recognize as a pivotal point in Awakenings or movements of the Spirit that become permanent as we discussed above.
It was prevalent in the firth, second and Original Awakenings so I will analyze them in that order.
If anyone has not seen the “Jesus Revolution” movie, I would highly encourage the Reader to see it to appreciate the essence of what I am saying here and the conclusion. At the beginning of what we call the 5th Awakening, Chuck Smith’s daughter (who wasn’t in favour of her daddy’s church) bought home Lonnie Frisbee to meet her daddy-Pastor. Pastor Smith initially let Lonnie speak at his congregation as a “guest speaker” and Lonnie bought a lot of his friends to the congregation, so many that they outnumbered the original members. Like many young people of that era, they were poor, not working and mobile. Mr. Smith, recognizing the leading of the Spirit (to his credit), opened his house to the dozens of young, happy, hippie people who were so happy to feel “welcomed” that they started meeting together every night of the week at the congregational building. They invited yet more people and not long, people were busting out the walls of Mr. Smith’s building and spilling to the outside (which they could do in Southern CA). It was a revival, something EVERY local leader wants if they are truly a leader! But as we look back, it became an Awakening.
Why?
Because they had a strong base to begin with, that is, they were together in ONE PLACE. And here is where Believers get irritated and mad at me for what the implications lead to: they weren’t in one place just on sundays; they were together, in one place, almost ALL THE TIME!! This “renewed” congregation worked together, ate together, worshiped together and for a time, slept together under one roof (until there wasn’t room anymore). This is not a “Congregation” anymore; it became a “Community”[8] https://alternativeinterpretations.com/how-to-build-a-spiritual-body/
Does this sound familiar to anyone who is a seasoned Messianic?? It should because that was the exact same pattern that happened in Ma’asim 2: “the festival of Shavuot arrived, and the Believers all gathered together in one place….now there were staying in Yerushalayim religious Jews from every nation under heaven…so those who accepted what he said were immersed and there were added to the group that day about three thousand people.”(verses 1,5,41) Why? How come 3,000 people?
(Because) “they continued faithfully in the teaching of the emissaries, in fellowship, in breaking bread and the prayers…all those trusting in Yeshua stayed together and had everything in common;…continuing faithfully and with singleness of purpose to meet in the Temple Courts daily, and breaking bread in their several homes, they shared their food in joy and simplicity of heart, praising [Elohim] and having the respect of all the people. And day after day the Lord kept adding to them, those who were being saved” (vv.42-47)
Is this not the picture we saw in the Jesus Revolution? As in 31 AD, so we saw in the 1970’s. Just as Pastor Smith had struggles with his talmidim/disciples, so too we can read some of the struggles the early Messianic faith had in Ma’asim 5,6,and 8. Nothing that starts in perfection doesn’t get tainted – but that is how the Kingdom of Elohim grows!
Conclusion
The main point I want to drive home in this thesis is that when a spiritual Awakening is happening somewhere, Believers don’t go home into the world after the meeting or Sabbath is done! “Where else are we going to go?” someone might quip. My answer is that if you go home at night and your neighbors aren’t someone in your prayer group, your weekly meeting or your job, you live in the world! Revivals don’t happen because of YOU; they only happen when you are connected DAILY to your local Body!! A Fellowship can’t do that and a church/congregation can’t do that – History proves this over and over again.
Let me offer one other proof-text that I referred to earlier: the 2nd Great-Awakening spawned a number of new denominations but one peculiar one is who we call the Mormons (they call themselves the Church of Jesus Christ LDS). No one Messianic or Christian likes to think that the Ruach birthed such a deviant sect (and I am not their judge as I am not a Christian) but they are a permanent fixture in our world until Yeshua returns unlike their contemporary counterparts, the Wesleyan and Methodist sects, who if they don’t repent soon will become a footnote in religious history. What do I mean??
The Wesleyan and Methodist churches are just another Protestant sect in America built on the “church system”. They are considered mainstream but now hold to doctrines of devils. They won’t last corporately.
The other who rose up in the same era as them have some doctrines that are not mainstream but built their religion on the “community system” as I will call it. They will endure from now until whenever, even if it’s hundreds of years, because they stuck to biblical precepts even if WE don’t like it. First, they received an additional sacred text that everyone else does not accept. Not long after they received new revelation, they incorporated polygamy into their practices. Because of this, Mormons could not live anywhere they damn well pleased: they had to live together because “Christian America” wouldn’t co-exist with them. The Mormons had to move throughout the Mid-west and killed their enemies as they attacked them. Their story really begins when Joseph Smith led his Church like a modern day Moshe, out to present day Utah which, for all intents and purposes became a Mormon state. There, they built their central cathedral in modern day Salt Lake City and they measured all their streets, homes and business addresses according to how far it is from that Temple; not just in Salt Lake City but throughout the State, is my understanding. State laws all are built upon the Mormon religion and have made adjustments only for federal purposes (federal trumps state laws).
What is my point in rehashing Mormon history? They are community-oriented. Their neighbors, at first, were not anything but Mormon. They work together; plan politics together; missionize together. They are One people in One place that has spilled over into adjacent states of WY, MT and ID. According to American religious statistics I have seen over the years, they are one of the most wealthy sects in America, up there near the Jews. All of this is because they practice Community, like the early Messianic Believers. We languish and Christianity is in decline.
Need I say more?
Revivals don’t last (and Awakenings don’t come to fruition) because we live among the heathen in the world.
[1] https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Awakening
[2] ibid
[3] https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Awakening
[4] https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/revive-us-again-2/
[5] https://www.christianunion.org/the-magazine/7986-what-was-the-azusa-street-revival
[6] ibid
[7] https://www.northwestu.edu/president/blog/awakenings-and-revivals
[8] I go into this much more at length in “How to Build a Spiritual Body”
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