Hi Brother John,

Is one of the keys to revival understanding and appropriating the “identification truths” as taught by Paul in his epistles?  What are these identification truths and how might they lead one into personal or even corporate revival?

Thank you,
Eric

Hello Eric,

Great questions! Let’s address them in the order asked:

Revival is restoration to spiritual life or life in the Spirit. On the individual level, revival is accessing the eternal life as the abundant life. It is when Christ in you animates your personality. It is experiencing Jesus. This comes through honesty (where needed) and the cleansing that affords being restored back to the life of Christ as your life. But to live in the provision of Christ’s life in an ongoing way, to walk in the provision of the Spirit, there must be understanding and faith. Understanding and appropriating by faith the identification truths leads one into the Spirit-filled life. The Spirit-filled life is when the Spirit fills a believer with the life of Christ. This is “life again” of personal revival. So yes, understanding and appropriating the identification truths is key to personal revival.

So what are the identification truths? Christ indwells believers when believers are placed into Christ (Gal. 3:26-27). This is the big identification truth. If you’re saved, you are in Christ. You are accepted in the beloved (Eph. 1:6). Christ is your new identification. The Father identifies and accepts you in Christ. When you are placed into Christ, you are placed into His history. Therefore, you are placed into Christ’s death (Rom. 3:5), His resurrection (and therefore, life – Rom. 6:5), and His being seated on the throne far above the enemy (Eph. 1:19ff; 2:6). These facts are facts. Believers are to “reckon” or allow the Holy Spirit to convince them that these things are so (Rom. 6:11). On this basis, believers are to yield to the Spirit and experience Christ’s life (Rom. 6:12-13ff; Rom. 8:1-14).

Personal revival can lead to corporate revival because faith is built in the leadership and power of the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit, when God fills an individual believer with His life, can encourage faith for the outpouring of the Spirit—when God fills the atmosphere of a corporate setting with His life.

In the late 1960s, Bill McLeod, pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, experienced personal revival through an awakening to the truth of Galatians 2:20 (the core of identification truth). Afterward, McLeod and others sought the Lord in faith for greater revival. The Canadian Revival of 1971 began in his church and affected much of western Canada.

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