#1 Killer of Revival: Why God’s Outpourings Die Out

People who know my fascination with revival often ask me what I think is the “number-one killer of revival.”

I never hesitate with my answer, and they are almost always shocked. In my opinion, the number-one killer of revival is lack of rest.

I believe that answer surprises most people because we are used to expecting a high-energy, high-intensity ministry that makes things happen. Unfortunately, often we are more accustomed to “might” and “power,” than we are to “ ‘by My Spirit’ says the Lord.” (Zech. 4:6.)

Some ministries today have totally dedicated themselves to the “burn out” syndrome. Because of the unbelievable attrition rate in the ministry, we now have “burn out” camps and seminars strung across America. Ministers are exhausted in their own efforts instead of flowing in the Spirit. Ministry people often try to live up to a false standard of what ministry is, rather than relying upon God.

Several years ago, my wife and I moved back to Oklahoma in order for me to assume the position of campus pastor at Oral Roberts University. Our house in Texas was up for sale and, in the meantime, we looked for a place to lease in Tulsa. We found lodging suitable for us owned by a beautiful Korean couple. They had been members of Dr. Cho’s church in South Korea.

When the lady learned that we wanted to rent from them, she was thrilled. She had heard about our ministry and was excited to have us in her house. When we met to sign the agreements for the lease, this precious woman saw me for the first time.

In her humble Korean manner and broken English, she said, “Oh Brother Ron, I hear about you. You very powerful man. God use you mightily.”

Right in the middle of her high-sounding praise, she suddenly stopped, looked at me, and asked — “You him?”

It was one of those moments of great exhilaration and humility at the same time, if you know what I mean. Evidently she did not think my five-foot-ten-inch, one-hundred-and-fifty five-pound body and baby face measured up to her preconceived estimation of who I was supposed to be.

That is what happens to many ministers. They think their congregation is going to take a good look at them and ask, “You him?” They overwork in a misguided attempt to reach some level of acceptance with the congregation, with God, or even within themselves.

Many of the great revivalists took on more of a burden than God ever intended and literally pushed themselves until they were completely expended. This exhaustion prepared the ground for a fall in many cases. For some it led to pride in works, others slipped into sin, and some burned themselves out so completely they were never heard from again.

Charles Finney once said:

Revival will stop when the church grows exhausted through its labor. Multitudes of Christians make a mistake here in times of revival. They are so thoughtless and have so little judgment that they break up all their habits of living, neglect to eat and sleep at proper hours, and let the excitement run away with them. By doing this they overwork their bodies, and they soon become exhausted. It becomes impossible for them to continue in work. Revivals often cease, because of negligence and imprudence in the area on the part of those in charge of revival. Whenever Christians believe they are strong in their strength, God curses their blessings. In many instances, they sin against their own mercies because they become proud of their own success, take credit themselves, and do not give the glory to God.

What an incredible description of the root cause of revival’s downfall. Finney has provided for us a tremendous summation of Satan’s plan to destroy God’s move: Overwork leads to exhaustion, exhaustion leads to impropriety, and impropriety leads to a fall.

Long before Finney shared his evaluation, the prophet Isaiah sent forth similar warning signals: Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall (Is. 40:30). The King James Version says young men faint, become weary, and utterly fall.

Isaiah described a threefold process by which the fall of a man and a ministry are set up. First, he says a man grows tired and weary. This word tired or faint means to be fatigued. When a man gets tired, his strength begins to leave him; he grows weary.

That leads to a stumble. This word refers to exhaustion, deprivation of strength or energy, too little strength to maintain focus or direction. Stumbling leads to an utter fall. This word fall means to: totter, waver, be in utter weariness, be totally faint, cast down, or decayed.

Isaiah portrays the same decaying process that Finney would observe years later. Once a man becomes fatigued, he loses his ability to maintain strength or energy. He begins to lose his footing or direction and finally becomes cast down and falls away from God.

The Fall of Great Ministries

Even in his earliest years of ministry in Australia, John Alexander Dowie labored hard, often to the point of physical exhaustion. His intentions were noble. He made many painful sacrifices and tried to do what was right, often at the expense of his own interests. While his efforts were laudable, they also set a dangerous precedent for his later years.

In his towering moments, Dowie would have unusual stamina in ministry by the Spirit. He often operated in supernatural strength, discerning the deepest, most secret thoughts of a people. During those days, however, he slept only four hours out of a twenty-four-hour period. He was strong during this era, but like Samson before him, he was being set up for a fall.

Dowie’s activities showed him to be a man of ceaseless toil, for on behalf of the Kingdom he would often work all night to finish a task. Gordon Lindsay said this about the seeming virtue of ceaseless toil in God’s work:

Continuous toil without interruption can cease to be a virtue, and may even be a sin against the body. Jesus taught the need of physical relaxation. On one occasion He called His disciples to Him, and together they went apart to a secret place where they could be alone and rest. By this Jesus taught that a certain amount of relaxation is necessary for the human body. Not only will the body break and nerves suffer if not given proper care, but the mind also becomes weary and as a result the faculties for exercising balanced judgment may become impaired.

Dowie remains known as one of the most persistent toilers in the Kingdom who ever lived. One of his devoted friends, Judge V. V. Burns, said of him:

Dr. Dowie knew no rest, not even one day in seven.... Speaking many a time from four, five, and up to six, eight or nine hours in a single day. It was this that caused him to break, and when we began to remonstrate with and tell him he ought to be more temperate in his labors, he considered the matter and oftentimes made promises to reform — I have known him to work steadily forty-three hours in succession.

Judge Burns later related that Dowie went through periods in his life when he could not sleep. He would ultimately begin to feel a sense of weariness and pain. Burns wrote, “There came a time when it could truly be said of him, ‘He saved others, but he could not save himself.’”

There is unquestionably a unanimity of belief that Dowie’s habit of pushing himself beyond his human constitution under- mined his physical strength, subjected him to his own human frailties, and finally resulted in impairment of his faculties of judgment and discrimination.

True to Isaiah’s forecast, Dowie’s fatigue ultimately gave way to stumbling. His diverse enterprises led some to believe he had less quality time to spend with God. Finally, with the inception of Zion and other projects, he assumed personal control of the smallest and minutest of details. He delegated to no one, but retained responsibility for everything. Those who understood human limitations wondered whether a flesh-and-blood creature could long endure while attempting to accomplish so formidable a task.

Dowie’s natural buoyancy of spirit made him believe that he had an inexhaustible supply of energy, and throughout his ministry, he “burned the candle at both ends.” Success made him supremely confident that he should exercise no caution toward his own well-being.

The rest is history. Finally came his progressive fall. First came “the Elijah declaration,” then bitterness, a stroke, and his ruin; he utterly fell. The strategy of Satan has not changed one iota in all of history: If he cannot coax a man to do too little, he will try to get him to do too much. A “burned-out” man is as worthless to himself and the Kingdom of God as is a lethargic one.

Perhaps, the strangest example of violation of the “rest” principle, and the most unexpected one, is that of Evan Roberts of the Welsh Revival. Roberts was a man of joy and prayer. It was said of Evan Roberts that he “smiled when he prayed, laughed, ‘Ah, it is a grand life.’”

He would cry, “I am so happy I could walk on air. Tired? Never! God has made me strong. He has given me courage.” Roberts was truly a man of great joy and apparently an exhaustible supply of energy. However, the seeming invincibility of the moment ultimately gave way to exhaustion and extinction. He never dealt with his nervous temperament and, finally, the weight of the revival began to put a strain on him.

Roberts began to assume a false responsibility for all misconceptions or misconduct of the young converts of the revival. Some members of the Body of Christ had criticized the revival as shallow and not genuinely of the Spirit. The physical strain and growing disunity led to a shocking ending to Evan Robert’s ministry. He yielded to the compulsion to vindicate himself and validate his work instead of continuing the simple proclamation of the Gospel that had brought him such joy in the beginning.

When Roberts’ exhaustion and strain reached a high point, holiness writer Jesse Penn-Lewis and her husband offered him a place of retreat in their home. He accepted the “respite,” but ultimately became a complete recluse, never to be seen in society again. A lack of rest had once more killed a move of God.

Similarly, Aimee Semple McPherson allowed increasing exhaustion, recurring bouts of loneliness, and mounting levels of stress to provoke ill-timed decisions and bring periodic reproach upon her ministry from the public.

In regard to the rigors of full-time ministry of this type, David Harrell offered this assessment of some others who were engaged in it:

It was an exhausting, grinding, draining way of life. William Branham was a broken man after little more than a year; Jack Coe was physically exhausted at the time of his death; A. A. Allen, an incredibly tough campaigner, tottered constantly on the brink of psychological collapse; the resilience of Oral Roberts became a legend among his peers.

We have already seen that Mrs. John G. Lake died because of exhaustion and malnutrition. Lake himself grew so tired in South Africa, he often had to withdraw from ministry to recuperate. He frequently ministered six nights per week and twice on Sunday. He worked at such an accelerated pace that, coupled with the loneliness that followed his wife’s passing, he finally had to leave the mission field.

He said, “When I got on a ship to return to the United States after being in South Africa, my eyes turned blind, and I was a tottering wreck,” but God brought him through that perilous ordeal.

Time and time again, men and women of God in the midst of victory were snatched from their pursuits by exhaustion, illness, or even death. In May of 1948, just as he was beginning to attract world-wide attention, William Branham announced that he was ill and had to leave the evangelistic field. The long, grueling nights ministering to the sick had begun to take their toll.

In his last meeting, it was said that Branham was tottering and staggering from intense fatigue. He later told his constituents that he was suffering from nervous exhaustion because of the pressure of his work. It was later reported that the Mayo Clinic had rendered a verdict that he would never totally recover from “nerves” and stomach problems brought on by his father’s drinking.

Later fatigue, coupled with the need for affirmation, caused his stumble to become a fall. Branham too declared himself to be the “Elijah” prophesied in Scripture.

I have already documented how Jack Coe’s brutal schedule and carelessness in health led to an untimely death. Similarly, A. A. Allen’s marvelous ministry fell when “tireless dedication” took an apparent toll on his health. Once Allen spread himself too thin between crusades, television, a ministry center in Arizona, and a Bible school, apparently his human resources gave way, precipitating the craving for chemical help.

In America, for some unknown reason, we often act and feel as though it is spiritual to be overly busy for the Lord. However, it is my conclusion after studying revival history that once a person becomes too busy working for the Lord, he has little time to be with the Lord. Unless that situation is altered, the inevitable result is failure and defeat.