在过去一段日子，我们都在思想关于复兴的各种问题，现在我们来到这讨论的中段，让我们先停下来，提醒自己一些我们考虑过的重点。我们曾说过，复兴是神弯下腰，向快将熄灭的余烬吹气，令牠再次燃烧起来。五旬节是所有复兴的模式，那是神以超越寻常的现象作出超然的显现。神希望新约教会能有全面的复苏，并利用复兴来达到这个目的。我们为何须要复兴呢？原因是教会远离了当初的爱，堕进衰败中。当复兴来临时，有时只需要数星期就可达到正常基督徒活动需要数年才能实现的事情。

我们所要考虑的下一个问题是：复兴是如何开始的？牠是否在虔诚的基督徒心里形成，然后透过彼此恳切有力的代祷去实现？还是不论神的百姓如何的渴望或祷告，都是由神决定是否要赐下？

我可以清楚的告诉你，我认为复兴是始于神的心意，牠是神的计划，人可以做的很少。有很多事情是基督徒可以借着委身和属灵的力量带给教会的，但这不包括复兴在内。例如：传福音、讲道、教导和辅导都是我们为神所做的工作，不过复兴却是神为我们而赐下的。

Now that we are at the half-way point in our meditations on revival we pause for a moment to remind ourselves of some of the points we have been considering. Revival, we have said, is God bending down to the dying embers of a fire just about to go out and breathing into it until it bursts again into flame. The pattern for all revivals is Pentecost, which was an extraordinary visitation of God accompanied by extraordinary happenings. God is after the recovery of a fully-orbed New Testament Christianity and He has invariably used revivals to this end. The reason why we need revival is because the Church turns from its first love and falls into decline. And when revival comes it achieves, sometimes in a few weeks, what could never have been achieved in years of normal Christian activity.

The next question we must consider is this: How does a revival begin? Is it something that forms in the minds of devoted Christian people and is then brought into being through powerful intercessory prayer? Or is it something that originates in the mind of God and comes down to earth irrespective of the desires or the prayer life of His people?

I have no hesitation in saying that in my opinion revival begins in the mind of God. It is something that God plans, men and women have little to do with it. There are many things that Christians, by dedicated and committed spiritual effort, can bring to pass in the Church, but revival is not one of them. For instance, evangelism, preaching, teaching, and counselling is work that we do for God, revival is work that God does for us.