It is not a miracle, or dependent on a miracle, in any sense. It is a purely philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means—-as much so as any other effect produced by the application of means. There may be a miracle among its antecedent causes, or there may not. The apostles employed miracles, simply as a means by which they arrested attention to their message, and established its Divine authority. But the miracle was not the revival. The miracle was one thing; the revival that followed it was quite another thing. The revivals in the apostles' days were connected with miracles, but they were not miracles.
I said that a revival is the result of the right use of the appropriate means.
Those are the words of Charles Finney from his Lectures on Revivals of Religion.
I say that Finney is dead wrong. Dangerously wrong.
But Finney's words here serve as the philosophical precursor to countless church growth strategies today and the prevailing church growth framework in general. As a sort of churched version of "If you build it, they will come," this approach to the expectation of revival renders the supernatural natural and the providential pragmatic. Finney and his many modern spin-offs conflate the work of the preacher with the work of the word. They confuse the minister's required work with the Lord's free prerogative. It is God who says, "I will cause breath to enter you" (Ezek. 37:5), and that, when he does, "You shall know that I am the Lord" (v. 6). When the result is worship of God, the credit does not go to the leader but to God. The entire leadership enterprise, the entire purpose of revival, is the knowing of God and the enjoying of his sovereign lordship.
By way of contrast to Finney, enter the wisdom of Martyn Lloyd-Jones:
A revival is a miracle. It is a miraculous, exceptional phenomenon. It is the hand of the Lord, and it is mighty. A revival, in other words, is something that can only be explained as the direct action and intervention of God. It was God alone who could divide the Red Sea. It was God alone who could divide the waters of the river of Jordan. These were miracles. Hence the reminder of God's unique action of the mighty acts of God. And revivals belong to that category… . These events belong to the order of things that men cannot produce. Men can produce evangelistic campaigns, but they cannot and never have produced a revival. (Revival, 1987)
This knowledge ought both to humble us and to embolden us.
(Adapted from The Storytelling God, pp.137-138)