Am I Having A Real Revival Experience?

One of the most popular posts we have ever made on Revival Journal is one entitled How Can I Know If I Am Having A Real Revival Experience? As we continue to hear reports from all around the world on the fire of God being poured out on His people, I thought I would take the time to repost it here for those who haven't read it.
How Can I Know If I Am Having A Real Revival Experience?
Revival.
It's a very caustic word to some.
It's a source or irritation to others.
But to those of us who are hungry and desperate to find a closer walk with God, it's the central focus of our eating, our drinking, our praying, our preaching and teaching…it's all we think about 24/7! At least, it's all I think about 24 hours a day, seven days a week!
But before real revival comes, and sometimes simultaneously, satan will send a counterfeit "revival" to try to discredit the true.
We have all heard the stories of wild antics being done in the name of a move of God; barking like dogs, roaring like a lion, people contorting their bodies in almost a demonic fashion. Then battle lines are drawn and people get confused over what constitutes a true move of the Spirit and what is not. Then the tendency is to simply discredit everything and throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I found these notes Jonathan Edwards wrote many years ago that need to be a guide for us as we continue to seek after and then experience a true revival experience.

How Can I Know If I Am Having A Real Revival Experience?

1. A real revival experience will raise the esteem of Jesus. People talk about "building the Kingdom" and say "it's all about Jesus"; when in reality it's all about their kingdom or their denomination. I am very disturbed by what I see happening in the American church as many mega churches are planting satellite campuses in different cities, beaming in the face a one man. Soon if this trend continues, there will only be 50 "true" pastors left in the US in the fifty major cities of the country! Every other pastor will be "useless to the "kingdom"! What happened to building people up into the image of Jesus and then releasing them to obey and glorify Jesus with their lives?
Please understand, I am NOT against big churches; if those churches are getting big winning the lost and not simply grabbing other churches parishioners!
When the Holy Ghost really begins to move they way we want Him to move and we need Him to move, He will not glorify a man or a building or a denomination: the Holy Ghost ALWAYS brings the focus and the attention and the recognition to rest on Jesus!

2. Real revival will impel people away from sin and lust. Real revival brings real change! Real revival brings all glory and honor to Jesus and will cause people to be sickened over the sad state of our culture, our nation and our world! When you can go to church, speak in tongues, fall out in the Spirit and then go home and cuss your wife out for burning the supper, watch naked people doing the wild thing on TV, hear people use God's name in vain and not be grieved…you've not experienced real revival!
3. Real Revival will lead people back to the teachings of the Bible. That's a real novel thought; the Bible! Not the next great book from Zondervan or Multnomah!
I remember reading about Lester Sumerall going to see Smith Wigglesworth on time. As Sumerall knocked on the door, Smith opened it up and said, "…you can leave your newspaper outside and come in!"

4. People are lead to truth instead of error. I realize, I am only seeing one part, therefore I can only prophecy one part! Yet a real revival will not only lead me back to truth, it will give me a hunger for the truth, to know it and be set free!
John 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, [then] are ye my disciples indeed;
John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

5. Real revival will promote love among people. Prejudice will cease. Fighting will stop. Politicians will work for the people and not their own agendas! Preachers will love people and not jockey for a greater position within their denomination. Preachers will stop being charlatans, and will preach the Good News for the Love of God and not the love of money!
Father I pray for such a mighty move of your Spirit to come to America all will know that Jesus is in the house!!!!