Revival Fire By Wesley Duewel

Review by Rob Lee

“I have read, researched, and recorded the movements of God in revival throughout more than fifty years of ministry, and I have prayed and preached to see revival in our time. I have been privileged to discuss this vital subject with men like Evan Roberts of the Welsh revival (1904-1905), Duncan Campbell of the Hebrides revival (1949-53, 1957) and in more recent years Dr. Edwin Orr, whose works on revival are classics. …but nothing has stirred my heart to pray and preach for a might invasion of the Holy Spirit in our time like Revival Fire. My friend Wesley Duewel has compiled, in brief chapters, a mass of material on revival that informs the mind and ignites the heart. No pastor, lay leader or church member should fail to read this book.”

So quotes Stephen F. Olford of the Stephen Olford Center for Biblical Preaching in the forward of “Revival Fire”, by Wesley Duewel. While I have not spoken with the types of people who experienced previous revivals as has Mr. Olford, I certainly agree with his conclusion.

I have read a number of books on revivals, past and recent. I have read more on the need for revival and things to do to promote revival. Some were good, some not-so-good. For me, this book was the best.

The thing that I enjoyed most about this book is that it was easy to read and well-paced. The revival narratives were concise and told the overall story in a way that helped me to catch a glimpse of what it must have been like to be involved.

No single revival narrative was longer than ten pages. So, it was easy to sit down and read about a particular revival in one sitting. There are a few that enticed me to want to get more information about, but I could do that at other times. It was enjoyable to read about a Holy Spirit revival as a part of my quiet time, kind of like reading another chapter to the book of Acts.

Duewel does include some characteristics of revival in the narrations, but fortunately they are not long or overwhelming. Because the goal was to communicate the extent and variety of revivals throughout history, any “how-to” would have interrupted the flow of the revival events.

Another really strong feature of these revival accounts is that they include revivals other than the most well-know and most-documented revivals. While the book includes the noted revivals under Wesley, Whitefield, and Finney, it does not, for example, include the Moravian or Azusa Street revivals. Instead, the book reports on revivals from all parts of the world. Some of the revivals included the waves of revivals that swept South Africa (1860, 1868, 1870, 1884 and 1889); the Mukti revival, which began near Pune, India in the early 1900’s and spread to much of central and southern India; the Korean Presbyterian Pentecost, which began in 1907 in Pyongyang; and one of the greatest revivals of the 20 th century, the Shantung revival in Northern China, in 1932.

It was particularly interesting and encouraging to learn that the great India revivals were birthed near Pune, where our church now supports a ministry to the most needy in that city, as well as that a Canadian missionary helped to plant the seeds of revival in the Shantung revival.

The one common denominator about revival that impacted me again was the absolute priority for consistent prayer. I’m not yet sure how I am going to change my life to make prayer for revival more of a priority, but I know I must.

This book was very encouraging to me. I want to see the people of our church in revival. I want to see people saved and lives transformed. Reading accounts of regular people who were hungry to see God come and change their nation challenged me to believe for the same thing in Canada, right now.

I recommend without reservation this book to everyone who desires to see God’s Kingdom come and His will be done, on earth (in Canada, in Toronto) as it is in heaven.