Revival Can Happen Again

I thought for a time that I had a good idea on spiritual revival, but I have come to think I missed the boat. What instigates, causes, or feeds spiritual revival is something that has interested me for several years. I’m interested in the course of Quakerism today, but more broadly, I see a need for more people in the world who exert a positive influence on society around them. The early days of Quakerism, which had a background of major changes in society and the English Civil War, was certainly a time that needed what the early Quaker movement provided, and we can still recognize the outsized influence of that early movement. In some respects, those times in society were not that different from today.

I’ve pondered how and why that came to be, puzzled over what might bring that kind of energy into our current times, and had an idea. My thinking went something like this: the energy of any spiritual movement comes from individuals who are close to God, or the Spirit. Early Quakers would have acknowledged the special, even unique relationship that Jesus had with God, and it was said of George Fox that he walked closer to God than other men. If we look at the lives of other influential spiritual and religious figures, we see that the way they became who they were was a result of their search for God, as it was for Fox. Although they may have been doing different things in their practice, it was driven by a strong desire to know God or to be closer to that Spirit. 

I understand their search for God to mean that they weren’t content with accepting whatever beliefs about God they found most satisfying, but they endeavored to have God reveal Him-, Her-, or Itself to them directly in their own experience. As Bible followers, they no doubt would have read the invitation to “take my yoke upon you, and learn of me,” or they would have followed Isaac Penington’s injunction to give over thine own willing, give over thine own running, give over thine own desiring to do or to be anything, and sink down to the seed which God sows in the heart and let that grow in thee, and be in thee, and breathe in thee, and act in thee.” Through persistent seeking, they would have established a relationship with God, much as we establish relationships with other people. Just as our human relationships are strengthened by being tested, their faith grew in strength. What they learned from God directly may have been different from what they heard described by preachers, and it may not have been a knowing that was easily articulated, because they were attempting to see into a spiritual realm. I believe the result of their efforts, however, showed in their lives: in a transformation followed by others’ recognition of their being a “weighty Friend,” one who had a quality of discernment that others could trust and which drew others to the movement. Seeking God transformed their lives, and their lives transformed others and changed the society around them.

Where did they find God? Fox had looked and asked everywhere before coming to his insight that God could teach him directly. And he was certainly familiar with the passage in Luke where Jesus tells the Pharisees that the kingdom of God was within. Fox must have explored the meaning of that in himself and in promoting the contemplative worship of Friends. He reiterated that understanding when he advised others that God was to be found by quiet exploration of their inner selves. Fox wrote: “These things you must all find within, there is your peace, and there refreshing comes into your souls from the Lord.”

This is where I began pondering about motivation for God-seeking. Historically the Christian church has used the promise of heaven and the threat of hell as motivation for at least good behavior, if not an actual relationship with God. Those who manage organizations have researched motivation. Could there be modest but more tangible goals that could motivate people to put more effort into their spiritual practice? I built a workshop proposal around this for a Friends General Conference (FGC) Gathering and presented the workshop, but in reviewing it, I had serious doubts that it had accomplished anything. So the question of what motivates a regular spiritual practice that might lead to an intimate relationship with the Spirit was still unanswered.

More recently, I’ve come to think that I was blind to the real workings of the Spirit. Working through courses on Contemplative Listening and Fundamentals of Spiritual Direction have given me an insight that was revelatory (though I’m not sure why it should have been). The insight was that the Spirit is already at work in every individual, coaxing each into a deeper relationship, and whatever effort I might offer to build motivation pales, because that Spirit itself will do the work. So what is our place in this much larger movement of the Spirit to connect with us more consciously and to lead and empower us to build the more perfect world that I think is the divine plan? We need to become more aware of the presence of God in our everyday lives and see the movement of the Spirit in the world’s affairs. But we need help to do that. If it were easy and obvious we would be doing it already, and that is where we can help one another in our community, whether that is our Quaker circle or the people we meet every day.

I think this search for God is not exactly what we often mean by discernment. We have innumerable questions about the choices we have to make, how to resolve problems, and what movements or organizations we should support or participate in, but underlying that is simply being with God who is the Source of all being. I do seek answers and insights to many questions in life, but that presumes I know the right questions to ask. And over time, in just being with God, there is some alchemy of transformation that takes place. It may not be as dramatic as Saul’s experience on the road to Damascus, but a change takes place. 

And how would this happen? I said I thought that a workshop and motivational theory were not that helpful. I think it takes place in community by encouraging and helping one another. It doesn’t require theologians because the individuals must find their own insights. It doesn’t require a teacher, but it does require loving one another; not judging one another; or in contemporary language, holding one another with unconditional positive regard. And all our Quaker testimonies are found in this mutual support: “simplicity,” because it doesn’t require special knowledge, and the conversations are best supported with simple, open questions; “peace,” because it requires gentleness and echoes James Nayler’s statement of feeling a Spirit that “takes its kingdom with entreaty, and not with contention.” Holding to what we learn and know from our own experience is “integrity.” And of course “community” and “equality” exhibit in this peer-to-peer work that doesn’t require a priest, minister, or an authority on spirituality or religion.

I’m convinced that God desires a creation characterized by love, joy, and wholeness, but it’s up to human beings to develop that while we’re engaged here in the world. In Penington’s quote, he goes on to note that as we sink down into the seed we should “let it grow in thee and act in thee; and thou shalt find by sweet experience that the Lord knows and loves and owns that and will lead it to the inheritance of life which is its portion.” In looking back on my spiritual journey, I think it’s been more important to give up the striving and even the questions, and to spend time in just being with the Seed or Spirit to find that, in time, God has raised up a different person from who was there before and has brought me into new life. That has been a personal revival, and I think serious God-seeking could begin a larger spiritual revival as well. George Fox saw a great people waiting to be gathered. In our time, we see an increasing number of people who identify as spiritual but not religious, and the Spirit is still working to gather them. It has happened before. It can happen again.