Rivers of living water flow out of people, not places. Having rivers of living water flow out of your innermost being is about the best description of revival that I can think of. Revival happens to and in people. If rivers of living water start coming forth from a person’s life, then that person is in revival. Living water is very contagious and very thirst-quenching. One person’s experience of a well of water springing up in them into the realization and manifestation of the eternal life that Jesus lives will spread to the life of others around them. If the collective atmosphere, even unspoken, is pregnant enough with a desperate thirst, the spread of others entering into the release of living waters flowing forth from them can happen rapidly and massively, but we are still talking about persons entering into revival. The Asbury revival was not an Asbury revival; it started out with one person sitting in the chapel thirsty for more, having a breakthrough, or breaking forth within them of rivers of the life of the Holy Spirit. The result was another student realizing their own thirst and drinking from Jesus also entered in. Rapidly, like an uncontained fire, many others stepped into the outbreak. Every “revival” in history happened this way. This group of people were living in Asbury, but it was a revival of persons who happened to live there.
Evan Roberts had been personally experiencing the outflow of the divine inflow for some time as he prayed for the revival that he was experiencing to break out into a massive move of God in the nation of Wales. The atmosphere became very pregnant with thirst and expectation, and one Sunday in a small church, a 14-year-old girl stood up and began to sing as rivers of living water flowed out of her. The result was that the entire congregation took the plunge, which then spread throughout the country. I’m saying all this to say that one person can be walking in true revival even if no one else around them is yet experiencing the release. Rivers of living water come out of a person, which can spread to many people because of the living testimony of one fully quenched thirsty heart. Don’t just sit around and wait for the Holy Spirit to fall on a group in a particular place. Be that one who, in surrendered childlike faith, allows the rivers of the Holy Spirit to break forth in your life. Be a person in revival. Stop waiting on God. He’s been waiting on you. John 7:37 – 39, “… If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink, he who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” – “But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” He’s already been given. God’s promise has already been kept. All you have to be is thirsty, and drink deeply.