Many Christians are looking for revival. Unfortunately, they do not understand what they need, so they are looking for the wrong thing. Most expect a bulk movement of the Holy Spirit in which millions of people will be touched by God in an instant. One reason that Christians like this form of revival is that it comes spontaneously from the outside. We do not need to anything. That last point may be the reason why it has not happened.

The Holy Spirit sometimes hits a big group of people all together at once, but that is relatively rare. The Day of Pentecost is one example. The Holy Spirit fell on 120 people all at once, but that is not normal. God was kicking off the age of the Spirit with a lively start.

The other bulk ministry is described in Acts 10, when Peter was preaching to the family and friends of Cornelius. The Holy Spirit hit all the believers at once, but this situation was unique, because God was trying to "kick start" the apostles to take the gospel to Gentiles.

Seeking for a revival in which God does bulk action will lead to disappointment. It probably will not happen.

The usual experience in the New Testament is quite different. God mostly touched people one at a time in twos or threes.

Where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them (Matt 18:20).

The Holy Spirit prefers to work with groups of two or three. They must come together in Jesus name. That means that they are acting on his behalf, representing him to others. When a couple of people come together to represent Jesus, the Holy Spirit will be present with them.

Here is how it works. One person, or two friends, who are walking in the Spirit meet another person. That person is touched by the Spirit and turns to God. For example, in Acts 3 describes an incident where Peter and John met a lame man. They prayed for him and he was healed. I presume that he decided to follow Jesus. Only three people were involved, two of them Christians.

Philip was full of the Spirit when he met the Ethiopian politician on the South Road (Acts 8:26-40). The Holy Spirit touched the Ethiopians heart and he was baptised.

Even the 3,000 people, who were baptised on the Day of Pentecost would have been baptised one at a time by a couple of Christians. As they prayed for each person, they were filled with the Spirit.

In most the events described in the Book of Acts, one or two people walking in the Spirit ministered to an unbeliever. The person touched, healed, delivered chose to follow Jesus.

Sometimes a crowd would watch. Some would to go a Christian or pair of Christians and ask them about what they had seen. If the Spirit is with them, the seeker will be drawn to Jesus.

Sometimes the person touched will tell their friends. If someone is interested, the person who was touched will take them to meet with another Christian. If the Holy Spirit is present, the inquirer will be touched by him.

When Jesus sent out the seven-two disciples, they went in pairs. They were his representatives. The Holy Spirit went with them and did mighty works. The key to his presence is two or three Christians going out into the world as representatives of Jesus. (See Power Pairs).

Understanding this is important. If the Holy Spirit prefers to work through two or people who are committed to serving Jesus, then we need to find ways to get together with Christian friends. If the Holy Spirit wants to minister to another person, the pair of Christians will have to go to the place where they can find the unbeliever.

If the pair of Christians are not together, then the Holy Spirit cannot move. If the pair of believers are together but not in the same place as the unbeliever, the Holy Spirit cannot move. If the pair are in the right place, but they do not identify the person that the Holy Spirit wants to touch, the Holy Spirit will not be able to move.

Being led by the Holy Spirit is essential:

For this to happen, we must learn how to recognise the presence of the Holy Spirit. We will need to learn how to sense what he wants to do and who he wants to touch.

One day as Jesus was teaching... And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick (Luke 5:17).

The presence of the Holy Spirit was there for a different purpose that day. Often he inspired Jesus to teach. This day he was there to heal and Jesus recognised it.

This is the way that things happened in the New Testament. This is the way that the Holy Spirit prefers to work. If we want to be part of his move, then we must be willing to do things his way.

Here is a personal question. You will have been to church meeting and prayer meetings many times in the last year, but when did you get together with a couple of believers in response to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and go the place where he was led and look for a person he wanted to touch? Your answer to that question probably explains why you have not seen revival.

The Holy Spirit generally touches one person at a time. However, a multiplication process allows the number of being touched can increase rapidly. If the number of people willing to carry his presence into the world increases quickly, the process can snowball and grow into a mighty move of God. However, the pattern remains the same. A couple of a people are used by the Holy Spirit to touch another. Revival comes as that process is repeated thousands of times among many people in many places.

Instead of looking for bulk Holy Spirit moves, Christians should get together in pairs or trios and be led by him to the place where he wants to move and to the person that the wants touch. The Holy Spirit moves when two or three people get together in the place where he wants to be. If a couple of them are filled with the Spirit and one is hungry, the Holy Spirit can do his stuff.

This material is developed further in a book called Being Church Where We Live