The spiritual condition in Judah at the time was so bad that the temple was in gross disrepair and the Word of God had been lost potentially for fifty-seven years, which was the combined reign of the previous two wicked kings. Judah needed a spiritual revival. So, in the eighteenth year of his reign, Josiah began repairing the temple. For spiritual revival there must be proper worship.

A professing Christian feels far from God, usually due to a recurring sin, their neglect of the gathering of the saints, or because of a trial they are going through. Whatever the case, they feel like they’ve been in a dark spiritual valley, but then they’re invited to a retreat and everything changes. They’re in the woods for several days, disconnected from the outside world and the internet, surrounded by Christians, experiencing powerful worship maybe even with a live band, and they’re hearing clear gospel messages with strong appeals for them to dedicate or rededicate themselves to Christ—and so they do.

As they’re in the woods, in the car on the way back home, and for a short time after the retreat, they are once again on fire for the Lord. But then their spiritual fervor begins decrease, and it doesn’t take long for them to be right back in the same spiritual desert that they were in before. Sometimes they’re even worse off. But then next year’s retreat rolls around, and they have another mountaintop experience, only this one doesn’t last as long as the previous one. What gives? Why doesn’t the mountaintop experience produce a lasting effect?

Before we answer the question, we want to make sure that we’re not overgeneralizing. There are many who have the mountaintop experience at a retreat, are truly saved or truly return back to the Lord after a season of backsliding, and have their lives changed forever. Those experiences, however, seem to be the minority compared to the fleeting flash-in-the-pan experience described above.

The same is true of the modern “revivals” that have happened sporadically at college campuses the past few years. There’s a huge buzz for a week or two and then they fade away with no discernable lasting fruit.

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