The Spirit and revival

One of the marks of revival seems to be the Holy Spirit melting the hard hearts of Christian believers.

A friend of our daughter's told my wife and I last weekend that she has become aware of a quiet and humble renewal underway in a Steinbach, Manitoba church.  The renewal was born in prayer as the church leaders sought God's direction.

An acquaintance told her that she visited the church a while ago and was struck by the key role of personal confession.  Evidently,  she was surprised by the things in her own life that the Holy Spirit brought to her mind.  She left the church a changed woman and now her own church is changing, too.

I have not been to that Manitoba church, but it sounds as if something significant is happening there.

Certainly, there is ample evidence in the Bible and in Christian history that revival must begin with believers.  The Holy Spirit starts with us.

In 2 Chronicles 7, God appears to Solomon in a vision and tells him in verse 14:  "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land."

That suggests to me that healing - or transformation - of our society starts with God's people repenting of their sin, praying and seeking God with all their heart.

In Nehemiah 8, Ezra reads from the scriptures to the Israelites returning to Jerusalem from exile and they are struck to the heart, many weeping.  They had wandered spiritually from the Lord.  But Nehemiah calls on them to find their joy and strength in God.

The story of Pentecost tells how the Holy Spirit convicted the Jewish people listening to the apostle Peter as they realized they were responsible for the crucifixion of the Messiah (Acts 2).  Many found Christ's mercy that day and became his followers.

In another post, I mentioned that, a few years after the Second World War, several church leaders on the Scottish island of Lewis were praying and reading scriptures as they sought how to bring the island's youth back to church.

Then, one of the elders fell on his knees and cried out: "God, are my hands clean?  Is my heart pure?  It is not the young people of this island that need reviving.  It's me!"

That started a four-year-long revival that affected the whole island.

I realize my own heart is not pure.  And I admit that confession sounds scary.

But I also know that God is merciful.  And he knows that I am weak.

I am convinced that the Spirit is gentle - but powerful.

When the Spirit moves, great things happen.

The Spirit's fingerprints

The Holy Spirit's fingerprints were all over the astonishing revival of 1857-58 in the United States.

It began very quietly with one man - Jeremiah Lanphier - praying: "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"  He was a layman, hired by the Old Dutch Church on Fulton Street, New York City, to reach out to the down-and-out in that city.

The revival continued on for more than a year with more than one million people becoming believers in a U.S. population of less than 30 million.

And, says Samuel I. Prime, this was a quiet, reverential revolution - no fanfare, no superstar preachers, no gimmicks to stir up emotions.  Prime, who was part of the revival, says in his book The Power of Prayer that laymen led this prayer movement that spread like sparks in a fire from New York to Florida and California.

Prime writes that this was a definite move of the Holy Spirit - nothing else can explain it.

Prime's book is a tonic for anyone who is discouraged or disillusioned with the world around us.  Anyone who feels that the church is doomed in North America needs to read this book.

Lanphier was a single man whose whole life was wrapped up in his ministry to the people of New York City.  He had become a believer at the age of 33, 15 years before the revival began.  He had been a businessman before becoming the Old Dutch Church's missionary to the inner city.

He was a very approachable, pleasant man and spent a lot of time on the streets talking to people and distributing tracts.  But his heart was heavy, feeling that he was only touching the surface.

That's when he began asking God what the Lord wanted him to do.

After praying, he felt he should open the doors of the church to businessmen in the area for prayer one day a week for one hour, beginning at 12 noon.  He distributed posters announcing the first prayer meeting on September 23, 1857.

He was the only one there for the first half hour.  Then, one person arrived and by the end of the hour there were six.  The six people were from different denominations - a trademark of that revival.

There were more people the next week.  And about 40 people attended the third weekly prayer gathering and there was so much enthusiasm that they decided to meet again the next day.

From then on, the businessmen met daily.  The prayer gatherings were very informal - everything was brief - the short talks and singing - because some people could only stay for as little as five minutes.

Very quickly, it became apparent that many people attending were not believers, but were under deep conviction of sin.  There were a growing number of conversions.

Ministers started attending - though laymen were prayer leaders - and the prayer gatherings spread to other churches in New York.  Before long, there were 150 prayer centres - some in churches, some in secular buildings in New York.  Thousands were participating.

Then, in 1858, the revival spread to Philadelphia.  Then, on to New England.  Then, west to Chicago.  Before long, every corner of the nation was touched by this Spirit-led movement.

The revival did not go unnoticed by the media.  First, the church press and then the secular press began reporting on the revival.

Prime asserts that the 1857-58 revival was different from previous revivals because there was no dominating human leader and it was lay-led.  As well, people from all denominations worked together - putting aside their differences to worship their Lord and Saviour and pray.

It was a humble, Spirit-led revival.

An example and inspiration for us today.

God can!

I can't - but God can!

Jesus told his followers in Matthew 19:26 that what is impossible for human beings is possible for God - all things are possible!

For prayer people like me, this is a very important message from Jesus.  It is  message we need to hear because it is easy to get discouraged.

Perhaps your family problem is getting worse instead of better.  Or, your church seems to be on the verge of falling apart. Or, the world around you appears to be more Satan's playground than God's.

Of course, there's no guarantee that God will put a bandaid on your problem - or mine - and that it will get better right away.

But we are promised in 1 John 5:14-15 that when we ask something according to his will, he will give us what we request.

Sometimes, it takes time - God's timing.  The children of Israel called out in anguish to God under Egyptian slavery for 400 years before the Lord sent Moses to deliver them.  And Hebrews 11 tells us that many great believers prayed for the messiah for hundreds of years before Jesus came.

That may not be comforting if you have a serious problem now.

There are, of course, many wonderful answers to prayer that happen quickly.  The lame, the halt and the blind called out to Jesus for healing - a form of prayer - and were instantly cured.

A handful of prayer warriors prayed for some years for revival on the Scottish island of Lewis after the Second World War and were rewarded by an awesome display of God's power with many giving their lives to the Lord.  This happened in the lifetime of these praying people.

The great thing about God is that he can surprise us at any time.  No one would have picked timid, fearful Gideon to be the saviour of Israel against the Midianite hordes, but he was.  In the process, God showed Gideon and the Israelites that they won because of his power, not theirs.

The Bible is one long story of weak people casting themselves on God in desperation and seeing their prayers answered in astounding ways.

The lesson I draw from all this is that I must not give up praying.  No prayer is wasted.  It will be answered in God's way and in God's timing.

Jesus said as much in Luke 18 in his parable of the persistent widow.  He told his listeners we must persevere in our prayers as a widow did who plagued an unjust judge with her pleas for justice until he gave in and granted her wishes.

And, even though it took a long time, God told Moses at the burning bush in the wilderness that he had heard the prayers of the suffering Israelites in Egypt and was acting in response. (Exodus 3:7-9)

So, how am I to pray when things look bleak?

First, I must seek God and ask him for his guidance on how to pray in that situation.  I must look for the Holy Spirit's illumination as I read the scriptures and listen to his promptings in my everyday life. Perhaps the Lord will gradually change my prayers as time goes by and he reveals his will to me.

Next, I must continue praying until I see God's answer.

Finally, I must never lose faith that God has heard my prayer and that my prayer matters.

I must never lose sight of the fact that God can do the impossible.

Maybe I can't - but God can.

The 100-year prayer meeting

In 1727, the Moravians of Herrnhut launched a 24-hour-a-day prayer meeting that lasted for 100 years.

In the process, the prayer movement sparked missionary activity that touched all corners of the world. And it helped transform the life of John Wesley, a founder and leader in the amazing Methodist revival in England in the mid-to-late 1700s.

That influence is still felt today.  In fact, the embers of that long-ago movement are now bursting into flame again as prayer leaders in England and the United States are calling prayer warriors to intense prayer for the world.

Intercessory prayer centres are springing up throughout the Western world.  A number of houses of prayer have emerged across the United States and Canada where people go for prayer throughout the day and night.

As is often the case, the Holy Spirit seemed to move among a number of different people in the years leading up to the Moravian prayer revival.

Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf, who was key to the Moravian prayer movement, was influenced by his godfather Jacob Spener, a German Pietist, who urged evangelical Christians to form small Bible study and prayer groups, forerunners of similar efforts today.  Spener had a big influence on Halle University where Von Zinzendorf studied.

In his book The Power of Extraordinary Prayer, Robert O. Bakke writes that Von Zinzendorf gave sanctuary on his property in Saxony to oppressed Moravian Christians.  He was disturbed that disputes erupted in the Moravian community and convinced them that they should focus on what they could agree upon.

He drew up a covenant for the group and called on everyone to join together in united and sustained prayer.  God began moving among them and on August 13, 1727, "the Holy Spirit was poured out on the whole community, transforming it by an enormous work of grace," writes Bakke.

From then on, there were people praying in the community round-the-clock for 100 years.

The people caught a vision for missions and went out sacrificially around the world, many of them dying while spreading the gospel.  They worked with indigenous people and slaves in the United States, living with them.

In fact, James Goll writes in The Lost Art of Intercession that John Wesley was deeply impressed by the demeanour of a group of Moravian missionaries headed to the American colonies by ship.  He watched as they served others on board who needed help, did not retaliate when attacked, and remained calm and worshipful in the midst of a frightening storm.

Later, Wesley attended a Moravian prayer meeting in London and was converted to Christ that night.

Goll and Pete Greig, author of Red Moon Rising, tell of their own personal experiences in visiting the little village of Herrnhut in recent years.  Both were moved and say that their visits played a significant part in their own determination to encourage Christians to pray for the world around them.

Greig founded 24-7 Prayer International in 1999 and this youth-led venture has gone viral with prayer cells just about everywhere in the world.

The Moravian Christians were doing something that Jesus' disciples did after Christ's ascension to heaven, just before the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost: They spent their days in prayer.

Imagine what will happen if Christians everywhere band together to pray for God's kingdom to advance throughout our nations today.