Sun, Sep 16th - 11:59AM
37 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
George Whitefield - Revival Preacher by Stan K Evers
Struggling to achieve salvation through his own efforts, the Gloucester-born student, George Whitefield, at the age of twenty, read 'The Life of God in the Soul of Man', written by a 17th century Puritan divine, Henry Scougal. Near death for seven weeks because of his constant fasting, Whitefield learnt from this book that it is Christ's dying and not our doing that gives the sinner acceptance with God. Whitefield wrote in his Journal, 'God was pleased to remove the heavy load, to enable me to lay hold of his dear Son by a living faith. With what joy - joy unspeakable - was my soul filled!' This great event took place in the spring of 1735 - three years before John and Charles Wesley trusted Christ alone for salvation.
Fifteen 'mad people'
Ordained on June 20th 1736; a week later, Whitefield preached his first sermon at St. Mary de Crypt, Gloucester. 'Fifteen people were driven mad' complained some of his hearers to the Bishop who responded with the wish that the madness would not wear off before next Sunday. These first fifteen conversions paved the way for a ministry spanning thirty-five years throughout Great Britain and in thirteen American colonies. Historians estimate that Whitefield preached 18,000 sermons before he died.
George Whitefield preaching
Miners in tears
After a visit to America in 1738, Whitefield returned to England to find closed Anglican pulpits because of his powerful Spirit-anointed preaching. J. C. Ryle, the first Bishop of Liverpool wrote, 'The Church was too much asleep to understand him, and was vexed at a man who would not keep still and let the devil alone'. The pulpit ban became a blessing in disguise when Whitefield took to open-air preaching. The evangelist described his first open-air preaching in his Journal: 'I hastened to Kingswood [Bristol]. There were about 10,000 people to hear me. The trees and hedges were full. All was hush when I began; the sun shone bright and God enabled me to preach for an hour with great power, and so loudly that all, I was told, could hear me. The fire is kindled in this country and I know all the devils in hell shall not be able to quench it'. Miners, just up from the mines, listened and the tears flowed making white gutters down their coal-black faces. Whitefield's preaching gave birth to the 18th century Evangelical Revival.
The preacher
Eyewitnesses speak of Whitefield's eloquence, envied even by actors such as David Garrick who said 'I would give a £100 to say "Oh" like George Whitefield'. Pennsylvania's Benjamin Franklin, a publisher and a Quaker with little spiritual interest in the evangelist's message gave a glowing report of his preaching. 'The multitudes of all sects and denominations that attended his sermons were enormous. I observed the extraordinary influence of his oratory on his hearers, and how much they admired and respected him, notwithstanding his common abuse of them' - he called his hearers sinners! The changed lives of Whitefield's hearers impressed Franklin even more than the preacher's oratory. An American farmer who heard Whitefield preach wrote, 'He looked almost angelical, a young slim tender youth. He looked as if he was clothed with authority from the great God. A sweet solemnity sat upon his brow. My hearing him preach gave me a heart wound. ... I saw that my righteousness would not save me'. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones called Whitefield 'the greatest preacher that England has ever produced'.
The Message
George Whitefield skillfully adapted his message to his hearers - the noisy crowds on London's Kennington Common and at Moorfields and the aristocrats in the home of Selina, the Countess of Huntingdon. He believed that the unchanging gospel is 'the power of God' for all sorts of sinners (Rom. 1:16).
What was Whitefield's message? The doctrines known as Calvinism: the depravity of sinners and the freeness of God's grace; he rejoiced in the substitutionary atonement of Christ for God's elect; he proclaimed that all those for whom Christ died will persevere to the end of their lives and will then be glorified in heaven. Where did he learn these truths? 'My doctrines I had from Jesus Christ and His apostles; I was taught them of God', he wrote, and added two years later, 'I embrace the Calvinistic scheme, not because Calvin, but Jesus Christ, has taught it to me'. Whitefield, the convinced Calvinist, preached the gospel earnestly and persuasively urging and commanding sinners to go to Jesus Christ for salvation. A mark of revival is heartfelt gospel preaching whether the preacher is a Calvinist, such as George Whitefield, or an Arminian, such as John Wesley - both men preached that salvation is through Christ alone.
'I die to be with him'
Whitefield died, during an asthmatic attack, in America on Sunday morning September 30th 1769, having reached the age of 55, and was buried at Newbury Port, New England. Shortly before dying he said, 'Lord Jesus, I am weary in the work, but not of it. If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for You once more in the fields and come home to die'. God answered this prayer and he preached for two hours. While preaching this last sermon he cried out, 'Works! Works! A man get to heaven by works! I would as soon as think of climbing to the moon on a rope of sand! How willingly would I live forever to preach Christ, but I die to be with him'.
The Secret of Whitefield's Success
1. Natural eloquence - a gift from God - used by the power of God's Holy Spirit.
2. Fellowship with God. Whitefield gives us a glimpse in his Journal of his walk with God. 'Early in the morning, at noonday, evening and midnight, nay, all day long, did the blessed Jesus visit and refresh my soul. At other times I would be overpowered with a sense of God's Infinite Majesty'.
3. Godliness. 'Above all he was a great saint, and Wesley and others bore tribute to this during his life and his death. This was the ultimate secret of his preaching power' (Lloyd-Jones).
4. Concern for the lost and the conviction that sinners are in danger of an everlasting hell.
5. Wholehearted commitment to God. 'If ever a man burnt himself out in the service of God, it was Whitefield. He was tireless and relentless in his efforts to win souls. Throughout his life he enjoyed the presence of God in his preaching. Even on his last day in this world he preached, though he was very ill. He was a man whose sole desire was to preach Christ crucified' (Nigel Clifford, Christian Preachers, Bryntirion Press).
Comment (0)
|
Sat, Sep 15th - 10:57AM
38 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
1904 - 1905
That movement lasted for a generation, but at the turn of the century there was need of awakening again. A general movement of prayer began, with special prayer meetings at Moody Bible Institute, at Keswick Conventions in England, and places as far apart as Melbourne, Wonsan in Korea, and the Nilgiri Hills of India. So all around the world believers were praying that there might be another great awakening in the twentieth century.
* * * * * * *
In the revival of 1905, I read of a young man who became a famous professor, Kenneth Scott Latourette. He reported that, at Yale in 1905, 25% of the student body were enrolled in prayer meetings and in Bible study.
As far as churches were concerned, the ministers of Atlantic City reported that of a population of fifty thousand there were only fifty adults left unconverted.
Take Portland in Oregon: two hundred and forty major stores closed from 11 to 2 each day to enable people to attend prayer meetings, signing an agreement so that no one would cheat and stay open.
Take First Baptist Church of Paducah in Kentucky: the pastor, an old man, Dr J. J. Cheek, took a thousand members in two months and died of overwork, the Southern Baptists saying, 'a glorious ending to a devoted ministry.'
That is what was happening in the United States in 1905. But how did it begin?
* * * * * * *
Most people have heard of the Welsh Revival which started in 1904. It began as a movement of prayer.
Seth Joshua, the Presbyterian evangelist, came to Newcastle Emlyn College where a former coal miner, Evan Roberts aged 26, was studying for the ministry. The students were so moved that they asked if they could attend Joshua's next campaign nearby. So they cancelled classes to go to Blaenanerch where Seth Joshua prayed publicly, 'O God, bend us.'
Evan Roberts went forward where he prayed with great agony, 'O God, bend me.'
Upon his return he could not concentrate on his studies. He went to the principal of his college and explained, 'I keep hearing a voice that tells me I must go home and speak to our young people in my home church. Principal Phillips, is that the voice of the devil or the voice of the Spirit?'
Principal Phillips answered wisely, 'The devil never gives orders like that. You can have a week off.'
So he went back home to Loughor and announced to the pastor, 'I've come to preach.'
The pastor was not at all convinced, but asked, 'How about speaking at the prayer meeting on Monday?'
He did not even let him speak to the prayer meeting, but told the praying people, 'Our young brother, Evan Roberts, feels he has a message for you if you care to wait.'
Seventeen people waited behind, and were impressed with the directness of the young man's words.
Evan Roberts told his fellow members, 'I have a message for you from God.
* You must confess any known sin to God and put any wrong done to others right.
* Second, you must put away any doubtful habit.
* Third, you must obey the Spirit promptly.
* Finally, you must confess your faith in Christ publicly.'
By ten o'clock all seventeen had responded. The pastor was so pleased that he asked, 'How about your speaking at the mission service tomorrow night? Midweek service Wednesday night?'
He preached all week, and was asked to stay another week. Then the break came.
Suddenly the dull ecclesiastical columns in the Welsh papers changed:
'Great crowds of people drawn to Loughor.'
The main road between Llanelly and Swansea on which the church was situated was packed with people trying to get into the church. Shopkeepers closed early to find a place in the big church.
Now the news was out. A reporter was sent down and he described vividly what he saw: a strange meeting which closed at 4:25 in the morning, and even then people did not seem willing to go home. There was a very British summary: 'I felt that this was no ordinary gathering.'
Next day, every grocery shop in that industrial valley was emptied of groceries by people attending the meetings, and on Sunday every church was filled.
The movement went like a tidal wave over Wales, in five months there being a hundred thousand people converted throughout the country. Five years later, Dr J. V. Morgan wrote a book to debunk the revival, his main criticism being that, of a hundred thousand joining the churches in five months of excitement, after five years only seventy five thousand still stood in the membership of those churches!
The social impact was astounding. For example, judges were presented with white gloves, not a case to try; no robberies, no burglaries, no rapes, no murders, and no embezzlements, nothing. District councils held emergency meetings to discuss what to do with the police now that they were unemployed.
In one place the sergeant of police was sent for and asked, 'What do you do with your time?'
He replied, 'Before the revival, we had two main jobs, to prevent crime and to control crowds, as at football games. Since the revival started there is practically no crime. So we just go with the crowds.'
A councillor asked, 'What does that mean?'
The sergeant replied, 'You know where the crowds are. They are packing out the churches.'
'But how does that affect the police?'
He was told, 'We have seventeen police in our station, but we have three quartets, and if any church wants a quartet to sing, they simply call the police station.'
As the revival swept Wales, drunkenness was cut in half. There was a wave of bankruptcies, but nearly all taverns. There was even a slowdown in the mines, for so many Welsh coal miners were converted and stopped using bad language that the horses that dragged the coal trucks in the mines could not understand what was being said to them.
That revival also affected sexual moral standards. I had discovered through the figures given by British government experts that in Radnorshire and Merionethshire the illegitimate birth rate had dropped 44% within a year of the beginning of the revival.
The revival swept Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, North America, Australasia, Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Chile.
As always, it began through a movement of prayer.
What do we mean by extraordinary prayer? We share ordinary prayer in regular worship services, before meals, and the like. But when people are found getting up at six in the morning to pray, or having a half night of prayer until midnight, or giving up their lunch time to pray at noonday prayer meetings, that is extraordinary prayer. It must be united and concerted.
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 4:00PM
39 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Stirring Ourselves To Prayer
The prophet Isaiah lived in a time when Israel was in a backslidden condition. Her cup of iniquity had become almost full and she was soon to be carried away captive to a heathen land. There were mountains of difficulties in the way of God's work. The people were divided, and nothing, it seemed, could bring them together. The worst thing was their lukewarmness--the hardest thing in the world with which to deal.
The adversaries were ridiculing and mocking, saying, "Where is your God?" These taunts did not trouble Israel very much, because there was very little fear of God among the people. In the midst of this situation, Isaiah perceived that if God would only come down, that is, if He would manifest His presence, it would solve every problem of the nation.
"Oh that thou wouldest rend the Heavens, that Thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at Thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make Thy name known to Thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Thy presence!" (Isa 64:1,2).
The mountains would flow down at His presence. Nothing could stand in the presence of Almighty God, and His manifested presence would break down every barrier and sweep away everything that hindered. He saw that God's fire would melt the people and bring them together by His power. He saw that the waters would be made to boil, so that lukewarmness would vanish.
Best of all, God's name would be made known to the adversaries. Skepticism would be swept away, and His people would tremble in His presence.
Similar Conditions Today
Without a doubt we are living in a time similar to that of Isaiah's day. We see conditions in America are terrible. There are divisions among God's people. False doctrines and cults have swept thousands into fanaticism and delusions of vast variety. On every hand there is a lukewarmness that is appalling.
Thousands have lost their faith and left their first love. The only thing that can solve the problem is the manifest presence of God! All our programs, our great preaching, our organizations, our choirs and orchestras, radio and TV--everything that man can do--has failed to solve the problem.
But if we can get God to come down and manifest Himself, the mountains will flow down at His presence, the divisions among God's people will vanish, and we will be brought into one great united body.
More than that, the lukewarm people will be set on fire for God. The waters will be made to boil. The enemies of Christ will be made to know that His power is real, and His name will be made known to the adversaries.
The words of Isaiah take us to the very heart of today's problem of getting God to come down and manifest His presence among us:
"There is none that calleth upon Thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee: for Thou hast hid Thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities" (Isaiah 64:7).
Let us face the truth. God has declared exactly why He does not come down. His people are backslidden, and not a man can be found who will stir himself up to take hold of God in effectual prayer. It is clearly the meaning of this Word that God will come down, however bad conditions may be, provided He can get His people to call upon His name.
Many instances in the history of the Church prove this. The greatest men who have lived to shake the world with God's power have been, every one of them, men of prevailing prayer. The one effectual means for bringing back the presence of God to the people is prevailing prayer!
The greatest lack among God's people is that of travailing prayer. We should be reminded that there has never been a Holy Ghost revival in the history of the world that has not been prayed down! And the praying had to be prevailing prayer--prayer that was desperate; prayer that stirred people up to such fervency of spirit that they fairly took hold of God.
I have seen many times in revival meetings when God's Spirit began to move on people whose hearts were open, and who were hungry for God until that heavenly urge was upon them, and they would pray all night long, wrestling with God like Jacob of old! (Gen. 32:24-30).
I have seen such tremendous results come after such travailing prayer that I am certain that wherever there is real travailing prayer that takes hold of God, it will bring the presence of God down.
"As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children" (Isaiah 66:8).
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:59PM
40 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
The World’s Greatest Need Today- God by Jonathan Goforth
“These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren.” - Acts 1:14
They were seeking God the Holy Ghost. The one thing which the Master emphasized when He was leaving the disciples was God the Holy Ghost, and their need of Him. Without Him they could not hope to be true representatives of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. So they just went to work in one accord and sought for Him. We find them here appreciating the value of God the Holy Ghost for them in their work. They were not for one moment turned aside by any other issue. It was according to the promise of God the Father and the promise of the Lord Jesus to wait in Jerusalem until the promised One should come; and then He would convict of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; He would guide into all truth; He would glorify Jesus.
Agreement About Our Need for the Holy Spirit
Now, can we do better than to unite and imitate them? My whole theme today will be the need of unity in seeking God’s best gift for us. If we had been in the right attitude, with one accord, seeking God as for hidden treasure, He would have come long ago with such tremendous power that the whole world would come to know our Jesus. But the world does not know the Lord Jesus through us, for there is not a mighty manifestation of Holy Ghost power in this land today; so that the need is still—God.
I am sure that if the King of Britain were to come to this tent, we would make way for him and we would give him the best place. There is a greater King—God the Father, and God the Son, represented by God the Holy Ghost. We may rightly say that the Holy Spirit is the executive of the Godhead. The worlds were made by Him, Jesus performed all His miracles by Him and Jesus spoke the words of the Father through Him. The disciples preached the Word of God with the Holy Ghost sent from above, and there were results following prayer.
It’s this same mighty Holy One that we are called to seek for today - Isn’t He worthy? Oh, how could we keep anything in our hearts that would keep Him out? What can be compared with this Holy One? All down through the Christian ages, whenever any mighty manifestation of power was seen which glorified Jesus Christ, He was the Author. He has never changed; He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is just as almighty; He is just as full of love; He is just as thoughtless of self today as of old. He never will glorify Himself. But oh, we should honor ourselves in honoring Him; we should honor and help others by honoring Him, by allowing Him to come that Christ might be exalted.
The Holy Spirit will never glorify Himself. He always keeps in the background. He lifts up Jesus Christ so high, and makes Him appear so glorious that all eyes are fixed upon Him, all hearts are drawn to Him; and so it is easy for every lip to confess Him, every knee to bow before Him.
Could we do better, than to seek for God the Holy Ghost to come—to come without any condition? God forbid that we should make any condition for the coming of One so great and so wise! He understands everything; He understands every need and He can come in and supply all the fullness of the Godhead. He will come in, when He is allowed to reign in the heart. Then, why not agree? Why not come in one accord in seeking for God the Holy Ghost?
Why Do We Want the Holy Spirit to Come?
But we must be in one accord in our motives. Why should we seek God the Holy Ghost? If God the Holy Spirit comes there will be signs, mighty ones. I believe that if He were allowed to come and if He were appreciated as in the beginning, there would be more wonderful signs than ever before. There is more material to catch fire in the world today; there are more hearts alive to Jesus Christ today than there were at Pentecost; so that if He came today there would be tremendous movements in the world.
Now, how about our motives? The Holy Spirit, if He had control, could not be idle. He would transform our lives, save the children in our homes, save our neighbors, sweep out giant evils everywhere. Yes, He would come with glorious power. And what would be the consequence? Would we be declaring our own fame, that we through our own holiness or goodness had been the means of bringing down the Holy Ghost in such a way as the world never knew before? If such a thought enters our heart, we are far from Pentecost, far form having the Holy One to come and take possession.
If out of a million parts, we are not prepared to give every part to Jesus Christ, and to crown Him Lord of all, we are far from receiving such a blessing. Christ must have all the glory. No matter how high He exalts us, we must fall prostrate at His feet, as dead to the world, as dead and risen with Him, sitting in the heavenly places and exalting Him as King. Are we prepared for this? Can we with one accord, seek that condition before God? It is God’s right to claim it, and our duty to grant it. Oh, may God make us willing in this day of His power, to let Him once and for all reign as King in our lives, our homes, our churches, our land, that no God-dishonoring thing shall be allowed to remain. We will be zealous for God, and will remember that all the glory shall be His.
Agreement About the Promise of the Holy Spirit
There is another thing upon which we can unite. It is this: Believe that God means just what He says. We must cast away unbelief forevermore. It is unbelief and hardness of heart that keep God out. Mind you, they were all with one accord in believing that Jesus meant just what He said, when He promised that the Spirit of God should come with power, and with power to witness for Him to the ends of the earth. They believed that the Lords words would come true. Heaven and earth should pass away rather than the words of Jesus should be unfulfilled. “It is the promise of the Father to us,” they would say, “and we must stay right on here praying.” Not a soul in the company doubted for one instant, but all went on praying. It took them ten days, its true; but it was ten days to get emptied out. There were many things to set right, a good deal in their hearts to be emptied out, but they believed God’s word. It might take us twenty days to get emptied out, and the time would be well spent. God would have taken possession of many of us long ago, if we were only ready.
I imagine that on the first morning that the brethren and sisters met in the upper room prayer meeting, if everything had been emptied out God would have come in and filled them. Yet, it required them ten days to get right with God. Are we prepared, with one accord, to seek in faith God the Holy Spirit? They realized that He desired to use them; they believed that they needed Him; they believed that the world needed Him; they believed that the very honor of Jesus Christ was at stake and that God’s glory was at stake. Beloved, no one but the Spirit of God could truly represent Jesus Christ in them. Do we believe that?
We Have NO Excuses!
Now, remember, we have not as much excuse for sinful unbelief as they would have had. They had no Pentecost to look back to. God’s Holy Spirit was never been poured out in any extraordinary measure before. They had no experience to base their faith upon. They had the word of Jesus Christ; but you have that much and you have a Pentecost as well to fall back upon. You know that when the brethren sought God at Pentecost it was not in vain. All who were in one accord received the Holy Ghost and did wonders. Whenever we have decided to do work for God, we have to go back to Pentecost for our models. God is a reality in the world; and God the Holy Ghost can do wonders beyond what we ask or think. Everyone, after He came at Pentecost, received exceeding abundantly above all that he had asked or thought. Jesus did not deceive. His words are as true today; He has never changed, never weakened in His power. God the Holy Ghost is just as ready to take possession in our lives today, as He was in Jerusalem in that upper room. Do you believe it?
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:59PM
41 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Jim Packer, in a paper given at the Puritan Conference in London in 1961, helpfully summed up Edwards’ teaching on revival under three headings, which, with a few principal comments of explanation, are set out in the following paragraphs
1. Revival is an extraordinary work of God the Holy Ghost reinvigorating and propagating Christian piety in a community. Revival is an extraordinary work because it marks the abrupt reversal of an established trend and state of things among those who profess to be God’s people. To envision God reviving His Church is to presuppose that the Church has previously grown moribund and gone to sleep.
2. Revivals have a central place in the revealed purposes of God. “The end of God’s creating the world,” declared Edwards, “was to prepare a kingdom for His Son (for He was appointed heir of the world).” This end is to be realized first through Christ’s accomplishing redemption on Calvary, and then through the triumphs of His kingdom. Thus, according to Edwards, “All the dispensations of God’s providence henceforward (since Christ’s ascension), even to the final consummation of all things, are to give Christ His reward, and fulfill His end in what He did and suffered upon earth.”
A universal dominion is pledged to Christ, and in the interim, before the final consummation, the Father implements this pledge in part by successive outpourings of the Spirit. Revivals, therefore, prove the reality of Christ’s kingdom to a sceptical world and serve to extend its bounds among Christ’s enemies.
3. Revivals are the most glorious of all God’s works in the world. Edwards insisted on this in order to shame those who professed no interest in the divine awakening that had come to New England. He believed they insinuated by their attitude that a Christian’s mind could be more profitably occupied with other matters:
Such a work is, in its nature and kind, the most glorious of any work of God whatsoever. It is the work of redemption (the great end of all the other works of God, and of which the work of creation was but a shadow). It is the work of new creation, which is infinitely more glorious than the old. I am bold to say that the work of God in the conversion of one soul . . . is a more glorious work than the creation of the whole material universe.
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:59PM
42 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Not Ready- Do We REALLY Want Revival? by James A. Stewart
Lest I should be exalted above measure. - II Cor. 12:7
I believe the paramount reason why many believers are not filled with the Spirit is that they are not ready to receive this priceless blessing from God. Either they do not know what it is they ask, or they have not submitted themselves to God’s preliminary dealings with them. The gift of the fullness is the greatest blessing that can come to a child of God. God is not going to give His choicest of blessings to one who has not in some measure a real appreciation of the glory of the blessing, as the Holy Spirit is so wonderful!
How many believers pray glibly: “Oh God, fill me with Thy Spirit.” The superficiality of their prayer is an open witness to the fact that they have no true realization of the grandeur of such a blessing. It is seemingly a mere repetition of evangelical phraseology.
If it were possible to conceive that God, in His infinite mercy, would give the Holy Spirit in His Fullness to those who are not ready to receive Him, that experience would prove a grave danger.
How many times have you, as a parent given costly presents to your precious child, only to discover that he was too immature to appreciate the value of it. Again, would you give your child your valuable watch to play with, just because he asked you for it?
No! you would be afraid that he would misuse it because he is not yet ready to receive it. In the spiritual realm, think of Paul having to receive “a thorn in the flesh” to keep him humble.
“And lest I should be exalted above measure, through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure” (II Cor. 12:7). If the mighty apostle was in danger of becoming conceited through the glory of his spiritual experiences, how much are we! But God, in His infinite mercy and wisdom does not give us the fullness of blessing until He knows we are ready to receive it.
Many want a “dignified” revival
Many want a “dignified” revival or no revival at all. They do not want anybody’s feelings hurt or people’s sense of orderliness insulted. That blessed man, Duncan Campbell, told me once that after speaking to a ministerial group concerning the mighty manifestations of God in Hebrides, one pastor declared, “If that is revival, I for one, do not want it!” What a tragedy. As E. W. Mills has so beautifully stated:
“Revival has to do with life and more life; rich life, abundant life, zestful life, spacious sparkling life, overflowing life, victorious life, colorful life, and many-splendored life. There will be nothing tame and dull when the Spirit works. It will mean goodbye to deadness, to dullness, to boredom, to complacency, to sophistication, and all the other features of second-rateness.”
The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious. – Isa. 60:13.
God’s Hush Over Gathering
Let us stop dictating to the Holy Spirit.
Because the blessed Spirit of God is wounded in the house of His friends, the church languishes and fails to “bring forth” while sinners go carelessly down the broad road to hell.
How familiar is this pattern becoming! A blessed messenger tells in a quiet conservative manner something of the mighty workings of the Spirit. The hush of God is over the gathering. They the chairman’s closing remarks throw cold water over it all. He intimates to the believers that they must not expect- nor even desire- such unusual manifestations of deity.
Many do not want their beautiful, cut-and-dried programs upset. They want everything to go according to time and pattern. Such people should read the Book of Acts on their knees for warning. They will see how again and again the Spirit is limited and suppressed by a disobedient church. His greatest battle is to break through the convention of the church and upset its carefully calculated plan of evangelism.
Some say they are afraid of wild fire and thus must suppress anything that is not on the planned program. Now, we do not deny the possibility of the flesh; we detest and deplore any cheap playing upon the people’s emotions by psychological tricks from the preacher. We do not deny also the possibility of Satan’s seeking to counterfeit the workings of God in the heart of revival. We have experienced this in our own ministry, but we have also discovered that the Holy Spirit is more powerful than the work of soulish believers or the work even of demons.
In the true manifestation of revival the Spirit works mightily upon the consciences- and consequently the emotions- of the people. Such scenes of emotions and seeming confusion have never failed to call forth strong and disapproving criticisms at such times. Witness Jonathan Edwards’ masterly vindications of the supernatural workings of God in his ministry. See Murray McCheyne standing before his brethren in The Church of Scotland to give an account of the unusual happenings during the revival in his church. Surely it is scarcely reasonable to expect that men and women should NOT have their emotions affected to an unusual degree when the Spirit of God is present in an extraordinary manner. In defense of the upsetting of our ordinary routine, Jonathan Edwards says: “I do not think this is confusion or unhappy interruption, any more than if a company should meet in a field to pray for rain and should meet in a field to pray for rain and should be broken off from their exercise by a plentiful shower. Would to God that all the public assemblies in the land were broken off from their public exercises with such confusion as this next Lord’s day! We need not be sorry for breaking the order of meetings by obtaining the end for which that order is directed. He who is going to fetch a treasure may not be sorry if he is stopped by meeting the treasure in the midst of his journey!”
We must be watchful
Glorify God. ---I Cor. 6:20
Many who have known intimate relationship with the Lord become backslides because they have gloried in their experiences and become proud of themselves. Even Paul was in danger of glorying in his revelations, so that he was given a "thorn in the flesh," lest he should be exalted above measure. Mr. Moody only on rare occasions mentioned his first mighty experience with the Spirit of God on Wall Street, New York. We must walk prayerfully and carefully, lest we lose the anointing of the spirit and the sweet manifestation of the Lord's presence. The deep, intimate, sacred dealings of God with the soul cannot be proclaimed from the housetops. It is only by direct permission from the Spirit Himself that we may be free to relate to others these experiences, and that for the glory of God alone.
We must ever be watchful lest self and Satan hinder the blessed Spirit in His endeavor to lead us into the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Let us be ever ready, with prepared hearts, to receive by faith any fresh revelation of Christ which the Spirit could bring to our souls.
Broken.......
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion. - Joel 2:1
During the mighty days of revival in Lativa when God brought His church out of bondage into a glorious elevated position with Christ in the Heavenlies, I discovered, over a period of four years that it was necessary for us all to be periodically broken down before the Lord, and to renew our vows of devotion and loyalty.
There was always a tendency to relax in our fervor and to rely upon a past experience. We soon realized the necessity to watch and pray and keep abiding in Christ by the systematic reading of His Word and prompt obedience. One of the local churches that had experienced possibly the mightiest awakening of all and who saw the mighty movement of God in the salvation of souls, within nine months was found sleeping.
The first night of my series of meetings on my return to that church, I was appalled at the deadness and coldness I felt in their midst. I was heart-broken as I told the group of some five hundred believers that it was impossible for me to preach that night, and that unless they repented of their sin and came back to their “first love” we might as well close the meetings.
The Spirit dealt faithfully and tenderly with them until Calvary’s Love broke them down afresh before the face of the Lord God. In bitterness, humiliation and shame they confessed that they had taken the Lord’s presence for granted as He had been so gracious and glorious to them during the past months.
Their biggest sin was their presumption upon the continued unsought blessing of the Lord. They had let their fire burn low in this careless attitude. The majority of these dear saints had been mighty intercessors, but now were seldom found in their prayer closets. I knew that drastic action was necessary, and so called at once a late prayer meeting along the line of Joel’s prophecy, chapter two: “Blow the trumpet in Zion.”
Often times not allowed to preach
I have known the Holy Spirit to take away from me the human control of the campaign and make Himself the chairman of the meetings. Often times, I was not allowed to preach, as the meeting was under the control of the Spirit by day and night after night. I simply sat on the platform bowed in prayer. I prayed that the Spirit of Pentecost would restrain or constrain and that no demon in hell would be able to work - that so powerful would be His presence that there would be no possibility of a fleshly manifestation. We can testify to God's glory that the gatherings were kept under the Spirit's control as He led the believers one by one to praise, pray, expound, and testify. Instead of only myself taking part, hundreds of ordinary believers ministered in the meetings during several weeks. We were "borne along and impelled by the Holy Spirit" (II Peter 1:21).
Like an amateur walking a tight rope,
As I ponder on my knees before God this deep mystery of the suppression of the Spirit, I have come to the conclusion that people are afraid of something they do not understand - something they have never experienced. Brought up in an atmosphere which has never known revival, they are like the amateur walking a tightrope, afraid of the unknown way.
Oh my brother, why not trust the Spirit of God? If you really want Him to work, then allow Him to work. Hands off! Let us stop dictating to the Holy Spirit
He restrains as well as constrains
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. - Isa. 35:5-6
Surely we can trust the Holy Spirit to take care of His own work. If we can trust Him for small manifestations, why can we not trust Him for mighty ones? In the Book of Acts, we see how He restrains as well as constrains. He vindicated His deity when He restrained sin in the church through the death of Ananias and Sapphira. His restraining influence is again seen when He forbade Paul on two occasions to enter into fields of his own choosing. We need not be afraid of the Spirit.
He has safety-checks of His own. We need not be deceived by false manifestations. I Corinthians 12:7 declares, "But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal" (ARV). If a brother or sister is speaking under the Spirit's anointing, he or she will be edifying the church. The Spirit's ministry is always to profit. Again, the Word of God declares, "He shall glorify Me: for He shall take of Mine and shall declare it unto you" (John 16:14 ARV).
The Holy Spirit always glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ, and thus any testimony or exposition that attracts attentions to self is false. In all mighty gatherings where the Spirit of God is working, the center of attraction is Christ, the Son of God. All things go out to Him as the Adorable One:
Thou who was rich beyond all splendor, All for love's sake became poor; Thrones for a manger didst surrender. Sapphire-paved courts for stable floor. Thou who was rich beyond all splendor, All for love's sake became poor; Thou who art love beyond all telling, Saviour and King, we worship Thee. Immanuel within us dwelling, Make us what Thou wouldst have us be. Thou who are love beyond all telling, Saviour and King, we worship Thee.
Frank Houghton
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:58PM
43 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
MULTITUDES THRONGED TO HEAR 'FROM HEAVEN'
Nathan Cole, an eyewitness, recounts the rush to hear George Whitefield in the 18th Century Great Awakening in America
Now it pleased God to send Mr White-field into this land; and my hearing of his preaching at Philadelphia, like one of the old apostles, and many thousands flocking to hear him preach the Gospel, and great numbers were converted to Christ, I felt the Spirit of God drawing me by conviction. I longed to see and hear him and wished he would come this way. Then on a sudden, in the morning about eight or nine o'clock there came a messenger and said Mr Whitefield is to preach at Middletown this morning at ten o'clock. I was in my field at work. I dropped my tool that I had in my hand and ran home to my wife, telling her to make ready quickly to go and hear Mr White-field preach. I then ran to my pasture for my horse with all my might, fearing that I should be too late.
I with my wife then mounted the horse and went forward as fast as I thought the horse could bear; and when my horse got much out of breath, I would get down and put my wife on the saddle and bid her ride as fast as she could and not stop or slack for me.
We improved every moment to get along as if we were fleeing for our lives, all the while fearing we should be too late to hear the sermon, for we had twelve miles to ride double in little more than an hour.
And when we came within about half a mile of the road that comes down from Hartford, Wethersfleld, and Stepney to Middletown, on high land I saw before me a cloud or fog arising. I first thought it came from the great river, but as I came nearer the road I heard the noise of horses' feet coming down the road, and this cloud was a cloud of dust made by the horses' feet.
I could see men and horses slipping along in the cloud like shadows, and as I drew nearer it seemed like a steady stream of horses and their riders, scarcely a horse more than his length behind another, all of a lather and foam with sweat, their breath rolling out of their nostrils every jump. Every horse seemed to go with all his might to carry his rider to hear news from heaven for the saving of souls.
It made me tremble to see the sight, how the world was in a struggle. I found a vacancy between two horses to slip in mine and my wife said "Law, our clothes will be all spoiled, see how they look, "for they were so covered with dust that they looked almost all of a colour, coats, hats, shirts, and horse.
We went down in the stream but heard no man speak a word all the way for three miles but every one pressing forward in great haste; and when we got to Middletown old meeting house, there was a great multitude, it was said to be three or four thousand people, assembled together. We dismounted and shook off our dust, and the ministers were then coming to the meeting house. I turned and looked towards the great river and saw the ferry boats running swift backward and forward bringing over loads of people, and the oars rowed nimble and quick.
Everything, men, horses, and boats seemed to be struggling for life. The land and banks over the river looked black with people and horses; all along the twelve miles I saw no man at work in his field, but all seemed to be gone.
When I saw Mr Whitefleld come upon the scaffold, he almost looked angelical; a young, slim, slender youth, before some thousands of people with a bold undaunted countenance. And my hearing how God was with him everywhere as he came along, it solemnized my mind and put me into a trembling fear before he began to preach. For he looked as if he was clothed with authority from the Great God, and a sweet solemnity sat upon his brow, and my hearing him preach gave me a heart wound.
By God's blessing, my old foundation was broken up, and I saw that my righteousness would not save me.
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:58PM
44 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
THOUSANDS WEPT IN SORROW AND JOY
The awakening work of the Holy Spirit in the 18th century was not confined to America, England and Wales. Scotland also had its powerful revival...
The parish of Cambuslang in Strathclyde (now almost a suburb of Glasgow) numbered around 200 families, mainly farmers and miners. It had been without a minister for some years, but in 1731 it received William M'Culloch, then aged forty. He had grown up in Covenanter country, surrounded by martyrs' graves, and longed for God to move again upon the land. His labours almost ended in despair. The congregation was in such poor spiritual health that he did not feel it right to celebrate Communion for three years.
Over the same period he became deeply aware of his own unfitness as an instrument of the Lord. A saintly colleague urged him to devote himself to intercessory prayer for a deeper work of God's Holy Spirit.
News of the 'Great Awakening' in America gave impetus to such prayer and to a closer study of the Bible. Then, a devastating hurricane followed by months of famine in 1740 brought the people to brokenness before God.
The next year George White-field arrived in Edinburgh, preaching the gospel with such power that many cried aloud. Fourteen from Cambuslang found their hearts "melted down and overboiling with tears". Back home the thought of revival consumed them day and night.
In February, 1742, M'Culloch sent the people home, charging them to "fall on their knees before God, and with all possible earnestness, as for life itself, to beg of Him His Holy Spirit to renew and change our hearts and natures, and to take no comfort in any thing till we get it".
They were not kept waiting long. Within days a young woman cned out in the church: "Christ says to me He will never leave me or forsake me!" The effect was electric, with many weeping and others crying aloud for joy, and M'Culloch needing three hours to counsel the enquirers.
There was now no holding back the Holy Spirit's work. Whole households fell under conviction of sin. People would burst into tears in the street.
One young woman, noted for her timidity, preached under the anointing of the Holy Spirit to a large crowd with compelling power. A visiting minister wrote of how some that were previously notorious sinners had now the meekness of the Lamb. On Tuesday, July 61742, White-field came to Cambuslang at midday and preached at two, six and nine o'clock. For about an hour and a half there were scenes of uncontrollable distress, like a field of battle.
Many were being carried into the manse like wounded soldiers. "Such a commotion was surely never heard of especially at eleven at night," he wrote to a friend. "It far out-did all I ever saw in America."
All night in the fields could be heard the voices of prayer and praise.
News spread far and wide, and by the time of Whitefield's next sermon in July the crowd numbered upwards of 20,000.
Whitefield wrote to John Cennick "Such a universal stir I never saw before. The motion fled as swiftly as lightning from one end of the auditory to the other. You might have seen the thousands bathed in tears; some at the same time wringing their hands, others almost swooning and others crying out and mourning over a pierced Saviour."
During these and other gatherings men and women trembled and wept and some sank down as dead. Joy as much a part of this work as was sorrow over sin. Many believers found themselves so moved by a sense of the Saviour's love as to be lifted almost into a state of rapture. The phrase 'joy unspeakable and full of glory' occurs frequently in the Cambuslang records and undoubtedly depicts the experience of many, among both the new converts and the established Christians.
The results of the revival were considerable. M'Culloch himself, limiting his estimate to his own parishioners, speaks of over five hundred genuine conversions, but hints at hundreds more among the many visitors. Within seven years it was estimated that church attendance in the Glasgow area had risen to 35 percent of the population. From Cambuslang the flames spread to other places, with well-documented moves of the Holy Spirit at Kilsyth, Muthil, Torryburn and Nigg.
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:58PM
45 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
The Hour of Desperation!
It is my conviction that we are never going to have revival until God has brought the church of Jesus Christ to the point of desperation. As long as Christians people can trust religious organization, material wealth, popular preaching, shallow evangelistic crusades and promotion drives, there will never be revival. But when confidence in the flesh is smashed, and the church comes to the realization of her desperate wretchedness, blindness and nakedness before God, then and only then will God bread in.
Yes, there must be the point of desperation but there must also be the point of intercession. Oh, that God would bring us to this place of intercession! We cannot think or talk, let alone taste of revival, without intercessory prayer. Indeed, the reason for an unrevived church in the last analysis is the sin of prayerlessness. Certainly there are individuals who are praying for revival, and God is graciously meeting them at the point of their need, but where are the prayer groups, where are the companies of intercessors, where are the churches united in an agonizing that God would rend the heavens and come down and cause the mountains of hindrance and sin and unbelief to flow before His presence? Yes, there is only one thing that will save us in this hour of desperation and that is prayer.
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:57PM
46 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Anecdotes on Revival Manifestations
Manifestations not always present
And as there has been no room for any plausible objection against this work, in regard of the means; so neither in regard of the manner in which it has been carried on. It is true, persons’ concern for their souls has been exceeding great, the convictions of their sin and misery have risen to a high degree, and produced many tears, cries, and groans: but then they have not been attended with those disorders, either bodily or mental, that have sometimes prevailed among persons under religious impressions. --There has here been no appearance of those convulsions, bodily agonies, frightful screaming, swooning, and the like, that have been so much complained of in some places; although there have been some who, with the jailer, have been made to tremble under a sense of their sin and misery, --numbers who have been made to cry out from a distressing view of their perishing state, --and some that have been, for a time, in a great measure, deprived of their bodily strength, yet without any such convulsive appearances.
David Brainerds Journal, General Remarks On Part First, Comment 5
Prostrations in Hebrides Revival
I have seen this happen over and over again during the recent movement in the Western Isles. Suddenly an awareness of God would take hold of a community, and, under the pressure of this divine presence, men and women would fall prostrate on the ground, while their cry of distress was made the means in God's hand, to awaken the indifferent who had set unmoved for years under the preaching of the gospel. p33.
I have known men out in the fields, others at their weaving looms, so overcome by this sense of God that they were found prostrate on the ground..... Physical manifestations and prostrations have been a further feature. I find it somewhat difficult to explain this aspect, indeed I cannot; but this I will say, that the person who would associate this with satanic influence is coming perilously near committing the unpardonable sin. Lady Huntingdon on one occasion wrote to George Whitefield respecting cases of crying out and falling down in meetings, and advised him not to remove them from the meetings, as had been done. When this was done it seemed to bring a dampener on the meeting. She said, 'You are making a great mistake. Don't be wiser than God. Let them cry out; it will do a great deal more good than your preaching. p29-30
Duncan Campbell, The Lewis Awakening, 1949-1953, p29-30, 33
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:57PM
47 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
GETHSEMANE: The Necessity Of Standing Alone
What is time for? Just weeping and praying and groaning for a lost world. What is eternity for? Rejoicing with the blood washed and the redeemed. They may be sleeping all around you, but you can be wide awake, and the greatest honor that can be given to you is to have a burden for souls that will lay on your heart till it breaks to pieces. People have remarked that certain men would have lived longer if they had not had such a burden for souls, but if you die with a broken heart, there is no lost time. You had better live ten years with the Holy Ghost than a hundred without Him. The Holy Ghost energizes and inspires and gives courage and character so that you can accomplish more in ten years than some people would do in a hundred. The burden for souls is rare; not many have it, and some say they would not like that kind of burden. It takes real life to carry it, and people may not live so long on earth, but they will live through all eternity in the presence of God.
Jesus might have lived longer if He had not carried such a burden, and His followers might have lived longer if they had not received the Holy Ghost. We can say that their Holy Ghost travail for the lost is why they all died an unnatural death. John might have stayed off the Isle of Patmos if he had not had the Holy Ghost. They chose to have the Holy Ghost and die an unnatural death rather than have carnality and live a hundred years. That is the secret, and may God help someone to receive the Holy Ghost, and in life and in death have the victory . God help you to be willing to pay the price. Do not miss your opportunity; it is within your reach now, and the Holy Ghost will be faithful to you. There was only one Transfiguration, only one Gethsemane, and only one Calvary. Jesus went through and died of a broken heart. Take the step now, regardless of anyone, and God will meet your need. Let us pray.
Reference Used: Holy Ghost Messages by Charles H. Stalker
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:56PM
48 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
A Definition Of Revival
by Micheal Brown
Revival is a season of unusual divine visitation resulting in deep repentance, supernatural renewal, and sweeping reformation in the Church, along with the radical conversion of sinners in the world, often producing moral, social, and even economic change in the local or national communities. (Michael L. Brown)
The road to revival begins with confession, with a heartfelt admission of poverty and need. It begins with contrition, with fasting and groaning, with the proud in heart forced to their knees. And it begins with a purging, a “spirit of burning”; it begins with the call to repent. (From the book The End of the American Gospel Enterprise)
Revival is an encounter with God the Holy One, disclosed and made known. Revival removes the veil and makes things clear. Revival is stark and absolute, uncovering the nature of man and revealing the glory of God. In the end, it boils down to this: Do we really want God to live in our midst? (From the book From Holy Laughter to Holy Fire)
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:56PM
49 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Revivals that Stay by E.M. Bounds
Revivals are among the charter rights of the church. They are the evidences of its divinity, the tokens of God’s presence, the witness of his power. The frequency and power of these extraordinary seasons of grace are the tests and preservers of the vital force in the church. The church which is not visited by these seasons is as sterile in all spiritual products as a desert, and is not and cannot meet the designs of God’s church. Such churches may have all the show and parade of life, but it is only a painted life.
The revival element belongs to the individual, as well as to the church, life. The preacher whose experience is not marked by these inflows of great grace may question with anxious scrutiny whether he is in grace. The preacher whose ministry does not over and over again find its climax of success and power in these gracious visitations of God may well doubt the genuineness of his call, or be disquieted as to its continuance.
Revivals are not simply the reclamation of a backslidden church. They do secure this end, but they do not find their highest end in this important result. They are to invigorate and mature by one mighty act the feeble saints; they also pass on to sublimer regions of faith and experience the advanced ones of God’s elect. They are the fresh baptisms—the more powerful consecration of a waiting, willing, working church to a profounder willingness, and a mightier ability for a mightier work. These revivals are the pitched battles and the decisive victories for God, when the slain of the Lord is many, and his triumph glorious.
There are counterfeit revivals well executed, well calculated to deceive the most wary. These are deceptive and superficial, with many pleasant, entertaining, delusive features, entirely lacking in the offensive features which distinguish the genuine ones. The pain of penitence, the shame of guilt, the sorrow and humiliation of sin, the fear of hell—these marks of the genuine are lacking in the counterfeit. The test of a genuine revival is found in its staying qualities. The counterfeit is but a winter spurt, as evanescent and fitful as the morning cloud or early dew—both soon gone—and the sun but the hotter for the mockery of the cloud and because of the fleeting dew. These surface revivals do more harm than good, like a surface thaw in midwinter which only increases the hardness and roughness of tomorrow’s freeze. The genuine revival goes to the bottom of things; the sword is not swaddled in cotton, nor festooned with flowers, but pierces to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow.
A genuine revival marks an era in the life of the church. It plants the germs of the great spiritual principles which grow and mature through all the changing seasons that follow. Revival seasons are favoring seasons, when the tides of salvation are at their flood, when all the waves and winds move heavenward...days of emancipation and return and rapture. The church needs revivals; it cannot live, it cannot do its work without them. Revivals which will lift it above the sands of worldliness that shallow the current and impede the sailing. Revivals which will radicate the great spiritual principles, which are worn threadbare in many a church. It is true that in the most thorough work some will fall away, but when the work is genuine and far-reaching, as it ought to be, the waste will scarcely be felt in the presence of the good that remains.
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:56PM
49 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Revivals that Stay by E.M. Bounds
Revivals are among the charter rights of the church. They are the evidences of its divinity, the tokens of God’s presence, the witness of his power. The frequency and power of these extraordinary seasons of grace are the tests and preservers of the vital force in the church. The church which is not visited by these seasons is as sterile in all spiritual products as a desert, and is not and cannot meet the designs of God’s church. Such churches may have all the show and parade of life, but it is only a painted life.
The revival element belongs to the individual, as well as to the church, life. The preacher whose experience is not marked by these inflows of great grace may question with anxious scrutiny whether he is in grace. The preacher whose ministry does not over and over again find its climax of success and power in these gracious visitations of God may well doubt the genuineness of his call, or be disquieted as to its continuance.
Revivals are not simply the reclamation of a backslidden church. They do secure this end, but they do not find their highest end in this important result. They are to invigorate and mature by one mighty act the feeble saints; they also pass on to sublimer regions of faith and experience the advanced ones of God’s elect. They are the fresh baptisms—the more powerful consecration of a waiting, willing, working church to a profounder willingness, and a mightier ability for a mightier work. These revivals are the pitched battles and the decisive victories for God, when the slain of the Lord is many, and his triumph glorious.
There are counterfeit revivals well executed, well calculated to deceive the most wary. These are deceptive and superficial, with many pleasant, entertaining, delusive features, entirely lacking in the offensive features which distinguish the genuine ones. The pain of penitence, the shame of guilt, the sorrow and humiliation of sin, the fear of hell—these marks of the genuine are lacking in the counterfeit. The test of a genuine revival is found in its staying qualities. The counterfeit is but a winter spurt, as evanescent and fitful as the morning cloud or early dew—both soon gone—and the sun but the hotter for the mockery of the cloud and because of the fleeting dew. These surface revivals do more harm than good, like a surface thaw in midwinter which only increases the hardness and roughness of tomorrow’s freeze. The genuine revival goes to the bottom of things; the sword is not swaddled in cotton, nor festooned with flowers, but pierces to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow.
A genuine revival marks an era in the life of the church. It plants the germs of the great spiritual principles which grow and mature through all the changing seasons that follow. Revival seasons are favoring seasons, when the tides of salvation are at their flood, when all the waves and winds move heavenward...days of emancipation and return and rapture. The church needs revivals; it cannot live, it cannot do its work without them. Revivals which will lift it above the sands of worldliness that shallow the current and impede the sailing. Revivals which will radicate the great spiritual principles, which are worn threadbare in many a church. It is true that in the most thorough work some will fall away, but when the work is genuine and far-reaching, as it ought to be, the waste will scarcely be felt in the presence of the good that remains.
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:55PM
50 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Saints, We Must Pray!
...and pray for one another...the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much (James 5:16)
The Word of God time after time stresses the necessity for us as believers in Christ to pray. When Jesus walked this earth He exemplified the priority prayer should have in our lives.
* Prior to His public ministry Jesus fasted and prayed for 40 days and 40 nights (Matthew 4:2, Luke 4:2), He arose early in the mornings and went to solitary places to pray (Mark 1:35).
* Christ had many sleepless nights filled with prayer, when He departed from people and went up a mountain to pray (Matthew 14:23, Mark 6:46, Luke 6:12, John 6:15).
* All four of the Gospels record Jesus specifically departing from others for all night prayer meetings with God the Father!
* As well, our Lord often times led prayer meetings with His disciples in solitary places, away from the multitudes (John 6:3, Luke 9:28, Mark 9:2, Matthew 17:1).
* It was Jesus who said that demons could be cast out and that nothing shall be impossible - though only through prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:20- 21, Mark 9:29).
Why do we not see the hand of God working today as in the book of Acts? There is virtually no prayer power from the Lord, because the Church will not humble itself, turn from its wicked ways and pray!
Prayer and communion with God is what led Jesus to weep over Jerusalem, He felt such a burden for lost souls. Hebrews 5:7-8 tells us how He prayed and offered up supplications with strong crying and tears! May the LORD so lead us to shed tears for this lost and dying world!
A couple of Christian workers from the Salvation Army back in the 1800's wrote to William Booth and told him they had tried everything to get a movement of revival. Booth wrote back to them to "try tears". They did just that and revival broke out in their part of England. Bible colleges, seminars, and Christian conferences cannot teach us how to have this broken soul , but God can.
It was Leonard Ravenhill who said, "No man is greater than his prayer life" and "For this sin-hungry age we need a prayer-hungry Church" - and he said this in 1959 how much more so do we need this in 2006!!
Jesus said that His house is the house of prayer (Luke 19:46). Yet look to the churches of our day. Maybe they have a weekly prayer meeting, which is attended by such a small few of the church family. Then consider how much prayer unto the Lord is actually offered to Him. We need burdened, compassionate prayers which will move God and are not constrained to time. Revival will not be birthed from once a week prayer meetings! Oh for a church in every city that would stand on the Word of God and pray daily for revival to hit and for lost souls to be saved by Jesus Christ.
We need ministers of the Gospel who will actually obey Acts 6:4 and give themselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word. Then, and only then will we see people crying out to God in repentance and becoming saved by the Blood of the Lamb who was slain, and gloriously resurrected.
Can YOU not set aside 1 or 2 hours a day to seek God in prayer? Can YOU not urge your Church to get serious about prayer? A lost and dying world is not due to the exceeding sinfulness of 21st century sin, it is because we as Christians will not repent, and seek wholeheartedly after our risen LORD Jesus.
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:55PM
51 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Here is a true account by Ducan campbell.
I was met at the pier by the minister, and two of his office bearers. Just as I stepped off the boat an old elder came over to me, and faced me with this question, "Mr. Campbell, can I ask you this question, are you walking with God?" Oh, here were men who meant business. Men who were afraid that a strange hand would touch the ark, "Are you walking with God?" well, I was glad to be able to say, "Well I think I can say this, that I fear God". The dear man looked at me and said, "Well, if you fear God, that will do". Then, the minister turned, and said, "We're sure Mr. Campbell, that you're tired, and you must be longing for your supper, and supper will be ready for you in the manse, but I wonder if you would address a meeting in the Parish church, just on the way to the manse, to show yourself to the people. There'll be a fair congregation, I'm not saying a great number, but, oh anything between two and three hundred I expect. You see, there's a movement among us". Well, it will interest you dear people to know that I never got that supper, because I didn't arrive at the manse until twenty minutes past five in the morning. I went to the church, (now this is the interesting bit, because it deals with the outbreak of God in supernatural powers. The God of miracle reveling Himself in revival.) I preached in the church to a congregation of about three hundred, and I would say a good meeting. A wonderful sense of God, something that I hadn't known since the nine-teen twenty-one movement, but nothing really happened. I pronounced the benediction, and I'm walking down the aisle, when this young man came to me, and said, "Nothing has broken out tonight, but God is hovering over us. He's hovering over us, leave it be, and He'll break through any moment". Well, I must be perfectly honest, I didn't feel anything, but you see here is a man; much nearer to God than I was. Oh, he knew the secrets. We're moving down the aisle, and the congregation is moving out. They're all out now, except this man and myself. He lifted his two hands, and started to pray, "God you made a promise, to pour water on the thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground, and you're not doing it". He prayed, prayed, and prayed again, until he fell again onto the floor in a trance. He's lying there, I'm standing beside him for about five minutes, and then the doors of the church opened, and the session clerk came in. "Mr. Campbell, something wonderful has happened. Revival has broken out. Will you come to the door, and see the crowd that's here? (eleven o'clock mark you, eleven o'clock). I went to the door, and there must have been a congregation of between six, and seven hundred people gathered around the church.
---
Here was another prayer
"Lord, You made a promise. Are you going to fulfill it? We believe that You are a covenant keeping God. Will You be true to Your covenant? You have said that You will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. Lord, I don't know how these ministers stand in Your presence, but if I know my own heart I know where I stand, and I tell Thee now that I am thirsty. Oh, I am thirsty for a manifestation of the presence and power of God! And, Lord, before I sit down, I want to tell You that Your honor is at stake!"
"God, on the basis of your promise to pour water on the thirsty, I now take it upon myself to challenge you to fulfill your covenant engagement".
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:54PM
52 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Grieving the Spirit of Revival by G. D. Watson
A true revival is preeminently the work of the Holy Spirit, and the depth and magnitude of the work depends largely on the number of people who are in perfect union with the Holy Spirit. In times of revival all spiritual forces come to a crisis, both good and bad. Satan is on hand to muster all his children against a thorough work of grace. He will also be busy in society, devising all sorts of social matters against revival. He will influence all weak, half-hearted believers in every way against a thorough work. He will do everything to discourage workers. He will make them sick or cripple their zeal, or tempt them in some way to grieve the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is more frequently grieved by hidden things than by things which are outward and visible. In times of revival it is almost impossible to get six persons out of a large community, who in heart perfectly agree. There may be an outward profession of unity, and no one may detect any definite sign of disharmony, yet the human heart is so deceitful, and the interior conditions of perfect harmony require such utter unselfishness and transparency of spirit, that very few persons ever comply with them in the sight of God. The following are some of the things that grieve the Holy Spirit and hinder Him in revivals:
1. A CRITICAL SPIRIT. I do not mean the open rebuke of sin, for this is commanded in God's Word. Neither do I mean the just rebuke of ill-behaved persons in a meeting, for this is a necessity, and no company of worshipers should be disturbed by misconduct. But I mean those who claim to be in sympathy with God's work, yet they have a critical spirit against the leaders of the meeting, or the methods of work that may be adopted. Even though this criticism is not outspoken, it greatly hinders the Holy Ghost. There is often in the church a whimsical stubborn fault-finding disposition. A watching for defects among God's children, a picking out of blemishes in the singing, or the praying, or the preaching. All this forms an enormous barrier to the flow of the Holy Spirit. Such persons are deceitful, hard to please, and whatever excellencies they may have they are a definite hindrance to God's work. There is always a company of evil spirits that cluster around such persons to neutralize all the good they attempt to do.
2. THE SPIRIT OF FEAR. Timidity, moral cowardice, the fear of public opinion, the fear of relatives and friends, which prevents persons from taking a bold, decisive part in the church. Which prevents them from leading in prayer, or giving public testimony, or speaking to souls on personal salvation, all this fearfulness of spirit greatly grieves the Holy Ghost. Some are afraid that God will overburden them with work, or make demands of consecration beyond their strength, and so they fail to yield themselves fully to the Lord. While they may try to busy themselves in the church and think they are helping wonderfully, yet by that HIDDEN, miserable fearfulness of heart, which is the very essence of disobedience in the sight of God, they greatly hinder the power of the Spirit!
3. SELF-OPINION GREATLY GRIEVES THE SPIRIT. Many a revival is utterly prevented because prominent ones in the meeting stubbornly hold on to a wrong education, or to old theological notions. Some may have anti-scriptural views concerning inbred sin, or growth into heart purity, or the annihilation of the wicked. Others may be prejudiced against the manifestations of the Spirit, or divine healing. These things are unseen hindrances to the operation of the Spirit. Teachableness of mind, a perfect willingness to have only scriptural views, is a prerequisite condition for the descent of the power of God.
4. A SPIRIT OF RESERVE WITH GOD IS ANOTHER GRIEF TO THE HOLY GHOST. In every revival there are so many whose inner nature is tied up with a cautious conservatism, that persistently holds them back from a full abandonment to God and His work. They will boast of wanting such wonderfully great things. Yet there is an unexpressed unwillingness to be and do all the Lord wants, or to suffer all the Lord wants them to suffer. They are consciously holding themselves back, lest they should slide down some steep place and get drowned in the ocean of God's will. This internal checking of themselves not only prevents their own full salvation, but hinders the Spirit from using them for the blessing of others.
5. SELF-PLANNING AS TO GOD'S WORK. At the beginning of most every revival, it is almost a universal thing for those who are most interested to form some plan in their own mind as to how God ought to come and how the work ought to be done. Each one forms a standard as to who should lead the work or how it ought to be conducted, or what divine demonstrations should occur. So there are a large number of mental schedules which are invisible to mortal eyes, but which bristle like antagonistic bayonets before the all-seeing eye, and the blessed Holy Ghost who reads the thoughts and interests of the mind, finds Himself dictated to, by the very people who outwardly profess that they want God to have His way.
6. THE SPIRIT IS GRIEVED BY OUR HAVING LIMITED VIEWS OF CHRIST'S POWER. Oftentimes God wants to begin with the leaders of a meeting and lead them into a fresh baptism of fire or into a new depth of self denial. But their rigid and narrow views of God's saving grace is a definite hindrance to the Spirit's power. As a result, the people under such leadership often suffer with limited views of Christ's saving and sanctifying power.
7. THE SPIRIT IS OFTEN GRIEVED WHEN TESTS OF OBEDIENCE ARE SHUNNED. It may be a question of restitution or reconciliation, or the confession of a backslidden state, or the giving up of some indulgence. There have been meetings where two or three conspicuous persons utterly failed to obey God on some test point, and the work was a failure; the Spirit was grieved away, Satan and his black angels triumphed and the work of God was put back for years.
8. THE SPIRIT IS OFTEN GRIEVED BY OUR UNWILLINGNESS TO GO BEYOND OTHERS. God often wants some of us to go out into His will on lines of prayer and faith and obedience, even beyond what other professors of holiness will consent to. When He calls, if we stop to measure ourselves with others, and compare ourselves among ourselves we may greatly hinder a work of grace. God can overcome the open and recognized hindrances to His work a great deal easier than He can the hidden barriers in the hearts of His people.
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:54PM
53 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Revival Fires
by Bill Bright
“A wonderful revival is sweeping over Wales. The whole country, from the city to [the mines] underground, is aflame with gospel glory…”1
The leader of this great spiritual awakening in 1904 was a young Welsh miner with coal dust in his hair and grime beneath his fingernails. He possessed no skills as an orator, nor was he widely read. The only book he knew was the Bible, and his heart burned with a passion for God and His holy Word.
Just as God had shown him, Roberts saw the revival leap to England. There, an estimated two million people received Christ. Then the Holy Spirit coursed out into Western and Northern Europe. When He “fell” upon Norway, so many packed the churches that the clergy had to ordain lay persons in order to serve communion to the masses. Then the Spirit of revival swept across the world to Africa, India, China and Korea.
In America, ministers tracked the move of God as best they could from sketchy reports from overseas. The excited Americans called clergy meetings in the large cities to decide how to react when the move of God reached their nation. For them, it was not a matter of “if” but “when.” And God rewarded their anticipation: The Spirit came, and His holy fire burned from city to city.
What Is Revival?
First, revival is a sovereign act of God. The Holy Spirit is the one who orchestrates and enables even our love for Christ. We cannot understand God's Word apart from the Holy Spirit who inspired the writing. We cannot pray unless He intercedes for us. We cannot witness for Christ without His power. So revival is the product of the Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.
Second, revival is a divine visitation. In the end, you discover that spiritual renewal was God's idea in the first place. Believers find they were only responding to Him. Sometimes God comes in power and you have no idea what you said or did to prompt it-and, indeed, it probably had nothing to do with your piety at all.
Third, revival is a time of personal humiliation, forgiveness, and restoration in the Holy Spirit. It is a time when the Spirit calls on a person to repent of obvious sins, and reveals those which are not so obvious-coldness of heart, loss of first love, letting the world go by, refusing to step beyond our personal "comfort zones," living quietly as God's "secret agents" in the midst of a society which desperately needs the salt and light of the world.
Fourth, during revival, preaching is fearless under the anointing of the Holy Spirit-as in Acts 4:31 when "they spoke the word of God with all boldness."
Fifth, the presence of the Holy Spirit is powerful. Fearless, Christ-centered preaching with people literally "falling on their faces" before God often is a hallmark of revival. In the John Wesley and George Whitefield revivals in England the awesome presence of the Holy Spirit was common and it had a powerful effect on the people. Some American revivals were marked with miracles and controversial experiences such as trembling, jerking, screaming, groaning, fainting, prostration, or dancing for joy.
Sixth, revival changes communities and nations. History shows that a true awakening leaps far beyond the walls of any church and radically reforms society. During the Welsh revival, for example, the social impact was astounding. For a time, crime disappeared: no rapes, no robberies, no murders, no burglaries, no embezzlements-the judges had no cases to try.
Our Task
In America today, we need not wait for a sovereign act of God to bring revival. We do not have to wait for a general out-pouring of the Holy Spirit on the church and the nation. Our task is to surrender to the lordship of Christ and the control of the Holy Spirit, fast and pray, and obey God's Word. Meeting these conditions, we can expect the Holy Spirit to transform our lives.
God’s Word promises us that if we humble ourselves, reverence and worship God, He will bless us. But for the slothful person, the disobedient person, there is no blessing-only discipline, or worse.
The Holy Spirit of God is sovereign. He works when and where He chooses. But we should always pray and plan for His sovereign work in the affairs of people and nations. But personal revival begins with an inner call to the heart by the Holy Spirit (Philippians 2:13). The conscience finds itself stirred by that call. The will makes the decision to obey or ignore it.
Today, our decision is crucial as individuals, as a church and as a nation. God is asking us to seek Him with all of our being. The revival which He promises begins when we humble ourselves, repent, fast, pray, and seek His face and turn from our evil ways. God has promised to respond with revival fire for any person who will hear, love, trust and obey Him.
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:53PM
54 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Alarming distress
"Were a person who had committed an awful crime to be suddenly arrested; were his guilt brought home to his conscience by some messenger of justice, in the pointed language of Holy Writ, 'Thou art the man;' it would be perfectly natural for the culprit to turn pale, to falter in his speech, to tremble, and to present every symptom of real agony and distress. When Belshazzar, the proud Assyrian monarch, saw the appearance of a man's hand writing upon the plaster of the wall of his palace, his countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another. And the effects have never yet been deemed unnatural. Why then should it be thought strange to behold sinners who have been powerfully awakened by the Spirit of God, who are so deeply convinced of the enormity of their crimes as to apprehend they are every moment in danger of dropping into the burning lake, who imagine that hell is moved from beneath to meet them at their coming, why should it be thought unnatural for such persons to discover outward symptoms of the alarming distress and agitation felt within?'' -- Memoir of Wm. Bramwell"
About the middle of the sermon a man cried out. I fell to prayer, nor could we preach any more for cries and tears all over the chapel." - Thos. Collins.
Oswald J. Smith, The Revival We Need, pp. 51-52
A revival always includes conviction of sin
"A revival always includes conviction of sin on the part of the church. Back-slidden professors cannot wake up and begin right away in the service of God without deep searchings of heart. The fountains of sin need to be broken up. In a true Revival, Christians are always brought under such conviction; they see their sins in such a light that often they find it impossible to maintain a hope of their acceptance with God. It does not always go to that extent, but there are always, in a genuine Revival, deep convictions of sin, and often cases of abandoning all hope." - Chas. G. Finney.
Oswald J. Smith, The Revival We Need, pp. 58-59
Another gospel - with no conviction
There is another Gospel, too popular in the present day, which seems to exclude conviction of sin and repentance from the scheme of Salvation; which demands from the sinner a mere intellectual assent to the fact of his guilt and sinfulness, and a like intellectual assent to the fact and sufficiency of Christ's atonement; and such assent yielded, tells him to go in peace, and to he happy in the assurance that the Lord Jesus has made all right between his soul and God; thus crying peace, peace, when there is no peace.
"Flimsy and false conversions of this sort may be one reason why so many who assume the Christian profession dishonor God and bring reproach on the church by their inconsistent lives, and by their ultimate relapse into worldliness and sin. The whole counsel of God must be declared. 'By the law is the knowledge of sin.' Sin must be felt before it can be mourned. Sinners must sorrow before they can be comforted. True conversions are the great want of the times. Conversions such as were common once, and shall be again, when the church shakes off her lethargy, takes hold upon God's strength, and brings down the ancient power. Then, as of old, sinners will quail before the terror of the Lord." - J. H. Lord.
Oswald J. Smith, The Revival We Need, p49
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:53PM
55 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
The 1857 Revival stirs Faith for World Prayer
Prayer is that which makes man nothing and God everything. This is what to me gives reality, significance, and importance to the present American revival. It is remarkable that no modern language can more fitly describe the existing state of things in America than that of the prophet Zechariah, “Thus says the Lord of Hosts, It shall yet come to pass that there shall come people, inhabitants of many cities, and another, saying, Let us go speedily and pray before the Lord, to seek the Lord of Hosts.” - Zechariah 8:20-21.
I look upon this event (The 1857 Revival) as one of the most conspicuous, the most convincing, and the most glorious instances of the power of prayer that has been given to the world since the day of Pentecost. It is on this feature of the revival that I love to dwell. I survey with mute wonder, and joy, and gratitude, this copious shower of Divine influence passing over the United States—not only over hamlets, villages, and towns, but over great commercial cities, second only to London, and gathering to the church of Christ, not only the young and excitable, but thousands of merchants, lawyers and physicians. And what has done it? Not logic, not rhetoric, not the eloquence of the pulpit, the mightiness of the press, but the power of prayer. God has rent the heavens and come down; the mountains have flowed down at His presence, at the call of prayer. Hear it British Christians! Hear it ministers of religion! Hear it all nations upon the earth! In all this behold the triumph and the trophy of earnest and believing prayer…
The mighty work on the other side of the Atlantic is the triumph and trophy of prayer. It is a new proof and display of the mighty force of this great motive power in God’s moral government of our world. “Prayer,” as Robert Hall says, “is a spring, which the Almighty never fails to touch when He has a rich blessing to communicate to His Church.” God is lifting up a voice on this subject, which grows louder and louder continually, as if He meant that it should be heard at last. Notwithstanding the general spirit of propagation and organization by which this age is distinguished, the evidence demonstrates that all hope for the conversion of the World must perish, if there be not some fresh outpourings of the Spirit, and some fresh power of prayer to obtain them…
Christians seem to be more ready for everything than for prayer, and can do everything better than pray…A time will come when the place of meeting for prayer shall have more attractions than the eloquence of any mortal, or any angel’s tongue. And why should not the present be the date of that period? Let us all, brethren, this day, in this place, make a covenant with God and each other, to give ourselves to prayer. Let us call to mind how Abraham, and Moses, and Elias, and Daniel, and Paul—above all how the blessed Jesus, - labored in prayer, and resolve in God’s strength to pray in like manner.
Oh, what an influence upon the world’s eternal destinies would the hearts and the closets of God’s people have, if they were stirred up thus to pray! What wonders of grace would be wrought in our churches, what additions would be made to the ministry, what an impulse would be given to missions, and what brightness would then be thrown on the dark places of the earth, and the Church’s future prospects! The Church, left to Herself doesn’t have a proper view of the immensity of Her Lord’s resources; She seems afraid of indulging in excess in Her petitions, when in fact, She has comparatively asked nothing…
A new era is struggling to emerge; Christ is moving to reorganize the world. Is it a vision of my imagination? Or is it the Savior Himself walking on the waters of the Atlantic and moving with His face towards Britain? Is it an illusion, or a reality which leads me to think, I hear his voice saying to the country, “Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with Me?” Oh, brethren shall we fear Him, neglect Him, repel Him? Shall we, like the mercenary Gadarenes, entreat Him to leave our coasts; or shall we not rather implore His presence, and say, “Come, Lord Jesus come quickly and land upon our shores?
Our responsibility is tremendous, and should make us fear and tremble, and in agony of spirit exclaim, “Lord, who is sufficient for these things?” On us does it in some measure depend whether the heavens shall open, and the blessing in its fullness come down; whether the life-giving power shall ooze and trickle in drops, or flow in streams. How is it we can be so easy in such circumstances, and with such interests dependent upon us? How is it we can sleep so soundly upon our beds, or sit so comfortably around our table and our fire? Are we really watching for souls, or trifling with them? Are we so stiffened into formality, so drilled into routine, so enchained by custom, that when anything new or startling comes across our orbit, or enters into our sphere of observation, we will not notice it, or ask what it means? Shall we who are stationed on the walls of Jerusalem, be unprepared with an answer to the question, “Watchman, what of the night? watchman, what of the night?”
Shall we who are expected to form public opinion, to influence public sentiment, to direct and control public movement, stand by in this case with cold and careless gaze, or sneering contempt, or actual opposition? Even supposing we take no new steps, shall we not quicken those we already take in our own course? If we adopt no new measures, shall we not be stirred up to carry forward our old ones with more vigor? Let us, oh! Let us recollect, that we are the servants of Him who makes His ministers a flame of fire. Dearly beloved brethren, let this be such a meeting as we have never held; let a new baptism of fire come upon us all today. Let this be a time of humiliation for the past, of consecration for the present, and of determination for the future. Let us enter today into covenant with each other and with God, to be more diligent and devoted servants of Christ, and then depend upon it, we shall be more successful…Let me appeal to you to inquire what use we shall make of the extraordinary events (The 1857 Revival) which have called for this paper, and in what way we shall turn it to our own account in watching for souls, reviving the spirit of piety in our churches, and bringing back this revolted world to the dominion of Christ.
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:52PM
56 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Everyday in Britain
Every day in Britain 506 crimes of violence are reported, 12,000 offences are recorded by the police, at least 75 are added to child protection registers, 2,750 properties are burgled, 55 million is spent on alcohol, 27 schoolgirls become pregnant, 170 babies are born to teenage mothers, 123 people are convicted of crimes involving drugs.
Every day in Britain 450 children will start to smoke and 330 will die of smoking.
Every day, in Britain, at least 480 couples are divorced, A new crime is committed every 6 seconds in Britain - and a violent attack every 2 minutes.
There are 500 abortions of unwanted and innocent unborn children each day, 182,500 each year.
Every day in Britain two young men kill themselves, and hundreds more fail in their attempts.
It is estimated that every day in Britain 100 children lose contact with their fathers.
167 women are raped every day in Britain and one in twenty has been a victim of this monstrous act.
More than 50,000 students skip school every day in Britain. 40 per cent of street crime, 25 per cent of burglaries, 20 per cent of criminal damage and a third of car thefts were carried out by 10 to 16-year-olds who skipped classes.
Every day in Britain 50 teenagers contract syphilis or gonorrhoea.
Every day 50,000 women under the age of 30 drink twice as much as their bodies can cope with - half are single and under the age of 25.
Every day in Britain an estimated £40m is staked at online poker parlours.
There are 25 firearm offences every day in Britain.
The Samaritans get a call every 8 secs - that's 4.2 million people a year! Almost 11,000 a day
Each year
150,000 children are affected by their parents divorce.
100,000 run away from home or care.
10,000 schoolgirls became pregnant.
180,000 babies were aborted.
10.3 million people have fallen below the official poverty line- that's the number claiming income support
Today there are 13,300 families living in B & B's
Collected and collated between 1996 and 2005 from various reliable sources by Tony Cauchi
The state of USA
I take my hat off to men like Joe Wright , a minister who was asked to open the new sessions of the Kansas Senate, in 1996 when everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:
THE PRAYER
Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good,," but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We confess:
We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it Pluralism.
We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of your will. I ask it in the Name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In six short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church subsequently received international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa, and Korea. Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on "The Rest of the Story" on the radio and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.
This can be found, with little variation, all over the Internet and is clearly quite authentic
When persecution or opposition comes
Sometimes the wicked will get up an opposition to religion. And when this drives Christians to their knees in prayer to God, with strong crying and tears, you may be certain there is going to be a revival. The prevalence of wickedness is no evidence at all that there is not going to be a revival. That is often God’s time to work. When the enemy cometh in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard against him. Often the first indication of a revival is that the devil gets up something new in opposition. This will invariably have one of two effects. It will either drive Christians to God, or it will drive them farther away from God, to some carnal policy or other that will only make things worse. Frequently the most outrageous wickedness of the ungodly is followed by a revival. If Christians are made to feel that they have no hope but in God, and if they have sufficient feeling left to care for the honour of God and the salvation of the souls of the impenitent, there will certainly be a revival. Let hell boil over if it will, and spew out as many devils as there are stones in the pavement, if it only drives Christians to God in prayer - it cannot hinder a revival. Let Satan “get up a row,” and sound his horn as loud as he pleases; if Christians will only be humbled and pray they shall soon see God’s naked arm in a revival of religion. I have known instances where a revival has broken in upon the ranks of the enemy, almost as suddenly as a clap of thunder, and scattered them, taken the ringleaders as trophies, and broken up their party in an instant.
Charles Finney, Revival Lectures, Part Three, When a revival may be expected
Bend the church, and save the people.
Motto of the Welsh Revival
Break up your fallow ground
In breaking up your fallow ground, you must remove every obstruction. Things may be left that you think little things, and you may wonder why you do not feel as you wish to feel in religion, when the reason is that your proud and carnal mind has covered up something which God required you to confess and remove. Break up all the ground and turn it over. Do no balk it, as the farmers say; do not turn it aside for little difficulties; drive the plough right through them, beam deep, and turn the ground all up, so that it may all be mellow and soft, and fit to receive the seed and bear fruit a hundred fold.
Charles Finney
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:52PM
57 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Begin at My Sanctuary - A Call to Repentance in the Church
Nancy Leigh DeMoss
We have come together to cry out to God on behalf of our nation. In setting aside these days, we are acknowledging that there are no human solutions to the tidal wave of evil in our land, and that nothing short of divine intervention can overcome the darkness and the lostness of our world.
But I believe we need to remind ourselves at the outset of this gathering, that there are some prayers God will not hear; there are some solemn assemblies He will not attend; there are some fasts that are not pleasing to Him.
When the children of Israel came to fast and pray with unclean hands and hearts, God said, “Though they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them . . . . though ye make many prayers, I will not hear” (Ezek. 8:18; Isa. 1:15).
In fact, the Scripture goes so far as to say that our prayers and our fasts are actually an abomination to Him if they are not accompanied by humility and repentance.
We would all be quick to agree about the need for repentance outside these walls. But are we as quick to recognize our own need for repentance?
We can readily identify the sins of the White House. But have we become blind to the corruption in our own house?
We decry the sin of our world. But have we not tolerated virtually all the same sins in the Church?
Tonight we face a danger of feeling that the problem is somewhere “out there”--in Washington, San Francisco, or Hollywood, on our college campuses, or among nominal church members.
But as we read the Scripture, we see that the sternest words of reproof were issued, not to the pagan world, but to the people of God.
The prophet Isaiah calls out, “Hear, oh heavens, and give ear, oh earth, for the Lord hath spoken; I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. . . . they have forsaken the Lord; they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger; they are gone away backward. . . . the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores. . . . How is the faithful city become an harlot!” (Isaiah 1:2, 4-6, 21a).
Throughout the Old Testament, the Father/ Husband heart of God grieved over the waywardness of His chosen people. Time after time, He begged them to repent. And when they refused, the Hound of Heaven pursued their stubborn, sinning hearts with painful discipline.
In the New Testament, we hear Jesus’ indictment against the spiritual leaders of His day--men who were renowned for their much fasting and praying: “These people honor me with their lips,” He said, “but their hearts are far from me.”
The opening words of Jesus’ ministry here on earth were not, “Fast and Pray!” but “Repent!”
And when the ascended Lord Jesus looked down from His throne in heaven, His final message to the churches was not, “Go and preach the gospel,” but, “Repent!” For an unrepenting church has neither the motivation nor the capacity to fulfill the Great Commission of our Lord.
To the first of the seven churches He said, “You have committed spiritual adultery . . . . You have left your first love . . . . Repent!”
To another, “You have a reputation for being alive, but you are really dead . . . . Repent!”
And to the comfortable, complacent church at Laodicea, He said, “You don’t think you have any needs, but the fact is, you are wretched, naked, miserable, blind, and poor . . . . Repent!”
And still tonight, the Lord Jesus pleads with His beloved Bride: “Be zealous, and repent, or else I will come and remove your light from its place.”
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:51PM
58 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Scriptures to encourage you in prayer.
For revival of the church:
Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You? Psalm 85:6.
That the Lord may renew His work:
O Lord I have heard Your speech and was afraid; O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. Habakkuk 3:2.
For the nation:
For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. Isaiah 44:3.
"A revival is something that can never be arranged and organized by men. A revival is the result of the direct action of the Holy Ghost in authority and power. A revival does not just mean preaching the gospel with the result that a number of people are converted. A revival means the Holy Ghost descending upon a Church or a community or a countryside in power and in might, in an unmistakable manner, breaking men down, and perhaps even casting them physically to the ground. It leads to agonies of repentance and longings for Christ and for peace and salvation. That is what is meant by revival."
D.M. Lloyd-Jones, Authority, (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1984) p. 93
“When did you last hear anyone praying for revival, praying that God might open the windows of heaven and pour out His Spirit? When did you last pray for that yourself? I suggest seriously that we are neglecting this almost entirely. We are guilty of forgetting the authority of the Holy Spirit. We are so interested in ourselves and in our own activities that we have forgotten the one thing that can make us effective. By all means let us continue to pray for the particular efforts, for the minister, and his preaching every Sunday, for all essential organizations and for evangelistic campaigns, if we feel led to have them. But before it all, and after it all, let us pray and plead for revival. When God sends revival He can do more in a single day than in fifty years of all our organization. That is the verdict of sheer history which emerges clearly from the long story of the Church.
D.M. Lloyd-Jones, Authority, (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1984) p. 93f
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:51PM
59 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
James Caughey by David Smithers
J. A. Stewart has rightly said, "Apart from the mighty enduement of the Spirit of Pentecost, all our Gospel services will be in vain. The natural, unregenerate man cannot comprehend the things of the Spirit. His darkened mind can only be enlightened by the divine intervention of God, the Holy Ghost. He cannot be argued, fascinated, bullied or enthused into accepting Christ as Savior. It is not enough that we clearly expound the Gospel. It must be given in the demonstration and power of the Spirit and then applied by Him." It was this burning revelation that radically transformed the ministry of a young Methodist preacher by the name of James Caughey.
James Caughey was born in Northern Ireland on April 9, 1810. The Caughey family later immigrated to America while James was still very young. By 1830 Mr. Caughey was working in a large flour mill in Troy, New York. Between the years of 1830-31, he was soundly converted, along with thousands of others during the Second Great Awakening in the "Burned-over District." Two years after his conversion, he was admitted as a Methodist preacher into the Troy Conference. He was later ordained in 1834 as deacon and after two more years was finally ordained as an elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Initially he seemed to be merely another sincere but quite ordinary Methodist preacher. His first ministry labors were not distinguished by any uncommon results; therefore his friends and family did not entertain any lofty hopes for his future ministry. However, Mr. Caughey had already begun to embrace his own desperate need for a genuine upper room experience. He resolved to fully yield and entrust his ministry to the power and influence of the Holy Spirit. Burdened and burning with conviction, James Caughey vowed to God to always submit to the following points;
"(1) The absolute necessity of the immediate influence of the Holy Ghost to impart power, efficacy, and success to a preached Gospel.
(2) The absolute necessity of praying more frequently, more fervently, more perseveringly, and more believingly for the aid of the Holy Spirit in my ministry.
(3) That my labors will be powerless, and comfortless, and valueless, without this aid; a cloud without water, a tree without fruit, dead and rootless; a sound uncertain, unctionless and meaningless; such will be the character of my ministry. It is the Spirit of God alone which imparts significance and power to the Word preached, without which, as one has expressed it, all the threatenings of the Bible will be no more than thunder to the deaf or lightning to the blind. A seal requires weight, a hand upon it in order to make an impression. The soul of the penitent sinner is the wax; Gospel truth is the seal, but without the Almighty hand of the Holy Ghost, that seal is powerless . . .
(4) No man has ever been significantly useful in winning souls to Christ without the help of the Spirit. With it the humblest talent may astonish earth and hell, by gathering into the path of life thousands for the skies, while without the Spirit, the finest and most splendid talents remain comparatively useless . . ."
From this time Mr. Caughey's labors were more fruitful, but not so as to distinguish him above many other Methodist preachers of the day. He pastored and occasionally evangelized in the Northeastern United States until 1840. Caughey was then impressed of the Lord to leave his church and go preach in Britain. Almost immediately he began to minister with a new anointing and power. He obtained permission from the Methodist Conference to visit Europe, and quickly set out to bring reformation and revival to the heartland of Wesleyan Methodism. In July 1841, James Caughey arrived in Liverpool England and began an extensive tour of Britain that lasted until 1847. For nearly seven years Caughey was the ordained means of sparking revival in one industrial city after another all across Britain. Throughout this continuous season of revival, Caughey preached on an average of six to ten times a week, resulting in 22,000 souls converted and thousands more refreshed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Mr. Caughey's revival ministry repeatedly emptied the public drinking houses and miraculously transformed entire communities. Most of his converts were young people, between the ages of sixteen and thirty years old. One of those especially impacted by Caughey's preaching was a tall and gangly youth named William Booth. Mr. Caughey's ministry gave the young Booth hope and courage to step out in faith and start a street preaching ministry in the forgotten city slums of England. This ministry quickly grew and was later officially established in 1878 under the name, "The Salvation Army".
Mr. Caughey's ministry consistently left an intense impact on all those who attended his meetings. Often his services were filled with the sounds of hundreds of hungry souls simultaneously sobbing and crying out for more of Jesus. In the autumn of 1843 in Hull England, Mr. Caughey recalled the following miraculous events: "At this moment an influence, evidently from Heaven, came upon the people suddenly; it seemed like some mighty bursting of a storm of wind upon some extensive forest. The entire congregation was in motion; some preparing to flee from the place, and others in the act of prostrating themselves before the Lord God of hosts. Cries for mercy, and piercing supplications for purity of heart were heard from all parts of the agitated mass -in the galleries, as well as throughout the body of the chapel; While purified souls were exulting in the loftiest strains of adoration. The scene was, beyond description, grand and sublimely awful. It was God's own house, and heaven's gate. Poor sinners were amazed, and fled; but some of them fell down, some distance from the chapel, in terror and agony. Many however remained, repeating the publican's plea, 'God be merciful to me a sinner!' My soul, full of holy awe, trembled before the majesty of God. Like Elijah, who covered his face in his mantle when the Lord passed by, I was glad to have a place of concealment in the bottom of the pulpit. The superintendent minister, the Rev. Thomas Martin, who was with me in the pulpit at the time, was so overpowered, that he could do nothing but weep and adore. Thus it continued for about twenty-five minutes, when the Lord stayed His hand, and there was a sudden and heavenly calm, full of sunshine and glory. The number converted and sanctified on that night was great. It appears the influence was almost as powerful outside the chapel as within. An unconverted man, who was standing outside at the time, waiting to accompany his wife home, said, when she came out, 'I don't know what has been going on in the chapel, or how you have felt, but there was a very strange feeling came over me while I was standing at the door.' A few such shocks of almighty power would turn the kingdom of the devil in any place or city upside down, and go far to convert the entire population."
On occasions the manifestations accompanying Mr. Caughey's ministry went far beyond the accepted norms usually associated with modern, English Methodism. As we have already noted, extended seasons of intense weeping and piercing cries were quite common in Caughey's meetings. However, there were also some occasional instances of a more drastic nature. In Ireland there were manifestations of exuberant jumping and rejoicing accompanied by others being violently overcome with uncontrollable shaking and trembling. As a result, it was not uncommon for Mr. Caughey to be accused of promoting emotional fanaticism by those who were resisting his reforms among the Wesleyan Methodists. The following comments from Mr. Caughey's book "Revival Miscellanies" are indicative of how he responded to his critics. He writes, "I understand the design of such names as 'fanatics, enthusiasts, madmen, etc.' These names are fastened upon some of the zealous servants of God for the same purpose that the skins of wild beasts were put upon the primitive Christians by their persecutors, that they might more readily be torn in pieces by the hungry lions in the arena of the amphitheater. Yet they were Christians still, notwithstanding these deforming skins, and so are we, though some cover us from head to foot with the hideous imputations of fanaticism."
Those who were closest to the revivalist were often asked how Mr. Caughey managed to consistently flow in the power of the Holy Spirit. The answer was almost always the same. -Knee work! Knee work! Knee work! This was his secret! James Caughey was a man committed to faith-filled, travailing prayer. "He spent many hours of each day on his knees, with his Bible spread open before him, asking wisdom from on high, and beseeching a blessing from God on the preaching of His Word. This was his almost constant employment between breakfast and dinner." Caughey's anointed ministry was merely the outward fruit of a lifestyle of constant praying in the Holy Ghost.
Mr. Caughey's lengthy revival ministry in Britain had brought about an unexpected refreshing among the common people of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. As a result, his ministry naturally empowered the growing, Methodist reform movement. These Methodist reformers sought to encourage spiritual renewal and ministry-participation among the common English people. They understood that a lasting revival would prepare and empower the common man to take his rightful place in the Church. Thus, they strongly supported James Caughey, as he challenged the Wesleyan people to return to the apostolic roots of John Wesley's Methodism. Eventually, Mr. Caughey was stubbornly opposed and censored by England's Methodist leadership. Finally, in 1847 Caughey reluctantly consented to close his revival meetings in England and quietly return to America.
Revivals are seasons of intense and rapid spiritual growth, and such growth always involves change. Growing children demand new and larger garments, just as growing trees need room for their expanding roots. The sincere seekers of lasting revival must be willing to change and yield to the Spirit's control. The wind, water, and fire of the Holy Ghost are ever moving elements that require plenty of room to breathe. We must beware of quenching and smothering the influence of the Holy Spirit by our predetermined preferences and stiff religious traditions. True revival will not come through our fleshly might or organizational power, but ONLY by God's Spirit! Have we given the Holy Spirit permission to change US?
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:50PM
60 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
"A number of years after his death for instance, a minister came to visit his church at st. peter's church. And the caretaker agreed to show him around that famous kirk. As they were walking around the church they were discussing about the late beloved pastor of dundee M'Chyene, and the visitor was paticularily anxious to discover the reason for the young mans success as a preacher. 'What do you think' he said to the caretaker, 'is the secret of Mcheyenes great ministry? what was the secret of the power in the pulpit?' The caretaker looked at the minister, he said nothing for a moment but he just conducted the minister into the vestry. Now he said, 'kneel down by the chair' and the somewhat amused minister knelt by the chair. And in a most solemn tone the caretaker said: 'Now then.. start to weep. raise your eyes to heaven and cry to God. Ohh God bless me! Ohh God use me! OHH GOD I cannot go up to yonder pulpit until I know I have the might annointing of the Spirit resting upon me.' And looking into the face of that visiting preacher with tear filled eyes the caretaker said: 'That dear friend is the secret of the ministry of Robert Murray M'Chyene, He was a man of prayer.'
- This is taken from Robert Murray McCheyne - Saintly Pastor of Dundee (Famous Saints #1) by Stephen Hamilton at the 33 min point.
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:50PM
61 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Seek Genuine Revival by Sammy Tippit
Our passion is to see a true revival, where the atmosphere is filled with the anointed preaching of the Word of God, where the great truths of the death and burial and resurrection of Christ are given with great power, causing brokenness and repentance in the hearts and lives of the people. Furthermore, we are passionate to see that prayer is permeating the atmosphere and passionate to see a Church saturated with God, a Church that is in awe of the sovereignty of God, in awe of the holiness of God, a Church that sees Him for who He is, which bows before Him and loves Him and proclaims Him for who He is! If we are going to see that atmosphere in the Church, there is only one way we can prepare ourselves and that is to go on our faces before God and pray.
As we pray, the Spirit of God will move people, and He will show us sins in our lives. We must pray and not lose heart, as we are told in Luke 18:1: "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint." If we will do that and persistently ask and keep on asking, and seek and keep on seeking, and knock and keep on knocking, the doors of heaven and the windows of heaven will be open, and God will pour out upon us a revival in the Spirit that we cannot even imagine that He could do. God can do more in one divine moment than we could do in a lifetime. The thing we need to do is to get into a position where revival will come, and that is a position of humility, of brokenness, of repentance. As we go before the Lord and seek Him for who He is and cry out to Him and pray for revival, God will send revival in His time, in His choosing and in His way.
There are times and seasons in which God moves. You don’t know when that is. You don’t know where the wind comes from; you don’t know where it goes to. But when He comes, He ministers, and there are times of openness in peoples’ hearts that there have never been before. There is a great harvest that takes place. The greatest evangelistic harvests always take place in times of revival.
Seasons of revival have always been preceded by great seasons of prayer. We have prayed and prayed for such a revival in America. If we never see it with our own eyes, we have that blessed assurance that it is coming, for "faith is the substance [assurance] of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:12). Whether we see it or whether we do not see it, we will pray and we will seek the face of God until revival comes or until Jesus comes for us. I believe that when we have such a heart, we are preparing the soil, because the soil of revival has always been prepared by the prayers of God’s people.
Pray for nothing less than a genuine God-sent, Holy Spirit revival! We cannot create an atmosphere of revival, but we can be silent before the Lord. Whatever He speaks to your heart, let Him do in your life. If there is something you need to repent of, if there is sin you need to confess and turn away from, if you’ve become discouraged and grown weary in your prayer life, you need to come back to God and be still, and find a place and a time to be with Him and seek Him. Let that time be now.
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:50PM
62 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
“Oh! men and brethren, what would this heart feel if I could but believe that there were some among you who would go home and pray for a revival – men whose faith is large enough, and their love fiery enough to lead them from this moment to exercise unceasing intercessions that God would appear among us and do wondrous things here, as in the times of former generations.”
C. H. Spurgeon
“Revivals begin with God's own people; the Holy Spirit touches their heart anew, and gives them new fervor and compassion, and zeal, new light and life, and when He has thus come to you, He next goes forth to the valley of dry bones…Oh, what responsibility this lays on the Church of God! If you grieve Him away from yourselves, or hinder His visit, then the poor perishing world suffers sorely!”
Andrew A. Bonar
“In the Irish Revival of 1859, people became so weak that they could not get back to their homes. Men and women would fall by the wayside and would be found hours later pleading with God to save their souls. They felt that they were slipping into hell and that nothing else in life mattered but to get right with God... To them eternity meant everything. Nothing else was of any consequence. They felt that if God did not have mercy on them and save them, they were doomed for all time to come."
Oswald J. Smith
“The chief danger of the Church today is that it is trying to get on the same side as the world, instead of turning the world upside down. Our Master expects us to accomplish results, even if they bring opposition and conflict. Anything is better than compromise, apathy, and paralysis. God give to us an intense cry for the old-time power of the Gospel and the Holy Ghost!”
A. B. Simpson
“With some men it would seem, if they could control God's operations and manipulate His actions they might tolerate a revival; but to allow God a free hand, fills them with righteous indignation and horror. If only God would consent to become an 'ecclesiastic' and respect their dignity and decorum and beautiful order of service and ways of running the Church, they might condescend to have a revival.”
William P. Nicholson
"Revival comes from heaven when heroic souls enter the conflict determined to win or die-or if need be, to win and die! "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force."
Charles G. Finney
"Before the great revival in Gallneukirchen broke out, Martin Boos spent hours and days and often nights in lonely agonies of intercession. Afterwards, when he preached, his words were as flame, and the hearts of the people as grass." D. M. McIntyre
"If revival is being withheld from us it is because some idol remains still enthroned; because we still insist in placing our reliance in human schemes; because we still refuse to face the unchangeable truth that 'It is not by might, but by My Spirit."
Jonathan Goforth
"A church in the land without the Spirit is rather a curse than a blessing. If you have not the Spirit of God, Christian worker, remember that you stand in somebody else's way; you are a fruitless tree standing where a fruitful tree might grow."
C. H. Spurgeon
"A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God."
Charles Finney
“Revivals begin with God's own people; the Holy Spirit touches their heart anew, and gives them new fervour and compassion, and zeal, new light and life, and when He has thus come to you, He next goes forth to the valley of dry bones…Oh, what responsibility this lays on the Church of God! If you grieve Him away from yourselves, or hinder His visit, then the poor perishing world suffers sorely!”
Andrew A. Bonar
"Revival is a renewed conviction of sin and repentance, followed by an intense desire to live in obedience to God. It is giving up one's will to God in deep humility."
Charles Finney
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:49PM
63 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
"I do not understand Christian people who are not thrilled by the whole idea of revival. . . . If you want a perfect exposition of 1 Corinthians 1:25-31, read books on revival."
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
"Oh, Brethren, it is sickening work to think of your cushioned seats, your chants, your anthems, your choirs, your organs, your gowns, and your bands, and I know not what besides, all made to be instruments of religious luxury, if not of pious dissipation, while ye need far more to be stirred up and incited to holy ardor for the propagation of the truth as it is in Jesus.”
C.H. Spurgeon
"Are we jealous for God’s glory? To me that is what revival is all about."
Leonard Ravenhill
“There is need of a great revival of spiritual life, of truly fervent devotion to our Lord Jesus, of entire consecration to His service. It is only in a church in which this spirit of revival has at least begun, that there is any hope of radical change in the relation of the majority of our Christian people to mission work.”
Andrew Murray
"Revival is the saints of God agonizing on behalf of lost souls going to hell."
James A. Stewart
"Brethren, it is just so much humbug to be waiting for this, night after night, month after month, if we ourselves are not right with God. I must ask myself - "Is my heart pure? Are my hands clean?"
Comment from the Hebrides' Revival
"The assembly were in tears while the Word was preached; some weeping sorrows and distress, others with joy and love, others with concern for the souls of their neighbors."
Jonathan Edwards The 1st Great Awakening
"Church altars which for years had been nothing more than pieces of furniture now became hallowed places where men met God, and brother was reconciled with brother.
Robert Coleman The Asbury Revival
"The Spirit, like a mighty rushing wind, seemed to sweep all before it: the youths, the middle-aged, and the the man of years fell prostrate at the cross!"
Unknown The 2nd Great Awakening
"So tremendous has been this sense of an awareness of God, that I have known men out in the fields, so overcome that they were prostrate upon the ground."
Duncan Campbell The Lewis Revival
"I contend that whatever does not raise the moral standard of the church or community has not been a revival from God."
A. W. Tozer
"If you want revival, let me remind you that God only plants the seed of His life in soil which has been broken up by repentance."
Alan Redpath
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:49PM
64 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Whether it be in the personal life, or in the church life, or on the mission field, we need revival--we need revival urgently--we need revival desperately!
- Stephen Olford
Revival is the manifestation of the glory, power, and blessing of the Son of God among His people.
- Stephen Olford
Revival is ultimately Christ Himself, seen, felt, heard, living, active, moving in and through His body on earth.
- Stephen Olford
Revival is not some emotion or worked-up excitement; it is rather an invasion from heaven which brings to man a conscious awareness of God.
- Stephen Olford
Will you pray 'Revive me!' and then open your being to the Spirit of Revival? Do not rest until you have been restored to the fullness of the blessing that God is waiting to pour out in your life!
- Stephen Olford
Revival is that strange and sovereign work of God in which He visits His own people--restoring, reanimating, and releasing them into the fullness of His blessing.
- Stephen Olford
When God breaks into a life or a community, nothing else matters save the person of Jesus, the glory of Jesus, the name of Jesus.
- Stephen Olford
Perhaps the greatest barrier to revival on a large scale is the fact that we are too interested in a great display. We want an exhibition; God is looking for a man who will throw himself entirely on God. Whenever self-effort, self-glory, self-seeking or self-promotion enters into the work of revival, then God leaves us to ourselves.
- Ted Rendall
Revival is falling in love with Jesus all over again.
- Vance Havner
God loves with a great love the man whose heart is bursting with a passion for the IMPOSSIBLE.
- William Booth
Let Christians remember, that in a season of revival as well as in a season of coldness, the evidence of piety is to be sought in the fruits of the Spirit. And let sinners remember that no degree of attendance or means, no degree of fervor, can be substituted for repentance of sin and faith in the Savior…
- William Sprague
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:48PM
65 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
A baptism of holiness, a demonstration of godly living is the crying need of our day.
- Duncan Campbell
A revival almost always begins among the laity. The ecclesiastical leaders seldom welcome reformation. History repeats itself. The present leaders are too comfortably situated as a rule to desire innovation that might require sacrifice on their part. And God's fire only falls on sacrifice. An empty altar receives no fire!
- Frank Bartleman
We cannot organize revival, but we can set our sails to catch the wind from Heaven when God chooses to blow upon His people once again.
- G. Campbell Morgan
If revival is being withheld from us it is because some idol remains still enthroned; because we still insist in placing our reliance in human schemes; because we still refuse to face the unchangeable truth that, 'It is not by might, but by My Spirit.'
- Jonathan Goforth
I read of the revivals of the past, great sweeping revivals where thousands of men were swept into the Kingdom of God. I read about Charles G. Finney winning his thousands and his hundreds of thousands of souls to Christ. Then I picked up a book and read the messages of Charles G. Finney and the message of Jonathan Edwards on 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,' and I said, 'No wonder men trembled; no wonder they fell in the altars and cried out in repentance and sobbed their way to the throne of grace!'
- Leonard Ravenhill
Revival is when God gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented that He shows Himself.
- Leonard Ravenhill
The spiritual disciplines of 2 Chronicles 7:14 are not just conditions for a true revival; they are the revival itself!
- Lewis Drummond
A spiritual awakening is no more than God's people seeing God in His holiness, turning from their wicked ways, and being transformed into His likeness.
- Lewis Drummond
An awakening is ready to burst on the dismal scene when Christians have a deep, profound Spirit of prayer for an awakening.
- Lewis Drummond
In the Irish Revival of 1859, people became so weak that they could not get back to their homes. Men and women would fall by the wayside and would be found hours later pleading with God to save their souls. They felt that they were slipping into hell and that nothing else in life mattered but to get right with God... To them eternity meant everything. Nothing else was of any consequence. They felt that if God did not have mercy on them and save them, they were doomed for all time to come.
- Oswald Smith
Revival is not the discovery of some new truth. It's the rediscovery of the grand old truth of God's power in and through the Cross.
- Sammy Tippit
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:48PM
66 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Study the history of revival. God has always sent revival in the darkest days. Oh, for a mighty, sweeping revival today!
- Adrian Rogers
Revivals begin with God's own people; the Holy Spirit touches their heart anew, and gives them new fervor and compassion, and zeal, new light and life, and when He has thus come to you, He next goes forth to the valley of dry bones…Oh, what responsibility this lays on the Church of God! If you grieve Him away from yourselves, or hinder His visit, then the poor perishing world suffers sorely!
- Andrew Bonar
God's time for revival is the very darkest hour, when everything seems hopeless. It is always the Lord's way to go to the very worst cases to manifest His glory.
- Andrew Gih
We often have a tinted view of revival as a time of glory and joy and swelling numbers queuing to enter the churches. That is only part of the story. Before the glory and joy, there is conviction; and that begins with the people of God. There are tears of godly sorrow. There are wrongs to put right, secret things...to be thrown out, and bad relationships, hidden for years, to be repaired openly. If we are not prepared for this, we had better not pray for revival.
- Brian Edwards
Oh! men and brethren, what would this heart feel if I could but believe that there were some among you who would go home and pray for a revival - men whose faith is large enough, and their love fiery enough to lead them from this moment to exercise unceasing intercessions that God would appear among us and do wondrous things here, as in the times of former generations.
- C.H. Spurgeon
Revival is a renewed conviction of sin and repentance, followed by an intense desire to live in obedience to God. It is giving up one's will to God in deep humility.
- Charles Finney
A revival, then, really means days of heaven upon earth.
- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Does it grieve you my friends, that the name of God is being taken in vain and desecrated? Does it grieve you that we are living in a godless age...But, we are living in such an age and the main reason we should be praying about revival is that we are anxious to see God's name vindicated and His glory manifested. We should be anxious to see something happening that will arrest the nations, all the peoples, and cause them to stop and to think again.
- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
True revival is that divine moment when God bursts upon the scene and displays his glory.
- Del Fehsenfeld Jr.
Revival awakens in our hearts an increased awareness of the presence of God, a new love for God, a new hatred for sin, and a hunger for His Word.
- Del Fehsenfeld Jr.
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:48PM
67 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Melted with Affection for Christ
Aug. 26. Preached to my people from John VI. 51-55. After I had discoursed some time, I addressed those in particular who entertained hopes that they were “passed from death to life.” Opened to them the persevering nature of those consolations Christ gives his people, and which I trusted he had bestowed upon some in that assembly; showed them that such have already the “beginnings of eternal life,” (ver. 54.) and that their heaven shall speedily be completed, &c.
I no sooner began to discourse in this strain, but the dear Christians in the congregation began to be melted with affection to, and desire of, the enjoyment of Christ, and of a state of perfect purity. They wept affectionately, and yet joyfully, and their tears and sobs discovered brokenness of heart, and yet were attended with real comfort and sweetness; so that this was a tender, affectionate, humble, delightful melting, and appeared to be the genuine effect of a Spirit of adoption, and very far from that spirit of bondage that they not long since laboured under. The influence seemed to spread from these through the whole assembly,
And there quickly appeared a wonderful concern among them. Many who had not yet found Christ as an all-sufficient Saviour, were surprisingly engaged in seeking after him. It was indeed a lovely and very desirable assembly. Their number was now about ninety-five persons, old and young, and almost all affected either with joy in Christ Jesus, or with utmost concern to obtain an interest in him.
David Brainerds Journal, Part I., From A.D. 1745 June 19th To Nov 4th, At Crossweeksung And Forks Of Delaware
Filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory
Lord’s Day, March 9. While we were singing, there was one (the woman mentioned in my Journal of Feb. 9) who, I may venture to say, if I may be allowed to say so much of any person I ever saw, was “filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory,” and could not but burst forth in prayer and praises to God before us all, with many tears, crying sometimes in English and sometimes in Indian, “O blessed Lord, do come, do come! O do take me away, do let me die and go to Jesus Christ! I am afraid if I live I shall sin again! O do let me die now! O dear Jesus, do come! I cannot stay, I cannot stay, O how can I live in this world! Do take my soul away from this sinful place! O let me never sin any more! O what shall I do, what shall I do! Dear Jesus, O dear Jesus,” &c. --In this ecstasy she continued some time, uttering these and such like expressions incessantly. And the grand argument she used with God to take her away immediately, was, that “if she lived, she should sin against him.”
When she had a little recovered herself, I asked her, if Christ was not now sweet to her soul? Whereupon, turning to me with tears in her eyes, and with all the tokens of deep humility I ever saw in any person, she said, “I have many times heard you speak of the goodness and the sweetness of Christ, that he was better than all the world. But O! I knew nothing what you meant, I never believed you! I never believed you! But now I know it is true!” or words to that effect. --I answered, and do you see enough in Christ for the greatest of sinners? She replied, “O! Enough, enough! For all the sinners in the world if they would but come.” And when I asked her, if she could not tell them of the goodness of Christ; turning herself about to some poor Christ-less souls who stood by, and were much affected, she said, “Oh! There is enough in Christ for you, if you would but come! O strive, strive to give up your hearts to him!” &c. And upon hearing something of the glory of heaven mentioned, that there was no sin in that world, &c. she again fell into the same ecstasy of joy, and desire of Christ’s coming; repeating her former expressions, “O dear Lord, do let me go! O what shall I do, what shall I do! I want to go to Christ! I cannot live! O do let me die!” &c.
She continued in this sweet frame for more than two hours, before she was well able to get home. --I am very sensible there may be great joys, arising even to an ecstasy, where there is still no substantial evidence of their being well grounded. But in the present case there seemed to be no evidence wanting, in order to prove this joy to be divine, either in regard of its preparative, attendants, or consequents.
David Brainerd's Journal, Part II. From A.D. 1745, Nov 24th, To June 19th, 1746, At Crossweeksung And Forks Of Delaware
A passion for Christ
‘I must have the Saviour, indeed. For he is my all; all that others have in the world, and in religion, and in themselves, I have in Thee; pleasures, riches, safety, honour, life, righteousness, holiness, wisdom, bliss, joy, gaiety, and happiness.. .And if a child longs for his father; a traveller for the end of his journey; a workman to finish his work; a prisoner for his liberty; an heir for the full possession of his estate; so, in all these respects, I can’t help longing to go home.’
Evans, When He is Come p65
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:47PM
68 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
The Utmost Need for Revival In Our Day by Greg Gordon
HOLY DESPERATION
The prophet Isaiah declared the woeful state of Israel over three thousand years ago: ”Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” How much different are we? Churches are failing, leaders are fumbling, and truth is fallen in the streets. The prophet Isaiah continues with this divine reprimand: “they declare their sin as Sodom, they hid it not.” And what shall the end of a people be that “hid not their sins”? I have seen a strange thing under the sun: professors preaching “continue in sin” from the pulpit. The Apostle Paul in contrast preached “God forbid” which is one of the strongest emphatic statements in Scripture used to convey the ceasing of sin in the life of the believer. John Wesley said: “What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.” Sadly we have tolerated a hell-less, eternity-less, sin-less gospel and this next generation is aimed at accepting this as the genuine apostolic original. The true Christian witness seems to be almost overshadowed by false doctrines, false cults, and false prophets. It is time for a holy desperation for revival to arise in God’s people! Mary Warburton Booth said this when the Salvation Army movement was waning: ”How we have prayed for a Revival - we did not care whether it was old-fashioned or not - what we asked for was that it should be such that would cleanse and revive His children and set them on fire to win others.” We need a fury of passionate pleading, desperate crying, fervent praying for a heaven-sent revival in our day. Chuck Smith gave this searing statement to a church that does not realize its hour: “Today, we are living in desperate times. Yet, the Church is not desperate before God in prayer.”
Leonard Ravenhill said that “Revival only comes by birth.” With birth comes: laborious gestation, travailing birth-pains, and conceptional agony, shall the birthing of of revival be any different? Revival prayer is born out of a holy and healthy desperation for the presence and power of Christ in His church. We need not shrink back from emotions and displays of desperation for revival, read this old report from one hundred years ago with the Irish Presbyterian Church: “Perhaps you say it’s a sort of religious hysteria. So did some of us when we first heard of the Revival. But here we are, about sixty Scottish and Irish Presbyterians who have seen it-all shades of temperament-and, much as many of us shrank from it at first, everyone who has seen and heard what we have, every day last week, it is certain there is only one explanation-that it is God’s Holy Spirit manifesting Himself in a way we never dreamed of. We have no right to criticize; we dare not. One clause of the Creed that lives before us now in all its inevitable, awful solemnity is ‘I believe in the Holy Ghost.’” God is desiring to manifest Himself in ways that we “never dreamed of” which is reminiscent of the Scripture in Psalms that says: “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.” Oh Lord! turn back our captivity and grant us revival.
REVIVAL OR DEATH
“For decades sincere believers have asked, "Why don't we have revival?" And for decades the answer has always been the same: We don't have revival because we're willing to live without it! It really is that simple. Do we really want to hear the truth? God responds to hunger and thirst. He fills those who recognize their need, who are empty and broken, who are at the point of desperation, who are panting for Him the way a deer pants for water in the desert. He answers dependent prayers. Sure, we want revival. But we don't need revival. That's the difference. God will meet us at our point of need, not our point of preference. Revival is God's radical measure to get the church in a given area or at a given time back to normal before it falls into spiritual oblivion and cultural irrelevance. Revival comes when we realize that it's either revival or death, revival or continued backsliding, revival or the world around us goes to hell.” In this above quote from Michael Brown, he really speaks to the high requirement for revival namely in one word: Everything! Oh Brethren we must realize that this has always been so, there are no shortcuts with God, we will never see a revival until this is realized and acted upon. In light of eternity let us have tears for our lack of desire and desperation for God. John Knox was a Great Man of God and this was his prayer, " God give me Scotland or I die!" Again, John Hyde who was a missionary, prayed, " God give me souls or I die" Again, Whitefield prayed, " God give me souls or take my soul!" May we take it further dear reader, can you pray: “Give me revival or I die?”
Where are those that have a burdened heart like Evan Roberts, he prayed for revival night and day for twelve years. At the end of these twelve years he prayed with such intensity, agony and urgency that his landlord asked him to vacate his living quarters. Is there a burning in your soul? a building desire in your heart? Let us not fool ourselves the prayer meeting is “dead” and so are multitudes in their trespasses and sins. We need a holy desperation to fill our prayer meetings, a holy zeal that will not relent until revival comes. The “Lord comes suddenly” to his temple, let us not be found sleeping or great will be our shame. Mario Murillo in his article: ‘Vital insights into God’s preparations for revival’ states: “now is the time to pull out all the stops. No program is sacred, no worthy project is worth enough. None of the ointment can be spared. It is revival or death!” William Seymour the father of the modern day pentecostal movement prayed for five to seven hours a day for over a year for revival. And what resulted? a glorious powerful sweeping pentecost swept the world. Winkie Pratney told why there was no revival in the church over twenty years ago: “We do not have men and women who are prepared to pay the same price to preach the same message and have the same power as those revivalists of the past. Without these firm believers, the community can never be changed. Our concern is conciliatory, our obedience optional, our lack theologically and culturally justified. Quite simply, it costs too much!” S.B. Shaw who wrote on the welsh revival shares the results of a true heaven-sent revival: “A revival that like a tornado will sweep away all the old dried-up sermons, and all the cold formal prayers, and all the lifeless singing, and like a whirlwind will carry everyone that comes in its path heavenward. A revival that will fill the hearts of saints with holy love, and so burden the hearts of God's ministers that the word of God will be like fire shut up in their bones. For such a revival our heart cries out to God! For such a revival we are ready to watch and toil and pray.” May we take it further dear reader, for such a revival are you willing to die?
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:47PM
69 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
The Price Of Revival By Emily Waddell
The price we must pay individually for revival is BROKENNESS! "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit" (Psalms 34:18). "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise" (Psalms 51:18). "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word" (Isaiah 66:2).
"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones" (Isaiah 57:15).
Are we willing to pray the prayer--"Oh God, break me, melt me"? When we as individuals meet God’s conditions, then we will see results in the church and will strongly desire to get together as one in prayer and fasting on the behalf of the Body of Christ in the whole world.
"If My people which are called by My name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2 Chron. 7:14).
"The world has yet to see what God can do through a person wholly yielded to God, and by the grace of God, I’ll be that person!" (D. L. Moody). This man became a broken vessel in the hands of God. Great revivals under such men as he, Andrew Murray, Wesley, Finney, etc., and men in the Bible -- always started with one man who got desperate with God. When God’s people saw themselves as God saw them and then humbled themselves, there was brokenness and tears, then rejoicing, because the fire of God’s Holy Spirit fell upon them.
Sacrificial Prayer
What is sacrificial prayer? It is to set aside a day or more in Covenant with God on the behalf of a crisis, or unsaved loved ones and friends, or for the need of a "deeper" walk with the Lord. It is separating ourselves from food and all that would distract from Him. Fasting especially means to abstain from eating. It is not doing without one meal or two (this would not be a sacrifice for many) but a whole day or more.
Your whole body becomes a sacrifice in prayer (Rom. 12:1,2). This kind of praying delights the heart of God and brings down His power. It has been practiced much throughout the Scriptures. Jesus felt the great need, and we are to follow His pattern in all we do. We are not our own but His, and no price is too costly if we really love Him.
In your covenant to separate yourself unto God, he expects you to draw nigh to Him "secretly." "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth, shall reward thee openly...But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly" (Matthew 6:6,17,18).
Much emphasis is placed on service, but the greatest thing in God’s eyes is our love and devotion to Him, in our secret place of prayer. Without this -- service is rendered powerless. A measure of our love to God is the time we spend alone with Him. Then service will become fruitful. Without His love we are helpless.
The fire of the Holy Spirit has been quenched in many lives because of rebellion and sin. We need a spiritual awakening, for Christ is coming soon, and we must surely give an account of ourselves as we appear before Him! When believers get right with God, there will be a harvest of souls! Are we willing to pray the price for Revival?
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:46PM
70 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
The Need of Personal Revival by Richard Baxter
I know not what others think, but for my own part I am ashamed of my stupidity, and wonder at myself that I deal not with my own and others souls as one that looks for the great day of the Lord; and that I can have room for almost any other thoughts and words; and that such astonishing matters do not wholly absorb my mind. I marvel how I can preach of them slightly and coldly; and how I can let men alone in their sins; and that I do not go to them, and beseech them, for the Lord's sake, to repent, however they may take it, and whatever pain and trouble it should cost me.
I seldom come out of the pulpit but my conscience smiteth me that I have been no more serious and fervent. It accuseth me not so much for want of ornaments and elegancy, nor for letting fall an unhandsome word; but it asketh me, 'How couldst thou speak of life and death with such a heart? How couldst thou preach of heaven and hell in such a careless, sleepy manner? Dost thou believe what thou sayest? Art thou in earnest, or in jest? How canst thou tell people that sin is such a thing, and that so much misery is upon them and before them, and be no more affected with it? Shouldst thou not weep over such a people, and should not thy tears interrupt thy words? Shouldst thou not cry aloud, and show them their transgressions; and entreat and beseech them as for life and death?'
And for myself, as I am ashamed of my dull and careless heart, and of my slow and unprofitable course of life, so, the Lord knows, I am ashamed of every sermon I preach; when I think what I have been speaking of, and who sent me, and that men's salvation or damnation is so much concerned in it, I am ready to tremble lest God should judge me as a slighter of His truths and the souls of men, and lest in the best sermon I should be guilty of their blood. Me thinks we should not speak a word to men in matters of such consequence without tears, or the greatest earnestness that possibly we can; were not we too much guilty of the sin which we reprove, it would be so.
Truly this is the peal that conscience doth ring in my ears, and yet my drowsy soul will not be awakened. Oh, what a thing is an insensible, hardened heart! O Lord, save us from the plague of infidelity and hard-heartedness ourselves, or else how shall we be fit instruments of saving others from it? Oh, do that on our souls which thou wouldst use us to do on the souls of others.
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:46PM
71 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Pentecost or holocaust by Leonard Ravenhill
My confidence in mass evangelism is completely shattered.
After twenty years of multi-million dollar crusades, both of the conventional type and the other with the healing emphasis, the nation is nearer spiritual bankruptcy, moral desolation, and social anarchy than ever before. This is of course not because of the crusades but in spite of them.
We have tried every crowd pulling gimmick we know. We have offered the perishing public a star studded platform of Czars from the sports and entertainment world as a “come-on” for the preacher’s message. All of this has failed, completely and conspicuously. The nation blinked for a mere moment, turned over, and is now snoring in its sleep of death.
When the church gets a divorce from the world and worldliness, when we can ignore so-called Christian entertainers who attempt to combine Hollywood and holiness, when we cease from the strivings of the flesh and recognize that the Bible written yesterday is for today and for tomorrow, and that it and it alone has the formula for revival, we shall at least have started on the road to the reformation in the church which must precede the true spiritual awakening which alone can save our generation.
It’s Pentecost or holocaust, revival fire or the fire of revolution!
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:46PM
72 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
"If He is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all." - Ravenhill.
"Let me never become a slave to crowds." - A.W. Tozer.
"Are there not millions of us who would rather go sleeping to hell;
than sweating to heaven?" -Thomas Watson.
"For unless your hearts are free from worldly hopes and worldly
fears, you never will speak boldly, as you ought to speak. The
good old Puritans, I believe, never preached better than when in
danger of being taken to prison as soon as they had finished their
sermon. And however the church may be at peace now, yet I am
persuaded, unless you go forth with the same temper, you will
never preach with the same demonstration of the Spirit and of
power. Study, therefore, my brethren,–I beseech you by the
mercies of God in Christ Jesus,–study your hearts as well as
books; ask yourselves again and again whether you would preach
for Christ, if you were sure to lay down your lives for so doing?"
- Whitefield.
"Several years ago...An Uncle of mine, who was very sound,
slipped in some good books into a suitcase one day...and I
remember coming across a book by Ernie Reisinger called
"Today's Evangelism" and I began to read it... I got half way
through that book and this is no exaggeration... and I'm not
speaking evangelistically... This is true. I fell out of that chair with
such the fear of God upon my life, and I pressed my face into
those old boards of that room in the city of Lima (third floor of an
old building we were using for a church)... I pressed my face as
far into those boards as they could get in fear as I could get... and
cried out to God, "God, If you promise not to kill me for the way
I've preached your gospel, I promise from here on out I'll never
preach it that way again." - Paul Washer ('I Am Under Obligation')
"What will it cost me for God to break my heart?" - "It will cost you
absolutely everything." - Gerhard DuToit
"Passing along the road the other day, we thought we had found a
very beautiful knife. On picking it up we found it to be only a
handle without a blade. So do we hear very beautiful sermons—
well written and well read—but they are without a blade. They cut
out no cancers of sin and carve out no models of piety. Sermons
must have blades!" – Anonymous
"I'm afraid from the presence of God. You know, we do little things,
we criticize, we gossip and stuff. I was memorizing the first twelve
chapters of Acts few years ago, and I phoned my wife five o'clock
one morning. I was speaking at a bible institute, she thought that
there was something wrong, and she said: "What's going on? " I
said: "My darling I'm memorizing Acts Chapter 5, Ananias and
Sapphira." and she said: "What about that?", I said: "Yes, they
kept back part of the price, and you remember what happened.
God struck them and they were dead." She said: "What do you
think?" and I said: "Jannes(?) if we were living in Acts chapter 5
today, there will be very few christians who will be alive." I'm
afraid of the presence of God." - Gerhard DuToit
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:45PM
73 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Our Desperate Need - S.B. Shaw
Is it not time to cry aloud and spare not, to lift up our voice like a trumpet, and show the people of God their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins? Surely the need beside which every other need sinks into insignificance is an old-time revival.
We are no pessimists. We do not for a moment lose sight of the fact that the foundations of God stand sure. We do not for a moment question that God has His thousands that have not bowed the knee to the world, the flesh, or the devil, nor been swept from their mooring by the present floodtide of false teaching and doctrine. These unite in declaring that the only remedy for the evils we deplore is an old-time revival - a revival brought about by the mighty working of the Spirit of God in awakening and quickening and saving power. Oh for a revival that will turn the professed people of God back from their idols of sin and worldliness to serve the true and living God - back from their "broken cisterns" to the "Fountain of living waters." A revival in which the Word of God will be preached without compromise or apology in the power of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. A revival that will overthrow sin of every kind, popular as well as unpopular. A revival that will take every desire for worldly amusements and abolish every ungodly scheme for raising money for the support of the gospel. A revival that will take the people out of their worldly clubs and societies and secret lodges and put them into the "secret place of the Most High," where they will "abide under the shadow of the Almighty."
A revival that will save the people of God from covetousness and love of the world and all uncleanness of spirit, mind, and body. A revival in which professors of religion will have their eyes opened to see and feel their responsibility for souls, and in which they will confess with broken hearts their former backslidings, their carelessness and indifference. A revival that will unearth and uncover every device of Satan for deceiving souls, whether found in the Church or outside of it, "For the secret of the Lord is with them that FEAR HIM; and He will show unto them His covenant." A revival that will make both the Church and the world to realize the shortness of time and the importance of eternity. A revival in which judgment light will shine not only on the unsaved but in which God's people will see their duty and realize their opportunity as those that have lost sight of the things of time in the light of the coming judgment. A revival that will make heaven and hell, living realities by the revelations of the Spirit in harmony with the Word. A revival in which the sinfulness of sin will be so revealed that instead of excusing and pleading for it, souls will turn from it in utter loathing, and cry out, "Oh wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death". A revival that will sweep away selfishness and narrowness and all sectarian spirits, and bring those that now spend their time in criticism of each other down on their faces together before the Lord, crying out for the salvation of lost souls.
A revival that like a tornado will sweep away all the old dried-up sermons, and all the cold formal prayers, and all the lifeless singing, and like a whirlwind will carry everyone that comes in its path heavenward. A revival that will fill the hearts of saints with holy love, and so burden the hearts of God's ministers that the word of God will be like fire shut up in their bones. (See Jer. 20:9.) A revival that will help the people to honor God with their substance, and so have their barns filled with plenty. (See Prov. 3:9,10.) A revival that will open the windows of heaven by bringing all God's tithes into His storehouse. A revival that will so fill the saints with love that they will rejoice in the opportunity to give their time and money, and if need be their very lives, for their brethren and for the salvation of a lost world. A revival in which the presence of God will be so revealed that multitudes will fall under the power of God and cry for mercy as they did on the day of Pentecost. A revival that has so much of Heaven and so much of God's glory in it that all the world will be compelled to see and feel its mighty influence. A revival that will gloriously defeat the powers of darkness and hell and make earth and heaven ring with shouts of victory over a multitude of souls snatched from the eternal burnings and run for God and heaven - yea, a revival that will never need to be revived, but that will sweep on like a mighty wave of the sea that nothing can hinder, until time shall be no more!
For such a revival our heart cries out to God! For such a revival we are ready to watch and toil and pray. For such a revival we believe the blessed Holy Spirit is interceding in many hearts. Such a revival God is able and ready to give. But for this He must be inquired of by His people to do it for them. (See Ezekiel 37.) May God grant it, not for our sakes, but for His own name's sake and for His own honor and glory! Amen and Amen!
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:45PM
74 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
Have We No Tears For Revival? by Leonard Ravenhill
The following material is taken from "Revival God's Way" by the late Leonard Ravenhill and is offered in his honor and memory. The Watchword ministry has been greatly blessed and influenced by Mr. Ravenhill's preaching and writings. His ministry has greatly helped to confirm our calling and challenged us to greater zeal and love for our Lord Jesus Christ. Over the past 73 years Mr. Ravenhill called the Church to reform and revival. Because of his faithfulness whole generations have been called to account and left without excuse. We urge you now to receive gladly this message by brother Ravenhill which was so typical of his overall service to Christ. ~ Editor ( D. S.)
"They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." (Ps. 126:5). This is the divine edict. This is more than preaching with zeal. This is more than scholarly exposition. This is more than delivering sermons of exegetical exactitude and homiletical perfection. Such a man, whether preacher or pew dweller, is appalled at the shrinking authority of the Church in the present drama of cruelty in the world. And he cringes with sorrow that men turn a deaf ear to the Gospel and willingly risk eternal hell in the process. Under this complex burden, his heart is crushed to tears.
The true man of God is heartsick, grieved at the worldliness of the Church, grieved at the blindness of the Church, grieved at the corruption in the Church, grieved at the toleration of sin in the Church, grieved at the prayerlessness in the Church. He is disturbed that the corporate prayer of the Church no longer pulls down the strongholds of the devil. He is embarrassed that the Church folks no longer cry in their despair before a devil-ridden, sin-mad society, "Why could we not cast him out?" (Matt. 17:19).
Many of us have no heart-sickness for the former glory of the Church because we have never known what true revival is. We stagnate in the status quo and sleep easy at night while our generation moves swiftly to the eternal night of hell. Shame, shame on us! Jesus whipped some money changers out of the temple; but before He whipped them, He wept over them. He knew how near their judgment was The Apostle Paul sent a tear-stained letter to the Philippian saints, writing: "I have told you often and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ" (Phil. 3:18). Notice that he does not say they are enemies of Christ; they are, rather, the enemies of the cross of Christ. They deny or diminish the redemptive values of the cross. There are many like this today. The church of Rome does not stand as an enemy of Christ; it traces heavily on His holy name. Yet it denies the cross by saying that the Blessed Virgin is co-redemptive. If this is so, why was she not also crucified? The Mormons use the name of Christ, yet they are astray on the atonement. Have we tears for them? Shall we face them without a blush when they accuse us of inertia at the Judgment Seat saying that they were our neighbors and an offense to us, but not a burden because they were lost?
The Salvationists can scarcely read their flaming evangelical history without tears. Has the glory of the evangelical revival under Wesley ever gripped the hearts of the Methodists of today? Have they read of the fire-baptized men in Wesley's team? Men like John Nelson, Thomas Walsh, and a host of others whose names are written in the Book of Life; men persecuted and kicked in the streets when they held street meetings? Yet as their blood flowed from their wounds, their tears flowed from their eyes. Have the Holiness people set a guard at the door of the beauty parlors lest any sister should enter to get her hair curled, while a block away there is a string of prostitutes trying to sell their sin-wracked bodies with none to tell them of eternal love? Do the Pentecostals look back with shame as they remember when they dwelt across the theological tracks, but with the glory of the Lord in their midst? When they had a normal church life, which meant nights of prayers, followed by signs and wonders, and diverse miracles, and genuine gifts of the Holy Ghost? When they were not clock watchers, and their meetings lasted for hours, saturated with holy power? Have we no tears for these memories, or shame that our children know nothing of such power? Other denominations had their Glory Days of revival. Think of the mighty visitations to the Presbyterians in Korea. Remember the earth-shaking revival in Shantung. Are those days gone forever? Have we no tears for revival?
We strongly recommend the following books by ~ Leonard Ravenhill
"Why Revival Tarries"
"America Is Too Young To Die"
"Revival Praying"
"Tried and Transfigured"
"Meat for Men"
"Treasury of Prayer"
"Sodom Had No Bible"
"Revival God's Way"
"Refiner's Fire - I & II"
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:44PM
75 DAYS LEFT UNTIL THE REVIVAL CONFERENCE
ARE YOU PRAYING FOR REVIVAL?
TAKE INVENTORY
We have said the only hope for America and the world is revival. Our churches have so little life. Why is there no real conviction of sin? What are we doing about it?
.
Revival will not come by wishing, sighing, or whining?
.
Are you willing to respond in prayer? Are you willing to personally seek God for revival? It is time to pray!
.
"Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. (Hosea 10:12)
.
If you mean to break up the fallow ground of your heart, you must begin by looking closely at your own life. Examine and note the state of your walk with God. Don't play games.
.
Do not be in a hurry. Begin to take inventory. Write down on a sheet of paper those sins that so easily beset you from running the race.
.
Then seek God in prayer and believe for a cleansing. Let the Holy Spirit begin to do a work in your heart. Remember, God's voice is a "still small voice," and is not the nagging, scolding, badgering, and accusations which one receives from the devil.
.
Sins of Omission
.
1. Unthankfulness-How many blessings from God have you received which you have not thanked Him for?
.
2. Love for God has grown cold-Think of how you would feel if your loved ones never had any affection for you.
.
3 Neglect of Scriptures- Do you read the Bible daily? Is the daily newspaper, TV, and others things keeping you from reading His Word each day?
.
4. Unbelief- Have you charged God with not caring?
.
5. Neglect of prayer- Think of the times you have neglected secret prayer, family prayer, and prayer meeting?
.
6. Neglect of church attendance- Do you attend church faithfully?
.
7. Coldness in service- Have you allowed yourself to grow weary in well doing? Is your service to Christ a duty or do you serve with love?
.
8. Soul Burden-How compassionate are you for the lost? Do you pray daily for souls to be saved? When is the last time you witnessed to someone about Jesus?
.
9. Devotional life-Do you talk to God each day in prayer and meditate upon His Word?
.
10. Neglect of fellowship with the godly-Are you more interested in the fellowship of the world? Do TV, ball games, and activities come before church and prayer meetings?
.
11. Neglect of self-denial-Is the Kingdom of God more important than anything else?
.
Sins of Commission
.
1.Worldly Minded-1 John 2:15 "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
.
2. Pride-1 John 2:16 "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."
.
3. Envy-Proverbs 27:4 "Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy?"
.
4. Lust-Matthew 5:28 "But I say unto you. That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."
.
5.Judgments- Matthew 7:1-2 "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."
.
6.Criticism- Philippians 2:14 "Do all things without murmurings and disputings."
.
7.Joking- Ephesians 6:4 "Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks."
.
8. Lying- Colossians 3:9 "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds."
.
9. Cheating- 1 Thessalonians 4:6 "That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified."
.
10. Hypocrisy -Luke 6:42 "Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye."
.
11. Robbing God- Malachi 3:8 "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings."
.
12. Anger- Ephesians 4:31 "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice."
.
13. Hindering Others From Being Useful- Luke 11:52 "Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered."
.
14. Unforgiveness- Mark 11:26" But if ye do not forgive, neither will you Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses."
.
Revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God.
The steps include:
Deep repentance,
Breaking of hardness of heart,
Humbling of self,
Forsaking of sin.
"Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?"
(Psalms 85:6)
Comment (0)
|
Fri, Sep 14th - 3:43PM
Register for PRESS RELEASE: Revival Conference: A Sincere Plea for Genuine Revival Conference 2007
CANTON, August 1st, 2007 - Will God send another great awakening? Can revival still change nations? These are the questions that Greg Gordon, a 27 year old Bible student from Toronto, Ontario, earnestly seeks answers for. Greg is the founder and moderator of www.sermonindex.net, a website dedicated to the preservation and propagation of vintage audio preaching from the former generations, and has offered over 8 million sermon downloads since its inception in December 2002. Since the beginning of this vision there has a been a genuine burden to see the sovereign act of authentic revival occur in the Church of Jesus Christ today. It is from this burden that the conviction for a Revival Conference was implanted into this young man’s heart. Now, five years later, this conviction is a reality. This October, hundreds of Christians from all across the globe will be gathering together in one place to seek the Lord regarding this crucial inquiry, pleading with God to rend the heavens and send another Great Awakening. The following is an excerpt from the simple yet profound website, www.revivalconference.com:
"There are over 10,000 conferences that happen every year in America. The 'Revival Conference' is not to be just another conference but an honest, sincere, earnest plea for the desperate need of revival in North America. There is no cost to attend the event. There will be a minimal amount of materials sold. There will be no big bands. The conference will have the chief object to be God-glorifying. The speakers will come on their own accord trusting God for provision. There will be no emphasis on money during the event. The event will be a simple, apostolic, yearning for a genuine biblical revival in our day."
And not only is the burden of this conference striking, but how the conference itself has come into being is equally remarkable. With very little resources, promotion or marketing, the Revival Conference has over 500 registered attendees to date with over 100 of them being pastors and ministry leaders! Represented at the conference will be ten different countries from throughout the world. On top of that, the speakers coming to the conference are veteran preachers, authors and pastors from various Christian backgrounds who share the same burdened passion to see genuine revival in the Body of Christ today.
Revival Conference is hosted by the ministry of www.sermonindex.net and is an inter-denominational event; therefore all are welcome to attend.
When asking Greg about the initial vision of the conference, he replied: “I simply said that if this event would be from God, the building would have to be provided freely, the speakers must come freely, and there would be no cost to attend the event. All three of these things have become an actuality. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt God's hand is in this. We are not coming to a conference to hear about God… we are coming to meet the living God. My prayer is that by God’s grace lives will never be the same.”
The conference is offering free web-casting to churches and individuals as well as free on-demand downloads of all sessions. There is no excuse to not be a part of this unique, God centered, important event. Pre-register for the event and get more details at: www.revivalconference.com
Comment (0)
|
Back to Blog Main Page
|
|
| About Me |
|
| Sept. 2007 |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
|
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
|
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14
|
15
|
|
16
|
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
|
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
|
30 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
prev
|
next
|
|
|
Name: Greg Gordon
