Restore us, O God of our salvation, and cause your anger toward us to cease. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your mercy, O LORD, and grant us your salvation. I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace to His people, and to His saints: but don’t let them turn again to folly. Surely His salvation is near them that fear Him; that glory may dwell in our land - Psalm 85:4-9
In writing about past Revivals in the Principality of Wales, I am conscious of the fact that there is always a danger in looking at Revivals merely from a historical perspective. While there are thrilling incidents to recall, of awesome events as God came among His people in times of unusual blessing, our interest must go beyond those things to the vital causal spiritual principles, which will stir up such prayerful desires within us that God would again come down among us, as He did in those former days of His visitation and power. His principles remain unalterable, even though His procedures might well vary according to His sovereign will and wisdom. It is always foolish and futile for man to try to duplicate such sovereign visitations of the Most High. Yet many do! Oh how we need a genuine and mighty outpouring of His Holy Spirit today, a deluge from on High, a fresh visitation to revive His Church and touch our respective nations in their amorality and God-indifference.
Prayer is always a feature in Revivals – great prayer meetings, with unceasing and burdened intercession hour after hour, a concerned people on their knees before God, grieved in spirit at the general apathetic state of the church and of a desolate and depraved society, pleading with God that once again there would be an affecting sense of His majesty and might in the midst of His people.
We MUST pray. There is no alternative if we are to see a move of God and a change of spiritual conditions. Revival, as we have already emphasized is a sovereign act of God. There are no methods in revival. There are no explanations; such will prove totally inadequate. If you can explain a miracle it is no longer a miracle. So with revival! It’s just GOD at work! He manifests His presence and power for His own glory. In our longing for Revival, and praying for a fresh, divine visitation, the reason must be uppermost in our thoughts, that God’s glory might be manifested and His Name vindicated. Read the Psalms and observe those who pray for Divine visitation.
Another reason is so that a cynical and mocking world might be silenced, as they behold “the Hand of the Lord, that it is mighty” and that God’s people “might fear the Lord” (Joshua 4: 23-24; cf. Psalm 42:3 and 46:8, 10). That has been for far too long a missing element in the corporate life of the Church. This is what took place at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came down, not only in fulfilment of the Father’s promise but also in answer to the disciples’ fervent prayer.
These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication ... and they prayed ... and SUDDENLY there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty rushing wind ... and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit... And fear came upon every soul... verses 14, 24 cf. chapter 2: 2, 4, 43 with 4:24-31.
There’s no human method or organization here. It is GOD sovereignly coming in His glory and power among His people as they pray. Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones so rightly observed:
A revival is not the Church deciding to do something and doing it. It is something that is done to the Church. Something that happens in the Church. The two things are essentially different. ... And what an impact on the world around!... The whole essence of Revival is that the Holy Spirit comes down on a number of people together, upon a whole church, upon a number of Churches, districts, or perhaps a whole country...days of heaven upon earth.
Is it not time for us to be done with our schemes and stunts and novelties in the church, and humbly prostrate ourselves before God again in prayer, and plead with Him to “rend the heavens and come down”?
I seem to hear Him say today, as we so desperately rely on all manner of human means and methods to see something ‘happen’ in the church – “BE STILL and know that I am God” – Psalm 46:10.
We need to repent of our proud self- reliance, and see what GOD can and will do for us as we pray, looking solely to HIM to manifest His glory in our midst.
Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, “This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts - Zechariah 4:6.
Paul affirmed something similar:
Our sufficiency is of God who also has made us able ministers of the new covenant - 2 Corinthians 3:5-6.
We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the Gospel ... the church is looking for better methods: God is looking for better men. What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use—but men of prayer, men mighty in prayer.
As I read of the Revivals in Wales, the great 1859 and 1904 visitations in particular, there is no question about the fact that prayer was an important element in securing those spiritual awakenings, the zealous laying hold of God by His people concerned about the spiritual state of things in the church and the nation. Thomas Phillips, in his account of the 1859 Revival wrote,
All deeply felt the necessity of prayer, of united prayer...hence the house of prayer became a delightful resort; we were all impelled to pray, by an unseen power.”
Sadly in our day it is a deserted resort.
It is said of the insignificant young revivalist Evan Roberts whom God raised up, and used so significantly in the 1904 Welsh Revival, that prayer was the keynote of his tireless life. Nothing was ever done in a spirit of independence. No action taken or engagement entered into without definitely committing the matter to God. His soul appeared to be saturated through and through with the spirit of prayer. It was the atmosphere in which he moved and lived. He enjoyed uninterrupted intercourse with Heaven. Whenever one looked into his face he seemed to be engaged in intercession. It was an object lesson to all. Prayer was the breath of his soul.
What does this tell us?
It appears the Psalmist recognizes that the only alternative to Revival was judgment. Psalm 85:5 - “Will You be angry with us forever?” Verse 7 - “Show us Your mercy O Lord, and grant us Your salvation.”
What a cry goes up to God from him, the cry from a heart that does not presume on God, because there had been yet another sad departure by Israel from the path of holiness and truth.
Then observe verses 4-5 - “Restore us again... Will You not revive us again?” If God does not, then all is lost. Only judgment awaits them, and that is not a thought to be regarded lightly. It has been said that “prayer is the state of in merciful deliverance. That is the the heart”; and in relation to REVIVAL immediate understanding of what God that state is a deep sense of need, and declares. What mercy! a justified anxiety for the wholeness of the Church – so that it might again be the true representative of GOD in a world already under judgment.
How often have we heard a small passage from Joel 2 quoted, about an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, especially by some who claim its fulfillment will be in a massive “end- time Revival” before Jesus comes to translate the church. However, in my humble interpretation of what Joel is prophesying that is not what God is saying. The complete fulfillment of this prophecy awaits the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Millennium, cf. Ezekiel 39:29.b Be that as it may, in this context of Revival I am gripped again in reading the first clause of the oft-quoted verses (v.28),
“And it shall come to pass (note) AFTERWARD, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh...”
We must inquire, after what?
We need to read from verse 12 where it speaks of a time of national repentance, and humility; the rending of hearts, and not just outward showy religious displays; a turning to the Lord; a sanctifying of the congregation, a gathering of the older people, children, and even infants to attend the solemn assembly, with God’s ministers weeping in penitent contrition between the porch and the altar, and pleading with God for mercy.
We need to read from verse 12 where it speaks of a time of national repentance, and humility; the rending of hearts, and not just outward showy religious displays; a turning to the Lord; a sanctifying of the congregation, a gathering of the older people, children, and even infants to attend the solemn assembly, with God’s ministers weeping in penitent contrition between the porch and the altar, and pleading with God for mercy.
Read verses 17-19, where God promises that when His people Israel (it’s a Jewish context and not the church) meet His conditions He will turn the tide. The setting is a day of vengeance upon Israel—invading hosts and awful scourges. It’s a country blasted by judgment: crops perished, vineyards wasted and oil failed. What desolation and shame, the result of the nation’s sins – and interestingly termed “a day of visitation” (cf. Isaiah 10:3) when God asks, “What will you do when such a day dawns and desolation comes to you; to whom will you turn for help?”
What darkness and desolation when the Holy One withdraws Himself from us because of our sin. But there’s another kind of ‘visitation’ that is welcome. A restoration was coming, as the Jewish remnant hearkened to the Lord and repented before Him. Jehovah’s response would be in merciful deliverance. That is the immediate understanding of what God declares. What mercy!
For a small moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies will I gather you -Isaiah 54:7.
What about us, in a day when we urgently need such a spiritual restoration? Will God do less for us as we turn to Him in repentance and renewed consecration that “glory may dwell in our land”? Have we seriously given thought to the alternative to revival? If there is a burden for Revival, it will be manifest in our praying. It will not be uttering mere pleasantries, prayers full of religious clichés—cold, formal academic prayers. Paul gives us an example of the kind of praying that is needed today. He says he was in deep inward conflict and anguish as he prayed for the Churches at Colossae and Laodicea (Colossians 2:1); and how significant in the light of Laodicea’s later lamentable condition (Rev.3:14- 17). What anxious care Paul manifested as he toiled in an agony of prayer for them. Do we know anything about this kind of agonizing intercession? When we do then we shall see something happening among us. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16), or as Weymouth renders it: “The heartfelt supplication of a righteous man exerts a mighty influence.”
Will You not revive us? - Psalm 85:6.
This is where it begins – a longing to be renewed and to be right with God. You cannot engage in burdened prayer for revival and remain in apathy and spiritual coldness and indifference. When God’s people get down to selfless protracted prayer for revival, gleams of divine light and glimpses of revival fire will begin to show. When we give ourselves to true, prayerful supplication before God for revival, God will be found first of all dealing with our own hearts. There will be a stirring and a challenge that comes by the Holy Spirit of God to be earnestly seeking God’s face. This was so in the year leading up to The Great Awakening in America in 1859, with the intensified prayer meetings commenced by Jeremiah Lanphier. In those days America was in crisis as both secular and religious conditions combined to threaten national ruin. Then on July 1, 1857, this quiet and zealous businessman, Jeremiah Lanphier took up an appointment as a City Missionary with the North Church of the Dutch Reformed denomination in down-town New York. So burdened did Lanphier become by the great needs he witnessed he decided to invite others to join him in a noonday prayer-meeting, to be held on Wednesdays once a week.
This meeting was intended at first to give merchants, mechanics, clerks, strangers, and businessmen generally an opportunity to stop and call upon God amid the perplexities occurring in their respective situations. It was designed to last for one hour, though some might find it convenient to stop by and remain to pray for just five or ten minutes, while there would be those who stayed to pray the whole hour.
Jeremiah Lanphier had put out a simple pamphlet which asked:
As often as the language of prayer is in my heart; as often as I see my need of help; as often as I feel the power of temptation; as often as I am made sensible of any spiritual declension or feel the aggression of a worldly spirit. In prayer we leave the business of time for that of eternity, and interaction with men for interaction with God.
Accordingly at twelve noon on September 23, 1857, the door was opened to a room at the rear of the North Dutch Church, corner of Fulton and William Streets, in New York. The faithful Lanphier took his seat to await the response to his invitation. Five minutes went by. No one appeared. He paced the room in a conflict of fear and faith. Ten minutes elapsed. Still no one came. Fifteen minutes passed, and he was still alone. Twenty minutes; twenty- five; thirty; and then at 12.30 pm a step was heard on the stairs, and the first person appeared, then another, and another, and another, until six people were present, and the prayer meeting began. In two weeks, on Wednesday October 7th, there were forty intercessors.
Within a couple of weeks such was the response it was decided to hold a meeting daily instead of weekly. Within six months, ten thousand business men were gathering daily for prayer in New York, and within two years, a million converts were added to the churches. Undoubtedly the greatest revival in New York’s colourful history was sweeping the city, and it was of such an order to make the whole nation curious. There was no fanaticism, no hysteria, simply an incredible movement of the people to pray. This inspired others, pastors and elders of churches in North America, to come together to pray. One such gathering was arranged for four days under the auspices of the Presbyterians in Pittsburgh to prayerfully consider “the necessity for a general revival of religion in all the churches.”
The opening session of that prayer convention was addressed by the renowned Presbyterian theologian and Principal of Princeton Theological Seminary (1851- 1878) Charles Hodge, preaching from Zechariah 4:6. Thus did they honestly confront the need for a religious awakening, the hindrances relating to this, and the means whereby such an awakening could be secured. Simultaneously in Wales, in the early months of 1858, leading up to the extraordinary 1859 Revival many were being wrought upon by God with a like prayer burden. There were immediate and remarkable local awakenings. Strong were the impressions felt. The Holy Spirit’s influences were so overpowering the people were found crying out to God for mercy, and many were added to the Church. It proved to be a needed preliminary and preparatory work of the Spirit, for then came the outpouring in 1859. Recalling those wondrous days Eifion Evans says that looking back in 1859 on this (preparatory) work the revival of the previous year “was only like John the Baptist intimating that one stronger than he was close at hand.”
Thank God He came, powerfully and gloriously, disturbing the dangerous slumber that had overtaken the churches, and in its place a healthy and vigorous evidence of new life. Its growth could not be stopped as God manifested His glory in the midst, bringing transformation to communities around as great numbers were added to the revived church. There was nothing shallow or superficial about this widespread work of God. In his account of the Revival, Thomas Phillips wrote in 1860:
On every occasion care is taken to instruct the people in the true and unchangeable principles of religion. They are cautioned against resting in a mere outward profession. They are told that excitement is not conversion, that the awakening of the conscience to a sense of guilt and danger does not always result in a change of heart. It is strongly and constantly urged that whatever hope or confidence they may have in their own minds as to their having ‘passed from death to life,’ it is a mistake, a delusion unless it is accompanied by hatred to sin, and a renunciation of it in every shape or form; love to holiness, and the practical discharge of every moral duty ... they are encouraged to seek a thorough change of heart, and to furnish evidence thereof in holiness of life.”
In reviewing past revivals this seems to be the general pattern in securing such moves of God: lives searched out by God; the desire to be right before God; casting away of all known sin; a disdain for the world; a new earnestness for and emphasis upon the inward heart-work of the Spirit and such a hunger for Divine Truth. There’s a passion for souls who are still in darkness; and God’s glory is the one aim of life and ministry. In a revival the call is always to holiness! The awe of God is in the place. Of course, when the earnest prayer is, “Bend the Church, and save the people,” as was the passionate plea of Evan Roberts, God’s response is awesome!
How often we think of Revival only in terms of sensational, emotional, physical, external manifestations. We live in times where there is an unhealthy clamour for what is outwardly sensational and spectacular – often with no thought of what is really being achieved for the honour of God’s name, or in the lives of the people. David says, “Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him” – Psalm 85:9. That is the secret of revival – a return of godly fear to His people, affecting their whole lives. It is then and only then, that “glory (shall) dwell in our land” - Psalm 85:9.
While preparing this article, with the burden of prayer for Revival on me, I was gladly interrupted by a call from a dear friend in England, the pastor of Dorking Road Baptist Church in Epsom, Surrey. Not knowing what I was writing about at that moment, he immediately began, without my prompting, to relate how that just over a year ago, some ministers of the Gospel met together in Yorkshire, concerned for and (as he expressed it) “having a good moan and groan about the difficulties of the times,Amos – a Prophet from the Past -Part 1 and the lack of seeing real and deep conversions.” They lamented on the difficulties and darkness of the present generation and wondered what they should do. One of the brothers intimated that they should ‘come to prayer’, and cast themselves upon the mercy and grace of God to see Him work anew in the nation and in the Churches. Nothing novel or new it seemed! So they set a date for the first meeting, and to their surprise folk having heard about the meeting came from as far away as 70 miles – to pray!. The meeting was not formally structured. It simply commenced with a brief exhortation from the Word of God, following which it was open for folk to call on the Lord to visit their desperate Nation. They referred to the gatherings as ‘concert for prayer’, a term taken from the writings of Jonathan Edwards’ encouragements to brethren of his day in America to meet specifically for prayer, a call that soon spread further to the South of the Nation, and which contributed to that great 18th Century spiritual Awakening.
Well, since the start of these prayer meetings in Yorkshire others further afield have begun to meet at the same times during set days of the year to join together across the land in ‘calling upon the Lord.’ It appears that this serious call to prayer is spreading. My friend went on to say: “I attended one of these prayer gatherings in the heart of our capital, London, last Wednesday (11/4/2012) and oh what a time it was together before the Lord. We were reminded of the ‘wickedness’ of our generation (as if we didn’t know); of the ‘weakness’ of the present day church; and then saddened to be told of the ‘weariness’ of the ministry in much of the church leadership.” I knew that some time ago my friend himself had been likewise moved to encourage other ministers in his town of Epsom to gather for a regular prayer meeting early in the morning on the first Friday of each month, meeting to call upon the Lord that He might come in mercy and grace to His church, “that God might grant what we don’t deserve, a heaven-sent movement of His Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity.” He went on to tell me, “It is so wonderful to see the full and heart-felt support of these men in bringing about these joint prayer gatherings which are now spreading throughout the county of Surrey. There seems to be a willingness to be responsibly engaged in this call to prayer, and we trust that this will be backed up by action. We purpose to pray along with our brethren in Yorkshire and across the country at the same time on the same days, and whilst we might not be in the ‘same place’ we will surely be ‘with one accord’.....to plead with the Living God to hear our groanings.” It appears GOD is doing something sovereignly in many places, and knowing that God does nothing without purpose, He must be preparing hearts for what He may well be about to do in answer to such resolute and rigorous prayer by so many He Has stirred to seek His face. This leads me to a further matter.
NEXT – Part 5 – will complete the series. www.aeronmorgan.org
AERON MORGAN and wife Dinah, served the Lord for more than fifty years. They are Welsh and have pastored churches in the UK and Australia. Aeron served on the National Executives of the British and the Australian AoG fellowship
