Mary led group in worship…
♪ Live big inside of us… Fill us with Your power and live big inside of us… ♪
Mary began to sing out of her spirit…
♪ Have Your way in us today… we ask You to come and fill us to overflowing… with Your very self… flood us to overflowing so we can shine for You… You can be seen in us… flooding us with Yourself, O Lord… to bring life to those in need… shining with Your love… we want to be filled with You, Lord… overflowing, manifesting Your goodness, mercy and grace… to all those in need… help them to see You in us, even in a smile… even in a hello… Jesus, shine, shine through us today… Your helping us, Lord… to cross over into the more of You here and now today… thank You, Lord. ♪
Pastor Ray shared…
You know how we have catch phrases like, “We want more,” and then people say, “What are you talking about?” We want more. We want change. We want a greater desire. Those kinds of things. We’ve prayed about it and we’ve prayed about it. For years. Year after year after year. I went through a couple definitions. One for change: “to make or become different.” Who wants to be different? Or “to do, use, or get one thing in place of another thing.” Well, if we’re dry as a bone, we need to be revived or experience a fresh wind to bring change in us. “To change over from one thing to something else.” Or “to stop doing or using one thing and start doing or using another.” If you want change, you can’t keep doing the same thing. True?
I have a question this morning. Do we want it? Do we even want revival? We want it! But why do we want it? We can’t be in a setting like this and not experience something of His presence. But many of us have been in services or places when the presence of God was so intense that we were changed into a different person. Once you experience that change, we are not happy to stay the same. So I want it. I just thought I would ask you if you want it? Because you have to want it in order for it to be a priority in your life.
I looked up a couple other words. Another word that came to me was “yearn.” We yearn for more. That’s defined as “having an intense feeling or longing for something; typically something that one has lost or separated from.” It means “long, pine, crave, desire, want, want badly, wish, have/feel a longing, covet, lust, pant, hunger, thirst, ache, be aching, itch, be itching.”
It mentioned desire, but that’s a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen. It’s setting one’s heart on. We get in our hearts and just pine for it. We’re desperate. We sing that song, “Lord, I’m desperate for You.”
I have a stash in my office about the things that have taken place over the centuries and how the Church was changed and how revivals came and revivals went.
I want to share with you a short excerpt from a book called “When the Spirit Came” by John Greenfield.
Chapter II
WHEN THE SPIRIT CAME
Prayer always precedes Pentecost. The book of Acts describes many outpourings of the Holy Spirit, but never apart from prayer. In our own day the great Welsh and Korean revivals were preceded by months, if not years, of importunate and united prayer. Hence the supreme importance of the prayer meeting, for it is “the power-house of the church.” So our fathers found it two centuries ago. The first part of the year 1727 did not seem very promising. Differences of opinion and heated controversy on doctrinal questions threatened to disrupt the congregation. The majority were members of the Ancient Moravian Church of the Brethren. But other believers had also been attracted to Herrnhut. Lutherans, Reformed, Baptists, etc., had joined the community. Questions of predestination, holiness, the meaning and mode of baptism, etc., seemed likely to divide the believers into a number of small and beligerent sects. Then the more earnest and spiritual souls among them began to cry mightily unto the Lord for deliverance. His first answer was a general outpouring upon them of “the spirit of grace and supplications.” (Zech. 12:10) Matthew Henry’s comment on this passage was fulfilled in their case:
“When God intends great mercy for His people, the first thing He does is to set them a praying.”
He also sent them a human leader and deliverer in the person of the young German nobleman, Count Zinzendorf, who so kindly had offered this persecuted church a place of refuge on his own estates. This godly youth and pre-eminent genius had been divinely prepared for his great work of spiritual leadership. Converted in early childhood, he composed and signed at four years of age the following covenant: “Dear Savior, do Thou be mind, and I will be Thine.” He had chosen as his life-motto the now famous confession: “I have one passion: it is Jesus, Jesus only.”
Pastor Ray continued…
I don’t have time to read more but he made room for the Church for an outpouring in that region. He was wealthy; he had estates. He made room for them. He did everything. He’d pray through the night. That’s what we want. Sometimes we talk about it but maybe we need to get under the pews and moan for a while. But I know we can’t make it up. It has to come by the Spirit. So we’re asking the Spirit of God for a fresh desire in us to do whatever it takes to have more of God.
Erika shared…
It’s January. It’s a time when you think, “Maybe I should do something like clean my drawers,” or whatever. And I felt that so I went to this drawer where I keep like brother Ray, stacks and folders of spiritual things that mean something and have become part of who I am. When they become part of who you are, that becomes part of what you project in the spirit in prayer. Did you get that?
So I did that, but ultimately it turned out to be the Lord. I started to clean my files, sorting through the papers. I went, “Oh my. That is great.” So that was the process. One of the papers that I read is “When God Stepped Down From Heaven” by Rev. Owen Murphy. I began to read it. The more I read it, the more undone I became. I would go, “Oh God, Oh God.” I would get up and pace in my house. Finally, I called Sandy and Ray. I read this to them. I was like, “What about this?” so I’m going to read a few things from this and believe that it will do in your heart what the Holy Spirit would have it do. And create within us that desire, that yearn, to wish very strongly, to pine, to hunger, strong desire for this. This is about revival in Scotland. It occurred in 1949 to 1952. That isn’t so far back.
WHEN GOD STEPPED DOWN FROM HEAVEN
When men in the streets are afraid to open their mouths and utter godless words lest the judgments of God should fall; when sinners, overawed by the Presence of God tremble in the streets and cry for mercy; when, without special meetings and sensational advertising, the Holy Ghost sweeps across cities and towns in Supernatural Power and holds men in the grip of terrifying Conviction; when “every shop becomes a pulpit, every heart an altar, every home a sanctuary” and people walk softly before God? This is Revival!
Today the word Revival has largely lost its real meaning. Our present generation, never having witnessed the mighty movings of God in nation-wide spiritual awakening such as has taken place in past generations, has little conception of the magnitude of such a “visitation.”
REVIVAL is confused with EVANGELISM!
Heaven-sent revival is not religious entertainment where crowds gather to hear outstanding preachers and musical programs; neither is it the result of sensational advertising? in a God-sent revival you don’t spend money on advertising; people come because Revival is there! Revival is an “awareness of God” that grips the whole community, and the roadside, the tavern, as well as the church, becomes the place where men find Christ. Here is the vast difference between our modern evangelistic campaigns and true revival. In the former, hundreds may be brought to a knowledge of Christ, and churches experience seasons of blessings but as far as the community is concerned little impact is made; the taverns, dance halls, and movies are still crowded, and godlessness marches on. In revival, the Spirit of God like a cleansing flame sweeps through the community. Divine conviction grips people everywhere; the strongholds of the devil tremble and many close their doors, while multitudes turn to Christ!
THE AMERICAN REVIVAL OF 1857
The mighty “visitation” of those days, from which has flowed almost a century of spiritual blessing, represents a challenge even today. Like a spiritual tornado, the Spirit of God swept through the land, and New England became the center of the great awakening, resulting in great numbers finding Salvation. In some towns it was reported as being “almost impossible, to find anyone who had not been converted.” Like a great spiritual epidemic, tremendous Conviction of Sin swept through the land, and thousands turned to Christ. Drunkards, as they stood at the saloon bars, gamblers as they sat at the card tables, congregations as they sat in churches, even passengers on board incoming liners came under the influence of this strange and wonderful moving of God and, kneeling in repentance, found pardon.
In many places, dance halls, theaters, and gambling dens were closed or emptied: new churches began to spring up everywhere; family altars were restored, and the spirit of prayer grew in intensity until an one could cross the land and find a “mid-day” prayer meeting in almost any town! It was estimated, that as many as 50,000 decisions were made in a week, when this gracious visitation was at its height! Following in its wake came mighty preachers of the Word of God. Including D.L. Moody, under whose ministry multitudes were called to repentance; and pioneer missionaries who have taken the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth.
THE WELSH REVIVAL OF 1904
The year, 1904, stands out in the history of Wales, as a year that will never be forgotten, and those who were privileged to live in those days still speak of its heaven-sent scenes with the greatest awe!
Like a mighty tornado, the Spirit of God swept across the land until mountains and valleys, cities and villages were filled with the mighty manifestations of God. Churches were crowded and meetings went on day and night. Prayer, singing and testimony would sweep over congregations in torrents, and hundreds turned to Christ. Never in the history of Wales had such indescribable scenes been witnessed.
Dr. Campbell Morgan, preaching on this great revival, in the Westminster Chapel in 1904 declared:
“Here Is REVIVAL that comes from heaven; There is no PREACHING, no ORDER, no HYMNBOOKS, no CHOIRS, no ORGANS, no COLLECTIONS, and finally no ADVERTISING! Now think of THAT for a moment! There were organs, but they were silent; there were ministers but no preaching -they were among the people praising God! Yet the Welsh Revival is a “revival of preaching” for EVERYBODY is preaching! No order, yet it moves from day to day, county to county, with matchless precision, with the order of an attacking force. No songbooks, but ah, me, I nearly wept tonight over the singing! When the Welsh sing they abandon themselves to their singing. We sing as if we thought It wouldn’t be respectable to be heard by the one next to us! No choir, did I say? It was all choir!”
Today the Sunday School, the Bible Class, the Family Altar are reaping their harvest. Wales is ablaze for God, already 50,000 converts have been recorded and the great awakening shows no sign of waning. It’s sweeping over hundreds of hamlets and cities, emptying saloons, theatres and dance halls, and filling the churches night after night with praying multitudes. Go where you will, into the bank, the store, the trains and everywhere men are talking about God. If you could stand above Wales, looking at it, you would see the fire breaking out here, and there, and yonder, and somewhere else, without any prearrangement. It is a Divine visitation in which God – let me say this reverently – in which God is saying to us: “See what I can do without the things you are depending on. See what I can do through a praying people who are prepared to depend wholly and absolutely upon me!”
Like a tree shaken by a mighty storm, Wales was moved by the Power of God until almost every home in the nation felt its impact. Newspapers, in bold headlines carried the news of the amazing scenes taking place. So great was the fear of God, and conviction of sin that gripped the people, that in some communities crime disappeared? magistrates were presented with a blank paper, no cases to be tried. And to commemorate the occasion, they were presented with white gloves! In more than one place, the post office’s supply of money order blanks were exhausted as people sought to make restitution by paying their debts! Saloons and theaters were closed while stores were sold out of Bibles and Testaments. Members of Parliament, busy attending Revival services, postponed their political meetings. Theatrical companies coming into districts found no audiences for “all the world was praying!” Temperance workers saw the Spirit of God accomplish more in 3 months than they had accomplished in forty years!
Such, then is Revival, a mighty, sovereign “moving of God” in answer to the cries of men and women who have gone down upon their knees to travail before God. A visitation of God, through His Spirit, that pours tormenting CONVICTION OF SIN upon the ungodly, wherever they may be, until multitudes have turned to Christ. A demonstration of God that closes the dens of iniquity, transforms the lives and homes of multitudes, fills the churches, and causes the influence of spiritual values to be felt throughout a whole nation. A genuine “moving of God” that lays a spiritual foundation for the blessing of God in future generations.
THIS IS REVIVAL
With the ashes of past revivals before us – for those scenes today are only history – we may ask the question: CAN THOSE SCENES BE REP EA TED? CAN GOD SEND A SIMILAR REVIVAL IN OUR DAY? The writer is convinced that God can do more than that. God is wanting to do it. In every age, the revival resources of God have been waiting to be “turned loose” when God could find men who could stand before Him in holiness, prayer, and faith and make it possible, and to those who travel the highways of the world, there are obvious and encouraging signs that God is again “preparing the way” for a new spiritual awakening.
HEBRIDES which although just the size of a “man’s hand,” is not only one of the most stirring events of our day, but under the blessing of God is challenging men and women everywhere to “stand in the gap” for revival in our day.
The spiritual awakening of the Hebrides, between 1949 and ’52 has stirred the hearts of God’s people, not because its size, but because of its quality, and challenge for TODAY! In spite of the scattered nature of the country and difficulty of transport, the rugged and unemotional nature of the people and limited population, the fact that hundreds have turned to Christ in life-changing conversion, accompanied by such God given scenes, inspires us with new FAITH for a far greater awakening in our own land. Just as the tidings of the great awakening of America in 1857, swept across the ocean and brought REVIVAL to Ireland in 1859, so it may be, in the purposes of God, that attention has been focused upon that which God wrought in the Hebrides, that its CHALLENGE OF INTERCESSION may cause a flame of REVIVAL in AMERICA, that will cause the whole land to be swept with a mighty Holy Ghost revival.
REVIVAL IS HERE!
GOD HAS SURELY VISITED HIS PEOPLE
Electrified by this conviction, the great crowd of people, drawn from every part of the earth to this world-famous Keswick Convention (England), began to slowly file out of the Convention tent. Suddenly, a woman in an awe-struck voice exclaimed: “IT WAS JUST AS THOUGH GOD HAD STEPPED OUT OF HEAVEN!”
And so it seemed, for I, too, had sat spellbound listening to the most thrilling, faith-inspired message I had ever heard. A MESSAGE, that has been destined to sweep across the face of the earth, stirring men and women to seek the Face of God as never before. It was news of the gracious “Visitation of God” to the Hebrides.
Never, In its many years of history, had that great Convention been more mightily stirred, as it listened to the report of the amazing scenes that had taken place just a few hundred, miles away. “Hundreds had been converted, many without a word being spoken to them! Drunkards trembling under conviction in the drinking houses while people gathered in churches to pray, great conviction of sin sweeping over districts, causing sinners to fall helpless in the roads. Meetings lasting for hours, and four services being held nightly, with churches being transformed! The preacher being called at four o’clock in the morning to pray with men and women, outside the police station who had been stricken with great conviction and were crying for God to have mercy upon them.”
(Memories of [the] great Welsh Revival of 1904 gripped the people. They remembered the amazing scenes of those historic days; meetings being held day and night, and churches packed to capacity, while thousands turned to Christ. Because of lack of patronage, theatres and saloons were closed. Thieves and murderers surrendered to the Lord, and police courts were idle. Sins were confessed and old debts were paid. Work was forgotten, and frequently meetings would last for days at a time. Christmas, 1904, was the first real Christmas many children in Wales, and even men and women ever had! Instead of being spent in saloons, as formerly, hard-earned wages were used for groceries and toys. The poverty of former days had been replaced with joy and plenty, for Christ had been invited into thousands of homes. Virtually the whole of Wales was on its knees on Christmas Day. That Revival lasted about four years, and then swept through England, Ireland, parts of Europe, and even crossed the oceans to Australia and America changing the lives of thousands.)
From that unforgettable meeting in Keswick, ministers and Christian workers of all denominations, stirred as they had never been before, hurried back to their churches to call their people to prayer, convinced that a great heaven-sent spiritual awakening was about to break forth in the world.
And now, as the great crowds slowly leave the tent, filling the long narrow streets of this little market town, a man is standing by my side talking to me? it is the man whom God had used in this remarkable “move” of God! I can still hear his closing words of challenge:
“When you return to America, rouse the people; tell them what GOD is doing! I believe every church can have what we are having in the Hebrides. There is no ‘mystery,’ but there is a ‘secret.’ If God can find a people over there, prepared to ‘pay a price’ as they have over here, He will visit them in the same revival of power!”
Every word that fell from his lips seemed to burn into my soul, as I became conscious that the Spirit of God was speaking to me, and giving me a new commission. As I remembered the tremendous IMP ACT of the message upon that great crowd of people that afternoon, a great conviction gripped me – HERE WAS THE MESSAGE OF THE HOUR WHICH SURELY EVERY MINISTER AND CHURCH THROUGHOUT THE WORLD OUGHT TO HEAR! Canceling my evangelistic campaigns, I returned immediately to America to rouse the people to seek the Face of God that a similar I spiritual awakening might speedily be given.
The impact of this dynamic message, with its tremendous CHALLENGE, upon individuals, churches. and communities has been amazing.
Powerful prayer groups have sprung up everywhere, and church meetings have been revitalized. In many churches the “all-night” prayer meeting has been restored, or introduced for the first time, resulting in real movings of the Spirit of God in conviction of sin, confession, and re-consecration? upon the part of both ministers and congregations. In some towns, city-wide, all-night prayer meetings have been held by the churches as they interceded before God for the whole community.
Godly ministers of all denominations, burdened for real REVIVAL are seeking God in fastings and prayer on behalf of their churches, and many have witnessed gracious manifestations of God among their congregations such as they had not known before. On occasions, it has been impossible for the preachers to preach their sermons. The Spirit of God has quietly swept through the congregations causing people to be brought under conviction, then groups would rise to their feet and walk down the aisles to kneel sobbing at the altars confessing their sins? WITHOUT A WORD BEING PREACHED TO THEM!
Camp meetings, Bible Colleges, and Conventions have been challenged and stirred, while large numbers have swept to the altars to accept Christ as Savior. Churches, hungry for Revival, are anxious for the message to be taken to them.
Realizing the utter impossibility of reaching every church personally with the SPOKEN message, and conscious of the desperate need of Christians facing up to the challenge of this tremendous message NOW that a real “heaven-sent” revival might come to this great country, I send forth this God honored message in the form of this booklet, with a very earnest prayer that wherever it may go, revival blessings shall flow.
No literary excellency is claimed for this simple book, the contents of which are mainly based upon personal interviews with those who were directly connected with the revival, either in active ministry or investigation? reports of which have also appeared in outstanding Christian publications. No attempt has been made to either minimize or exaggerate this gracious “visitation,” but, realizing a number of reporters describing the same scenes may differ in minor points, the writer makes no claims for perfect accuracy in chronology of events, or minor details.
It is the conviction of the writer that the gracious blessing of God among the Hebrides is God’s message of the hour, containing potentialities for the greatest sovereign moving of God in REVIVAL POWER, that our generation has known, and comes to us as our personal challenge.
Prayed…
Father, we’re thirsty for You… more of You… Your glory, power, manifestations of a holy God… hungry and thirsty to see You come… to apprehend us… there’s more of You to be had and seen… to change in Your image and likeness… multitudes are in the valley of decisions… millions have never heard the good news of the Gospel… we need You in our communities… in our churches… our schools… come in power and glory… Your mercy to be revealed… that we would call out for more of You… what must I do to be saved… we need You in the White House… make the White House white… we desire more of You… we desire distinguishing marks… we long for more of You to come in power and glory… reveal Yourself…
