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The Real Revival
Kelly P. Gallagher
The body of Christ has been divided over the issue of the inducement of the Holy Spirit. This is not necessary, and has caused division and dissension in the church. Every believer in Christ, when at conversion has the life-giving (I Cor 15:45) Spirit of Christ enter them and make His abode with them permanently. Ever after, we must be filled again and again by the Spirit of God. Only through prayer and the Word of God and heart-felt praise to God can this be accomplished. Have we derailed true revival by our divisions along these lines? I fear so. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, He lives in us, specifically in the human spirit that has been sanctified and set apart so that He, the Spirit of Truth, can abide permanently in us. Being filled by the Spirit of God, is like when the smoke of God’s presence escaped the holy of holies, the innermost area of the tree part temple of Solomon and entered into the inner court and even the outer court. This would correspond to the Holy Spirit filling our souls, our minds and emotions and even our bodies with His glory and power. Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled. (Isa 6:1) In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. (Isa 6:2) Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. (Isa 6:3) And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. (Isa 6:4) And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. As individual believers and as the corporate body of Christ, we can and must be filled with the smoke of God’s real presence in an among us, if we are going to see any real revival. Demons are masquerading as a false revival and have been for years. We have seen videos of false manifestations of demonic spirits that many deceived souls claim as a visitation from God, but are rather false signs and wonders. No doubt the enemy plays of the true, but misguided zeal of many who cry out for a manifestation of God’s power and joy and soul winning miracles. Souls are even saved at these false revivals, but many are shipwrecked immediately through deception; however, souls being saved does make these even more deceptive. Paul rejoiced that the gospel was preached even by false teachers, because God’s Word will save souls, it does not put His stamp of approval on it. A true move of the Holy Spirit is needed in the church, this should be our emphasis. With this done, the catching of the fish will be much less difficult as the fishermen of the gospel labored all night for little, but when Jesus arrived and DIRECTED, the catch was overflowing. Listen to this quote by F.B. Meyer: " But I am certain of this, that in America the interest for the moment has turned from the conversion of men from the outside world to the revival of the Church. The other will come presently. But meanwhile ministers and people are coming back to God, to Pentecost, to the Holy Ghost; and in my judgment this is wanted as much in England as in that great country. And what I would say to every evangelist and to every Christian worker is, that our great need, now that tiffs age is coming near to an end, and that every sign in the world indicates the near break-up of the present era and the introduction of the new era--what I would say is that there is nothing more urgently necessary than that every one of us should get back to the enduement of the Holy Ghost. I have great faith that God is going to bless us, I know not when, or how, or where, except that it is along this line of the enduement of the Holy Ghost. The Church has had her former rain and God is about to give her the latter rain also. But it must begin with us. Let us put away our sectarianism; it is the curse of the Church! Put away this back-biting, this merciless criticism of one another's methods, this perpetual jealousy--sweep it all away before the tide of the love of God, and then the great world of men will be reached presently." Chapter 3, The Biography of F.B. Meyer Along these lines, we must pray that God will rid our pulpits, our music ministries and our bible classes of teachers who are in it for recognition, fame, money or glory. Only through men and women truly dead to self and filled with the Spirit of God can bring revival. For this is revival as the song “Send Revival” says. Jesus, life-giving Spirit, come and be with us, so we can live. Shower, shower Your blessings, rain down upon us, righteousness give. Your presence is life from the grave, send revival that souls may be saved. It was nine men who prayed twice a week from 9 p.m unti 3 a.m. that brought a national revival to Scotland in the late 1800’s. It was four women who prayed in a revival in Ireland. It was one woman who prayed that God would send D.L. Moody to England and bring revival and so it happened. She was too sick to even attend church herself, but prayed constantly. Her name is Marianne Adlard. One man named Father Nash went ahead to a hotel and found two other men who would pray day and night for weeks and this made the revival happen. Charles Finney was the front man for this revival, but Father Nash and a few others who prayed full time, made it happen. Revival is mysterious, the wind blows where it wills (John 3) but God often responds to fervent, mournful prayer. Listen to this account of Daniel Nash: When I got to town to start a revival a lady contacted me who ran a boarding house. She said, "Brother Finney, do you know a Father Nash? He and two other men have been at my boarding house for the last three days, but they haven't eaten a bite of food. I opened the door and peeped in at them because I could hear them groaning, and I saw them down on their faces. They have been this way for three days, lying prostrate on the floor and groaning. I thought something awful must have happened to them. I was afraid to go in and I didn't know what to do. Would you please come see about them?" "No it isn't necessary," I replied. "They just have a spirit of travail in prayer." When the public meetings started Father Nash would not usually attend but kept praying in his closet for the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to fall on the crowd and melt their hearts. When opposition arose Father Nash would pray all the harder. Once a group of young men promised to break up the meetings. Nash was praying nearby and came out of the shadows to announce: "Now mark me, young men! God will break your ranks in less than one week, either by converting some of you, or by sending some of you to hell. He will do this certainly as the Lord is my God!" Finney thought his friend had lost his sense. But by next Tuesday morning the leader of the group suddenly showed up, confessed his sinful attitude before Finney and accepted Christ. "What shall I do Mr. Finney?" he asked. Finney told him to go back to his companions and tell them how Christ had changed his life. Before that week was out nearly all of the original group had come to Christ. In 1826 both Finney and Nash were burnt in effigy. The enemy recognized the threat of Father Nash's prayers to their ways of wickedness. Shortly before Nash died in 1831 he wrote: I am now convinced, it is my duty and privilege, and the duty of every other Christian, to pray for as much of the Holy Spirit as came down on the day of Pentecost, and a great deal more….My body is in pain, but I am happy in my God…..I have only just begun to understand what Jesus meant when he said, "All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." It is interesting to note that within four months of Father Nash's death Finney left the evangelistic field to take a Church in New York City. His prayer partner in taking the enemy by storm was gone. He whose prayers and been the strength of the campaigns was now in his eternal home and the loss of power was felt. 1 If you think you have the gift of tongues, a “prayer language” as many refer to it, remember that the Holy Spirit Himself prays in GROANS. This is the painful, weeping and intense prayer of love for souls on their way to an eternal hell. If you care not that souls are going to hell, check your salvation, if you are saved, ask God to give you a heart for souls that brings this kind of prayer. Rom 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. It was on one of these previous visits that Mr. Moody attended " The Believers' Conference " at Dublin, and, walking in Mr. Bewley's garden Henry Varley said in his hearing, " The world has yet to see what God can do with a thoroughly consecrated man." Instantly Moody's heart responded, " God helping me, I will be that man." He went back to America, and realizing the need of something to attract the people in order that he might preach to them, found Sankey, persuaded him to join forces, and so they came. Seemingly cut off from all human help on their arrival, but thrown back on God, they gloriously survived. 2 Notice how God use music to attract people to the preaching of Moody. Our music can do the same, but we must have ministers not just of talent, but of anointing; men and women who are continually filled with the Spirit of God. Even those who play drums and guitars and piano must be anointed as well. For king David drove out devils just by playing the harp. Soloists, especially, must be totally dead to self. If applause comes, ignore it totally or God may be displeased and remove His presence. Then we have replaced Christ with mere man. The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir is famous, but this church was started with prayer and went from 20 to 6000 because the anointing on the music and the preaching, bathed in prayer, attracted the rich and poor, black, white and all races to come and worship and seek God. Most importantly, we must have leadership of people who are sold out for souls. It must be their consuming passion. I believe we have this kind of leadership in this church. As leaders, it is our vital duty, to make ourselves vessels of God’s Spirit and diminish the flesh coming through our ministry. 1Pe 4:11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. We must pray that God would remove any person from our midst that is in leadership who will not crucify their flesh and be filled with the Spirit. Anyone who, even in secret, attempts to touch God’s glory. As the anointing oil fell from the head of Aaron down, any leader who is carnal or full of the self-life will hinder and poison this power from spreading to the rest of the body. I believe God has and will continue to clean our corporate house of all leadership that continues to walk in pride or is not seeking to be filled by the Spirit of God at all times. The spirit of Diotrophes has to go. 3Jn 1:9 I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. The danger of being on a stage is that our flesh can grow to like the stroke of applause. But God will not tolerate this. Watch out for any minister who is competitive with others or seeks to be in the limelight. The most necessary fruit for leadership is true humility. F.B. Meyer displayed this humility when he said at the first revival with Moody, “You are wrong if you are expecting to be blessed because I am here.” Like John the Baptist, who Jesus said was the greatest prophet before Him, “He must increase, I must decrease”. It is hard to die to self, but once this process has taken root, then the multiplication of God can begin. Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. 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!
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.
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.
We see that the master of revival, Charles Finney, understood the link between humility and revival. We cant export to our community what we have not imported into our own lives through the Spirit of Grace. How can we expect revival when so few in this church are faithful to attend bible study? If there is no hunger for the Word of God in our hearts, how can we expect to create a hunger for God and His Word in our own? There are people who would travel hours to be in a bible study such as offered by this church, but few make the effort. There are countries where people would walk all day and insist on more than one or two hours of bible study, yet we can’t even shame anyone to come. The Word of God gives power, it makes alive and divides soul and spirit, how do we expect to have revival if we refuse to be students of God’s word? Are we just coming to church to be entertained? If that is truly the case, I wish to leave a church like that and find one that is interested in dying to self and growing in grace and leading many to righteousness. I believe that the leadership of this church and the music has been providentially placed for revival, but it is up to you to pray it in, to seek God and to study His Word with zeal, discipline, regularity. Sure, this will bring persecution on you and Satan will try to discourage you, but the pearl of Great Price is bought with a cost that differs from person to person, but the price is ALL. 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.
Can you see that hunger for the Word of God is a sign of Revival? To we charge money for you to be taught the Bible by people who should be paid as well as any professor who has toiled in study for 30-40 years? Just because it is free does not mean it is cheap. The price is high, the price is desire and time. Two things last forever, souls of men and the Word of God. God will judge us by these two things; how much time, talent and treasure we invested in these two things. Revival, no matter how great or small in its ultimate scope, always begins with individual believers whose hearts are desperate for God, and who are willing to pay the price to meet Him.
Are we desperate for God? Do we love His Word like David and Job, who esteemed the words of His lips more than food needed to survive (Job 23:12) and stayed up all night, forsaking sleep to meditate on God’s word? Until this church finds this kind of intense love of the Word of God and souls, we are kidding ourselves that any real revival will take place. We may pack this house and start having larger budgets, but we will be judged as lukewarm Laodicea, dead, naked, poor and wretched spiritually. I for one will not accept this as my judgment and even though I love this church, I will leave and find one alive if this continues because I am responsible before God to answer for my soul and my family. I walked away from a famous quartet 25 years ago because they would not seek God and His Word, but were into entertainment and display of talent. I will do it again if that is the case. I would also pray that God would remove from us those who refuse to seek Him with all their heart and replace them with those who hunger and thirst after righteousness and love His Word and His presence. This process has already begun, and I am thankful that those who secretly served here with wrong attitudes and motives have been removed. God’s process is always to tear down, then build and plant. Hos 10:12 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. We can sing about rain of revival until we are blue in the face, but it will not come until we soften our hearts and seek the Lord UNTIL HE COMES. Revival is the moving of God's Spirit, through the power of His Word, to the hearts of His children, that resurrects to new life those areas which have been lying stagnant, dormant, or out of balance, and that results in new love and obedience to Jesus Christ.
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.
As G. Campbell Morgan, a great revivalist of the 1870s writes, we can’t make it happen by deciding when God will revive us, but we can prepare our ground. Only God knows when and where to create a revival, but like Daniel, we can be prepared when God is ready to move. Let us warm our hearts by the fire of God’s Word and presence through praise and prevailing prayer for souls. 2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. We are going to be ashamed at the coming of Christ if we do not study His Word and rightly divide it. We have to tools to help you study the Bible on your own, but group study of God’s Word is also vital. I now teach five bible studies a week and am looking for one more. Why? Does this not take away from my “down time” where I could sit and watch television or read novels? YES! That is exactly why I want to be bathed more and more in God’s HOLY Word, because it makes us Holy. It makes us partake of the very nature of Christ. We are feeding from the hidden manna, the manna from heaven when we diligently seek God’s Word through prayer and disciplined, regular study. 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.
The Revival of 1739 At a prayer meeting with George Whitefield, both Wesleys and several others, the power of God fell on this group of devout men. This was on New Years day. What a wonderful thing to bring in a new year with a real change, not some resolutions made in the flesh, quickly abandoned, but a reformation began in the Spirit of God, through intense prayer. This was the beginning of what is know as the Great Awakening. Is this not what a revival is? An awakening from lethargy and sin to zealous, bold and intense righteousness, not of willpower, but of the Spirit of God? (1Co 15:33) Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. (1Co 15:34) Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. Notice what Paul is saying to the Corinthians; to awake to righteousness means to avoid evil communications. One of the notable results of the Revivals of the past is the entire putting away of conversations about worldly things, an abandonment of worldly pleasures and entertainments. The people wanted nothing to talk about but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. They longed to speak of the holy things of God, His precious Word and how to increase the enterprise of soul-winning. Much of true prayer is seeking, not asking. What we desire in our hearts we will be given. If we desire souls to be saved, it will be granted. If we desire earthly things, they shall be allowed, yet with a price. (Psa 106:15) And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul. (Num 11:33) And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague. The worst plague is the plague of spiritual barrenness, of which, many if not most Christians are plagued with. We have brought this plague on ourselves by making God angry with us. We have made an idol of our own selfish desires, and pined after them. God often grants us some fulfillment of our lusts, but makes the food gravel in our mouths and at the end we cry bitterly, like Esau, but cannot change or repent. The false revivals we have seen are also along this line, soulishly spectacular, but spiritually bankrupt. Revival fire spread rapidly. In February 1739 Whitefield started preaching to the Kingswood coal miners in the open fields near Bristol because many churches were now closed to him, accusing him and other evangelicals of 'enthusiasm'. In February about 200 attended. By March 20,000 attended. Whitefield invited Wesley to take over then and so in April Wesley reluctantly began his famous open air preaching, which continued for 50 years. Notice that the established churches would not accept this revival, but persecuted it. Just like the Pharisees and Sadducees, who persecuted Christ and His followers, take heed that we are not deceived into thinking that we are on the right path, and revival passes us by. The onset of the awakening did not occur solely among the religious, but according to Edwards "the worst persons in the town seemed to be suddenly seized with a great degree of concern about their souls." Within the next seven years the awakening had seized the colonies. Church records of this time period indicate that as much as one-third of the population of the American colonies had had a salvation experience. The magnitude of the awakening caused Edwards to wonder aloud whether the millennial reign of Christ was not descending on the earth. If another 20 years of awakening passed unabated, Edwards extrapolated, there would be no one left to save. Into this world, John Wesley was born in 1703 to ministering parents. In 1709, their parsonage burned, with a very close call for John who was asleep in the upper chambers. In a dramatic rescue, young John was coaxed to leap from the upper story into his father's arms. Moments later the building collapsed. Wesley's mother, Susanna, believed her son's life to be a "flaming brand plucked from the burning" to serve some great purpose of God. Wesley was trained from childhood for the ministry and he later attended Oxford. Wesley's life is awe-inspiring. Historians testify that it was John Wesley's Methodists that provided the moral ballast that kept England from sliding into the same bloody tragedy that was experienced just a short distance away in the French Revolution of 1789. At the end of his life he had trained 750 preachers in England and, through his student Francis Asbury, 350 in America. At his death there were 76,968 Methodists in England and 57,621 in America. His brother Charles wrote hundreds of hymns which are still well known and sung today. "O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy" (Habakkuk 3:2). It is supposed that the prophet Habakkuk was contemporary with Jeremiah, and that this prophecy was uttered in anticipation of the Babylonish activity. Looking at the judgments which were speedily to come upon his nation, the soul of the prophet was wrought up to an agony, and he cries out in his distress, "O Lord, revive thy work." As if he had said, "O Lord, grant that thy judgments may not make Israel desolate. In the midst of theses awful years, let the judgments of God be made the means of reviving religion among us. In wrath remember mercy." Before the horrible spectre of the Civil War, a revival swept America, where perhaps 20% of the entire country had a powerful conversion experience. The revival went on even during the war, perhaps mitigating the judgment. Is not a similar situation here today. We collectively are responsible for the horrible holocaust of the abortion industry that has killed 48,589,993 since 1973 according to the National Right to Life. Perhaps we need a sweeping revival in this country to avert a judgment that would kill a similar number of adults in this country through terrorism or disease or war right here on our soil. "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee" (Isaiah 60:1). A glorious picture of the church of Jesus Christ, rising and shining with pure light. We have seen false, cheap imitations of this in the last decades. False revivals have risen with corrupt leaders who seek increased crowds and money at whatever cost. Even men who have sought power from God, but, I believe, have been deceived with a satanic counterfeit. We are being destroyed through lack of discernment. Perhaps, it is because we are unfamiliar with the real power of God and unfamiliar with the Word of God. (Mat 22:29) Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. Without a true revival of diligent study of the Word of God, we will be led into more and more bizarre false revivals and true revival will tarry. Many revivals of the past came out of Bible studies.
Count Zinsendorf and the Moravians It was the year 1727. For one hundred years, much prayer had gone up for revival, twenty four hours a day. The Moravians were so committed to soul-winning that 1 in 12 went to the mission field, some even selling themselves as slaves to reach the slaves for Christ.
The Great Awakening The years 1734-1775. Perhaps God brought revival for the coming War of Independence. He used two men mightily, Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield. Many cried out under the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. Edwards famous sermon, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” would be very unpopular today. He based his sermon on Deut 32:35, “Their foot shall slide in due time” (Deu 32:35) To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. The slippery places mean that the wicked are always in danger of sudden destruction. They can fall by themselves, for it is our own weight that can make us fall when on slippery places. They fall in DUE TIME, under God’s control, according to His mercy, so that every chance can be made that they might be saved. John 3:18, “he that believeth not is condemned already.” They are under the condemnation of hell. All those who are not born again in Christ, hang over the fiery abyss as with a thread. It was an effective tool of revival, the preaching of Jonathan Edwards. Today, we have replaced this kind of preaching with God being a self-help tool to overcome addictions and increase our self-esteem. True revival, brings true repentance, born out of a realization of being judged a hardened criminal in the sight of God and the call to flee the destruction coming through faith in Christ. Edwards also encouraged people to press into the kingdom of God. To seek heaven with all their hearts. God’s Word promises that none who seek Him with their whole heart will be lost. (Jer 29:13) And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. How different an approach here than the modern begging people to make a decision for Christ; to add Christ to their lives as one would choose a vitamin to help them. Christ is to be sought fervently, desperately and zealously until He is found. The challenge to seek God, to press into the kingdom of God is the message of true revival. We teach that Jesus is a narrow Gate, but He taught that He is a narrow way. Where did we get this theology that one need not seek God after conversion? With no change, is conversion real? Repentance and faith is a way of life, not a one time event. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice and they follow Me.” If we don’t follow Christ, by picking up our cross, how can we say we are His sheep? Examine yourselves, Paul says in II Cor 13:5, to see if we are really in the faith and not religious reprobates, castaways. Leonard Ravenhill, who has been a Christian for 70 years, has seen real revivals. He says that the reason there is no revival in America is because people make “decisions” for Christ that take 4 minutes, yet a giraffe takes 4 hours to give birth. We need to travail with people in prayer and disciple them into the kingdom of God. It takes time to lead people to a real conversion experience. He said, “If we knew God we would change the world. If we knew God we would not beg for money. Jesus said in John 17:3 that the purpose of Christ’s coming is that they would know thee and this is eternal life, to know God.” He tells of the Salvation Army with William Boothe how that the people would throw chamber pots on them as they marched, they wore two coats, one to wear outside and one for church inside. It was worth the price for true revival. Some were literally thrown to the altar from the back by the Holy Spirit – we would call this spiritualism. Ravenhill says, “you don’t have to advertise a fire.” He speaks of meetings where there were more people at the altar praying for souls than came after the invitation. He speaks of Evan Roberts who came into a hall of 800 and sat down and prayed for 3 hours, many left. Then he got up and spoke for 15 minutes and God fell on that group like a hard rain. Then Roberts did not go out to eat and joke as many of us do, but prayed all night for the anointing of God to be on his next meeting. We want revival? We must seek repentance in our own hearts, then God can use us for revival. (Psa 51:13) Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
The Second Great Awakening Revival came to America when it needed it most. Ministers in 1783 had made the conditions for conversion so impossible that many churchgoers despaired of ever joining the ranks of the redeemed. Perhaps the opposite is true today; just say the Jesus prayer and you are saved. No call for holiness, repentance and the cross of commitment. God raised up men like Timothy Dwight and Lyman Beecher. Also Bishop Asbury and his army of Methodist circuit riders. In the wake of revival came reform in society never seen before; missionary societies were founded and many charitable institutions for the deaf, blind, mentally ill, old and destitute and orphans. The greatest battle was slavery. Our government system of democracy was not natural, but supernatural. We need sustained spiritual renewal to inspire naturally selfish people to selflessness. On this selfless love, democracy has always depended. During the constitutional convention, it was Benjamin Franklin, an unbeliever that challenged the stagnation of the process with a call to prayer.
It is not natural to go God’s way; we naturally prefer our own. Even with God’s grace it is difficult to be selfless. Which is why God puts men in groups who would go this way so that they might support and encourage each other. Find the company of people who are striving to enter this narrow gate for we need this encouragement. This is why God commands us not to forsake the gathering of the saints. Heb 10: 24,25. Democracy was born in the church. When we left the state church and chose our own pastors and elders, we practiced the first example of democracy – the government by the consent of the governed. The Puritans elected John Winthrop their leader, who said: “We must delight in each other, make one another’s condition our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and Community in this work, as members of the same body.” The first building of a new community was always the church. The primary motivation of the Puritans was living for God’s will. Sometimes, they lost sight of that and God would use a drought, plague, grasshoppers or Indian uprising to remind them of their need for and dependence on God. The greater the light and maturity an individual possessed, the greater the service God expected him to render to His neighbors. Kentucky became a land of lawlessness. People moved out here to be isolated. These people were rough, smart and fiercely independent. They lived on pork and burning liquors. But it was here that God saw fit to bring a revival that would change the nation. The secret of this revival, prayer. James McGready made a covenant with his people, “When we consider the Word and promises of a compassionate God, to the poor lost family of Adam, we find the strongest encouragement for Christians to pray in faith – to ask in the name of Jesus for the conversion of their fellow men…With these promises before us, we feel encouraged to unite our supplications to a prayer-hearing God, for the out-pouring of His Spirit, that His people may be quickened and comforted, and that our children, and sinners generally, may be converted.” Dr. George Baxter, a skeptic, wrote this of the Kentucky Revival: “I found Kentucky, to appearance, the most moral place I had ever seen. A profane expression was hardly ever heard. A religious awe seemed to pervade the country… Never in my life have I seen more genuine marks of humility which…looks to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way of acceptance to God…and it was truly affecting to hear with what agonizing anxiety awakened sinners inquired for Christ, as the only physician who could give them any help…Upon the whole, sir, I think the revival in Kentucky among the most extraordinary that have ever visited the Church of Christ, and all things considered, peculiarly adapted to the circumstances of that country…Something of an extraordinary nature seemed necessary to arrest the attention of a giddy people, who were ready to conclude that Christianity was a fable, and futurity a dream. This revival has done it; it has confounded infidelity, awed vice to silence, and brought numbers beyond calculation under serious impressions.” The Methodist circuit riders would ride in all weather, even when the cold kept the hardy Kentuckians indoors. There was a joke, “There’s nothing out today but crows and Methodist preachers.” They would chuckle, but they would ponder and when the preacher was in their cabin and asked them to accept Christ in their hearts, more often than not, they would do it. Kentuckians prized hard work and these preachers earned their respect. Bishop Asbury, rode a circuit of 5,000 miles a year on horseback. In ill health, pain and cold and hunger, he was relentless. L.C. Rudolph, points out, “He preached wherever his horse stopped! If he did not give all men the Gospel, their blood might be on his hands. Extraordinary times demanded extraordinary means.” Once, when many people began to praise the Bishop, he said this, “Satan, ready for every advantage, seized the opportunity and assaulted me with self-pleasing, self exalting ideas. But the Lord enabled me to discover the danger, and the snare was broken. May He ever keep me humble, and little, and mean, in my own eyes.” It was love for souls that kept His riding for 55 years. His body, worn out at 72, simply died. He was mourned by thousands. He never married so that he could ride and was upset when many of his men “located” i.e., got married and were unable to ride the national circuit. Most of the men who stayed were so committed that temptations hardly touched them, like they do the double-minded. Peter Cartwright was a strong man, who loved to party and race horses. He came under conviction of sin when God blinded him at 16 and he felt he was going to die, unprepared for eternity. He became a camp meeting preacher and when hecklers in the camp meetings could not be persuaded otherwise, he used his fighting skills learned in Rogues Harbor to get their attention. Once, we was caught in the Cumberland mountains at nightfall and had to find lodging. He came upon an inn, that was having a dance. A beautiful woman asked him to dance. He dropped to his knees holding the hand of the woman and prayed for the conversion of the entire company. Revival broke out. Several of the converted became useful ministers of the gospel. He fought slavery, but believed that the gospel and conversion of slave and slave owner alike was the answer. Deism took root in America, Thomas Paine moved to France and became a violent anti-Christian pamphleteer. He wrote, The Age of Reason and dumped copies on America for a few cents per copy. Paine societies sprung up in colleges. Unitarianism, Deism’s whitewashed cousin took over Boston. By 1799 only five students at Yale would proclaim Jesus Christ as their Savior, a year later, only one. But God began to rain revival on the Northeast. God raised up Timothy Dwight, grandson of Jonathan Edwards. As Yale's president, he fired all faculty that had French Rationalist points of view. Then he began to preach to the students himself, the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ. He encouraged his students to seek the means of grace, or their hearts would be harder and harder, year by year. He observed, “Perhaps no one who has persisted in his efforts to gain eternal life was ever finally deserted by the Spirit of grace.” The New England revival manifested in love for our neighbor. It was a law in Connecticut that every child coming of age should be given a Bible. Any good cause was funded by the charitable nature of the people changed by the revival.
Slavery: The Great Sin of America
The love of money was the root of this evil, as all evils. A slave ship often lost 50% of its cargo and yet turned great profits. Little by little, the conscience of those states that traded in slaves was corroded. How can we love God, when we treat our fellow man this way? It was a satanic battle for the minds and hearts of a country founded on freedom of worship and freedom from tyranny. God, in His mercy, raised up many a prophet to battle this evil. Many Christian businessmen, bankrupted themselves to fight this evil. 600,000 of America’s finest men were killed in the Civil War caused by this national sin. When true repentance happened in the revivals, many set free their slaves, some as many as 200. They lost all, but gained their souls and consciences. The same battle was happening in Britain.
A revival does two things. First, it returns the Church from
her backsliding and second, it causes the conversion of men and women;
and it always includes the conviction of sin on the part of the Church.
What a spell the devil seems to cast over the Church today!
I believe there is no doctrine more dangerous to the Church
today than to convey the impression that a revival is something peculiar
in itself and cannot be judged by the same rules of causes and effect as
other things.
When is a revival needed? When carelessness and unconcern
keep the people asleep. -
Billy Sunday
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