Prayer & Revival
If our prayers are persistent, we can also expect them to be answered. Several examples can be found in the past, when people prayed persistently, even for years, and finally saw their prayers answered.
D.L. Moody wrote about his times in England: The revival did not start by coincidence, it started through the prayers of a sick woman who had 55 names on her list. Because this woman was not able to do much else, she started to pray for these people. As a result, people were soon saved, and churches filled up with people looking for salvation. The souls of those 55 persons for whom she prayed were saved; her prayers were heard.
Charles G. Finney had a burden of prayer. Time after time, he went to a forest or some other lonely place and was in front of God in agony. Sometimes he could not even express himself in words. He told us that he could only moan and cry; so enormous was the burden that lay on him. No wonder that God used him. It is not surprising that he became one of the greatest revival preachers in time. No wonder God glorified Himself through his sermons. Finney knew what it meant to experience pain over prayer.
Every man God has used has been a man of prayer. If you have never learnt how to pray, if you have never learnt what it means to wrestle with God, if you have never learnt how to experience pain, if you do not know anything about birthing pains, then you do not know what it means to get spiritual results. If you want to see God glorified through your ministry, you must first become a man of prayer.
I believe it was the following week that I dropped by her house and met her husband pale and anxious. He told me, “Finney, I think that my wife will die. She doesn’t get any rest at night or day, she has totally devoted herself to prayer. She has been praying in her room all day long, groaning and fighting, and I am afraid that this is past her powers.” When she heard my voice in the living room, she came from the bedroom with a heavenly glow on her face and said, “Mr. Finney, the Lord has come! This work will spread throughout the region, a cloud of mercy is above us and we will see such work of mercy we have never seen before.” Her husband looked surprised and did not know what to say. This was new to him, but not to me. I had seen it before and I believe that the prayers had been heard, I was quite sure about that.
I know what I speak about, for I have seen this happen in most difficult conditions. For example, the great revival in Rochester started under extremely disadvantageous settings. However, there were a few believers who had a strong spirit of prayer, and this assured us preachers in believing that God was behind it after all. As we continued our work, we could see that when the resistance of the devil grew, the spirit of God also grew stronger and sharpened its grip until a wave of revival crushing all obstacles finally rolled over this community.
Many of us may remember those miraculous things God did in Korea a few years ago simply because of prayer. A few missionaries decided to get together and pray every day at noon. After a month, a brother proposed that the prayer meetings should be discontinued “because nothing has happened”. ”Let’s all pray at home according to what suits us,” he said. Others, however, resisted the proposal and said that they should rather spend more time in prayer. So they continued their daily prayer meetings for four months. Then, suddenly, the blessings started to flow. The meetings were interrupted here and there by people crying or confessing sins. Finally a large revival broke out. (…)
One of the missionaries said, “It was worth spending several months in prayer, for when God gave His Holy Spirit, He made happen more in half a day than all of the missionaries could have done in half a year.”
Pastor Ding Li from China had the names of 1,100 students on his prayer list. Through his prayers, hundreds of people had been won to Christ. Their conversion was so deep that dozens of them went into doing spiritual work.
It would be easy to tell more of these surprising and inspiring stories about blessings received through prayers. But there is no need to do so. I know that God wants me to pray. I know that God wants you to pray.
E.M. Bounds: Prayer must be continued with never-ending endurance, persistency, and with infallible courage.
George Whitefield: Days, even weeks have I spent lying on the ground on my mouth in silent and loud prayer.
A.T. Pierson: Since the day of the Pentecost, there has never been a revival in any country which did not start through united prayer, even if just among two or three people; neither has any outwards and upwards movement continued if the prayer meetings have been neglected.
Yonggi Cho: Pastors and evangelists have asked me how their congregations could grow like in Korea. Yet, after meetings they go out to eat and spend hours together. In the morning, they are so tired that they cannot pray. Over the years, I have seen this everywhere in the world.
The revival in Korea must not be taken for granted. Years ago, I studied church history and understood that one not only has to pray for the revival to come, but also pray for the revival to continue. Revival in the Western countries has always been seen as self-evident after a few years. At that time, people forget the most important thing that brought on the revival: they forget prayer. When continuous and persistent prayer is forgotten, the driving force of the revival ends. Continuity will maintain the revival for some time, and then it will vanish.
When the Holy Spirit gives a revival as an answer to prayers, the driving force of the revival must be maintained so that the revival will not be extinguished. If prayer is forgotten, we replace the driving force with continuity and finally the special help of God will end.
Yonggi Cho: For the revival to come and continue, we have to pray and fast. I cannot emphasize enough how important this is.
Yonggi Cho: When I was young and inexperienced, I once again turned to prayer. I prayed much, very much, and God started to act. My mother-in-law was a special source of inspiration for my prayer life at that time. She made sure that I always woke up at the latest at 4.30 a.m., for in Korea we pray in the mornings. In Korea, everyone is expected to wake up at 4.30 a.m. and pray. Especially the pastors should do this.
John Wesley: Hold up feeble arms by believing and praying; support the knees that are weak. Do you have prayer and fast days? Make haste to the throne of grace and continue there in perseverance, and the blessings will come down.