Praying for Revival
Summer 2021
We often talk about revival, and wonder what it would be like to experience a mighty outpouring of God the Holy Spirit in revival power. We have probably mentioned revival in our prayers from time to time, but what is revival? Revival has been described as a Divine intervention in the normal course of spiritual things. It is a manifest working of God the Holy Spirit. Human personalities are overshadowed, and human programs are abandoned as God reveals Himself to saint and sinner alike in awful holiness and irresistible power.
Pray with Passion
We need to pray with a passion for revival. The great Scottish reformer, John Knox, would often cry out to God in prayer, “Give me Scotland or I die.” That’s the cry of a man who had a passion for a move of the Spirit of God in his land. Many years later, two elderly sisters, Peggy and Christine Smith, were unable to attend public worship, as Peggy was blind and Christine was crippled with arthritis. Their humble cottage became a sanctuary, where they met with God. They had a passion for revival and so they prayed and claimed the promise, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground” (Isaiah 44:3). They pleaded this promise before God day and night. God wonderfully and graciously answered their prayers, and the Isle of Lewis revival was the result. Revival came as two aged saints laid hold on God in prayer, pleading His promises.
Was it not revival that Elijah had on his heart when he prayed to the God of Israel to send down fire from heaven, and turn the hearts of the people from worshipping dumb idols and false gods, to worshipping the one living and true God? The Lord heard Elijah’s prayer and He answered. And when the fire fell, the people cried out, “The Lord he is the God; the Lord he is the God.”Christ was revealed as the sacrifice was consumed and not the guilty people. Revival had come.
We believe that the God of Elijah still answers prayer. Let us call upon God for mercy so that we will see men and women abandoning their sin.
Pray for Power
We need God the Holy Spirit to work by His power in the hearts of saints and sinners alike, as He did on the Day of Pentecost. God’s servants spent their days in prayer in an upper room in Jerusalem, waiting in anticipation for “the promise of the Father.” Then, suddenly “there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting…and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost…” (Acts 2:2,4). Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, went forth and preached Christ unto the people in the city, and “about three thousand souls” were saved. The believers had prayed for power, Peter preached with power, and the Holy Spirit worked by His power. A breath of revival swept through Jerusalem.
Pray with Purpose
Surely, if we want to see and experience revival in our day, we need to pray with purpose. We must be willing to give ourselves to laying hold on God and saying, “Not until thou bless me, will I let thee go.” Matthew Henry said, “When God intends great mercy for His people, the first thing He does is to set them praying.” When God moved in revival blessing in the days of George Whitefield, the great evangelist said, “Sometimes whole nights were spent in seeking God’s face in prayer, often we have been overwhelmed with the Divine presence, saying how dreadful is this place, this is none other than the house of God, the gate of heaven.”
Such accounts of revival blessing would surely stir us to give ourselves to praying with purpose for a mighty moving of God the Holy Spirit in revival blessing. Special times of prayer, nights of prayer—God has given us every encouragement to seek His face for revival. He has said, “Call unto me and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:1).
Reginald Cranston | Minister of Port Hope FPC, Port Hope, ON