Revival And Prayer Series

Last week, we talked about revival and the need for humility in seeking it.

The very word, Revival implies that things aren’t as good as they need to be.

To revive something implies that there is some kind of spiritual decay or inactivity going on and it needs to be revived, to be made alive again.

As we saw last week, Revival is God deciding to send a fresh movement of his Spirit among his people. It is when he decides to grant his body, his church, a fresh experience of his spirit.

Revival is a gracious move of the spirit of God that brings renewal to the church. It can’t be bought, but it must be sought. It can’t be designed but it must be desired. And it will not come until we ask Him to send it!

Revival is always proceeded by a passionate calling on God by His people.

It is for a people who are weak!

It is for those who will humble themselves.

It for those who are burdened with the way things are.

Last week we talked about revival and our need for humility in seeking it, today I want to talk to you about revival and the important part that prayer, plays in it.

I really want to make the point that if things were O.K., we wouldn’t need to talk about revival. But, the fact is that things are not as good as they came be and so I hope that you will bear with me as we I share with you another lesson on Revival.

Revival isn’t delayed because God hasn’t given us the prescription for it. Revival is delayed, because we don’t want to take the prescription.

The Bible says very clearly, here’s what you do, in seeking revival, in asking God to come and make his presence known among his people.

You humble yourself, you fast, you pray and you mourn over the way things are in your life and in the world around you. That’s the prescription! And God says, you do that and I will hear, I will forgive and I will heal your land.

What I want to share with you this morning is another crucial element in asking God to bring revival to his people. And that is prayer in seeking his face.

In 1857, There was a young man named Jeremiah lancier, he was a young man in his thirties, he was converted in 1844 through the revival preaching of Charles finny.

This young man began to work for a church, called the North church in New York city, the church hired him to be a street evangelist. He went out month after month trying to share Christ with the people and nothing was happening.

So he happened upon an idea, he thought, what if we prayed, so he began to pass out pamphlets and fliers and put them up for many weeks.

All the pamphlet said on it was:

Come to the old North Church on Dutch street at 12:00 o’ clock Wednesday.

12:00 o’ clock Wednesday comes and nobody was there but Jeremiah. He got on his knees and began to pray. Now, before the hour was over six other men came and began to pray with him also.

They agreed to meet again the following Wednesday to do the same thing. This time eighteen people came to that prayer meeting.

They met the following Wednesday and about 30 people came. These people decided that they would start meeting every day at noon, simply for the purpose of coming together to pray.

It kept growing. More and more people kept coming to those prayer meetings.

Within six months 50,000 men were meeting everyday in New York City to pray.

It spread to Washington D.C, it spread to Philadelphia and Boston, the president of the country even went to some of those noon prayer meetings.

Before long, it had spread to ten thousand towns and cities in America. From 1857 to 1859, in a two year period, there was one million brought to Christ in America.

And what is so amazing about that is that there were only thirty million people living in America at that time, that’s an average of ten thousand people a week coming to Christ and it was all driven by prayer.

There was no big crusade, there was no famous preacher, just prayer. I tell you that story to make this point.

You don’t have revival by seeking revival, you have revival by seeking God.

The Lord says; “If my people will humble themselves and pray and seek my face.” He will hear us.

Revivals do not have a lot in common. Some times revivals are started by God using a great preacher, other times God uses songs to stir up peoples hearts for revival , , , ,