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Jesus is the way,
 the truth, and the life

 

 

 

 

Chapter 5 -

Prayer and revival

 

 

 

 

Do you want to see people around you being saved and a change take place in your society? Many do want this, and it truly is the best of all wishes anyone can have. If we want to see these wishes come true, we should also pray enough and often enough for them. If our prayers consist only of sighing for a couple of minutes instead of being persistent, the answer may take a while.

   Our prayers can, therefore, be compared to sowing a seed. If we sow a small number of seeds, we will receive a small harvest, but if we sow a lot of seeds, we will receive a larger harvest, just like in farming. The hearing of our prayers surely has a correlation with the amount of seeds sown, "the seeds of prayer". We must ask in order to receive:

 

- (Jam 4:2) You lust, and have not: you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: you fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not.

 

- (Matt 7:7 8) Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you:

8  For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened.

 

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. 

   Prayer and revival always go hand in hand. Below, there are a few examples and some Bible verses connected with revival. Perhaps they will encourage you and others to pray more than before:

 

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. (5)

 

In the meantime, I was praying diligently and I noticed that the spirit of prayer prevailed especially on the female members of the congregation. (…)

   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. (6)

 

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. (7)

 

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.” (8)

 

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. (9)

 

E.M. Bounds: Prayer must be continued with never-ending endurance, persistency, and with infallible courage. (10)

 

George Whitefield: Days, even weeks have I spent lying on the ground on my mouth in silent and loud prayer. (11)

 

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. (12)

 

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. (13)

 

Yonggi Cho: For the revival to come and continue, we have to pray and fast. I cannot emphasize enough how important this is. (14)

 

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. (15)

 

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. (16)

 

The spirit of God can bless two, but cannot bless one. Abraham was not able to help the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah alone, even though his prayer pressed like a thousand kilograms in the scales of God. But there was his nephew Loot, who was one of the biggest cowards you can imagine. He did not have more than 15 grams of prayer in himself, but that insignificant amount was enough to press down the scale enough so that Sooar was spared. Therefore, add your 15 grams to the prayers of the great saints, for they might need it. (17)

 

- (Luke 18:1-7) And he spoke a parable to them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

2  Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:

3  And there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, Avenge me of my adversary.

4  And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;

5  Yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

6  And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said.

7  And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them?

 

- (Luke 11:5-8) And he said to them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves;

6  For a friend of my in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?

7  And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give you.

8  I say to you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

 

- (Luke 2:36,37) And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity;

37  And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

 

- (Ps 119:147) I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in your word.

 

- (Matt 18:19,20) Again I say to you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.

20  For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the middle of them.

 

- (John 14:13,14) And whatever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

14  If you shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

 

- (Mark 11:24) Therefore I say to you, What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.

 

- (Phil 4:6) Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

 

 

 

REFERENCES:

 

1) WATCHMAN NEE, Elämän rikkaus Kristuksessa (THE NORMAL CHRISTIAN LIFE), p.11.

2) FINNEY CHARLES G., Ihmeellisiä herätyksiä

3) PRICE CHARLES, Ihmeitätekevä usko, p. 37.

4) SMITH OSWALD J., Ketä Jumala käyttää? p.126-128.

5) same.

6) FINNEY CHARLES G., Ihmeellisiä herätyksiä

7) FINNEY CHARLES G., Kun herätys tulee

8) Tuntematon kristitty / Unknown Christian, Rukoileva kristitty (The kneeling Christian), p. 33,34.

9) same , p. 36.

10) RAVENHILL LEONARD, (WHY REVIVAL TARRIES) Miksi herätys viipyy?, p.13.

11) Same, p.13.

12) Same, p.121.

13) CHO YONGGI, (PRAYER: KEY TO REVIVAL) Opeta minua rukoilemaan, p.14 15.

14) CHO YONGGI, (PRAYER: KEY TO REVIVAL) Opeta minua rukoilemaan, p.101.

15) CHO DAVID YONGGI, (CHO’S PATTERNS OF PRAYER) Kokemuksiani rukouksesta, p.36.

16) RAVENHILL LEONARD, (WHY REVIVAL TARRIES) Miksi herätys viipyy?, p.8.

17) SPURGEON C.H., (THE SOUL-WINNER) Sielujenvoittaja

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Jari Iivanainen




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