Sunday January 24, 2016

Revivals, Visitations and Moves of God

Part 1 : Revival Stories

We begin an exciting series called: "Revivals, Visitations and Moves of God".

The teaching for this entire series will be available as a publication, in print, in a couple
of weeks for all of us.

"Revival is a community saturated with God," said Duncan Campbell, a man used by God
in the Hebridean Revival of 1949-1952.

A few Revival Stories

We will consider a few Revival stories this morning.

As we progress in this series we will look at a few more revival stories to not only see
what God has done in the past, but also seek to learn lessons from these.

1727 The Moravian Revival and Count Zinzendorf

In 1722 some Moravian families fleeing persecution in Bohemia and Moravia found
refuge in the estate of a man Count Nichelos Zinzendorf and built the community of
Herrnhut, in Germany. The new community became the haven for many more Moravian
refugees.

On May 12, 1727, Zinzendorf addressed the community for three hours on the
blessedness of Christian unity. The people sorrowfully confessed their past quarreling
and promised to live in love and simplicity. Herrnhut became a living congregation of
Christ.

On Wednesday August 13, 1727, the Herrnhut community participated in a joint

communion service with a nearby congregation at Bethelsdorf. During the service, they
made many painful prayers for themselves, for fellow Christians still under persecution,
and for their continued unity. The community united in fellowship. During the
communion service, the entire congregation felt a powerful presence of the Holy Spirit,
and felt their previous differences swept away. The Moravian colony in Germany was
overwhelmed and filled with the Spirit. Their leader, 27 year old Count Nicholas
Zinzendorf, said it was like being in heaven. Two weeks after the revival, twenty-four
men and twenty-four women of the community covenanted together to spend one hour
each day, day and night, in prayer to God for His blessing on the congregation and its
witness.

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For over 100 years, members of the Moravian church continued nonstop in this "Hourly
Intercession." All Moravian adventures were begun, surrounded, and consummated in
prayer. They became known as "God's Happy People." Like the first Pentecost, men and
women went forth with the gospel from Herrnhut to the uttermost parts of the earth. In
1732 the first missionaries, two young men, declared their willingness to become slaves
if necessary to reach the slaves in the West Indies with the Gospel.

Within 25 years they had sent out 200 missionaries, more than all the Protestants had
done in two centuries. This experience began the Moravian renewal, and led to the
beginning of the Protestant World Mission movement. The Moravians at Herrnhut had
established missions in the Virgin Islands, Greenland, Turkey, the Gold Coast of Africa,
South Africa, and North America.

William Carey, George Whitfield, John Wesley and several others were directly or
indirectly influenced by the Moravian revival. The eighteenth-century revivals in
America and England were influenced by the Moravian mission and prayer movements.
Peter Boehler, a Moravian missionary in England, counseled John Wesley, later leader of
the Revival in England, leading to his conversion.

Reflection
We see the Moravian community laying aside past quarrels and differences and coming
together in unity. We also see that during one such united gatherings the Spirit of God
graced them with an unusual presence. What is important is that they recognized and
responded to the unusual move of God's Spirit with continuous ongoing prayer and
seeking God. This not only resulted in this community living in revival (or renewal) for
100 years, but also giving rise to a move of God where men and women (missionaries)
carried the fires of this move of the Spirit to several other parts of the world.

1800 The Second Great Awakening in North America

Spiritual and moral conditions in North America we rather bleak. Attendance at
churches were declining in the Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran and Episcopalian
denominations. Christians on college campuses were rare. Harvard had not one known
believer among the students and Princeton had only two believers in the entire student
body.

Precursors to revival
In 1794 when spiritual and moral conditions were at their worst, a Baptist pastor Isaac
Backus from the New England area sent out an urgent plea for prayer for revival to
pastors of all denominations across America. Churches across America united in prayer,
forming a network of prayer and set aside the first Monday of every month in prayer. In

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the winter of 1794, twenty three ministers in New England got together and agreed that
they needed to call their church people to pray for revival. Soon Christians across the
country formed small praying bands and started praying, setting aside one day a month
in prayer and half an hour every Saturday morning for prayer. In due time revival fires
began to blaze.

Revival in Logan County, Kentucky

In Kentucky, God used James McGready, a Presbyterian pastor of three small
congregations on the Gasper, Red and Muddy Rivers in Logan County, Kentucky, to
spark revival fires. In 1796, McGready led his congregation to pray for revival every
Saturday and Sunday morning, and engage in fasting prayer the third Saturday of every
month. These congregations were small in number with the largest having about 25
people. They continued in this for four years with no obvious sign of anything
happening. Then in June 1800, over a four day meeting that extended through the
weekend at McGready's Red River Church, the Spirit of God moved powerfully bringing
many to tears. On the last day, two travelling Methodist ministers led the meeting and
many were touched, broke down weeping, and some collapsed as the Holy Spirit moved
amongst them. William McGee, a minister from Tennessee, reported what he saw at the
revival "...people cried and wept, and others fell to the floor under deep conviction,
praying, crying, weeping and seeking God for an assurance of their personal salvation".
In July of the same year, at Gasper River Church, a meeting was called for, where people
came from over one hundred miles to attend. People came to wait "for the Spirit to
descend again" and came prepared to stay until revival came. There was a great move of
the Spirit accompanied by strong manifestations. Soon these large meetings came to be
known as "camp meetings".

Revival in Cane Ridge, Kentucky

Pastor Barton W. Stone, was pastor of the Concord and Cane Ridge Presbyterian
churches in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Having attended the revival meetings at the Red
River church, he carried this back to his two congregations. Along with several other
ministers, Barton Stone held a camp meeting at Cane Ridge starting August 6, 1801.
Numbers began to swell growing to over an estimated 25,000 with unusual signs,
wonders and manifestations began taking place. The Presbyterian, Methodist and
Baptist ministers and other formed preaching teams, preaching simultaneously in
different parts of the camp grounds, all aimed at seeing people saved. James Crawford,
one of the ministers present, reported about three thousand being on the ground, 'slain
in the Spirit'. Some broke out in loud laughter, some ran and shouted. Others even
barked like dogs as they ran and held on to tree trunks, crying out in repentance. People
"treed the devil", as this manifestation came to be called. James Finley, who became a
Methodist preacher described what he witnessed: "The noise was like the roar of
Niagara. The vast sea of human beings seemed to be agitated as if by a storm. I counted

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seven ministers, all preaching at one time, some on stumps, others in wagons and one
standing on a tree which had, in falling, lodged against another."

The numerical results were as astounding as the spiritual manifestations. Between

1800-1803 in Kentucky alone, the Baptist churches added ten thousand new members,
and the Methodists, forty thousand. Every denomination, in fact, experienced the fruit
of the revival. Revival fires spread to other parts of the country.

Revival on College Campuses

Most colleges on the North American East Coast had little spiritual influence with many
students proudly professing to be atheists. However, God visited these same colleges in
a powerful way. At Yale University, President Timothy Dwight, grandson of Jonathan
Edwards, had been preaching for about seven years on Christian belief. In 1801, he
preached a series of chapel messages on infidelity. About half the student body
professed faith in Christ. Revival fires also engulfed Dartmouth, Williams and other
colleges and, from there, swept into the towns and cities.

Reflection
Prayer - one of the important precursors to this revival was the united, consistent and
widespread engagement in prayer for revival.
Unusual manifestations - the unusual manifestations did create much controversy and
take many of the Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist ministers by surprise. The good
thing is that these ministers recognized the fruit that was being borne, which was
repentance and changed lives. Hence they pressed in to the revival.
Transformation of communities - whether in Logan County which at that time was
infested with many criminals and others in all kinds of vices or on college campuses, the
revival had significant impact on society.

1857 The Laymen's Prayer Revival, New York

The 1857-1858 revival was the biggest and widespread revival in America history. 1857
was a very difficult year as businesses began to collapse. On 14 October 1857 the
banking system in the Unites States collapsed affecting hundreds of thousands in New
Year, Philadelphia, Boston and in industrial towns across the nation. In New York some
30,000 people were unemployed. On the other hand, through the preaching of Charles
Finney, Walter and Phoebe Palmer a deep hunger for revival among many. Park Street
Church in Boston started to pray for revival in 1840. Old South Church in Boston also
began to engage in praying for revival. There were many prayer groups and individuals
all across New York and Boston in the years preceding 1857. The soil had been
prepared.

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Jeremiah Lanphier was a newly appointed city missionary to the New York city. He had
an idea to organize noonday prayer meetings as this was the time most people took
time to eat and rest. He distributed some pamphlets and called for a mid-day prayer
meeting in New York. The first meeting on Wednesday September 23, 1857, from
12Noon to 1pm, was held at the Dutch Reformed Church on Fulton Street. Six people
attended. The second week saw 20 people, the third week 40 people and the fourth
week, 100 people attended. Soon the whole church building was packed with over 3000
people coming to pray at noon and at other times. Soon daily prayer meetings were
started in other locations in New Year with a daily attendance of 10,000 people in
prayer, out of a population of 800,000 people. In January 1858 newpapers started
reporting on what was happening, with "The Progress of the Revival" becoming a
regular newspaper headline. The midday prayer meetings began to spread all across
America.

Soon churches were filled with people coming for prayer in the evenings. Over 10,000
people were converted each week in New York city alone. Throughout New England,
prayer meetings were happening at 8am, 12Noon and 6pm daily. Amazing testimonies
of transformed lives and God's glorious presence have been recorded. In March 1858 a
religious journal reported: "The large cities and towns from Maine to California are
sharing in this great and glorious work. There is hardly a village or town to be found
where 'a special divine power' does not appear displayed." The New York Observer
published a report from Waco, Texas, of a mighty move of God. "Day and night the
church has been crowded during the meeting...Never before in Texas have we seen a
whole community so effectually under a religious influence...thoroughly regenerated."

Revival historian James Edwin Orr estimated that one million people were converted
and another one million church members were revived between, 1857-1858.
Calculations showed that during 1858 there were times when there were 50,000
conversions per week! The majority of these people came to faith in Christ without any
preaching as most of the prayer meetings were led by laymen and not pastors, although
pastors and ministers attended the prayer meetings. Thousands of the unsaved came to
the prayer meetings and were saved.

The revival that started in New York in 1857 affected several other parts of the world
including Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Britain, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, the West
Indies, South Africa, India and Indonesia. This period 1857-1861 saw revivals breaking
out globally, almost everywhere.

Reflection
Prayer - Earnest prayer for revival that went on for several years before the revival is
again an important key that prepared the way.

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A spark that lit the blaze - the simple idea of noon day prayer birthed in Jeremiah
Lanphier was a spark that lit the blaze of revival.
Just laymen - God used lay people and there were no famous preachers and no great
orators used in this revival.
Newspaper as a tool - The newspaper helped communicate stories of revival which
obviously became a tool to inspire more people.
Global impact - Looking back we see that period 1857-1861 as a season when revival
affected many parts of the world.

1905 Mukti Mission Revival and Pandita Ramabai

Pandita Ramabai was born into a Brahmin family in 1858 and later became a Christian.
In 1889 she opened a home "Sharada Sadan" (House of Learning) in Mumbai for
Brahmin widows, many who were still children and were ignored by their families upon
the death of their much older husbands. By 1901 Ramabai had 2,000 girls in a school she
called 'Mukti' in Kedgaon, near Mumbai.

During the 1890s simultaneously and independently people were praying for revival in
different places in India. In 1897 the Student Volunteer Movement called for a day of
prayer across India. John Hyde who had come to India in 1892 also mobilized and
inspired many to pray. Pandita Ramabai, through her prayer letter called 'Mukti Prayer
Bell' had been calling on people to pray for an outpouring of the Spirit for about five
years. She herself began to spend more time in prayer and fasting. In 1901 she called for
a special time of prayer for the outpouring of the Spirit. Consequently about 1,200 girls
were baptized in the next two months. After hearing reports of the Welsh revival,
Ramabai encouraged even more prayer. She formed prayer groups with ten girls in each
prayer group and gave them each a list of ten unsaved girls to pray for. At the Khasi
Hills, at the Welsh Presbyterian mission revival broke out and news of this spread. About
thirty young women at the Mukti mission met daily to pray for the power of the Holy
Spirit and then went out to evangelize. Then on June 29, 1905 the Holy Spirit moved
powerfully on a large gathering of girls and women. Many were left weeping, confessing
their sins and praying for the fullness of the Spirit. On June 30, 1905 again as Pandita
Ramabai ministered the Spirit of God moved with great power. People were move to
tears and continued in prayer, some seeing visions, some whose faces literally shinning
with heavenly light. There would be waves of prayer rolling over the people. Little girls
were lost for hours in the presence of Jesus, loving, worshipping and praying. Some of
the meetings continued non-stop for seventeen hours. This move of the Spirit saw
powerful manifestations including repentance, much singing, speaking in tongues,
dreams, visions, young people prophesying, miraculous supply of food and powerful
sensations of being consumed by fire.

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Minnie Abrams was an American Methodist missionary who arrived in Mumbai, India, in
1887. Later, in 1898, she left her Methodist post to work with Pandita Ramabai at Mukti
mission. Here is an instance recorded on June 29, 1905 was woken up at 3:30am by one
of the senior girls. She saw fire on one of the girls, and ran across with a pail of water,
only to realize that there was no physical fire. She saw all the girls on their knees,
weeping, praying and confessing their sins. This was "a baptism of fire" of the Holy
Spirit. The girls acknowledged that when the Holy Spirit came upon them they felt
burning within, sometimes almost unbearable. They were transformed and then filled
with joy and praise.

In Mukti, long hours were spent in prayer and Bible study to equip everyone to take the
Gospel out and evangelize. Every day, a team of sixty went out to preach the Gospel and
those who stayed prayed for the teams that were out ministering. Although initially,
Pandita Ramabai did not want news about the revival to be publicized, at a later stage,
she took teams and sent teams of "Bible women" out to preach and spread the fires of
revival.

Minne Abrams herself traveled widely in India promoting revival. She wrote a series of
articles published in 1906 entitled, “The Baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire,” which
appeared in two major Christian newspapers in India: The Bombay Guardian
(independent) and The Indian Witness (Methodist). Some time later, Abrams revised her
newspaper articles and published them in book form with the title The Baptism of the
Holy Ghost and Fire (1906).

A year later, Abrams sent a copy of her book to former Chicago Training School
classmate May Hoover and her husband Willis Hoover, M.D., Methodist missionaries in
Chile. This helped spark a revival in Chile that led to the founding of the Methodist
Pentecostal Church and the larger Pentecostal movement in that country.

Reflection
Prayer - Once again we see deep hunger and prayer as a precursor to this revival that
broke out at Mukti.
Stewarding the revival - We also see how Pandita Ramabai stewarded the revival. She
kept it 'secret' until she felt it was time for it to be made known. There was ongoing
equipping of the girls and women through long hours of study in God's Word. This
consolidated the work God was doing.
Spreading the revival - Having been equipped with both the powerful move of the Spirit
as well as the Word of God, these Bible women could be sent out to evangelize and
spread the fires of revival.

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Preparing our hearts to pray for revival

We believe that God desires to do this again and again.

We also believe that an outpouring or revival does not have to be just a season. But if
we steward it well, we can consolidate what God gives to us in an outpouring and we
can press in to more.

Every visitation of God should become a habitation of God and become a move of God.

We need to prepare our hearts and have the right heart Condition For Revival Praying

We need to ask God to create in us a heart that is needed to pray for revival and pursue
Him for a great outpouring of His Spirit.

God has promised:

2 Chronicles 7:14
if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn
from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

repentance, cleansing from sin, humility, seek Him, pray.

We must walk with the nine blessed attitudes we discussed last Sunday from Matthew
5:1-13 (1) poor in spirit (2)broken in spirit, (3) meek and gentle, (4) have a hunger and
thirst, a pull in the spirit (5) be merciful (6)be pure in heart, (7)be a peacemaker walking
in righteousness (8)be strong in doing what is right (9)be faithful to the Lord even when
you are persecuted.

If we prepare our hearts and seek Him, He has promised to come and rain on us:
Hosea 10:12
Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the
LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.

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 Sermon Notes

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