Come Down, Lord!

* Unless otherwise indicated excerpts are taken from Revival! by Brian Edwards, Authentic Records of Revivals by Reid and The Power of Prayer by Samuel Prime.  The following has been transcribed from a sermon preached at the Church at War conference in Waterloo, Ontario (with minor edits). We have heard with our ears O God our fathers have told us what work thou didst in their days in the times of old… and the psalmist when on then to plead with God to do it again. - Psalm 44:1 Can you say what he said?  Can you say that you have heard what God has done in times of old?   I think many of us don’t even realize what is possible with God because we haven’t heard.  We’re not asking for revival because we don’t know what revival is.  We haven’t heard the stories of when God has come down among the people.   After giving an account of revival in the Hebrides Duncan Campbell asked the people a question: “My dear people, do you good folk understand what revival means? Have you a conception o

  The Shepherd of whom the psalm speaks of is Jesus.  It was Jesus Himself who would later say, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.” So, when we say “the LORD is my shepherd” we are talking about the Lord of glory.  This is Emmanuel: God with us.  He is the “image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature” and the One by whom “all things were created.”   So we have here a very capable Shepherd.   He is wise, He is strong, and with Him the Bible says there is nothing impossible.    But what comforts David isn’t only His strength or sovereignty or wisdom.  It is His character. We see repeatedly in Israel's history that they had shepherds (pastors and leaders) who utterly failed them.  But the promise of Ezekiel is that where men failed them the Lord Jesus wouldn’t. Men may not love them but God loved them ; and being the Good Shepherd He had said that He would search them out and find them. He had said that He would bind them up,

In a book titled  The Turn of the Tide , Vernon Higham  wrote that once we have faced the potential of revival nothing else will do .   He added, " His touch alone will suffice.  We have no option in the matter.  Only  revival  will meet our need...  We try to bring little buckets of blessing... but what is this in a drought?  We need a drenching. We need showers of rainfall from heaven and the only one who can provide them is God."    Are you burdened for revival?   I was encouraged and challenged by the testimony of a father who on the discovery of dishonesty in his son stayed up all night to pray for him - and got the victory!  His son was gloriously saved.   Is it any wonder that Spurgeon urged the importance of at least occasionally praying all through the night?    Where is that same valiant spirit among us?   A minister speaking on  revival  (in 1840) asked questions that might as well be asked of us: “Are you  willing  to see your children lost - to be separated from

  * The following, originally published in 2016, has been edited and updated. A while back I came across an article titled  8 Classics Every Christian Should Read .  As I read the list it occurred to me that many Christians may never read 8 books, let alone 8  classics ... some aren't readers and others don't feel they have time to read.  They don't need a list of 8 classics, they need a list of 8 books period. You've probably heard it said before - and its said for a reason - "you are what you read."   I cannot think of a greater influence for good than books.   Here, then, are 8 books every Christian should read.   1. Counsels and Thoughts for the Spiritual Life of Believers by Thomas Moor .    As Spurgeon noted, "Every paragraph tells of an experimental fellowship with Jesus and a closeness of intercourse which fit it for becoming the guide and adviser of others." 2. Powe r through Prayer by E.M. Bounds 3.   Studies in the Sermon on the Mount  b

  I started this blog in 2020 out of a burden for revival.  But my interest in revival goes back to 2003 when I first read Why Revival Tarries by Leonard Ravenhill.  Since then I have given a good part of my spare time to the study of revival.  It is something I have longed for, hoped for and prayed for.  So when I first learned that revival had come to Asbury Kentucky I was eager to learn more.  Naturally, I wondered, is this the real thing?  And that is precisely what many others are wondering still.  Some have already written it off as empty emotionalism.  Others have suggested it is demonic rather than Christian.  And still others have welcomed the "Asbury revival" as a genuine move of God.  So which is it? I have hesitated to weigh in for a number of reasons.  First, it seemed prudent to give it time.  It was Gamaliel who wisely said. " Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought:   But if it be of