Revival, part 2

 For part one go here.

So what we do? We know a little bit of what is possible, but we are confronted with the Church’s lukewarm condition.   What do we do?  

One thing we have found studying revival is that almost invariably there is a connection between prayer and revival.  Our problem is actually simple one.  We do not have because we do not ask.  And when we do ask it is half-hearted and insincere.  We are not importunate in our praying. We pray briefly, often carelessly; and there is often a measure of hypocrisy in our praying because there are things that revival would accomplish we don’t actually want. We are addicted to things of the world and unless we are laying those things down, dealing with the idols of our hearts we can’t expect God to hear us.

I want to give you three examples of the connection between importunate prayer and revival:

First, in the Hebrides.  When things were at their worst it was two women who twice a week prayed through the night.  

Second in another case it was found that 6 months prior to the revival 60 members had met every Monday evening to pray for nothing but revival.  

Third, before the Welsh revival it was 4 young men all under 18 who had gone into the mountains every night for months to pray for the church.  “When the secret was discovered the church was so moved that they all turned to prayer and inan incredibly short time the whole neighbourhood was ablaze with divine fire.”

The question isn’t whether or not we can pray.  There are many things we can’t do, but we can all pray.  The question is, are we in earnest?  

Assuming you are (in earnest)… how should you begin?    

Let me me offer 3 basic rules.

First, we must practice prayer in all its forms.  Private prayer family prayer, public prayer.  Jesus often prayed with the disciples but still He prayed sometimes whole nights alone, and He was regularly found early in the morning before the sun came up alone in prayer.  There is something hypocritical about praying publicly when we are not praying alone in the prayer closet.

I have been encouraged by an old book on revival.  There the man said “we must never think that our individual efforts may not be attended with splendid results.”  And then he added these words: “we may in the retirement of our chamber achieve victories that will tell on the destinies of the nation.”

So often I have been guilty in my prayer closet of unbelief…. Thinking that splendid results could only come where 2 or more were gathered.  It isn’t true.  Remember that!

If you are going to pray for revival make sure you do not neglect the place of private prayer.

Second, we are taught in Scripture that God yields to importunate prayers.   We see it not only in the case of Jacob who wrestled with God; it is taught very plainly by our Lord.  Just take the parable of the persistent widow. How did she succeed?  She had an unsympathetic unjust judge who wouldn’t listen to her.  So what did she do?  She persisted.  She kept coming to him until finally he relented.  She just wore him down.  But our Judge isn’t an unsympathetic or unjust judge.  He is touched with the feelings of our infirmities.  He loves us with an everlasting love.  And He has bound himself to answer our prayers.  He has promised to do so…”Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”

But the question Jesus asked when he told the parable is a very pointed one.  When the Son of man comes back will he find faith on the earth?  In other words will He find a church that has the faith to persist?  

Do you?  Sometimes you are discouraged by prayers that you know are lifeless and cold.  How do you fix that?  Prolong your prayers!  One man has said that "the chariot wheel grows warm by rolling…"  

This seems to me one of the most troubling aspects of the prayers lives of so many Christians.  They’ve never even once between alone with God in prayer for more than an hour.  And yet they wonder why their prayers are are lacking and why God does not seem to answer.  

God is merciful and we have all seen God’s blessings though we have not prayed long and hard; but listen to the words of an old preacher: “it is to those who by their unconquerable ardour and inflexible perseverance compel Him to turn aside, that he gives the sweetest glimpses of his reconciled countenance.”

What is lacking in our prayers is the will to persevere. Our laziness after God - that we so quickly give over and give up - is our crying sin. What is urgently needed is men and women and children who will give much time spent in prayer.  We need men and women and children who will simply do it - who will go into their closets with a burden for revival and say to God “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

Third, Jesus taught us that there is a kind that comes out by prayer and fasting.  Ryle explained by saying that what Jesus was teaching these men is that Satan’s kingdom is not to be pulled down without diligence and pains. The disciples thought that they could see this boy delivered of his demon without any effort, without a fight, and Jesus called them perverse and faithless!!  It was unbelief.  This is the problem with us today.  We have lists of things we want a little bit. But we think we can say brief prayer and its done. We pray "thy will be done" and when we don’t get what we ask we chalk it up to the sovereignty of God.   It is the same unbelief.  

You want to know what is wrong? Why still after all these years of praying for revival is there no revival?  Here at least is surely part of the answer.  If we are praying for it the majority of us have forgotten this basic principle that Ryle insists on, that without fervent prayer and diligent self-mortification we will often meet with failure and defeat.

Do you want to see the church revived You know the Church of this generation is lukewarm, you’re beginning to see the powerlessness of the Church and you want see our impotence give way to a power and a substance and a reality that will strike fear into the hearts of unbelievers throughout this community. 

You want God to rend the heavens and come down, that people walking through the doors of our churches would be struck by a sense of the awesome majesty of God, that they would be brought to their knees. You’ve asked.  You’ve prayed. Maybe Jesus would come to you and say to you as He did them: “Do you know why you haven’t succeeded?  Why that mountain will not move?  The problem is unbelief.  That’s the root.  You know God can, you don’t believe He will." Some of you are burdened.  Your heart is sick over the state of the Church, but your problem is you didn’t think there was any point in waiting and tarrying in prayer. You didn’t think that if you kept asking He might finally relent.  And so you did what you thought was the right thing to do.  Very simply and honestly you asked God to do it, that is He wanted to, and then you were done. You aren’t desperate!  And you haven’t taken God at His word, and so you have not fasted, you have not really prayed. There has been no wrestling with God, no tears, no self-denial, no effort.  And that is why you haven’t got what you asked.  Jesus calls it unbelief.

And so let me urge you then pray to pray believing. You are not asking to consume it upon your lusts.  You are not asking for personal or private gain.  You want honour for your King.  You are asking God do just what He promised to: that He could come down like rain on mown grass, that the kingdom of King Jesus would increase, that men would crown with Him their crowns, that He would get the reward of His suffering.   So pray in the family, pray in the prayer meeting, but pray also alone… and pray importunately. If you believe then don’t let Him go!  If you believe persist.  He isn’t so hard to move as the unjust judge. He will relent. He says you do not have because you do not ask.  So ask Him - stay in your closet until you get the blessing; and if asking revival tarries, take it to Him in fasting.  

Sometimes we have to take emergency measures like Israel did in Hezekiah’s day and Joel’s day and Jonah’s day and put on our sackcloth, and fast and weep and plead with God for His church.  And if we believe the Bible we can be assured, He will answer!