Praying Down Revival

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PRAYING DOWN REVIVALS 

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While most people thought of revivals only as moves of God, who, in His sovereignty, poured out His Spirit (another instance where the ministers of the day used God’s sovereignty as an excuse for their lack of effective ministry), Charles Finney believed that human beings could set the stage for revival through prayer, fasting, and holding God accountable to His promises in the Bible. 

Charles wrote about this spirit of prayer as it affected him during the revival at De Kalb in upstate New York:  I found myself so much exercised, and so borne down with the weight of immortal souls, that I was constrained to pray without ceasing. Some of my experiences, indeed, alarmed me. A spirit of importunity sometimes came upon me so that I would say to God that He had made a promise to answer prayer, and I could not, and would not, be denied.

 I felt so certain that He would hear me, and that faithfulness to his promises, and to himself, rendered it impossible that he should not hear and answer, that frequently I found myself saying to him, “I hope thou dost not think that I can be denied. I come with thy faithful promises in my hand, and I cannot be denied.”

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I cannot tell how absurd unbelief looked to me, and how certain it was, in my mind, that God would answer prayer—those prayers that, from day to day, and from hour to hour, I found myself offering in such agony and faith. I had no idea of the shape the answer would take, the locality in which the prayers would be answered, or the exact time of the answer. 

My impression was that the answer was near, even at the door; and I felt myself strengthened in the divine life, put on the harness for a mighty conflict with the powers of darkness, and expected soon to see a far more powerful outpouring of the Spirit of God, in that new country where I had been laboring.

Oswald J. Smith explained why this kind of prayer was so important to Charles’s ministry:

He always preached with the expectation of seeing the Holy Spirit suddenly outpoured. Until this happened little or nothing was accomplished. But the moment the Spirit fell upon the people, Finney had nothing else to do but point them to the Lamb of God. Thus he lived and wrought for years in an atmosphere of revival.

- God’s Generals ( The Revivalists ) 

Roberts Liardon

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William James Roop

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Brother Roop teaches the Bible

Love And Betrayal

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LOVE AND BETRAYAL

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William Seymour’s thoughts turned to marriage. Jennie Evans Moore, a faithful member of his ministry in Los Angeles, became his wife. She was known for her beauty, musical talents, and spiritual sensitivity. She was a very gentle woman and was always faithful to stand beside brother Seymour. It was Jennie who felt the Lord would have them marry, and Seymour agreed. The couple married on May 13, 1908. After the ceremony, William and Jennie moved into a modest apartment upstairs in the Azusa Mission.

But the news of their marriage angered a small yet very influential group at the Mission. One of the main antagonists was Clara Lum, the mission’s secretary responsible for the newspaper’s publication. After learning of Seymour’s marriage, she abruptly decided that it was time to leave the mission.

A few believers at Azusa had some very odd ideas about marriage. Lum’s group believed marriage in the last days to be a disgrace because of the coming return of Christ, and they severely denounced Seymour for his decision.

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It may have been that Clara Lum was secretly in love with Seymour and that she left because of her jealousy. Whatever the reason, she relocated to Portland, Oregon, to join the mission headed by a former Azusa associate, Florence Crawford. When she did, she took the entire national and international mailing lists with her!

This unthinkable action crippled Seymour’s worldwide publication outreach. His entire national and international lists of over fifty thousand names had been stolen, leaving him with only the Los Angeles list. Then, when the May 1908 Apostolic Faith was sent out, the cover looked the same, but inside was a column announcing its new address in Portland for contributions and mail!

 The thousands who eagerly read and sent contributions to the newspaper now started sending them to Portland without questioning the change. By the June issue, no article by Seymour appeared at all. Finally, by midsummer of 1908, all references to Los Angeles were omitted entirely. When it became clear that Lum wouldn’t be returning, the Seymours traveled to Portland to confront Lum and ask for the lists. But the lists were never returned. 

Without this vital information, it was impossible for Seymour to continue the publication, and an era of Azusa was brought to a dramatic end!

-Roberts Liardon

 God’s Generals ( William J. Seymour)

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William James Roop

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Brother Roop teaches the Bible

John Wesley's Devine Healing

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This is from John Wesley's Journal.

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DIVINE HEALING 

John Wesley also recorded that he was miraculously healed on more than one occasion. In one such instance, he was so sick he couldn’t even raise his head. 

He wrote:

Friday, 8.—I found myself much out of order. However, I made shift to preach in the evening; but on Saturday my bodily strength quite failed so that for several hours I could scarcely lift up my head. Sunday, 10. I was obliged to lie down most part of the day, being easy only in that posture. Yet in the evening my weakness was suspended while I was calling sinners to repentance. But at our love-feast which followed, beside the pain in my back and head and the fever which still continued upon me, just as I began to pray I was seized with such a cough that I could hardly speak. At the same time came strongly into my mind, “These signs shall follow them that believe” [Mark 16:17]. I called on Jesus aloud to “increase my faith” and to “confirm the word of his grace.” While I was speaking my pain vanished away; the fever left me; my bodily strength returned; and for many weeks I felt neither weakness nor pain. “Unto thee, O Lord, do I give thanks.”

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Of another occasion, he wrote,

When Mr. Shepherd and I left Smeton, my horse was so exceedingly lame that I was afraid I must have lain by too. We could not discern what it was that was amiss; and yet he would scarcely set his foot to the ground. By riding thus seven miles, I was thoroughly tired, and my headache more than it had done for some months. (What I here aver is the naked fact: let every man account for it as he sees good.) I then thought, “Cannot God heal either man or beast, by any means, or without any?” Immediately my weariness and headache ceased, and my horse’s lameness in the same instant. Nor did he halt any more either that day or the next.

The Wesley brother sometimes covered sixty miles a day in order to get to a prearranged destination on time. They traveled tirelessly, meeting the people wherever they were, learning about their needs and how best they could help them spiritually, mentally, and physically.

Roberts Liardon

 God’s Generals ( The Revivalists )

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William James Roop

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Brother Roop teaches the Bible

The Key To Revival

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Here is part of a book called God's Generals (The Revivalists), Roberts Liardon.

Text:  Psalm 51.

THE KEY TO REVIVAL.

Charles Finney felt that prayer played a major part in the work of the revival. He wrote that “the key which unlocked the Heavens in this revival was the prayer of [Abel] Clary, Father Nash, and other unnamed folk who laid themselves prostrate before God’s throne and besought Him for a divine outpouring.” 

When Charles heard that Clary was in town, he remarked, “I have not seen him at any of our meetings.” The man who told him of Clary’s attendance responded, “No...he cannot go to meetings, he says. He prays nearly all the time, day and night, and in such an agony of mind that I do not know what to make of it. Sometimes he cannot even stand on his knees, but will lie prostrate on the floor, and groan and pray in a manner that quite astounds me.” Charles replied, “I understand it; please keep still. It will all come out right; he will surely prevail.”

He knew what this spirit of prayer was doing and he knew better than to do anything to interfere with it. Of this kind of fervent prayer, Charles said, I have never seen a person sweat blood, but I do know a person who prayed until his nose bled. And people have prayed until drenched with sweat, even in the coldest winter. Some have prayed for hours until their strength was exhausted from the labor of their minds. Such prayers reached out and took hold of God.

William James Roop

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Brother Roop teaches the Bible

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