"DESPERATE" PRAYER and REVIVAL
Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>
-by 'TonguesPrayerWarrior'.
In the 1930's Edwin Orr travelled the world stirring up prayer for
Revival. Years later he wrote: "It has often been said that the
first requirement of Revival is prayer. Yet prayer for an awakening
has been going on for many years without result. There is a prior
requirement." Can you detect it in these examples of successful
pre-Revival praying?:
EVAN ROBERTS (1904): "If I had not prayed I would have burst.
I fell on my knees with my arms over the seat in front of me, my
face was bathed in perspiration and the tears flowed in streams,
so that I thought it must be blood gushing forth... The fearful
bending of the judgement day came to my mind, and I was filled
with compassion for those who must bend at the judgement,
and I wept."
HEBRIDES (1949): "Suddenly a cry pierced the silence; a young
man burdened in agony for his fellow men was pouring out his
desire in prayer. He was so overcome that he fell into a trance."
The two sisters: "We struggled through the hours of night,
refusing to take a denial."
FINNEY (1825): "I found myself so borne down with the weight of
immortal souls, that I was constrained to pray without ceasing.
Some of my experiences alarmed me. I would say to God that
He had made me a promise to answer prayer and I could not
and would not be denied."
FRANK BARTLEMAN (1905): "My life at this time was literally
swallowed up in prayer. I was praying day and night. We prayed
for a spirit of Revival upon Pasadena until the burden became
well nigh unbearable."
HUMPHREY JONES (1858): "... fervent prayer in secret, several
times a day, wrestling with God; each time as though it were the
last."
WHITEFIELD (c 1730): "Sometimes whole nights were spent in
prayer."
HEBRIDES (1949): "... spending three nights in prayer that God
would visit their parish."
BRAINERD (1743): "God enabled me so to agonise in prayer that
I was quite wet with sweat. I gasped for multitudes of souls. The
Lord visited me marvellously in prayer; I think my soul never was
in such agony before."
EDWARD MILLER (1949): "Weeping, waiting, meditating, searching
the word, walking, kneeling, standing and again prostrate on the
floor."
CHINA (1908): "Her heart seemed agonised. It was scarcely possible
to catch her words through her sobs. 'O Father, is it a sacrifice that
you are waiting for? If it is, then let me be the victim. I am willing
that you should blot my name right out of the Book of Life, if
through my sacrifice the hearts of the people might be opened to Thee.'"
There is something that precedes and, indeed, supersedes words:
'A heart agony,' Lily Roberts called it, "a desperate sense of need,"
said Duncan Campbell, "I would not and could not be denied," said
Charles Finney.
"Every outpouring of the Spirit is preceded by earnest, agonising
intercession," writes Dr James Stewart. "Deep spiritual awakenings
begin with desperate people. God only answers prayers of
desperate Christians."
The real key to Revival is DESPERATION. If we can live without
Revival, we won't get it. But when we can't live any longer without it,
Revival will come.
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