EDWARD PAYSON and REVIVAL POWER
Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>
-by David Smithers.
E. M. Bounds in his classic little book "Power Through Prayer",
wrote, "What the Church needs today is not more or better machinery,
not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom
the Holy Ghost can use - men of prayer, men mighty in prayer."
Edward Payson was just such a man; a man mighty in prayer.
"He prayed without ceasing and felt safe nowhere but at the throne
of grace. He may be said to have studied theology on his knees.
Much of his time he spent literally prostrated with his Bible open
before him pleading the promise; "I will send the comforter and
when He, The Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all
truth." Payson's advice to his fellow ministers was, "prayer is
the first thing, the second thing and the third thing necessary
to a minister. Pray then my dear brother, pray, pray." It has
been well said that the secret of Edward Payson's ministry was
that he prayed much in secret. The scars on his bedroom floor
testify to this fact. Next to Payson's bed where deep grooves in
the hardwood floor were his knees had pressed repeatedly in
times of travail.
To read "Praying Payson's" diary is to be touched by his heart
longings and tender love for Jesus and the lost. On January 4,
1807, he wrote, "I was favored with a spirit of prayer beyond all
my former experience. I was in great agony and wrestled both for
myself and others with great power. God seemed to bow the
heavens and come down and open all His treasures, bidding me,
take what I would."
January 29th, "I never felt such longings after God or such a desire
to depart to be with Christ. My soul thirsted for more full communion
with my God and Savior. I do not now feel satisfied as I used to
with the manifestations of the divine presence, but still feel hungry
and craving." February 18, "I was enabled to lie at Jesus' feet and
to wash them with the tears of contrition. No pleasure I have ever
found in the Christian life is superior to this." February 28, "I was
favored with great enlargement in prayer. I seemed to be carried
out of myself into the presence of God."
Like all true men of prayer, Payson understood the need for true
humility. "It was the burden of his secret prayers that he might be
delivered from pride, from self-seeking, from preaching himself
instead of Christ Jesus the Lord." Through humility and fervent
prayer he was always in hopes of seeing a fresh wave of revival.
"The revivals which took place under his labors where numerous
and where characterized by a depth and power seldom seen."
Often Payson congregation was overwhelmed with a sense of
Christ's presence and power and irresistibly brought to tears.
Mr. Payson's diary testifies of the power and necessity of prayer
for revival. September 27th, "In the evening I was favored with
great faith and fervency in prayer. It seemed as if God would deny
me nothing, and I wrestled for multitudes of souls, and could not
help hoping there would be revival here." September 28, "I was
favored with the greatest degree of freedom and fervency in
interceding for others. I seemed to travail in birth with poor sinners
and could not help hoping the God is about to do something for
His glory and the good of souls." Within days, "Praying Payson"
saw his prayers answered through a fresh work of revival power.
On April 23, 1808, Edward Payson wrote, "My heart seemed ready
to break with its longings after holiness." Such longings for heart
purity, revival power and the person of Jesus are the marks of a
healthy and normal Christian life. The lack of these precious things
in the modern Church reveal a nominal Christian life. Too much of
what is called the Church today is not fit to live or die. The nominal
Christian is unfit to deal with our demon possessed age or the
coming judgment seat of Christ. Truly the Church's greatest need
is for men and women, mighty in prayer. We need men and women
who will pray and yearn for revival. Lord make us a praying people!
-Source-
http://www.watchword.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=34