REVIVALIST in CHINA! - Jonathan Goforth
Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>
-written by David Smithers.
"You must go forward on your knees," was the advice Hudson
Taylor gave to a young Canadian missionary named Jonathan
Goforth. Mr. Goforth faithfully and fervently followed this advice
throughout all has missionary endeavors in China. Yet, after
thirteen years of faithful praying and preaching, and what most
would consider a very successful ministry, Goforth became
restless and dissatisfied. It was at this time an unknown party
from England began sending pamphlets on the Welsh revival of
904. Goforth was deeply stirred as he read these accounts. "A
new thought, a new conception seemed to come to him of God
the Holy Spirit..." He then gave himself to much more prayer
and Bible study. Goforth now found himself being driven by a
fresh vision, a vision for a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Soon he began to meet daily with other missionaries to pray for
revival. These men vowed to God and to one another that they
would pray until revival came to China. In 1908 Jonathan Goforth's
prayers and dreams began to be realized. Goforth began going to
different missionary stations and simply led his fellow missionaries
in prayer. Then suddenly earnest prayer gave way to the open
confession of sin.
It was when the Christians came clean, confessed and forsook
their secret sin, that the Holy Spirit rushed in like a mighty wind.
Truly it was this open and honest confession of sin that was the
most striking feature of the revival. Everywhere Mr. Goforth went
revival would spread, and almost always in the same way. First
prayer was encourage among the Christians, which then
spontaneously led to heart- breaking confessions of sin. And then
like a flood, the lost were brought into the kingdom by the thousands.
"Men were searched as with fire." One after another broken-hearted
believers emptied themselves through the uncovering of all secret
sin. Mr. Goforth clearly identified unconfessed sin among Christians
as a major hindrance to God-sent revival.
Walter Phillips describes for us one of Mr. Goforth's revival meetings:
"At once, on entering the church one was conscious of something
unusual. The place was crowded to the door and tense, reverent
attention sat on every face. The people knelt for prayer, silent at
first, but soon one here and another there began to pray aloud.
The voices grew and gathered volume and blended into a great
wave of united supplication that swelled until it was almost a roar.
Now I understood why the floor was so wet - the very air was
electric and strange thrills coarsed up and down ones body."
When Mr. Goforth preached, "The cross burned like a living fire in
the heart of every address." It was the person of Jesus Christ who
was exalted throughout the entire revival as a King and Savior who
must be reckoned with. In the midst of this great revival Jonathan
Goforth clearly saw that all of his previous sweating and striving
had reaped only frustration. He came to the firm conviction that
revival is only born through humility, faith, prayer and the power of
the Holy Ghost. Goforth writes, "If revival is being withheld from us
it is because some idol remains still enthroned; because we still
insist in placing our reliance in human schemes; because we still
refuse to face the unchangeable truth that 'It is not by might, but
by My Spirit.'"
-Original Source-
http://www.watchword.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25