Leonard Ravenhill on Revival

Leonard Ravenhill was a wonderful man of God who lived in the 20th century and spoke about prayer and revival. The link that has been provided here is of an interview of Leonard Ravenhill during a conference on revival held in 1989. While the video is 19 years old, the topics and counsel of which Ravenhill spoke are just as relevant (if not more so) in 2008 as in 1989.

The link is to part 1 of the video on You Tube.

150th Anniversary of the Fulton Street Revival

One hundred fifty years ago today, a prayer meeting started in New York City which was a catalyst for a worldwide revival. A lay missionary named Jeremiah Lanphier started a one hour prayer meeting in a room at the Old Dutch Reformed Church in lower Manhattan. He designed the time for the prayer meeting to coincide with lunch time for the workers in the area. During that first hour-long meeting, Lanphier was the only one in attendance. However, by 1pm, there were six others who joined.

The attendance at the weekly meeting grew rapidly. Within months, there were similar prayer meetings all over New York City. Within six months, prayer meetings were being held all over the United States in such cities as Philadelphia and Detroit. The newspapers of the the time noted these meetings. A brief mention of the revival in Detroit can be found in the March 3, 1858 edition of the Detroit Daily Free Press. The following is a copy of the text of that day’s article:

RELIGIOUS REVIVALS – There is an interesting religious revival at the Woodward Avenue M.E. [Methodist Episcopal] Church of which Rev. Mr. Blades is pastor – Meetings are held every evening at 7 o’clock. About fifty persons have been added to the church within the past four weeks, more than three fourths of whom are heads of families.

There is also a revival at the First Presbyterian Church (Rev. Dr. Duffield’s.) Prayer meetings are held morning and evening.

As the interest in the revival, church buildings were no longer the only sites of the prayer meetings. The New York Times of March 20, 1858 reported:

Churches are crowded; bank-directors rooms become oratories; school houses are turned into chapels.

Places associated with worldliness became sites of prayer. One example was Burton’s Theatre in New York. The Times’ account stated:

Instead of noisy laughter, excited by play-actors, in low comedy and farce, those present listen quietly and seriously to earnest words from earnest men on the most solemn and earnest of themes.

Over the next few years, the revival spread through the United States, Canada, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England, Australia, South Africa and other countries. In 1859, Dr. B. Evans delivered a lecture in Scarborough, England, entitled ‘The American Revivals’. It recounted the details of the revival in the United States. Evans observed:

The work originated with, and has been sustained by, prayer. This is its universal characteristic; and the fact admits of no doubt.

Evans asked his audience to ponder several questions. First, he asked: ‘Do we need such a revival, such manifest and manifold tokens of the power of the Divine Spirit?’ His implicit answer was ‘yes.’ He pointed to opportunities to spread the Gospel in previously closed lands such as China, Japan and the ‘wilds of Africa.’ Yet, English society had devolved into ignorance and indifference. Evans painfully noted:

Upon millions in this land of ours religious truth has exerted no saving influence. …Glance for a moment at the majority in our congregations, gradually ripening for perdition under the ministry of the Word, perishing amidst the atmosphere of prayer, and dying within sight of the fountain of healing and eternal life!

Evans further asked: ‘If a revival is needed, the second question I would ask is not less vital and thrilling in its interest—can we have one?’ He answered his question with another: ‘Why not?’ He reminded his hearers that God is not the God of America only. His shower of revival blessings was not exhausted upon America and Canada.

His third and final question: ‘Will you seek one [revival]?’ He challenged his audience to adopt the thinking that ‘Holier and higher motives must prompt our actions, and mould our character.’

Perhaps the main and telling feature of the spread of the prayer revival was that when Christians heard about the revival in other places, they did not treat the news as merely some point of quaint interest. They desired the same blessing of revival in prayer for their land. As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Fulton Street Revival and the triggering of a worldwide revival in the English-speaking world, I pray that we who read this account will be moved to a holy desire to see such revival visited upon our nations in the early 21st century.

If you wish to read more about the prayer revivals of 1857, may I suggest that you read the article Prayer Revivals and the Third Great Awakening in the Evangelical Review of Theology (Volume 31, No. 1 - January 2007)

The inset picture is a photograph of Jeremiah Lanphier, seated in the prayer room at the Old Dutch Reformed Church in New York City.

The Revival Hymn

I found this video on God Tube yesterday. It is a thought-provoking call to revival. It runs about 35 minutes and contains portions of exhortations by Duncan Campbell, A.W. Tozer and Leonard Ravenhill on the topic of revival.

Persecution of Christians

I have been reading an account of the revival which took place in Korea exactly one hundred years ago in 1907. It is entitled "When The Spirit's Fire Swept Korea" by Dr. Jonathan Goforth (1859-1936) who was an eye-witness of the wonders which happened there . The text can be found here.

The account is a wonderful chronicle of God's Holy Spirit moving among the people of Korea in the first decade of the 20th century. At one point though, Dr. Goforth made reference to the "persecution of Christians." I found this reference quite extraordinary.

When we typically think of the persecution of Christians, we think of our Christian sisters and brothers around the world who are suffering for their faith in Christ. (See this site for more information about this). However, Goforth was not referring to persecution of Christians but rather persecution by Christians. Even in this instance, he was not referring to such aberrations and sins as the Inquistion.

Rather, Jonathan Goforth was referring to the strong and powerful witness of those Koreans who were new and bold in their Christian faith and how that strong and effective witness was burdensome to those who were not believers in Christ. Goforth wrote:

A burning zeal to make known the merits of the Saviour was a special mark of the Church at Pentecost. The same is not less true of the Korean Church. It was said that the heathen complained that they could not endure the persecution of the Christians. They were evermore telling of the strong points of their Saviour. Some declared they would have to sell out and move to some district where there were no Christians, in order to get rest.

Quite candidly, I had never heard of such a thing before reading this today. Could it be said of us that our witness for Christ was so strong that those who refused to repent and believe in Christ felt so convicted and burdened that they needed to leave?

(The photograph is of Jonathan Goforth and his wife Rosalind).

Revivals and Prayerlessness

I came across this quote last week. I think it speaks volumes.

"It is my conviction that we are never going to have revival until God has brought the church of Jesus Christ to the point of desperation. As long as Christians people can trust religious organization, material wealth, popular preaching, shallow evangelistic crusades and promotion drives, there will never be revival. But when confidence in the flesh is smashed, and the church comes to the realization of her desperate wretchedness, blindness and nakedness before God, then and only then will God breathe in. Yes, there must be the point of desperation but there must also be the point of intercession. Oh, that God would bring us to this place of intercession! We cannot think or talk, let alone taste of revival, without intercessory prayer. Indeed, the reason for an unrevived church in the last analysis is the sin of prayerlessness."

Stephen Olford (1918-2004)

A Happy Independence Day to my American readers.

The Moravian Revival

During the last few weeks, I have been reading an account of the wonderful work of God among the Moravian Brethren in the village of Herrnhut (The Lord's Watch). The account is entitled "Power From On High." It was written by Rev John Greenfield in 1927 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Moravian Revival of 1727. An Adobe version of the book, released for distribution this year, can be found here. It should be noted that within weeks of the start of the revival, a movement started among the inhabitants of Herrnhut to commence round the clock prayer. Even more remarkable is that this 24 hour prayer did not stop for a century. The story is a great testimony of God's grace. I hope you find it as inspiring and faith-building as I have.

The photograph is of a painting of Count Zinzendorf, the leader of the Moravian Brethren during this era.

Listening to Ravenhill and Ryle

MP3 players and similar devices (i.e. IPod) can be a real blessing. I have been using my mp3 player to listen to some wonderful works concerning revival and holiness. I've listened to a section of a book called Holiness (considered by many to be a devotional classic) by Anglican Bishop J.C. Ryle (1816-1900) [pictured here]. The section has to do with the faith of Moses and what Moses gave up to be a true follower of God. You can listen to or download what I've been listening to from here.

I've also been listening to a radio interview conducted with Leonard Ravenhill (1907-1994), an English revivalist. The interview took place back in 1983. Despite a scant number of references which date the interview, its contents are just as relevant now as they were back in 1983. You can listen to them or download them from here.

Ravenhill had great insight regarding prayer and revival. Some thoughts of his can be found on the webpage for Prayer at http://www.ravenhill.org/prayer.htm A recurring theme with Ravenhill was the concept of desperate prayer before the Lord. He said:

C. H. Spurgeon was converted at the age of 16 and began preaching in London at the age of 19. When he was 27, they built him a tabernacle seating 6,000 which he packed twice on Sundays - that's 12,000 - and once on Thursday nights. How? He waited on God. He got alone with God. He studied...and he prayed.

God makes all His best people in loneliness. Do you know what the secret of praying is? Praying in secret. "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door..." (Matt. 6:6). You can't show off when the door's shut and nobody's there. You can't display your gifts. You can impress others, but you can't impress God.

Following a Pattern of Prayer from the past

On Monday, our church began a monthly time of prayer for revival in the United States. We took our cue for this from a call to prayer issued by British minister John Sutcliff in 1784. (There is a link to a text of this prayer call which can be found on the sidebar of this blog or here). It was Sutcliff's desire for churches in the United Kingdom to pray for revival and not only within their own churches (denominations) but within other Christian churches as well.

We will be meeting on the second Monday of the month at 7:30pm Eastern time for the purpose of such prayer. Please pray that God will honor this time of prayer and stir the hearts and minds of His people to pray that they can pray.

(The photo is old Walpole Chapel in England. It was in use during the 1780s)

Insights on Prayer and Revival

Earlier this week, I began to become acquainted with the writings and sermons of Leonard Ravenhill (1907-1994). Ravenhill was a contemporary of A.W. Tozer and like Tozer, had some tremendous insights on prayer and revival.

In 1959, Ravenhill wrote "Why Revival Tarries". The following is an excerpt from that book:

"No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shopwindow to display one's talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off.

Poverty-stricken as the Church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of praver. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.

The two prerequisites to successful Christian living are vision and passion, both of which are born in and maintained by prayer. The ministry of preaching is open to few; the ministry of prayer-the highest ministry of all human offices-is open to all. Spiritual adolescents say, "I'll not go tonight, it's only the prayer meeting." It may be that Satan has little cause to fear most preaching. Yet past experiences sting him to rally all his infernal army to fight against God's people praying. Modern Christians know little of "binding and loosing," though the onus is on us-"Whatsoever ye shall bind...” Have you done any of this lately? God is not prodigal with His power; but to be much for God, we must be much with God.

This world hits the trail for hell with a speed that makes our fastest plane look like a tortoise; yet alas, few of us can remember the last time we missed our bed for a night of waiting upon God for a world-shaking revival. Our compassions are not moved. We mistake the scaffolding for the building. Present-day preaching, with its pale interpretation of divine truths, causes us to mistake action for unction, commotion for creation, and rattles for revivals.

The secret of praying is praying in secret. A sinning man will stop praying, and a praying man will stop sinning. We are beggared and bankrupt, but not broken, nor even bent.

Prayer is profoundly simple and simply profound. "Prayer is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try," and yet so sublime that it outranges all speech and exhausts man's vocabulary. A Niagara of burning words does not mean that God is either impressed or moved. One of the most profound of Old Testament intercessors had no language "Her lips moved, but her voice was not heard." No linguist here! There are groanings which cannot be uttered."

Are we so substandard to New Testament Christianity that we know not the historical faith of our fathers (with its implications and operations), but only the hysterical faith of our fellows? Prayer is to the believer what capital is to the business man.

Can any deny that in the modern church setup the main cause of anxiety is money? Yet that which tries the modern churches the most, troubled the New Testament Church the least. Our accent is on paying, theirs was on praying. When we have paid, the place is taken; when they had prayed, the place was shaken!

In the matter of New Testament, Spirit-inspired, hell-shaking, world-breaking prayer, never has so much been left by so many to so few. For this kind of prayer there is no substitute. We do it--or die!

An Interesting Meditation on Numbers 21

During the summer, while doing research for an article, I happened to find an autobiography of one of the individuals who preached in England during the revival which swept the British Isles in the late 1850s and early 1860s. From Death Into Life is the story of William Haslam (1818-1905), an English country parson who, in 1851, was converted during the preaching of a sermon on the topic of conversion. The unusual aspect of this is that the sermon was preached by William Haslam himself. The evidence of his changed heart and mind during that sermon was so obvious that a Methodist preacher in attendance at the service began to cry out "The Parson is converted!"

I wanted to include a brief section of Chapter 34 of the book as it is a meditation on the text of Numbers 21:5-9:

The people spoke against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food." The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. So the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and you; intercede with the LORD, that He may remove the serpents from us." And Moses interceded for the people. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live." And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.

Numbers 21:5-9 NASB

Recounting an incident just prior to his departure from Hayle, St. Johns, Haslam reflected:

A few weeks before leaving Hayle, as I was sitting by the fire one wet afternoon, my eyes fell on a little coloured picture on the mantle-piece, which had been the companion of my journeys for all the twenty years of which I have been writing. It was a quaint mediaeval illustration of Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness, copied from a valuable manuscript (Book of Prayers) in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

As I looked at the engraving before me, I began to suspect for the first time that there was a design in the arrangement of the figures, and that it was really intended to convey some particular teaching. I took it in my hand and studied it, when I observed that the cross or pole on which the serpent was elevated stood in the centre, dividing two sets of characters, and that there were serpents on one side, and none on the other.

Behind the figure of Moses, is a man standing with his arms crossed on his breast, looking at the brazen serpent. He has evidently obtained life and healing by a look. On the other side, I observed that there were four kinds of persons represented, who were not doing as this healed one did to obtain deliverance.

First, there is one who is kneeling in front of the cross, but he is looking towards Moses, and not at the serpent, and apparently confessing to him as if he were a priest.

Next behind him is one lying on his back, as if he was perfectly safe,though he is evidently in the midst of danger; for a serpent may be seen at his ear, possibly whispering "Peace, peace, when there is no peace."

Still further back from the cross there is a man with a sad face doing a work of mercy, binding up the wounds of a fellow-sufferer, and little suspecting that he himself is involved in the same danger.

Behind them all, on the background, is a valiant man who is doing battle with the serpents, which may be seen rising against him in unabating persistency.

I observed that none of these men were looking at the brazen serpent as they were commanded to do. I cannot describe how excited and interested I became; for I saw in this illustration a picture of my own life. Here was the way of salvation clearly set forth, and four ways which are not the way of salvation, all of which I had tried and found unavailing. This was the silent but speaking testimony of some unknown denizen of a cloister, who lived in the beginning of the fifteenth century, in the days of ignorance and superstition. But not withstanding this darkness,he was brought out into the marvellous light of the Gospel, and has left this interesting record of his experience.

Like him, I also had fought with serpents, for I began in my own strength to combat with sin, and strove by my own resolutions to overcome. From this, I went on to do good works, and works of mercy, in the vain hope of thus obtaining the same for myself. Then, I relied in the Church for salvation, as God's appointed ark of safety; but not feeling secure, I took another step beyond, and sought forgiveness through the power of the priest. This I found was as ineffectual as all my previous efforts. At last, I was brought (by the Spirit of God) as a wounded and dying sinner, to look at the Crucified One. Then (as I have related), I found pardon and peace. Ever since it has been my joy and privilege (like Moses pointing to the serpent) to cry, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). "I have determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified;" that is, to tell only of the person and office of Jesus Christ our Lord.

As you may have guessed, the photograph above is that of William Haslam.