‘They all
joined together constantly in prayer.’ (Acts 1:14)
When we think of the day of Pentecost, our minds naturally go to
Acts ch.2 and the birth of the early Christian community which took place as a
result of the powerful events of that day.
However, even though the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was prophetically
purposed to happen on that particular day in fulfilment of Scripture, we
should always bear in mind the fact that this outpouring had a background of
sustained united prayer.
We are told in the verse above that,
after the ascension of Jesus, the group of 120 believers joined together constantly
in prayer with one another. So, in chapter
2, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon a group of people who had been preparing
themselves for it by prayer. This was
not a group of well-off, comfortable people who were living independent and
relatively carefree lives. No, they were
ordinary people who had begun a journey of committed faith in Jesus, but who
had seen their Lord crucified and cruelly taken away from them, leaving them
all deeply shaken and bewildered, and then had seen him resurrected. After another forty days, they again found
themselves left alone with one another after he ascended back to heaven. Furthermore, no doubt many of them were
fearful of the Jewish leaders, who had always been opposed to Jesus and no
doubt wanted to do away with his followers.
John tells us that the disciples kept themselves behind locked doors out
of fear of the Jews (John 20:19).
However,
Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power
from on high (Luke 24:49), speaking of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus had promised
he would send them. So they were
spending this intervening period of time in sustained united prayer together,
waiting expectantly for the fulfilment of Jesus’ promise to them. They were a group of powerless, fearful
people who knew they could not do anything in their own human strength to
fulfil the purposes that God had for them, and that they were utterly dependent
on what Jesus had promised: the outpouring of his Spirit upon them. So they waited upon God for this, praying
continually. The words of Acts 1:14 tell
us they were united together in prayer: ‘They all joined together...’,
and that their praying together was sustained: ‘They all joined together
constantly...’ The word translated
here as ‘constantly’ means ‘to be
earnest towards’, ‘to persevere in’, ‘to be diligent towards’, ‘to attend to
assiduously’, or ‘to adhere closely to.’
So, from a human perspective, what
led up to and prepared these people for the outpouring at Pentecost, was a
commitment to sustained united prayer together.
United prayer paved the way to the fulfilment of God’s promise. Pentecost came to praying, prepared and
expectant people. Furthermore,
not only did sustained united prayer form the backcloth to the outpouring in
Acts ch.2, Pentecost
also had as its fruit the coming into being of a powerful, praying community. Burdened
praying is both a precursor to and a fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work in
revival. If sustained and united prayer
brings revival as its fruit, then it is also experientially true that revived
believers are always men and women of prayer.
To be filled with the Holy Spirit, is to be filled with the spirit of
prayer. Therefore, in addition to its
many other themes, the book of Acts is a book about prayer. A simple study of
the many references to prayer in Acts demonstrates how its events were
invariably permeated by and soaked in prayer.
The empowered ministries recorded in Acts were all rooted in the strong
personal prayer life of the individuals concerned and in the corporate prayer
life of the community of believers.
Sustained united prayer
Dr. A.T. Pierson
commented that, ‘There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or
locality that did not begin in united prayer.’[1] The truth of his statement is borne out when
we look at the background to any revival we care to study, and discover the
prayer and intercession that took place both prior to it breaking out and
during it as it progressed. Sustained united prayer is invariably the backcloth to any revival.
After the end of the American
Revolution in 1783, there was a general slump in moral and social life in the
USA. Drunkenness is reported to have
been of epidemic proportions nationwide.
The level of profanity was shocking, women were afraid to go out at
night for fear of being assaulted, and bank robberies were a daily occurrence. Parallel to this slump, churches of every
denomination were not seeing converts, and numbers in attendance were
declining. In a desperate response to
this, a Baptist pastor called Isaac Backus sent out an urgent plea in 1794 to
ministers of every denomination in America calling for united prayer for
revival. This was similar to the Union
of Prayer which was initiated in Great Britain a few years earlier which had
been the catalyst of the Second Great Awakening which began in Britain in 1792. Churches everywhere in America adopted Backus’
call to prayer until the whole country was interlaced with a network of prayer
meetings. The first Monday of each month
was set aside for prayer, and it was not long before revival came.[2]
The 1857 revival
in America is often known as ‘The Prayer Revival.’ By that time, the country was once again in
spiritual, political and economic decline.
The issue of slavery was breeding political unrest. Financial panic hit as banks failed, railroad
companies went bankrupt, factories closed, and unemployment increased. Again, church attendance in general was
declining. In response, the godly and
prayerful Jeremiah Lanphier advertised lunch-time prayer meetings in a hall on
Fulton Street in New York city. The numbers
of people who came to pray quickly and dramatically increased, and they began
to meet daily at lunch times. Within six
months, 10,000 people were meeting for prayer in New York, and the movement was
spreading to other major cities in the country with thousands of people meeting
daily for prayer.
This widespread
prayer movement in 1857 brought about the Third Great Awakening in
America. There were conversions to
Christ of people from all classes of society, and backsliders were restored. Families established daily devotions, and
there was a noticeable change in morals in entire communities. This revival in America eventually had a
worldwide impact, spreading to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, Europe, South
Africa, India, Australia, and the Pacific islands.[3]
Similarly, in Wales during the 1890s, church
attendance was declining throughout the whole country, and congregations in
many denominations were seeing a sharp drop in attendance. According to one writer, there was ‘worldliness
in the pew and powerlessness in the pulpit.’[4]
However, many believers in Wales did not
remain passive when confronted with this situation, but longed and prayed to
see God work again in revival. A
newspaper editor from London who researched the 1904 Revival, wrote the following
about the widespread prayer that rose up throughout Wales and which prepared
the way for this revival:
‘For a
long time past Welsh Christians had been moved to pray specifically for the
quickening of religious life in their midst. The impulse appears to have been sporadic and
spontaneous. In remote country hamlets,
in mining villages buried in distant valleys, one man or one woman would have
it laid upon his or her soul to pray that the Holy Spirit might be poured out upon
the cause in which they were spiritually concerned. There does not seem to have been much
organized effort. It was all individual,
[small group] and local. But prayer
circles formed by devout persons who agree to unite together in prayer at a
given hour every day have long been a recognized form of prevailing prayer. All this was general. It was preparing the way. A great longing for Revival was abroad in the
land. The Churches were conscious that
there was something in the air.’[5] (underlining my own for emphasis).
As another example, John “Praying” Hyde (who was greatly used by
God in prayer and intercession as a missionary in India) and some of his
co-workers were deeply burdened in their hearts about the general low state of
church life and the unreached millions of people in the area of the Punjab, at
the turn of the twentieth century. So
they began to pray for revival to come and, in 1904, they formed what they
called the “The Punjab Prayer Union” which consisted of men and women who had
covenanted together in their resolve to pray for revival. Each of them spent much time in prayer,
fasting and night watches:
‘The members of the Prayer Union lifted up their eyes
according to Christ’s command and saw the fields – white to the harvest. In the Book they read the immutable promises
of God. They saw one method of obtaining
this spiritual awakening, even by prayer.
They set themselves deliberately, definitely, and desperately to use the
means till they secured the result.’[6]
This prayer union had five simple principles
for its members:
·
Are you praying for quickening in
your own life, in the life of your fellow-workers, and in the Church?
·
Are you longing for greater power of
the Holy Spirit in your own life and work, and are you convinced that you cannot
go on without this power?
·
Will you pray that you may not be
ashamed of Jesus?
·
Do you believe that prayer is the
great means of securing this spiritual awakening?
·
Will you set apart one half-hour each
day as soon after noon as possible to pray for this awakening, and are you willing
to pray till the awakening comes?[7]
Later that year, the first Sialkot
Convention was held in the Punjab, which was dedicated to the growth and
development of spiritual life among expatriate missionaries and Indian co-workers. This convention owed much to the members and
intercession of the PPU, and it was at this first convention that the Holy
Spirit began to work powerfully. A
revival broke out which over the next few years reached other parts of India
through the many renewed and empowered believers.[8]
Personal
travail in prayer
As well as the need for sustained
united prayer by groups of people, it is necessary also to appreciate the need
for real intercession on a personal level, if we are to see revival come. When we look carefully into the experiences
of those who were used by God in intercession in times of revival, we can see
the depth of travail that the Holy Spirit was working in them as individuals,
both prior to revival breaking out and as revival progressed.
In addition to the well-known, elderly
sisters Peggy and Christine Smith, and the young Donald MacPhail, there were
others whom God used in intercession before and/or during the revival in the
Hebrides (1949 – 1952). Writing
in general terms about these people, one researcher penned the following
regarding the necessity of making time for real intercession, even during the
night hours after a long and busy day:
‘The price for heaven-sent revival
has never changed. Before the floods of
Holy Ghost conviction could sweep across the Isles of The Hebrides, strong men
were broken before God, travailing in agony of prayer through the long hours of
the night for months. To do this, in
spite of the demands of home and work, these men had to make time for waiting before
God! This is perhaps the greatest
problem besetting us today. We have all
the modern luxuries of life to make work easier and yet we cannot make time to
pray! What a tragic paradox! Dr. Wilbur Smith very aptly stated the matter
when he said: “I never get time to pray – I’ve always got to make it!”’[9][10]
Before the Azusa Street revival (1906)
broke out in Los Angeles, Frank Bartleman observed the following about the
depth of travail in prayer that had begun to work in his own personal life:
‘I found that most Christians did not want to take on a burden of
prayer. It was too hard on the
flesh. I was carrying this burden now in
ever increasing volume, night and day...
Most believers find it easier to criticize than to pray… [Edward Boehmer and I] prayed together at the
little Peniel Mission until 2 a.m. God
wonderfully met us and assured us as we wrestled with Him for the outpouring of
His Spirit upon the people. My life was
by this time swallowed up in prayer. I
was praying night and day.’[11]
Similarly, both
prior to and during the Welsh Revival (1904), Evan Roberts was powerfully used
in travailing prayer as the Holy Spirit interceded through him, and as a
consequence revival broke out wherever he ministered:
‘What beautiful
humility! This is the secret of all
power. An English eyewitness of the
revival in Wales wrote: “Such real travail of soul for the unsaved I have never
before witnessed. I have seen young Evan
Roberts convulsed with grief and calling on his audience to pray… It was not the eloquence of Evan Roberts that
broke men down, but his tears. He would
break down, crying bitterly to God to bend them, in an agony of prayer, the
tears coursing down his cheeks, his whole frame writhing. Strong men would break down and cry like children. Women would shriek. A sound of weeping and wailing would fill the
air. Evan Roberts, in the intensity of
his agony, would fall in the pulpit, while many in the crowd often fainted.”’[12]
It is much the same or similar
whichever revival we choose to study. Real
Holy Spirit intercession and travail has to take place and run its course if
revival is to come (cf. Rom. 8:26-27, Col. 4:12-13). Revival does not just ‘drop out of heaven’
simply because God has made a sovereign decision in his eternal purposes to bring
it about. No, in every case that we care
to study, a move of God in revival has always been birthed into being through
both sustained united prayer and personal travail in intercession. So it is to such a calibre and depth of surrender
and praying that we are called if we would see revival come. Just like the people mentioned above (and the
countless others who have been used in a similar way in times of revival), we
must be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to so take hold of us that he can begin
to groan and travail in us in real intercession.
It is this kind of praying that will see revival as its fruit.
THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®
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[1] From https://www.azquotes.com/quote/544810,
accessed 04.03.2020.
[2] See http://revival-library.org/index.php/resources-menu/revival-anecdotes/prayer,
accessed 04.03.2020, and see https://greatawakening.blogspot.com/2010/11/prayer-and-revival-j-edwin-orr.html,
accessed 13.03.2020.
[3] See http://revival-library.org/index.php/resources-menu/revival-anecdotes/prayer, accessed 04.03.2020.
[4] See Smith,
M.R. The Welsh Revival – Longing and
Preparation, at
http://sentinellenehemie.free.fr/mrsmith1_gb.html,
accessed 13.07.2020.
[5] From Stead, W.T., The Story of
the Welsh Revival, New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1905, and see https://attackingthedevil.co.uk/steadworks/awakening.php, accessed 04.03.2020.
[6] Carré,
E.G. (Ed.), Praying Hyde, South Plainfield: Bridge Publishing, 1982, pp.11-12.
[7] ibid., p.11.
[8] ibid., p.152-153.
[9] See https://womenofchristianity.com/the-intercessors-of-the-hebrides-revival-by-david-smithers/, accessed 03.03.2020.
[10] And see Campbell, D. Revival in the Hebrides, Chapter 1, Kindle
Edition, Kraus House, 2015.
[11] See Liardon, R. (Comp.), Frank Bartleman’s Azusa Street, Destiny Image:
Shippensburg, 2006, p.21.
[12] ibid., p.37.
