Praying The Price of Revival
by Stuart Robinson
Revd Dr Stuart Robinson is the Senior Pastor at the Blackburn Baptist Church, Victoria, Australia.
Luke 11: 1 - "Lord teach us to pray."
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Introduction
In 1952 Albert Einstein was asked by a Princeton doctoral student what was left in the world for original dissertation research Einstein replied, "Find out about prayer". English preacher Sidlow Baxter, when he was eighty-five years of age, said, "I have pastored only three churches in my more than sixty years of ministry. We had revival in every one. And not one of them came as a result of my preaching. They came as a result of the membership entering into a covenant to pray until revival came. And it did come, every time" (Willhite 1988:111).
Chaplain of the United States Senate, Richard Haiverson, advised that we really don't have any alternatives to prayer. He says, "You can organize until you are exhausted. You can plan, program and subsidize all your plans. But if you fail to pray it is a waste of time. Prayer is not optional. It is mandatory. Not to pray is to disobey God" (Bryant 1984:39).
Roy Pointer, after extensive research in Baptist churches in the United Kingdom, anived at the conclusion that wherever there was positive growth, there was one recurring factor: they were all praying churches.
In the United States of America, at Larry Leas Church on the Rock in Rockwall, Texas, numerical growth was from 13 people in 1980 to 11,000 people by 1988. When he was asked about such amazing growth, he said "I didn't start a church - I started a prayer meeting". When David Shibley, the minister responsible for prayer in that church was asked the secret of the church, he said, "The evangelistic program of the church is the daily prayer meeting. Every morning, Monday through Friday, we meet at 5:00 a.m. to pray. If we see the harvest of conversions fall off for more than a week, we see that as a spiritual red alert and seek the Lord" (Shibley 1985:7).
In Korea, where the church has grown from almost zero to a projected 50% of the population in this century alone, Pastor Paul Yonggi Cho attributes his church's conversion rate of 12,000 people per month as primarily due to ceaseless prayer.
In Korea it is normal for church members to go to bed early so they can arise at 4 a.m. to participate in united prayer. lt is normal for them to pray all through Friday nights. lt is normal to go out to prayer retreats.
Cho says that any church might see this sort of phenomenal growth if they were prepared to "pray the price"; to "pray and obey." Cho was once asked by a local pastor why was it that Cho's church membership was 750,000 and his was only 3,000 when he was better educated, preached better sermons and even had a foreign wife ? Cho enquired, "How much do you pray?" The pastor said "Thirty minutes a day." To which Cho replied, "There is your answer. I pray three to five hours per day."
In America one survey has shown that pastors on average pray 22 minutes per day. In mainline churches, it is less than that. In Japan they pray 44 minutes a day, and China 120 minutes a day. It's not surprising that the growth rate of churches in those countries is directly proportional to the amount of time pastors are spending in prayer.
Growth - a Supernatural Process
The church is a living
organism. It is God's creation with Jesus Christ as its head (Colossians
I:18). From Him life flows (John I4:6). We have a responsibility to cooperate
with God (1 Corinthians 3:6). We know that unless the Lord build our house
we labor in vain (Psalm 127:1). The transfer of a soul from the kingdom
of darkness to that of light is a spiritual supernatural process (Colossians
I : 14). It is the Father who draws (John 6:44). It is the Holy Spirit
who convicts (John 16:8-1 I ). He causes confession to be made (1 Corinthians
12:3). He completes conversion (Titus 3:5). It is the Holy Spirit who
also strengthens and empowers (Ephesians 3:16). He guides into truth (John
16:16). He gives spiritual gifts which promote unity (I Corinthians I2:25),
building up the church (1 Corinthians 14:12), thus avoiding disunity and
strife which stunt growth. This is fundamental spiritual truth accepted
and believed by all Christians.
However, the degree to which we are convinced
that all real growth is ultimately a supernatural process and are prepared
to act upon that belief, will be directly reflected in the priority that
we give to corporate and personal prayer in the life of the church. It
is only when we begin to see that nothing that matters will occur except
in answer to prayer that prayer will become more than an optional program
for the faithful few, and instead it will become the driving force of
our churches.
Obviously God wants
our pastors, other leaders and His people to recognize that only He can
do extra-ordinary things. When we accept that simple premise, we may begin
to pray. b In the Bible The battle which Joshua won, as recorded in Exodus
17:8-13 was not so dependent upon what he and his troops were doing down
on the plain. It was directly dependent upon Moses prayerful intercession
from on top of a near by hill with the support of Aaron and Hur. In the
Old Testament, not counting the Psalms, there are 77 explicit references
to prayer. The pace quickens in the New Testament. There are 94 references
alone which relate directly to Jesus and prayer. The apostles picked up
his theme and practice. So Paul says, "Pray continually, for this is God's
will for you" (1 Thessalonians 5:16)Peter urges believers to be "clear
minded and self controlled" so they can pray. (1 Peter 4:7).
James declares
that prayer is "powerful and effective" (James 5:16) John assures us that
"God hears and answers" (1 John 5: 15). In the book of Acts there are
36 references to the church growing. Fifty-eight percent [i.e. 21 of those
instances) are within the context of prayer. We would all love to see
growth in every church in the world like it was at Pentecost and immediately
thereafter. The key to what happened is found in Acts l:14 when it says:
"They were all joined together constantly in prayer." They were all joined
together - one mind, one purpose, one accord. That is the prerequisite
for effectiveness. Then, they were all joined together constantly in prayer.
The word used there means to be "busily engaged in, to be devoted to,
to persist in adhering to a thing, to intently attend to it." And it is
in the form of a present participle. It means that the practice was continued
ceaselessly. The same word is used in Acts 2:42: "They devoted themselves
...to prayer." Over in Colossians 4:2 Paul uses the same word again
in the imperative form "Devote yourselves to prayer." Most significant
expansion movements of the church through its history took up that imperative.
In History
When we read the
biographies of William Carey, Adoniram Judson, David Livingstone, Hudson
Taylor, or whomever, the initiating thrust of the work of their lives
began in prayer encounters. About a century ago, John R. Mott led an extraordinary
movement which became known as the Student Christian Movement. It was
based among college and university students. It supplied 20,000 career
missionaries in the space of thirty years. John Mott said that the source
of this amazing awakening lay in unified intercessory prayer. It wasn't
just that these missionaries were recruited and sent out in prayer; their
work was also sustained through prayer.
Hudson Taylor told a story of
a missionary couple who were in charge of ten stations. They wrote to
their home secretary confessing their absolute lack of progress, and they
urged the secretary to find intercessors for each station. After a while,
in seven of those stations, opposition melted, spiritual revival broke
out and the churches grew strongly. But in three there was no change.
When they returned home on the next furlough, the secretary cleared up
the mystery. He had succeeded in getting intercessors for only seven of
the ten stations. S. D. Gordon (1983:40) concludes "The greatest thing
anyone can do for God and man is to pray."
Luther, Calvin, Knox, Latimer, Finney, Moody, all the "greats" of God practiced prayer and fasting to enhance ministry effectiveness. John WesIey was so impressed by such precedents that he would not even ordain a person to ministry unless he agreed to fast at least until 4.00 p.m. each Wednesday and Friday. Yonggi Cho (1984:103) says, "Normally I teach new believers to fast for three days. Once they have become accustomed to three-day fasts, they will be able to fast for a period of seven days. Then they will move to ten-day fasts. Some have even gone for forty days." These people seem to have latched onto something which here in Australia we hardly know anything about. We are so busy, so active. We try so hard to get something good up and running. But it doesn't seem to grow much or permanently change many lives. Why? Is it that the ground in Australia is too hard? Compared to other times and places, this could hardly be so.
For example, back
in the eighteenth century things didn't look good. Eighteenth century
France was working through its bloody revolution, as terroristic as any
of the modern era. America had declared its Rights of Man in 1776. Voltaire
was preaching that the church was only a system of repression for the
human spirit. Karl Marx would later agree. A new morality had arisen.
Amongst both sexes in all ranks of society Christianity was held in almost
universal contempt. Demonic forces seem to have been unleashed to drive
the church out of existence. In many places it was almost down and out.
Preachers and people would be pelted with stones and coal in places in
England if they dared to testify to Jesus Christ in public. But even before
those satanic forces collaborated to confound and confuse it appears that
the Holy Spirit had prepared His defense, like a plot out of some Peretti
novel.
In the 1740s, John Erskine of Edinburgh published a pamphlet encouraging
people to pray for Scotland and elsewhere. Over in America, the challenge
was picked up by Jonathan Edwards, who wrote a treatise called, "A Humble
Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God's People
in Extra-ordinary Prayer For The Revival of Religion and the Advancement
of Christ's Kingdom." For forty years, John Erskine orchestrated what
became a Concert of Prayer through voluminous correspondence around the
world. In the face of apparent social and moral deterioration, he persisted.
And then the Lord of the universe stepped in and took over. On Christmas
Day 1781, at St. Just Church In Cornwall, at 3.00 a.m., intercessors met
to sing and pray. The heavens opened at last and they knew it. They prayed
through until 9:00am and regathered on Christmas evening. Throughout January
and February, the movement continued.
By March 1782 they were praying
until midnight. No significant preachers were involved - just people praying
and the Holy Spirit responding. Two years later in 1784, when 83-year
old John Wesley visited that area he wrote, "This country is all on fire
and the flame is spreading from village to village." And spread it did.
The chapel which George Whitefield had built decades previously in Tottenham
Court Road had to be enlarged to seat 5,000 people - the largest in the
world at that time. Baptist churches in North Hampton, Leicester, and
the Midlands, set aside regular nights devoted to the drumbeat of prayer
for revival. Methodists and Anglicans joined in.
Matthew Henry wrote,
"When God intends great mercy for His people He first sets them praying."
Across the country prayer meetings were networking for revival. A passion
for evangelism arose. Converts were being won - not through the regular
services of the churches, but at the prayer meetings! Some were held at
5.00 a.m., some at midnight. Some pre-Christians were drawn by dreams and
visions. Some came to scoff but were thrown to the ground under the power
of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes there was noise and confusion; sometimes
stillness and solemnity. But always there was that ceaseless outpouring
of the Holy Spirit. Whole denominations doubled, tripled and quadrupled
in the next few years. It swept out from England to Wales, Scotland, United
States, Canada and to some Third World countries.
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Copyright Stuart
Robinson. First published by the Australian Baptist Missionary Society,
1992. Used by permission
This article may be freely reproduced for non-profit ministry purposes but may not be sold in any way. For permission to use articles in your ministry, e-mail the editor, John Edmiston at johned@aibi.ph.