On the Ulster Revival (1859)

“The revival spread out across the whole land family by family, village by village, and town by town. Within weeks 10′000 were converted. When this Revival hit Ballymena it was dramatic and sudden. One minister who was away for only two days from the town returned to find a great stir. Many families had not gone to bed for two or three days. Everything seemed at a standstill and the noise of people crying for mercy or the singing of praise came from many homes night and day. One Minister said that “The difficulty used to be to get the people into the church, but the difficulty now is to get them out.” Large open air meetings were held everywhere. God was raising up a humble army of new converts ablaze with His Spirit to witness again to Christ’s resurrection.”

What a report! Sounds like real Holy Ghost revival to me. Is it possible for such a thing to happen today? I am convinced it can be because the same God that moved then has not somehow changed and is no longer concerned about souls being saved. I believe  that we could also see a similar move of God. The question is just how much do we want to experience it?

The Ulster Revival was the result of passionate and persistent prayer that began when one man was stirred about the reality of personally knowing God. He wanted to know that he was saved and after seeking God he had a personal revival. After praying and seeking God another joined him in praying and soon there were two more. These four men began to pray every Friday for revival to come to their corner of the world. It took three months of praying for their first convert to come in but in one year’s time 100,000 people came to the Lord to be saved. The revival spread like wildfire across the region.

“The life changing and society changing results were very evident. A great blow came to the drinking houses of the land as drunkards were convicted and saved. Even whole distilleries were closed. Crime dropped by half within months as the land came under the influences of Gods workings.”

This revival moved beyond just the four walls of the church but infected and affected the entire region. What a testimony to what can take place when God’s  people get burdened for the lost and the glory of God. I for one am encouraged to not lose heart but to seek the Lord like never before. Will you join me?

Brother Jesse

My Notes From “Urgent Prayer For Revival”

One of the most powerful prayers recorded in the Bible comes from the lips of Daniel, who confessed his sin without reservation (Dan. 9:1-16) and then boldly urged God to respond. All the ingredients of great and confident praying are found in that cry of Daniel: an honest confession of sin and a total lack of confidence in himself are contrasted with Daniel’s conviction that God must respond to defend His great name and honor.

“In the first month of the first year of his reign, [Hezekiah] opened the doors of the temple of the Lord and repaired them” (2 Chron. 29:3). The fact that this was the first recorded action of his reign shows that he made it a priority. Opening the doors of the temple was his way of re-establishing his relationship with God, and that of the people, because the Holy Place was in the temple, and it was there that the high priest brought the prayers of the nation before God.

You cannot read far into the story of a revival without discovering that not only is prayer part of the inevitable result of an outpouring of the Spirit, but, from a human standpoint, it is also the single most significant cause.

Those whom God uses in revival are men and women of prayer. That is their great priority.

If we really want God in revival, we must ask for it.

When the Holy Spirit saturated the 120 on the Day of Pentecost, they had been in desperate prayer. And I use that word “desperate” carefully. Our Lord left them alone for what must have seemed an eternity; they were terrified of the Jews and Romans, and on this particular occasion were locked in the upper room. That was the position God wanted them in. He wanted them at an end of their own devices and without any confidence in themselves. They must have been praying in desperation. This was the moment God came.

Only when we realize and admit our true condition will we long for revival. Praying for revival is not enough: we must long for it, and long for it intensely.

But prayer cannot be left only to the leaders. Churches must pray also. Joel 2:15-17 is a vital passage for us to come to terms with.

It is not always clear when prayer meetings are part of the revival itself or are preceding it. But the distinction does not matter too much. Prayer is both the cause and result of the coming of the Spirit in revival.

Prayer for revival should never be self-centered. If we long for the glory of God then we will be ready to invest prayer time that others too will receive the Spirit of God in revival. We should never be parochial and long for the touch of God only for ourselves; we must pray for those churches that do not pray for themselves, as well as for those that do.

Prayer for revival must surely be one kind of preparation that is never wrong; it is essentially God-centered and not man-centered. It tells God we are at an end of ourselves.

Commenting upon Zechariah 12:10 – “I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication…” – the Puritan Matthew Henry remarked, “When God intends great mercy for His people, the first thing He does is to set them a-praying.” Similarly, John Wesley was convinced that “God does nothing but in answer to prayer.”

No church can ever expect revival unless it is praying for it.

We say that we long for God to forgive our sin and heal the land, yet we seem to have forgotten that He has set His own conditions for doing just that: “If My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place” (2 Chron. 7:14-15).

Amen. Pour it out Lord!

WWJD?

This is more like what Scooby Do would do.

Pistol-Packing Pastor Quits to Work for Gun Rights, Protecting Churches

Real Kingdom work to be sure. This is what happens when preachers watch too much Fox News.

BroJ