It is a difficult thing to keep praying for revival when there is no evidence that God is really working in revival. God has given us a precious promise in Galatians 6:9: “Let us not be weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.”
Some of the early missionaries to the South Sea Islands labored for as long as thirteen years without seeing a single convert but they kept on because they knew “in due season we shall reap if we faint not.”
At Pentecost they prayed together for ten days before the Holy Spirit came in power We need to keep the history of revival in perspective as we pray for revival in our time. In some cases prayer for revival went up for many years before anything happened. You cannot program God in any way in praying for revival.
Jesus Christ came “when the fullness of the time was come” and not one day too late. Why didn’t He come a hundred years sooner? God had to arrange many things before Jesus could come.
It has been true of every major revival that many, many things had to be arranged and changed before the Spirit came to power. Political and economic changes had to be arranged before the Spirit could come in power.
When God says “wait” He means wait in any language. As Finney said, “Prayer is not to change God but rather it is to change me so that God, consistent with His holy nature, can do what He always wanted to do but could not do because of my sins.”
In the Maritimes in eastern Canada, people told me of a significant revival that happened in a local church. The pastor had prayed for revival for twenty-five years or more. His wife told how he spent hours daily calling on God for revival. He never saw it himself, but within a couple of weeks after he had resigned and left, this powerful revival came and spread over a large section of country. Why God didn’t send it while this godly man was there, I do not know. God, in His infinite wisdom, just did not see fit to do it that way. This godly pastor paid the price and God answered.
Does it really matter whether I see it or not? The desire to see revival can also be a “self” thing. Our motive in praying for revival may not be clean. People pray for revival so that some of their relatives or friends will have what has been called “a revival chance” of being saved.
Others pray for revival so that the moral situation will improve so it won’t be dangerous walking the streets at night. Others pray for revival so that their church may grow. Some pray for revival so that there will be immense sums of money let loose for missions and that an army of young people may heed the call of God and go to the ends of the earth with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
None of these motives is really pure or Bible-centered. In the last verse of Ephesians 3 we read, “Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, world without end …” It is for the glory of God that we should be praying for revival. It must be kept clearly in mind that if my motive for praying for revival is not right, then I will eventually give up and quit praying. The Holy Spirit came initially to glorify Jesus Christ as John told us in John 16:14. He is no different today. He will come in revival power providing we are praying for God to be glorified in a great Holy Spirit Christ-oriented revival.
As we continue to pray for revival let us take Psalm 55:17 for our example. Evening, morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud; and He shall hear My voice.” In due season we shall reap if we faint not. |
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