Have I told you lately how fortunate I am to be married to Vickie? She is the most disciplined, well prepared, loving person I know. Next week we will celebrate 33 years of marriage. I used to hear people talk about being married that long when we were first married and wonder what it would be like to be married that long. Now here I am, feeling old and blessed at the same time.
Before we got married, there was a lot of preparation. When you think about it, before every good meal there is a preparation time. It’s the same with revival. In Acts 13 we see preparation work before the great movement of God on the Antioch church. “Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” Acts 13:1-3 All times of revival are saturated in prayer. Evangelist Billy Sunday understood that well. Tens of thousands of people would meet in homes and pray for his upcoming crusades. The same with Billy Graham crusades. “No politician ever divided a community more carefully that did Billy Sunday’s volunteers…” By preference, the meetings were held in homes of those who did not know Jesus as their Savior. It was a normal experience for people to get saved even before the evangelist arrived. In December of 1914 you could drive down the streets and see signs in private homes announcing prayer meetings in their homes. For the month leading up to the revival, each home would hold two meetings. When you totaled the number of people attending prayer in over five thousand homes, there were several hundred thousand Christians preparing for the services in prayer. The Shantung Revival took place less than twenty years before the communist takeover of China. Missionary C.L. Culpepper recalls, “People loved to pray. Many times prayer meetings lasted two to three hours. The prayers were not long and monotonous but fervent, sometimes tearful, always as if those praying were simply talking to the Father with the confidence that He was listening… Many parents came to know the Lord through the prayers of their children, and teachers were saved because their students prayed for them. There was no cheap advertising of prayer for the sick; but in simple, childlike faith these people prayed for the sick, and many were healed.” How many people in our church would it take to pray in the experience of revival? Wherever two or three are gathered in the name of Jesus, the Word says that He is there. So if you get your calculator out then you will find that revival can take place in the hearts of all people who gather together and seek the heart of God. That sounds like a guarantee that if you want it you can experience it. That is something to ponder on. Joy in Jesus! Pastor Mike
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Rev. Mike McClurgSenior Pastor, Findlay First Church of the Nazarene Archives
March 2020
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