PRAYER STRATEGIES FOR REVIVALS, MISSIONS, CRUSADES AND PERSONAL EVANGELISM
ntroduction
God’s urgent concern
There is no more urgent concern in Heaven today than for the Church to complete its task of world evangelization. God wants a full house for the wedding supper of His Son to His bride, the Church (Matthew 22:1-10; Luke 14:6-23). Christ’s return will be delayed until all people everywhere have heard the Good News, but the inadequacy of our witness and harvesting can delay His coming (Matthew 24:14).
The task of world evangelization is primarily dependent on witness and prayer. Prayer must prepare the way for evangelization. Prayer must follow up and conserve the fruit of evangelization. Only as the church prays will there be sufficient harvesters giving themselves to world evangelization and world harvest
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest (Matthew 9:38).
Jesus told us to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven”, Abraham interceded for Lot in Sodom, Moses prayed that God would turn from His wrath against Israel, Daniel for the return of Israel from Babylon. Ezekiel was told by God, “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it but I found none”. (Ezekiel 22:30).
Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession (Psalm 2:8).
Prayer in the power of the Holy Spirit breaks through the false dominion of the enemy, and clears the way for His deliverance, blessings and shalom to come to all peoples.
Why does God desire and require His people’s prayers and intercession? Most likely because God originally gave dominion of the earth to mankind. That dominion has never been revoked by God. Satan’s dominion achieved through rebellion against the Creator is a false, illegitimate, usurped dominion. Redeemed through Christ, we can exercise our God given right to influence the affairs of this world through the exercise of intercessory prayer. Like Kuwait’s request for United States and the multi-national force to come against the illegitimate invasion and dominion of Iraq, so we in prayer as God’s redeemed children, can pray that His will be done, His Kingdom come on earth.
Linked through prayer with the risen Christ, sitting at His side (Eph. 2) far above authority and dominion, we share in the accomplishment of His redemptive purpose.
Section One
PRAYING MEN, REVIVALS AND FRONTIER BREAKTHROUGHS
EVERY great outpouring of the Holy Spirit including Pentecost began in the mind of God but it broke through on earth at the point of passionate and persevering prayer and intercession. This view, neither robs God of His sovereignty, nor man of his responsibility. We must be careful to harmonise these two great and important truths - the sovereignty of God and the involvement of man lest we are in danger of overstatements. God may be sovereign but He is not a dictator. He cannot act against His nature and the principles He has established in His word. There are some things impossible even for God - acting independently of the principles of prayer is one of them. This is why prayer local and global harvests are so inseparably linked. I know of no revival that is not connected in some way with powerful, desperate intercessory prayer.
When Evans Roberts was asked the secret of revival, he said, “There is no secret, ask and you shall receive”. John Wesley said, “God does nothing redemptively in the world - except through prayer”. Matthew Henry agreed the importance of prayer in bringing revival when he said “when God intends a great mercy for His people, the first thing He does is set them a-praying,” Dr. A. T. Pierson also recognised the place of prayer in bringing revival when he said, “Revival comes from God, but they come in answer to prayer. From the Day of Pentecost, there has been not one great spiritual awakening in any land which has not begun in a union of prayer, though only among two or three, no such outward and upward movement has continued after such prayer meetings have declined; and it is in exact proportion to the maintenance of such joint and believing supplication and intercession that the word of God in any land or locality has had free course and been glorified”. There have been revivals without any organisation, revivals without great preaching, but there never has been a revival without prayer! Without exception, the men whom God has used have been men of prayer. But today, our prayer altars are like a torrent bed in the season of drought. They are despised and forsaken. We treasure the memories of the great characters of bye-gone days who have caused multitudes to turn to Christ, and whose God anointed exploits are recorded in history. We think of such men as Wesley, Finney, Evans Roberts, George Whitefield, David Brainerd, Jonathan Edwards, etc. We reverence their memories, build their memorials, sing their praises - do anything but imitate them! Each of these men could have pointed to a hallowed place by their bedside that was often wet with tears of intercession. These men prayed; often times in such travail of soul that they lay exhausted in a pool of tears. For example:
A.MEN JUST LIKE US
DAVID BRAINERD (Praying Hyde)
David Brainerd prayed in such agony of soul that his body became abnormal. He prayed and regularly preached to his native Indian audience through a drunken native interpreter. The result was thousands of conversions.
JOHN KNOX
John Knox, whose prayer shook Scotland, was so desperate in prayer that to see him upon his knees was a sight that inspired awe. His constant cry was “Lord, give me Scotland or I die”, God responded with a sweeping revival all over Scotland.
GEORGE FOX
George Fox so gripped God in travailing prayer that men were often afraid to look upon his face as he came out of his prayer chamber.
JAMES DUNCAN
James Duncan, preaching with great unction power, was asked what was the secret of such powerful preaching, “The secret,” he said was “thirteen hours of consecutive prayer”.
CHARLES SPURGEON
When asked the secret of his spiritual power, Charles Spurgeon said, “Knee work! Knee work!!”
LIVINGSTONE
Livingstone of Shotts, on two different occasions preached with such power that in each service, 500 were converted. Both sermons were preached by nights of prayer.
CHARLES G. FINNEY
Charles Finney, after spending a day in the woods in prayer and fasting, preached at night in a phenomenally irreligious congregation. The sermon was accompanied by such divine power that the whole congregation except one man, fell prostrate upon the floor, and voiced their agony under conviction of sin, in such loud outcries that the preacher was forced to stop preaching.
JOHN VASSAR
Of “Uncle” John Vassar, the Tract Society Colporteur, (Book Distributor) successful almost beyond comparison in his personal dealings with men, his pastor says: “He absolutely prayed day and night - prayed about everything, prayed for almost everything, prayed with almost everybody he met. He prayed when he went out and when he came in. He prayed before every religious service, and then prayed all the way through it. I have occupied the same room with him night after night, and rarely went to sleep without hearing him in prayer, or awoke without finding him in prayer”.
SAVONAROLA
We are told that Savonarola of Italy laid prostrate for hours in prayers wetting the altar with tears while pleading with God for his wicked generation. It was said that he preached with a voice of thunder. His denunciation of sin was so terrific that people who heard him sometimes went about the street half-dazed, bewildered and speechless. His congregation was often in tears. Men and women of all ages and conditions, poets , philosophers, workmen would burst to passionate tears so that the whole church responded with sobs. It is further claimed that people became so anxious to hear him that they rose in the night and waited hours before the church doors. The streets of Florence were filled with sighing as its citizens came and went from church. Tearing off their ornaments and costly array, they made them an offering to God. People forsook the shows and festivals and burned all their obscene books and pictures. The corrupt government of De-Medici was overthrown and replaced by the most advanced form of democratic government through Savonarola.
FATHER NASH
The Man Father Nash, co-partner in prayer with Charles G. Finney, proved a valuable asset to his revival, for as in each case he gave himself to prayer, his opponents said, “It is impossible for him to pray in secret, for he can be heard a half-mile off”. This praying he did until the heavens opened and rained down glory and revival. One man heard him praying a great distance off and became so convicted of sin that he early sought God’s face for redemptive grace
APOSTLE AYO BABALOLA
He was the forerunner of the Nigerian charismatic revival which started in 1930. A tractor driver, Ayo Babalola, after ascertaining the call of God upon his life, started an aggressive prayer and fasting life that was then hardly known of in Africa. He could go on fasting for up to 40 days in the wilderness and on mountains. He became convinced that by the prayer of faith there could be divine healings, working of miracles and that evil spirits could be dealt with. He forced herbalists (witch doctors) to their knees, entered evil and forbidden forests. He performed phenomenal miracles. Everywhere he preached, mighty revivals broke out. The tens of thousands of African indigenous Apostolic churches seen all over Africa and in some places in Europe and America are some of the ministry results of this great man of prayer. Most notable evangelists in Nigeria in the seventies and eighties are the spiritual grand children of Apostle Babalola.
TIMOTHY O. OBADARE
After the death of Babalola, Timothy Obadare, a physically blind prophet had a great burden to fill the gap. He locked himself up in a room for several weeks for prayer and fasting. When he came out, he was a different man. Diverse miracles began to take place in his ministry. Hundreds of thousands of souls have been saved even in the remotest villages in Western Nigeria and Africa through the ministry of this prophet. In addition to a worldwide ministry, thousands of native evangelists have trained in prayer and fasting under him. He is popular as a tormentor of witches and wizards. Obadare has maintained a monthly three-day fasting retreat called “OlorunKoseunti” (The God of all Possibilities) for about forty years now. Thousands of people participate in this retreat and receive amazing miracles and divine breakthrough.
W.F. KUMUYI
A former university teacher and pastor of one of the largest single congregations in Africa (now over 85,000 ) with several hundreds branches of his Deeper Life Bible Church all over the world attributes his phenomenal success to his rugged discipline in prayer, diligent study and teaching of the Scripture and a practical life of holiness. He is one of the forrunners of the holiness move in Nigeria.
E.A. ADEBOYE
The man whose ministry has perhaps witnessed more miracles in this decade in Africa was also a former university lecturer. Pastor Adeboye is reputed to maintain a regular 40-day continuous fast for a number of times a year. Members of his worldwide congregation, the “Redeemed Christian Church of God” are made to do corporate prayer and fasting every year for a period of up 30 days, 40 days, and in some cases 100 days at once. A monthly night vigil conducted by Adeboye, called “The Holy Ghost Service” attracts about 750,000 people at every service. Awesome manifestation of the Spirit are witnessed in each meeting. He has organised the largest meeting ever held in human history, the “Lekki 98” Holy Ghost night where about 5.4 million people gathered for a night of praise, prayer and miracles.
Through the ministry of this unique man of holiness, fasting, prayer and praise, the Lord began the largest quarterly prayer meeting in Europe (the Festival of Life) that attracts crowds of up to 7 - 8,500 on each night. The Redeemed Christian Church of God international headquarters is in Lagos, Nigeria. Pastor Adeboye has built a mini-christian city called the Redemption Camp that has the largest single auditorium in the world that seats up to 800,000 people at once. Plans are in advanced stage to build another auditorium four times the size of the present one because of the ever increasing crowds at the monthly Holy Ghost night. Membership of this ministry is in excess of 2 million in Nigeria alone.
B.PRAYER AND THE 1858 AMERICAN REVIVAL
The 1858 America revival was laid in heart of an obscure man to pray that God would bless his country. That man was Jeremiah Lanphier, newly appointed city missioner in a down-town New York church. He printed handbills inviting “merchants”, mechanics, clerks, strangers and businessmen generally to join him in calling upon God at a noonday prayer meeting every Wednesday. Six came to the first meeting on 23, September 1857. This increased to twenty on the second week and forty by the third week, then it was decided to hold daily lunch time prayer meetings.
In the next week, news came through of a great revival in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and just a week later there was a great financial crash in America. As people felt their need of help in 1858, the Futon Street prayer meeting in New York was so crowded that the only way they could accommodate the numbers was by holding three simultaneous prayer meetings in rooms on different floors in the same building. One observer says, “Prayer became the order of the day.” In March, a noon prayer meeting was commenced in a large theater. Half an hour before the announced time, it was packed full. The great majority being men - businessmen. Three days later, the outstanding preacher, Henry Ward Beecher led three thousand in the theater prayer meeting. The newspapers began to sit up and take notice and to report on the happenings. It was front page news that over six thousand were attending daily prayer meetings in New York.
Other great cities like Boston, Chicago, Washington, Buffalo and Newerk soon had their noonday prayer meetings too. In Washington, five daily prayer meetings were launched, commencing respectively at 6.30 a.m., 10.00 a.m., 12 noon, 5.00 p.m. and 7.00 p.m. It became common sight to see businesses closed with a notice: “Will re-open at the close of the prayer meeting”. A revival had been born through regular and protracted prayers. Multitudes were swept into God’s Kingdom as a result.
C.KOREANS MAJOR IN PRAYER - RESULTS ARE NATIONAL EVANGELIZATION AND CHURCH GROWTH.
1.In Korea, where God has been moving in a mighty way, the Christian population has grown from less than 2% to approximately 32% of the entire population of South Korea in the last three decades. The key to this amazing growth is early morning meetings, and prayer and fasting retreat centres located throughout the nation. The churches in South Korea have made prayer a priority. Somebody said “they major in prayer”. Billy Kim said that “the Christian population is growing four times faster than the regular population is growing. We are building fifteen new churches everyday in Korea!”
2.Scotland is the birth place of the Presbyterian denomination, but today, the largest Presbyterian church in the world is located, not in Europe, but in Korea. The Methodist church began in England, but the largest Methodist church in the world is located in Korea. The Assemblies of God began in the U.S.A; however, the biggest church in the world is the Seoul Full Gospel Church, with a membership of over three quarters of a million very aggressive and witnessing believers. The effectiveness of the Korean churches is directly related to the intercessory prayer life of the people.
3.Prayer plays a different role in ordinary Christian living in Korea. Every morning at 4.30 or 5.00 a.m. a prayer meeting is held in every church. This include rural and urban churches of all denominations. The prayer meeting convenes 365 mornings a year. Most senior pastors themselves conduct the dawn prayer meeting personally. When asked why they do this? They said because that is where power is! Their spirits can no more function well without a daily intake of prayer power than their bodies can without daily intake of food. A large number of the Korean churches, also have an all-night prayer. Some add another on Wednesday nights. It is reported that no Korean Pastor spends under one hour a day in prayer, and that 47% of them spend two hours or more” A life-style of prayer is simply expected of Korean Christian leader; and most of them meet those expectations.