Presence of God in Revival

We are in part two of the Evangelism Awakening Revival Institutes and if you'll turn in your handouts to session three, The Presence of God and Revival. Years ago I was given the Sunday morning service at a church where I was the visiting evangelist and as I closed my message I called for the deacons to come forward to counsel those who needed counseling and prayer but nobody moved. I looked out upon the congregation and asked again that would the deacons now come down front to be available for counseling and prayer.

Again nobody moved. As I looked out at the congregation it was as if I was looking at a photograph where everyone in that picture was frozen still. No one was moving.

Finally I gave up on the deacons and went off the platform and seated myself on the front row and I suddenly felt an urge to fall on my knees and pray and worship God. So in front of that church I knelt there with my arms above my head as I prayed and worshiped God Almighty. Then I heard some footsteps alongside me as a couple came down front to kneel at the altar.

Then a young man came running down the aisle jumping up and down hollering that he just got saved. He kept yelling I just got saved I just got saved. Later the music director told me he saw Jesus sitting on his throne and one of the deacons commented to me that they couldn't come when I asked them to because they were frozen in their seats by a force greater than they.

The Spirit of God was in our midst. I believe it could have been a more powerful revival had there not been so much division and infighting in that church. But God came and he left as quickly as he had come and we were left all standing there in awe a missionary to the Hawaiian Islands by the name of Titus Cohen experienced powerful revivals on the big island during the mid 19th century to where he became later known as the Saint Peter of Hawaii.

During one such revival in 1835 the following report was given. There was trembling weeping sobbing and loud crying for mercy sometimes too loud for the preacher to be heard and in hundreds of cases his hearers fell on a swoon. Some would cry out that the two-edged sword is cutting me to pieces.

The wicked scoffer who came to make sport dropped like a dog and cried God has struck me. And Jonathan Goforth wrote of the revival he witnessed in China and the pervading presence of God in that revival. Goforth said for some minutes there was complete silence.

All seemed to be awed to say anything. At last one of the evangelists his voice breaking said brethren he for whom we have prayed so long was here in very deed tonight but let us be sure that if we are to retain his presence we must walk very carefully. In revival the manifest presence of God will permeate the atmosphere and bring people to the very brink of eternity.

There is an awful solemnity which fills the air in a church during a revival. Oddly I felt this very thing when I visited the grave of Azahel Nettleton in East Windsor, Connecticut. As I stood before that brown mossy tombstone I was gripped with the solemnity of a holy God.

Nettleton had been the human instrument of over 60 revivals during the second great awakening. And as one researches and studies historical revival one will find that there are common denominators in these revivals. First and foremost is the manifest or felt presence of almighty God.

The awful presence of God is mentioned time and time again in the revivals under George Whitfield during the great awakening. There is a passage of scripture in 2nd Samuel which is similar to revival. In 2nd Samuel 5 24 we read and let it be when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself, for then shall the Lord go out before thee to smite the host of the Philistines.

I want to read you what Dr. Stephen Oldford wrote about revival in his foreword to my book, Realities of Revival. Dr. Oldford wrote, Revival is a sovereign work of God, Jesus declared. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.

So is every one who is born or revived of the Spirit. Only God can command the revival wind, but we must set ourselves to catch that wind when God blows. There you have it.

We cannot produce revival, but we can ready ourselves to receive it when it comes. My lifetime prayer has been for revival in our time. I have witnessed many such localized movings of God's Spirit, but oh, for a church-wide invasion from heaven, join the revival remnant until God is pleased to visit us yet again.

Well, I agree with Stephen Oldford's assessment. We desperately need revival in our day. Our younger generation is godless and going to hell.

We must lay hold of God and burden prayer for him to send a spiritual awakening to our land before it's too late. If he won't visit us in revival, he certainly will visit us in judgment. Well, I want to read you two quotes from Rhys Howes, who founded the Bible College of Wales.

He was a remarkable man, mightily used to God. He saw great revival in Africa during his time as a missionary there. But before I share his revival story with you, I must relate to you how God prepared the man Rhys Howes.

It's so important, friends, to read Christian biographies. I can't emphasize this enough. We must study the men and women whom God has used in former times and apply those principles to our lives today.

But before God could use Rhys Howes in revival, he had to prepare his instrument for revival. Here are his words. He was not going to take any superficial surrender.

He put his finger on each part of my self-life, and I had to decide in cold blood. He could never take a thing away until I have my consent. Then, the moment I gave it, some purging took place, and I could never touch that thing again.

It was not saying I was purged and the thing still having a hold on me. No, it was a breaking, and the Holy Ghost taking control. Day by day, the dealing went on.

He was coming in as God, and I had lived as man. And what is permissible to an ordinary man, he told me, will not be permissible to you. Well, his comments remind me of J. Sidlow Baxter, who said, How can a man full of himself preach to Christ who emptied himself? Well, as you can see, friends, God was stripping Rhys Howes of the self-life.

And if you want to be used of God in revival, then self must go the way of the cross, for the Christian life is lived via the cross. Here now are the recollections of Rhys Howes as he described the African revival. In Pondoland, on one station, I was preaching on the crucifixion on Good Friday, and the Spirit brought out these words, Away with him, crucify him.

It seemed as though the people saw hell open before them. And in one mass, the whole congregation rushed forward to get right with God. I was afraid they would push the pulpit over.

Well, as we continue to study how God has moved in revival in former times, we can better understand how to recognize him when he comes in revival in our day. This ends our session for today. We will prepare for session four.