Send the Fire

When I was a boy, I walked by a house that the previous night had burned to the ground. All that was left was an empty shell of black burned-out corridors that led to nowhere, and a smell of smoke lingered in the air, and it was so thick it hurt your lungs to breathe. A fire is a consuming thing, a burning thing.

Times of revival have been compared to fire. It was said of the Great Awakening of 1740 that Jonathan Edwards lit the fire of that revival with his searching sermons, and when George Whitefield came to America, he poured gasoline on the flames with his mighty oratory. Revival, friends, is a fire from on high that burns away dross from the backslider's heart.

It's a fire that burns away formalism of a dead church. It is a fire that penetrates the powers of darkness and sheds abroad the light of the gospel of the Son of God and sinful hearts. When I talk to seminary-trained pastors about revival, I'm always shocked at how little they know about the nature of a true revival of religion.

Their ignorance about it is staggering. Most pastors want revival to grow their church. A few want revival if it will diminish their church down to the faithful few.

Have you ever seen a goat run from a barn that was on fire? When revival comes to the church in America, you will see many goats head for the doors as quick as they can, because when revival comes, it's a time when God takes the field, and when God takes the field, sinful man is melted down before his manifest presence. When the God of the Bible brings a God-consciousness back to his church in America, there will be a fire in the church, friends, and many will be drawn to that burning flame. Seasons of revival are often shocking.

People are always surprised to see some of the good deacons get saved during revival. A revival of religion will restore vital Christianity to the church and replace all the man-centered nonsense that we have set up in our churches today. All those props will be kicked out from beneath you, brother pastor.

All the rock music will go. All the strobe lights will go. All the junk that we have cluttered up our churches with today to attract the crowds will fall to the wayside and be seen for what they are, a man-made junk that glitters and rattles like a diamondback rattlesnake before it bites you.

I have studied the subject of revival for several decades now and written many books on it, and I pray for it every single day of my life. I weep over this God-forsaken nation every day and beg God in his mercy not to destroy it before he sends a national awakening to sweep in the lost of this generation. The church in America is so fast asleep.

She parties when she should be weeping. She laughs and entertains herself on Sundays when she should be sitting in sackcloth and ashes in the sanctuary during the week. Your average pastor is on a mad rush to grow his church as large as he can while he is alive and in good health, and he feels if he does that he will be successful as a minister.

I feel sorry for that kind of pastor at the Bema seat, for I fear many big ministries today that are blowing smoke will be reduced to ashes at the judgment seat of Christ. It will be wood, hay, and straw. There have been men and women in history who earnestly sought revival, who gave their lives to sacrificial prayer to see the fires of revival begin to glow in their towns and villages.

Many revivals began when the older saints of a village grew alarmed at the vice among the teenagers and youth in their community. It drove these old saints to their knees to beg God to send a work of grace to their church and town to save the young persons there. Where, oh where, is that burden for the young in our churches today? We just shuffle the youth off to the youth group where we do our best to occupy and entertain them.

We don't even warn them of the fires of hell anymore, much less their duty of repentance to find Christ savingly. We just let them play games while we entertain ourselves in our churches today. I was reading an interesting article on GospelFuel.com the other day.

It's the blog of the evangelist David Bain. And while I was reading that article, a dagger went through my heart. He was talking about prayer and how prayer was the mark of the early church.

And he related how he remembered a church in North Carolina where the pastor and his men would meet to pray at seven every morning before the men went to work. For years, as many as 30 men met to pray every morning during the work week. They were hard-working men who were graders, carpenters, loggers, and preachers who spent the early mornings meeting at the church on their faces agonizing before God in prayer.

David Bain said he remembered seeing the carpet wet with tears as they wept over souls those men had written on a chalkboard the names of sinners for whom they continually prayed. During those years, God saved about 12 young men in the area and called them to preach. Some of them were among the roughest sinners in that area.

Most, if not all, of those young men are still faithfully serving God today, some on mission fields. Every one of them were names on that prayer list and chalkboard. When I read that, friends, tears came to my eyes.

My heart was broken over the deadness in our churches today. Your average pastor today meets with his pastor buddies on the golf course once a week or meets with them to have coffee and discuss the new hot book on church growth. But where, oh where, are the pastors today who are burdened for the souls of the teenagers in their city? Where are the praying men of the church today? Why is everything so self-centered and dead? Why aren't the carpets in our sanctuaries wet with the tears of a broken-hearted people crying out to God, to the God of heaven, over the young in our towns and communities, the young who are sinning their way to hell tonight with sex parties and drugs and alcohol? Why has the church grown so cold and indifferent to the souls of our teenagers today? We say with our lips that we care about them, but we say with our time that we have no time for them in prayer.

Our actions betray our intentions. We need a fire in the church today, friends, and that fire must begin in flames of prayer, a burdened prayer, anguished prayer, costly prayer. We need a praying saint today with the boldness of an Elijah who is willing to repair the broken-down altars in our churches today and restore the weekly prayer meeting of men and women who will pour water on the sacrifice and challenge the God of the Bible to come and consume it.

Listen to this passage from 1 Kings. And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel and that I am thy servant and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God and that thou hast turned their heart back again.

Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, The Lord, He is the God. The Lord, He is the God.

That's what we need today, friends. A fire revival that will bring a God consciousness to our churches again. Why if God showed up at church, you could not keep the teenagers away.

They wouldn't want to go home. I've seen God move like that in church before. And all you can do is be melted down beneath the awful solemnity of a holy God.

When revival comes to the church in America, Jesus Christ will be restored to his rightful place of prominence and preeminence in our sanctuaries. All the nonsense that we call church today will be consumed in the flames. There was a man years ago who had a burden to see God move in his city.

He sensed the great need for God to send the fire among them. His name was William Booth, and this was his national anthem, so to speak. Listen to his words and his heart burden in his hymn.

Ascend the fire. Thou Christ of burning, cleansing flame, ascend the fire. Thy blood-bought gift today we claim.

Ascend the fire. Look down and see this waiting host. Give us the promised Holy Ghost.

We want another Pentecost. Ascend the fire. God of Elijah, hear our cry.

Ascend the fire. Oh, make us fit to live or die. Ascend the fire.

To burn up every trace of sin. To bring the light and glory in. Ascend the fire.

That's His fire we want. For fire we plead. Ascend the fire.

The fire will meet our every need. Ascend the fire. For daily strength to do the right.

For grace to conquer in the fight. For power to walk in the world and white. Ascend the fire.

To make our weak hearts strong and brave. Ascend the fire. To live a dying world to save.

Ascend the fire. Oh, see us on thy altar lay. Our lives all day this very day.

To crown the offering now we pray. Ascend the fire. That, friends, is a long-forgotten hymn.

Which is much needed in our sad day. A spiritual declension in the church. And our saddest hour in our nation's history.

We were once a nation greatly favored by God. Because we were a nation of people who feared the Almighty. Now we are a nation of God-haters.

Heaven help us. Let me pray. Great God of heaven.

Ascend the fire, oh Lord. Ascend the fire. Send your fire revival to your slumbering bride.

Who rests on pillows of indifference and self-satisfaction. Ascend your fire, great God, to this wicked nation. That burns in her lusts.

And visit us with mercy instead of judgment. We deserve judgment for forsaking you, great king. But in your wrath, remember mercy, I pray.

In your mercy send the fire revival. And turn us back to thee. Rather than send in the fire of destruction.

Like you did to Sodom. To destroy. Heavenly king, hear our prayer.

See our tears. Hear our cries. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right.

Have mercy, I pray. Ascend the fire. Ascend the fire today, great God.

Amen.