(Clip) the Welsh Revival and Preparation by +Todd Atkinson

Revival? Okay, anybody that would like me haven't heard of the Welsh Revival? Okay, good. Good company. I never heard of this.

And so he begins to relay stories about the Welsh Revival, how that in 1904, God comes to a young man of 17 years of age called Evan Roberts. Part of this experience, he actually has a vision of this giant hand that represents the hand of God. And on it, there's a number written.

Strange, 100,000 written on this hand. And God shows a young man what is about to hit the nation of Wales. In the next four months, God's power descended on that country and 100,000 conversions happened in four months.

Such that the entire landscape, socially, politically, economically, spiritually of Wales was completely changed as a country. Journalists, reporters came from the entire world over to ask what was happening in Wales. And so you can Google it, the Times newspaper, 1905, chronicling the Welsh Revival, talking about what was happening.

Because it was so bizarre. The crime rate in the whole of Wales almost disappeared. So magistrates would say that in a whole week would go by, there wasn't a case to try.

Because as people put their faith in God and were so moved by God in this, that they didn't wanna commit crime anymore. One tavern owner was upset because on a Saturday night, he only sold nine cents of liquor. Because his normal clientele, all these miners, were all making their way to the little Welsh chapels where they were so caught up in God that they would all be there from six to eight hours at a time.

Literally till three in the morning, go home, get a few hours sleep, and go back to the mines the next day. The whole of Wales was on fire. Not just something happening in this church or that church, the whole of Wales.

And the whole world knew about it. And they came to watch. So here I am, 18 years of age, listening to these stories.

I didn't even know such things were possible. Now we talk about the effect that had on me. Well, it gave me a bigger view of God than I'd ever had before.

I don't know what view of God did I have before, but I guess it was smallish. That maybe I saw him as a little bit of a beleaguered being, just kinda hoping someone would believe in him. And hoping that atheists wouldn't pick on him.

Because maybe that's the Canadian church at that era, that's going back quite a few years' time, in a sense had that little bit of that kind of mentality. We're an outpost, the world's against us, can't really hope for a lot, but we'll survive and we'll make it through. And so I didn't realize it, it'd probably come into me a bit.

And so this day as I'm listening to these great stories of the Welsh revival, something about my view of God grew bigger than it ever had before. I saw him as larger than nations. That the fate of entire nations is in his hands.

That he could turn the condition of a nation around at will, and he could do it through a 17-year-old. Like what kind of God can do that? Literally, he could just decide, Wales, I'm gonna do it. And the whole world came and said, this is amazing.

Christians and non-Christians alike were amazed at what God did at a national level. My view of God got bigger that day. And so for the next 17 to 18 years, I gave myself to a pursuit.

I thought, I wanna learn about this. It's nice hearing stories. I'm not made to just hear stories.

I gotta be in the story. I gotta see that stuff happen. I have never been wired in such a way that just to hear amazing stories, especially, these are Christian stories.

That's actually my God. He was at that point. He wasn't growing up.

So in other words, if he could do it for them, he could do this for me. If he could do it in the past, he could do it in the presence. And I needed to see this stuff firsthand.

And so I began fasting, I began praying, reading, studying, learning. And I gave myself for 18 years to this pursuit. The first 12 were a little rough, maybe a little more because preparation for it is, God took me very, very low before he took me high.

I had to experience the depths of his suffering before I could experience the heights of his glory.