I believe it’s very important to study past revivals and special moves of God, and I hope these articles will whet your appetite for more. Through these historical accounts, we can learn to understand more about the heart of God and His desire for the Church.
God used the Waldensians, Francis of Assisi, the Moravians, Wesley, Finney, Evan Roberts, and the Brownsville revival, to name some I’ve studied, but the story of the United Prayer Revival of 1857-1859 especially gripped me.
Charles Finney’s ministry in New England for the preceding 30-some years laid the groundwork for this renewal. But when the revival fires started burning, it was the prayers of laymen, not the preaching of ministers, that fueled it.
Jeremiah C. Lamphier started a weekly prayer meeting at Old North Church in Boston on September 23rd, 1857. The meeting of seven men grew to 14 the next week and almost 40 by October 7th. Those who attended were so blessed by the evidence of God’s presence and decided to meet daily for prayer. Within a month, over 100 people were meeting at the church for prayer, including unbelievers who were falling under conviction and surrendering their lives to Christ.
As Old North Church overflowed with hungry intercessors, prayer meetings sprang up at churches around the city to accommodate the spirit of prayer. Within months, similar prayer meetings were birthed across the country.
Are we hungry for a move of God?
From January to April of 1858 alone, it is estimated that over 100,000 people received Christ through the prayer revival. Over the entirety of the revival, more than 10,000 cities and towns hosted noon prayer meetings, and nearly two million people were converted in the United States (out of a population of 30 million). That’s 6.5% of the total population converted in two years. At the height of the revival for six to eight weeks, roughly 50,000 people were born again weekly.
Testimonies abounded as God answered the cries of His people, oftentimes almost immediately. Wesley Duewel reports, “All people wanted was a place to pray. Sinners would come and ask for prayer. Someone would individually pray for them, and in minutes, the newly saved person was rejoicing in Christ. Prayers would be asked by name for unconverted friends and loved ones from all over the country. In a day or two, testimonies would be given of how the prayers had already been answered. In some towns, nearly the entire population became saved.”
God’s holy presence rested so heavily upon the land that there were numerous reports of those on ships approaching the East Coast suddenly coming under conviction and turning to Christ, even without knowing anything of the revival. On one small ship, both the captain and every crew member were converted within the last 150 miles of the voyage as holy conviction enveloped them.
Word of the revival spread to the British Isles, where revival fires began to burn as well. 1859 became known as the Irish Year of Grace as nearly 10 % of the population of Northern Ireland was converted. Between 1858 and 1859, over one million people gave their lives to Christ in Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales. The revival gave way to a renewed interest in missions with reports of renewal in India, Indonesia, South Africa, and the West Indies.
My heart is very stirred by stories like these. But the question remains, what about our day? Are we hungry for a move of God? What if the Lord wants to pour out His Spirit afresh upon us as He’s done so often throughout history? Do we desire it? Would we welcome it? Would we be ready to receive it?
John Piper states, “Do you have a hunger for God? If we don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because we have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because we have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Our soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.”
I believe it is time to get hungry. Those who are hungry in the Kingdom will eat. If we ask our Father for bread, He will not give us a stone. May the cry of our hearts be, “Lord, do it again—do it in our day. What you did in Acts, what you’ve done in the history of revival, do it again, that many would come to Jesus.”
In 1 Corinthians 2:4, Paul states, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power” (NIV). And a few chapters later, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power” (4:20). I believe we need a fresh demonstration of the Spirit’s power in our midst.
As long as revival is optional, its likelihood remains improbable. Let’s get hungry and pray and ask our Father to do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”
“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? 7 Show us your unfailing love, Lord, and grant us your salvation (Ps. 85:6-7).”
Photo credit: jcomp-freepik.com
4 Responses
I’ve heard many voices echoing the urgency of “getting hungry”. I totally agree that hunger for God opens the gates for Him to move in powerful and new ways. I ask myself, “How do we get hungry?” In my experience, it’s smelling the turkey roasting or the soup simmering, or remembering the taste and texture of food that makes the mouth water and the tummy rumble. We need the stories of what God has done to whet our appetite for His new work. Just as you have done in this article!! Now I want to see a prayer revival!!
I love these dramatic stories of revival and certainly don’t want to minimize or discount them. But I also know they need to be balanced with “patient endurance” in the midst of dry and difficult times. We love the “ice-cream sundaes,” but it’s the daily flavor of “salt” that goes with us over the long haul.
Thanks for the comment, Jewel! I think there can be a temptation to believe that hunger for a move of God’s Spirit and patient endurance in the everyday are at odds with each other in some way. I would actually contend and suggest they are not mutually exclusive or at odds. The same Spirit whose presence is poured out so profoundly in revival is the One who produces the fruit of the Spirit in the believer’s life, including patience and longsuffering. I believe hunger for and encounter with the presence of God actually is meant to give way to patient endurance. Take the Acts 4:23-31 account for example. The Church united in prayer in response to the Jewish leaders’ threats, asked for boldness to proclaim the Gospel and continued healings, signs, and wonders to corroborate the truth of the message preached, and were filled with the Holy Spirit as the meeting place was shaken. The result of this encounter? Patient endurance, continuing to proclaim the Gospel with boldness in the day to day after the encounter had passed. Hopefully those thoughts are helpful! God bless 🙂
Amen and amen!