REVIVAL THAT LEADS TO AWAKENING – PRAYER

Acts 4:24,31 – And when they heard this, they raised their voices to God with one mind and said, “Lord, it is You who MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA, AND EVERYTHING THAT IS IN THEM…And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

Prayer has always been connected to revival ultimately resulting in Awakenings that change our world. I often think of the prayer meetings we had in my days in the Jesus Movement in California. We prayed before our classes, we prayed together before work, we prayed together in our devotions in our extended households, and we prayed together in our church meetings. The one thing that I distinctly remember is how we all lifted our voices up together at the same time. It contained an unparalleled beautiful sound as many voices became one voice worshipping the Lord together in our natural language as well as in our heavenly language. Rather than discordant this is the greatest display of unity and order that I have ever seen. I believe this kind of prayer is critical to maintain revival in a church. Here are some comments from the book the Sixth Great Awakening about prayer.

“Wednesday night prayer meetings found us up around the front of the church, kneeling in prayer.  As we would pray, the pastor and other dear mature saints would circulate among us to pray for us, out loud.  Everyone prayed out loud at the same time, because “the Early Church prayed that way.”  I still remember the feeling of having my pastor’s hand laid on my shoulder as he interceded aloud for me—he so certain that God would use me in the future if I would yield myself to God, and I so desirous to obey the Lord.  The energy of those prayer meetings was amazing!  The sound of dozens of people all praying aloud may not have seemed “decent and orderly” to the more formal churches in our town, but it carried great power to order our lives.  When I occasionally hear such prayer today—the sweet cacophony of everyone praying in one accord, each according to the needs perceived—it still shakes my soul. Pentecostals used to call it “concert prayer” because they thought it sounded like an orchestra tuning up in ordered chaos before a concert.”

I believe the Lord is calling His church to prayer so that He can pour out His Spirit once again preparing for a Great Awakening in our land. It’s time to seek the Lord that He can pour out showers of His presence.