1 Peter 1:19 – We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
Spiritual awakening seldom comes the way anyone thinks it will. It shocks the saints and the sinners as the Lord does things the way He pleases. The first rays of the Great Awakening took place in the home church of George Whitefield where he returned to preach as he was preparing for ministry in the University at Oxford. Whitefield had just recently been converted himself after years of preparation for ministry as an unconverted college student. His return home was a curiosity for those who had know him in his youth, the results of that first service was quite comical. Here is how Whitefield explains his first attempt at preaching.
“Last Sunday…I preached my first sermon, in the church of St Mary de Crypt, were I was baptized…Curiosity drew a large congregation. The sight at first a little awed me, but I was comforted with a heartfelt sense of the divine presence and soon found the unspeakable advantage of having been accustomed to speaking when a boy at school, and of exhorting and teaching the prisoners and poor people whilst at the University. By these means I was kept from being daunted over-much. AsI proceeded I perceived the fire kindled, till at last, though so young and amidst a crowd of those who knew me in my infant childish days, I trust I was enabled to speak with some degree of Gospel authority. Some few mocked, but most for the present seemed struck, and I have since heard that a complaint has been made to the Bishop that I drove fifteen mad the first sermon. The worthy Prelate… wished that the madness might not be forgotten before next Sunday.”
Whitefield’s preaching had that affect on people from his first days in the pulpit. There was always some sort of response, either anger from the unrepentant, horror from the clergy, yet joy unspeakable and this holy madness to those who were coming to Christ. Whitefield’s ministry caught the attention of Great Britain in his early days and birthed our nation across the ocean in the years to come. God’s plans are not our plans and God’s ways are not our ways. He can do things in unexpected ways that happen suddenly.