New Zealand Interview - Part 4 — Gerhard Du Toit

You're listening to New Zealand's Rima.

Harrod, I'm very interested to see, looking up some of your information about you, you mentioned the word revival a number of times. Now, that's interesting, because we've had different revivals over the past few years, haven't we?

So, what is revival to you?

Revival as an Outpouring of God's Presence

Revival... I've been in revival twice, and there's a wonderful statement that come from the lips of Jonathan Edwards, who was used of God in the previous century, and the way that he was used of God, because there was a man with the name of George Whitefield, who used to preach in the open air, and in England he came across to America.

Jonathan Edwards and the Revival Sermon

Whitefield was preaching in the open air, because there wasn't churches large enough for him, and Jonathan Edwards was asked to go and listen to him, and he didn't want to, because he was in the established congregational church in New England.

Anyway, he was convinced to go, and as he was listening to Whitefield, standing in the distance under a tree, listening to Whitefield, and the Spirit of God came upon Jonathan Edwards and broke him. He went into his study, he spent three days, three nights alone with God, and God gave him a message, and the title of his message was, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

He was no dynamic great preacher, one of the greatest Christian philosophers that lived, but that Sunday morning he got up in his church of more than 800 people. He simply was reading his message, his sermon, and as he was reading it, the Spirit of God broke through in revival.

People were saying in that service that it was as if we were looking into the eyes of God. And men and women were clinging to the pillars of the church, and one Sunday morning service, 437 people were swept into the kingdom of God as they came to Christ.

And Jonathan Edwards made this statement about revival, and I love it. He said, revival is when the countryside is ablaze with the presence of God. And then he made this observation, he said, revival touched the man on the street.

Revival Begins with the Church

Now, if you study the subject of revival, Old New Testament, and plow into the Hebrew understanding of it, you know, it means that God is reviving, but God cannot bring revival when there is nothing, or when there is death.

So when we speak about revival, revival starts with the church. That's why on Pentecost, when the Spirit of God was poured out in revival, it was on the early disciples. I investigated what was referred to as the Lewis revival on the island of Scotland, because I lectured in Scotland, spent eight years, traveled through Scotland and Ireland and England.

The Lewis Revival and the Burden for Prayer

And I spent a week speaking on the island of Lewis in Stornoway, High Church of Scotland in Stornoway. And in 1948 to 1953, God sent revival to the island of Lewis and used a man with the name of Duncan Campbell.

Two elderly ladies on the island of Lewis, I've got a picture of them on my library. One was so crippled with arthritis, she could hardly walk. One was virtually blind, but they made a covenant with God and they said, God, we're going to pray for revival and you are a covenant keeping God.

Prayer is initiated by you. We want you to give us a burden. And they began to pray revival and we don't know how long they prayed. But, you know, when you study the word burden in the Old Testament, it's the Hebrew word masah.

And when the prophet in the Old Testament said, the burden of the Lord was upon me, and he uttered a little word that is the word oh. When you study the systematic theological understanding of the burden of God, as it relates to prayer and to revival, you will discover that the burden of God brings brokenness.

Brokenness brings cleansing. Cleansing brings in the right dimension of the Spirit of God in our lives, which means that the Holy Spirit does not just want to be resident, but He wants to be precedent.

Prayer, God's Will, and Praying Through

And the Spirit of God brings a spirit of prayer. And the spirit of prayer in the Scriptures leads us to the will of God in prayer. The will of God in prayer takes us to the promises of God in prayer. And the promises of God in prayer leads us to the understanding of praying through.

Now, these two elderly ladies, one night, they got through to God for revival. And they called this man, Duncan Campbell, to come to the island of Lewis for revival. And when Duncan Campbell came, I heard him saying many times, I never brought revival to the island of Lewis.

He said, when I came to the island of Lewis, the island of Lewis was a community saturated with prayer. And you see, Laura, when we speak about revival, revival is born in prayer. Because we're dealing with the glory of God.

God's Glory and the Awe of Revival

God said, I will give my glory to no man. The reason why we don't see revival today is because we are in the way for God to send revival. People get so caught up with wanting to take the glory. And God said, you're not going to touch my glory.

God said to Moses, when Moses said, I beseech you, show me your glory. And God said, no man can see me and live. And you remember how God put Moses in the cleft of the rock and said, I pass by and I give you a glimpse of my glory.

And so what happened in the Lewis revival, when the Spirit of God broke through, Laura, there were hundreds of people saved, hundreds. But I heard Duncan Campbell saying, I could count to my one hand the people that I counseled personally that were saved in the Lewis revival.

The Spirit of God came. And you know what happened when God sends revival? We will find ourselves in the midst of an organized disorder of the presence of God. I would say this to you. We will be on our faces, weeping before God.

We would find ourselves being aware of the greatness of the presence of God. You say, why? Because I've been in the revival twice. And you know, revival is not a series of special services. I get so sick in America where I live and I drove past places and there are a sign that says revival Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.

And I said to my wife, what is happening on Tuesday? You see, when we speak about revival, because I've seen it. You know, Laura, if you've been in the revival once in your life, you will never be the same.

It spoils you for life. You have a passion to see it again, because 20 minutes of an outpouring of the Spirit of God will do more for us in New Zealand than 20 years of our own stuff and what we are doing.

The Lasting Fruit of the Lewis Revival

And let me just say this about Duncan Campbell. You know, when Duncan Campbell lost his voice in the revival in Lewis, he went to stay in the house of the man that became one of my great mentors. His name was Dr. Stephen Alford.

And when Stephen Alford sat at his feet and said to him, Mr. Campbell, tell me about the spirit of God. When people were so under conviction of sin, gloriously saved. You know, I went to the island of Lewis.

And when I was there, I investigated the Lewis revival. And Laurel, after 35 years, I could not find one backslider. Really? Not one. Wow. And Stephen Alford, when he sat at Duncan Campbell's feet and he said to him, Mr. Campbell, tell me about these movements of the spirit of God in the island of Lewis.

And as they were talking, he said to Duncan Campbell, Duncan, Mr. Campbell, how did you do follow up work? How did you disciple people? How did you help them when they were saved in the Lewis revival?

And Duncan Campbell turned to him and he said to him, Stephen, you don't understand that when we were in the midst of the revival, we never did follow up work. We never discipled people. And he said, what do you mean?

He said, you don't understand. They just followed us. And the way that we lived for God, they grew spiritually in their relationship with God.