Prayer — Bill McLeod

I want to read a little bit from the Word of God, first of all, from the Ezekiel, the Psalms, first of all, Psalm 65. These are revival texts. You visit the earth and water it. You greatly enrich it with the river of God, which is full of water.

You water the ridges thereof abundantly. You settle the furrows thereof. You make it soft with showers. You bless the springing thereof. And then over in Ezekiel, just one verse, 34, 26. And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing, and I will cause the shower to come down in his season.

There shall be showers of blessing. And then the verse in Isaiah 44, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my blessing on your seed, on your children, and my blessing on your offspring.

And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses. And I'm going to do something tonight I have never done before. I'm going to read some stuff. I don't preach that way normally.

Tomorrow I won't be preaching that way. I'll be preaching normally. I hope abnormally. Anyway, you're going to be humbled and challenged, and I trust blessed. Kenneth LaTourette was a historian in a certain time in the history of the United States in the 1790s.

Spiritual Decline in the United States

He made this statement, Christianity is about to be ushered out of the affairs of man. And here was the United States, then a population of 5 million. 300 ,000 were drunkards. 15 ,000 were buried annually.

There was a surfeit of lawlessness, a profession of gamblers, gangs of robbers and slave stealers, drunkenness was common and profanity prevalent. Immorality was increasing even as honesty and veracity declined.

Drunkenness was indulged into a frightening degree to incredible excess. Infidel clubs abounded. Christians were so unpopular that they met in secret and kept their minutes in code. Radical students got into churches and burned Bibles.

Students disrupted worship services with both profanity and sputum. They burned down buildings. They forced the resignation of college presidents. Chief Justice John Marshall, a devout layman, said that the church was too far gone to ever be revived.

While Bishop Samuel Provost of New York felt that the situation was hopeless and he simply ceased functioning. They had organizations called Filthy Speech Movement and they met together and then they just spent hours trying to say the dirtiest filthy things they could say.

These organizations were very popular and the historian felt Christianity is finished in the United States of America. The only weapon left to the church was prayer and they began to pray. In both Britain and the United States an unusual spirit of prayer was poured out upon believers.

The Concert of Prayer and the Beginning of Revival

People began to pray. The power of God fell on them and they adjourned to meeting houses and continued prayer sometimes all night. They gathered again, it says, in the evening on the 9th of March, 1782.

People prayed until past midnight. The preachers had very little to do with this awakening. John Russell reported that this country is all on fire and the flame is spreading from village to village. And so the nation was saved by a revival that God sent at that time.

In 1786 the Baptists adopted a challenge for a concert of prayer and other churches joined in. By 1789 the Union of Prayer was operating over a very wide network of prayer meetings for revival. The preachers were very strongly attached to these prayer meetings.

This Union of Prayer in England preceded the French Revolution by about seven years. Prayer meetings abounded. Services were packed out. One Baptist church attracted crowds of 800 afternoon and evening and joined with another Baptist church once a month for a united prayer meeting.

The churches everywhere were now flourishing and adding members every month. Some of the churches began to hold two prayer meetings a week. The answer to prayer was not long in coming. In 1792 and on a general awakening occurred.

Some churches started prayer meetings at 5 o 'clock in the morning. One church had 600 converts chiefly in prayer meetings rather than in the regular services. In one area there were 1 ,000 converts. During the awakening churches everywhere were doubling and tripling and crowding in membership.

Crowds swelled. One very ordinary preacher started with outdoor meetings and 5 ,000 people showed up. This increased to 15 ,000 and 20 ,000 and the converts were multiplied. One Methodist pastor said, The almighty stoop still lower and is pleased to make use of simple prayer meetings which have been attended with an extraordinary degree of divine power.

Everywhere poor illiterate persons have been the instruments under God of doing much good. In many areas the primary factor in these revivals was spontaneous gatherings for prayer often at a sacrificial hour.

5 ,000 meeting places for prayer became 10 ,000 places for prayer in a very short period of time. Houses of prayer are erected in every town and are filled with congregation. In one place the doors of the church were scarcely ever closed for more than 10 weeks.

And then it went on from day and night. Often a full congregation would be exiting while an equally full one would be trying to get in. There were 900 conversions in one church. Regular preaching gave way to earnest intercession.

In another area prayer groups multiplied in private houses and finally overflowed into local chapels with up to 400 praying in one church. Many were converted in these prayer times. In one area a group decided to meet in the hill slope for prayer at 6 o 'clock in the morning.

The numbers attending increased to many thousands. Many sinners were converted in one day. In another place a Sunday afternoon sermon was followed by many converted and in the evening the message provoked an outburst of congregational praying that went on until 1 o 'clock in the morning.

The next meeting on Monday a prayer commenced at 7 and an extraordinary concert of prayer of the congregation remained until 2 in the morning of the following day. By noon Tuesday the auditorium was crowded with seekers and the ministry and response went on all day and all night until 4 in the morning.

In that area the family prayers of a godly family went on for hours as people round about flocked in necessitating a move to the church because the house was too small. Phenomenal revivals followed in this revival as new converts experienced an endowment of the Holy Spirit and began sharing and preaching.

In one area the Holy Spirit fell on many churches at the same time. This was followed by protracted prayer meetings throughout the week with great effect. A phenomenal awakening occurred in a Sunday school.

The island of Aron was a very dark place. Prayer meetings were begun and an awakening of great power followed. Local revivals in the eastern United States produced many preachers who were mightily used and the general awakening followed.

Local revivals eventually became widespread awakenings following a concert of prayer. In 1794 there was a great concern for prayers. A group of pastors sent out a letter inviting churches and pastors to engage in a time of prayer for a spiritual awakening.

Churches of every stripe responded to this call and thousands began to fast and pray for a general awakening. As Christians heard of the wonderful working of God they began all over the country to pray for a similar working and God answered and eventually the whole land was in a state of revival.

Fasting and prayer were greatly used of God being followed by genuine revivals in many places. One New York minister experienced a revival in his church. His 200 members became 800. One church grew from 80 to 700.

In one area in New York a day of humiliation with prayer and fasting resulted in much blessing. Another revival in that area was marked by intercessory prayer of great intensity which fell on young and old.

Converts were drunkards, infidels, apostates, children at Ulsters and some Negroes. In the western states the churches come to spend a third Saturday of each month in prayer and fasting and was agreed to pray half an hour after sunset on Saturdays and at like time before dawn on Sunday to pray for a general awakening.

This constant of prayer went on for three years and then there were so many converts the believers were kept more than busy praying with awakened sinners. They couldn't handle it. There were so many people wanting to be saved.

There was no competition between the various churches because there were so many sinners needing to be saved there wasn't enough Christians to go around to help them. In the southern states the constant of prayer was being carefully followed.

Three young men at one of the colleges were so concerned with the evil around them they thought they were not converted that though they were not converted they got into a room to have a prayer meeting to ask God for help.

Some other students heard them praying, tried to break down the door and rough them up. The president's girl heard what was happening and invited the street to meet for prayer in his office and he rebuked the other students for interfering.

A remarkable revival followed this and more than 200 students were converted and many of them became outstanding leaders in the general awakening that followed. Meeting for fasting and prayer became very frequent in the south and great revivals followed.

One man reporting what he had personally seen said, I have seen and heard things which no tongue can tell, no brush can paint, no language described, of which no man can have a just conception until he has seen and heard it personally.

Revivals in Canada, Britain, and the Maritimes

And this went on and on all over the land. There were also revivals in Canada during that time. One critic said, when religious feelings grow strong, meetings would go on for days and weeks. The whole church, indeed it seemed as if entire communities were giving themselves up to the cause of salvation.

One preacher said, I can tell you that all I have seen and heard before is small in comparison to what I am seeing now. Many meetings continue almost to midnight. Sinners crying loud for mercy. Some meetings have had to continue all night.

People are walking miles sometimes to get to the meetings. One man reported, there is a great change in this place for the better. So many of the young people who are subjects of the work of God were once loose in their principles, but now they are new creatures in Christ.

One can hardly go through the streets of the city without hearing the voice of praise or seeing the young men gathering for prayer. There were many phenomenal awakenings in the Maritimes in Canada. Many colleges in the states were experiencing powerful revivals.

About 50 of the converts in these colleges became gospel preachers. That was interesting. The revival movement produced hundreds, thousands of preachers. Then in England, an awakening followed times of prayer.

There were two weeks of protracted prayer meetings, and many, many were converted in them. Finally, a thousand people were attending the prayer meeting, and eventually it overflowed into other towns. The revival went on for a whole year.

One meeting, one Monday, a prayer meeting started at five o 'clock and lasted until midnight. That's five in the morning until midnight. In other nearby places, the prayer meetings went on until one o 'clock or two o 'clock in the morning.

In various places, churches would get together and agree upon prayer meetings, and invariably this was followed by revival. In one area, the spiritual tide was so low, the Sunday school director begged the people to spend their leisure time on Sundays in prayer for revival.

A revival broke and spread all through Wales and England, and thousands were converted all over the country. An intense revival broke out of a prayer meeting in one area in Wales, and many of the most hardened sinners in the area were converted.

In Scotland, in one area, more than 4 ,000 gathered in the open air for prayer. Meetings were held in barns and in woods, and many entire families professed conversion, and in some areas, scarcely a single family was left untouched by the revival.

In some areas, the spirit of prayer would fall upon the people, and whenever this happened, a revival would follow. Later in the United States, the people of God needed no convincing of the power and efficacy of prayer for revival.

The Need for Genuine Conversion

An awakening began in Massachusetts at a sunrise service for intercession. A spontaneous revival followed, and many were converted. And by the way, in all of these revivals, very, very few of the converts ever went back.

Almost none failed. Finney had meetings one time, a revival. Remember, he had two men praying for him ten hours a day, and there were 3 ,000 converts. He was back in the area three years later and talked to the pastors.

They didn't know of a single backslide of those 3 ,000 converts. I mean, they were converted by God. What's going on in North America today, a lot of it, I think Tozer was right when he said that probably not more than 20 of the people in our evangelical church are really converted to God.

I think he was right. It's a totally different story. I remember being with a pastor one time. In a town of 1 ,200, he had 500 people, a church seating about 800. And I was with him when he talked to a sinner that understood why things were the way they were.

Sunday morning, the church was like 500 people. Sunday night was 150. Monday night there were 60, and Tuesday about 40, and so on. So he's talking to a guy in the Air Force, and this is what he said. He didn't preach the gospel to him, nothing about heaven or hell.

He just said, Don't you feel it would be a neat thing if you were to pray this little bitty prayer, Jesus come into my heart? The kid says, Yeah, I'd like to do that. Well, go ahead and pray it. So he prays, Jesus come into my heart.

He whacks him. Now you're saved, you're a child of God. I don't think that kid was converted at all. There's a lot of that kind of stuff going on. People are being invited to step over the line. They're not told Christ said repent and believe the gospel.

Peter said repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Anyway, these revivals were sent from God. They were very, very powerful. There's very, very little backsliding.

In New Jersey, 1817, a great revival broke immediately following United Prayer. Special season were appointed for prayer, as well as a monthly concert of prayer, which they were all involved in. 1825 appointed a day of fasting and prayer for revival.

It came and lasted for a whole year. Between 1815 and 1835, there was a total of five revival times in the churches in the United States. In 1824, a revival of a different kind was manifested. People all over the city were smitten with conviction and went to the churches for help.

This resulted in daily prayer meetings and counseling sessions where multitudes were converted. In some areas, eight or ten revivals occurred over a period of time. I was just reading a book a while ago, and the writer said, if you get through one revival in a lifetime, you'll never see another one.

They're so infrequent. If you ever see one, you'll never see a second one. Well, back in those days, you had eight or ten revivals maybe in ten years or whatever. It was a different story then. At the University of Georgia, seven young men who had been converted started prayer meetings for revival, and they continued for five years until a mighty revival came.

A group of professors at Athens began a weekly prayer meeting to intercede with God for revival. Six years later, revival came in effect in not only the college, but all the churches in the area as well.

1827, revival of all cultures, 140 ,000, added to the church of one denomination. They don't know what the total was for the other denomination at that particular time. Missionary enterprises were sparked and driven by this conscience of prayer in ascending countries at home where they're praying for revival on the mission field.

In Boston in 1836, there was a cloud of blessing resting on the city, and several churches were engaged in days of fasting and prayer, and a revival broke. In New York, revival began with little groups of people praying, not in the big churches, but in the houses.

In 1830, revival began again in the states and became general all over the land. Many churches began having days of fasting and prayer, and revival almost always followed these times of fasting and prayer.

Fifty percent of the converts in one area went into the gospel ministry. That was amazing. Some colleges had early morning and late evening prayer meetings. One church had a disappointing time with no converts, so they appointed a day of fasting and prayer, and amazing, the Holy Spirit was poured out on them.

Baptists engaged much in those days, and they attributed that to early morning and late evening prayer meetings. And some of the Baptist churches had two prayer meetings a day the whole year round. Can you believe it?

I mean, these people were meant to pray and cry to God. And many of the Baptist churches increased by 250 percent during these revival times. Revivals occurred in Britain also in the 1830s. These revivals were not organized or planned except for prayer meetings.

In some areas, there were so many under conviction needing help that the churches held prayer meetings from morning to evening. One church saw 600 members revived and 900 converted. Isn't it interesting to note that very few of the converts made many revivals ever back then?

Great revivals in Scotland in those days, and many, many converted. And then, here we have another thought. The importance of prevailing prayer and spiritual power in the warfare of the saints. In Hawaii in 1830, 577 church members.

Then revival came after prayer. In five years, one church received 7 ,557 converts. One church received over 1 ,700 converts in one day in that revival. People were gathering before daybreak to pray, and sometimes praying all day, praying all night.

And in those islands between 1837 and 1842, there were more than 27 ,000 converts. The church increased in one place from 315 to 609 in a single year. Korea and Japan remained closed to the gospel until God broke into these countries to worldwide concerts of prayer.

There were 180 denominational colleges founded in the west in the states, and 144 of them were founded by men who had been in revival. Revivals kept occurring in many of these colleges. The great 1858 prayer revival has been regarded as the greatest and cleanest of all revivals, and it spawned evangelistic and missionary work around the world.

A .B. Simpson, the founder of the Alaskan Amish, was converted in these revival meetings in Canada at that time. Sensational revivals were also happening in Newfoundland. It should be noted that prior to these revivals, the churches have been reporting a loss of membership annually for some time.

After these awakenings, there was a 60 gain reported all across the board in all the churches. A Halifax newspaper reported that a general revival of religion of unusual interest and power has been in progress for some time and still continues, extending, he said, over almost the entire country.

Prayer as the Key to Awakening

Please remember, while there was much preached, the most remarkable results followed layman's testimonies and witnessing in prayer meetings. Prayer was the key to all of this, and this was widely recognized.

Prayer meetings were conducted daily for younger men at 8 o 'clock, for businessmen, 12 o 'clock noon, with a general prayer meeting at 4 o 'clock in the afternoon. This was day after day. In many areas, prayer meetings were simply held in home after home.

In one area in Ontario, a group of young people were engaged in a dance. A Christian woman who lived next door to this dance hall fell on her knees and began pleading with God to save these dear young people.

There were about 85 in the dance. One of the men, while dancing that night, noticed a piece of paper lying on the floor. He stopped dancing and picked it up. It was a page from the Bible, and he came on this statement, These shall go away into everlasting punishment.

He groaned and fell on the floor and started praying. The dance ended. All the kids got on their knees. They sent for a preacher, and they had a revival, and all those kids found Christ as their Savior.

Things of this kind were happening. This was in Canada, even, back in those times. A movement of lay people filled with the Spirit. One of the effects of the great revival among the colored people has been the establishment of a regular system of prayer meetings.

Meetings are held each night of the week for prayer. Many, many sailors were converted. Numbers of them would be so convicted as their vessels near the United States shores, when they landed, the first thing they did when they hit shore was try and find a place of worship, where they could find somebody who knew God, because they wanted to be converted.

In many meetings, before there was any preaching, there would be as many as 40 or 50 people praying, one after the other, before there was any preaching at all. One leader prayed thus in a public meeting, Descend on all the churches, renew Pentecost in our age, and baptize our people generally again with the tongues of fire.

Crown this 19th century with a revival in pure and undefiled religion greater than that of the last century, greater than that of the first, and greater than any demonstration of the Spirit ever given to man.

This prayer was literally answered in the 1858 awakening. It was greater than anything it had ever seen before. There were handboats distributed by the thousands. One prayer meeting had to be extended for 19 days, prayer every day for 19 days.

Revivals would be reported from every section of the country. One church seating 600 was crowded with 1 ,000, and this went on for weeks. One man reported so many being converted that there were very few unconverted left among them.

One group of churches was exhorted to examine themselves, to fast in secret, to enlist their neighbors' interest in spiritual things, to pray earnestly, and to seek the Holy Spirit's help in removing obstacles to revival.

In many areas during this revival, churches held three meetings a day so people could come together just to pray, and most people were converted in the prayer meetings. I can't read it all, but there's some things need to be listened, I think, too.

The 1858 Awakening and Citywide Prayer

The greatest awakening in New York's vessel of history was sweeping the city at one point, and was such in order to make the whole nation curious. There was no fanaticism, no hysteria, simply an incredible movement of people to pray.

The services were not given to preaching, but instead anyone was free to pray. During these meetings, thousands were converted simply by getting up and asking for prayer that they might be saved. These prayer meetings were crowded to the extreme.

Listen to this report. In this city we beheld a sight which the most enthusiastic fanatic for church attendance could never have hoped to look upon. We have seen in the business quarters of the city during their busiest hours assemblies of merchants, clerks, and working men to a number of 5 ,000 gathering day after day for a simple solemn service, similar services we find in other portions of this was in New York.

A theater is turned into a chapel. Churches of all six are open and crowded night and day. Before long, there were at least 150 separate prayer services being held in New York. At that time, it had a population of maybe a half a million, not like it is today.

So many sinners wanted to be saved that they finally had to start evangelistic services because there weren't enough Christians to take care of all the sinners wanting to find Christ. Very shortly, 25 ,000 converts in three months.

And there was a boy preacher raised up by God at that time who became a very successful preacher, great preaching and all, but it was mainly through the prayer meetings. Lawyers were much slower than the general populace to take an interest in the movement.

However, not only were they having daily prayer meetings in the Supreme Court chambers, but judges often preached from city pulpits. That was different. The number of converts in one of those revivals reached about 50 ,000 a week.

Every 10 weeks, half a million converts. We haven't seen anything like that here. We said last night, we've seen Christians being revived, but very little happening as far as the unconverted concern. These revivals, it was mainly sinners finding Christ as their personal Savior.

That's what we ought to be praying for. For a period of two years, there were about 10 ,000 additions to church memberships every week. 10 ,000 additions a week. The influence of this awakening was felt everywhere in the country.

It not only captured the big cities, it also spread through every town, every village, and every country hamlet. It swamped schools and colleges and infected all classes regardless of condition. A divine influence seemed to pervade the whole country.

The hearts of men were strangely warmed by a power poured out in unusual ways. Lacking all fanaticism was an unusual unanimity of approval to religion and secular observers. The fruits of Pentecost were repeated 300-fold in the population.

The Baptists saw more converts than other groups during this awakening, but this was a tribute to the fact they started having two prayer meetings daily in their churches instead of just one. Two prayer meetings every day.

We don't do anything like that. We think that's going too far, right? That's how we feel seemingly. Before this revival, the Baptists in New York had been losing 1 ,000 members a year for 15 years. After this revival, for some time, they increased their membership 15 a year.

The same revival spirit was felt everywhere. In Philadelphia, their prayer meetings were considered to be the largest in the world. People were allowed to speak for five minutes at the most and then the bell would be rung and you had to sit down.

People sometimes, for the hundreds, would call out their spiritual needs to the immense crowds and the whole crowd would start praying for whatever the need had been expressed. The whole congregation would move to tears as they listened.

Many would get up and ask for prayers that they might be truly converted, people who were members of the churches. Many of these people asking to be converted were people who were members of churches, baptized members of churches, but they had never been born again and they found out they were not a Christian at all.

Revival in Wales and the Call for Another Awakening

You know, in 1905, there was a revival in ways you've heard about it. There were probably 250 ,000 converts and Wales was a small principality, I think maybe a million and a half people. And this revival spread to the states.

It got into Canada as well. Atlanta, Georgia was then, in 1906, a city of 65 ,000. Over 64 ,000 people were converted in that revival. They didn't know of more than 200 people unconverted in the city of 65 ,000.

Can God do it again? Of course he can. But people, we have to get with it somehow. Fasting and praying. Not one extra prayer meeting. I remember reading about a revival in Africa where nothing was happening.

They'd had a very bad experience. Big evangelistic meetings, thousands professing conversion, nobody walking with God. They didn't know what to do and so they began praying for revival. And revival came and when revival came, backsliders by the thousands were restored and people who professed conversion before realized they'd never known Christ.

We've had that happen. You know, my daughter Joanna, when she went to school, she used to carry a Bible on top of her textbooks and the principal told my wife and I we're glad to have her daughter in our college, in our school.

And I said, why? Well, he said, if there's any hanky-panky going on and your daughter finds out, she blows the roof off. But you know what? She was a baptized member of the church but she wasn't a Christian.

And during the revival, she came to me one day and said, Dad, I want to be saved. I said, you're a backslider? No, Dad, I've never known Christ. She said, I've heard you and Mom talk about evangelism.

I know the language, she said, but I've never known Christ. Language and not know God. And I think that's a big problem in our evangelical churches today. People aren't willing to deny self, give anything up, and do what God is maybe asking them to do.

Trusting God Rather Than Money

As far as giving is concerned, we're all afraid to do that for fear God might go broke. What's going to happen if God asks me to give all the money I have in the bank? Maybe He wants me to do that. And sometimes that does happen.

How do you handle that? What did God say to Abraham? Fear not. I am your shield and your exceeding great reward. If you don't have a dollar in the bank, you've still got God as your reward. You've got everything in Him.

We need to understand that, dear people, and pray. When you're thinking of revival, think in terms of revivals like these where they have to have two prayer meetings a day for months on end. And the places crowded, praying, crying to God.

And everybody feeling the power of God. In some communities, there wasn't a home where there were people left unconverted. And you read the record of that book, The Event of the Century, I tell people if you haven't read that book, your education is not complete.

You need to read it and see what God did then. And God can do it again today. We don't have to mean business. We're fooling around. Taking it easy. Trying to have a ticket to heaven. That's really all we want.

We don't want the preacher saying any more than that. Tell me how to be saved. That's all we want to hear. I remember once dealing with a guy in revival meetings. It was incredible. He listened for a while.

Then he got up and ran out of the room. Later on, he told me what happened. He wanted to get away because God was too close. So he ran home. But on the way home, he said Christ was running beside him.

And then he got into his bedroom and slammed the door and Christ was in the room. And he said, I started to pray and Christ was kneeling beside me. I don't think he actually saw Christ, but he sensed the power of God, you know.

And he got his life straightened out and got saved. And so God is working. We see this happening. You know, Harry and Evelyn Thiessen, they travel with me sometimes in meetings. They're well known as Canadian Revival Circles now.

Of course, he's in heaven. She's retired living in Victoria, B .C., I believe. Anyway, they were with me. It was a gathering of some Baptists. Usually when they had an annual meeting of that kind, what they did was they would have maybe 70 people show up from the various churches in the area, one or two people from each of the churches.

But when they heard a revival team from Canada was coming, the 500 people showed up. The church received 400. So it was pretty crowded there. And Harry and Evelyn gave their testimony. And I started to preach.

Repentance, Reconciliation, and Public Confession

And then all of a sudden, I see a lady coming down the aisle. I'm preaching. She's dragging another lady by the hand. They come up from the platform, and I stop preaching, of course. And this one little lady in the front, she said, can I say something?

I said, go ahead. So here's basically what she said. She said, I'm the biggest liar in the United States of America. I lie about everything. I've been doing this all my life. I'm just one big liar. If you heard me say something, it was probably a lie.

And then she said, anything you heard me say about Becky here was a lie. Don't you believe it. It was not true. I'm just a big liar. That's all I am. And then she said, Becky, can you forgive me? And they hugged a bit and cried in the platform.

And then they went back to their seat, and I picked up my sermon again. And then a little while later, I see two guys coming down the aisle, great big guys. And they looked angry, you know. And they come up from the platform, and I stood back.

And they were rival contractors. They were from the one church in that area, the same church. And they'd been running down each other's work. And God had spoken to them in the early part of the meeting.

They'd gone to a side room, got this all straightened up. And now they come to make it right to the congregation. So they finished, and I picked up my sermon again. And then I saw a man come running, and he knelt right down here at the altar.

And he started praying. And his son who was standing over here saw it was his dad. He came running down to his dad, and they knelt there. And they forgot there was other people in the room, I'm sure. And so they got to praying and talking so loud, I had to quit preaching, you know.

But you don't worry about that. God was really working, so finally I realized there's no point. The kids were saying, hey, Dad, I was a rotten kid. No, no, Dad, it was me. You were a good kid, but I was a bad father.

It went on and on. They were trying to get it settled down there. And so I said, if God has spoken in your heart that you need to be saved, come and stand over there. And about seven people came and stood over here.

And then the front of the church was crowded with people kneeling, seeking the face of God. We heard after that the things that went on in the home churches when these people got back in their churches.

God is still doing it, but people were losing it somehow. And we're thinking in terms of getting a few Christians to feel a little better than they did, we're not thinking about the unconverted. We've got to get into that.

Praying for Ten Unconverted People

Let me give you a thought. Some of you may have heard this before. I often repeat myself. My wife tells me that. That's one of the reasons we have wives. Anyway, this was in Korea some years ago. There was an area in Korea where people were not being converted.

So the people, the preachers, all met together. I don't know how many churches were involved. And then they asked the Lord, God, what's wrong? What can we do? And God gave them a very simple plan which could be used in any church in Canada or the United States today.

The plan was this. January 1, everybody in all these churches was to start a prayer list of ten unconverted neighbors, relatives, or friends, and start praying once a day for those ten people on their prayer list until Easter time.