When Do We Need Revival? — Alan Bartley

Thank you very much brother, it's lovely to be here and to share in your service and to look at this very important subject of revival. And we're going to turn together please to Psalm 85. Psalm 85 and we're just going to read a few verses through together.

Psalm 85 and verse 1. Lord thou hast been favourable unto thy land, thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob, thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin, thou hast taken away all thy wrath, thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.

Turn us O God of our salvation and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Wilt thou be angry with us forever? Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee?

Show us thy mercy O Lord and grant us thy salvation. I will hear what God the Lord will speak for he will speak peace unto his people and to his saints. But let them not turn again to folly, surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell in the land.

Amen and God will bless the public reading of his word. Let's unite together again in prayer please as we look at God's word. Our Father we come before thee recognizing our own unworthiness to approach thy throne and yet thanking thee Lord that through thy son that we can come boldly to the throne of grace.

We thank thee Lord for the greatness of thy mercy thy kindness and compassion and Lord we pray tonight that as we draw near to thee that thou would draw near to us. Lord afresh I give to thee all I have and am and I claim thy cleansing and sanctifying power on my spirit soul and body.

I take authority over every spirit Lord contrary to the Holy Spirit and every power that would stand against the operatings of God the Holy Spirit and Lord to this end and for thy glory I take the promised Holy Ghost the blessed power of Pentecost to fill me to the uttermost.

I take and I thank thee that he the Holy Spirit will undertake in Jesus name Amen and Amen. Our brother was in touch with me during the week and also prior to that regarding these series of meetings and on the number of occasions I have taken series of meetings on the subject of revival.

It has always been something very very important in my Christian walk and when I look back to formative years years ago when the Lord had dealings in my life as a relatively young Christian this whole area of revival not something that I read about but something rather that I experienced in prayer where the Lord would come and have unusual dealings in my life concerning this subject of revival.

I know of no other subject personally that so interests me and I have such a desire for. In the writings of a great author on one occasion he said I don't want merely to read about history but he said I want to make history and it's lovely to also know what happened in revival but also to be considering about the future and about the present in relation to revival in the land and if I didn't personally believe that there was going to be another spiritual awakening I don't know really how I would continue in the ministry but I do earnestly believe that the Lord will send revival to the island of Ireland and I believe not from personal knowledge but with what the servants of God have said over the years and those who have been given insight by the Holy Spirit that it seems and all the indicators are that the Lord will commence in the south of Ireland and that revival will commence among the Roman Catholic people who have come to Christ and that it will ultimately spread eventually to the dark north and if you were Protestantism has largely rejected the light that she's been given for so many decades but nevertheless thank God that there is an heritage and a history and it was stated whenever the children of Israel passed over the Jordan that they took out the stones and they set the stones at the side and the servant of God said to the men and the people of that generation he said whenever generations come after this your children they will say what mean these stones what's the purpose of these stones set out at the river Jordan.

What why were they put there. And he said it will be a memorial it will be a remembrance sir it will be something to remind them of what the Lord had done how that he opened the Jordan supernaturally and these stones were taken from the bottom of the Jordan.

And so in looking back to 1859 it is nothing more than a remembrance sir it is something that enables us to recognize what God did do and what God can do. We live today in a church age that is very much anemic and very much powerless and the best of our churches are all suffering from these issues.

Apathy like the day of Haggai is now the order of the day among even the best of saints. And so we desperately need God's intervention into our lives individually and also in among the Lord's people. But I want to speak to you a little as to when we should seek revival.

Revival When God's Presence Is Withdrawn

When should we seek for revival. You see in the 1859 awakening much emphasis is laid upon four young men. There were others also but four young men specifically who met in Kales and prayed and where the Holy Spirit moved in power they were.

They were instruments prepared by the Lord at that time because when an awakening comes a spiritual awakening it comes in the providence of God. It cannot be made to come. You cannot make revival come but you can have your seals set so that when the wind blows you are carried with it.

And that's the two options for every believer either to have the seals set to be carried or else to none of them set and be left behind. So what is and when should we seek for revival. The first thing is when God's presence is withdrawn.

When God's presence is largely withdrawn from the sanctuary. Now sadly today in the best of churches there is a grave absence of the presence of God a grave absence. In Hosea chapter 5 and verse 15 the Lord said to the prophet he said I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offense and seek my faith.

You see many people are asking the question why are people not getting saved. Why do people not respond to the gospel. Why are people so uninterested in the things of God. Well the answer has to come back to God's presence being withdrawn.

It is a gradual departure that we read of in the book of Ezekiel where the glory stood over the threshold of the sanctuary. And then as you proceed through the chapters you discover that it departed and stood over with the cherubims and then it went up out of the midst of them.

In chapter 11 there is a gradual departure of God. And when the presence of God is departed the word of God does not have the impact. It does not have the impact. I have noted something over the years in evangelistic missions where the presence of God is consciously felt in a hall or a church and the gospel is preached.

Men and women will come to Christ. In fact they will drop like flies. And on a few occasions I have been privileged to be in missions where I have witnessed God causing people to literally drop like flies hard men broken weeping like little children.

People that had had no interest in the things of God but the presence of God in the house of God. As they came in they were thoroughly gripped by that presence. The word of God had a profound effect in bringing them to Christ and they were totally transformed.

I have gone to other places and preached the very same messages only to find apathy and indifference and absolutely no response to the same word. What is the explanation. The explanation is that the presence of God is not in some places it is not there.

Phineas's wife whenever she heard that she had lost her father-in-law she had lost her husband in battle. And most of all the ark of God representative of the presence of God was taken away. It was death defeat and humiliation.

She said call my son Ichabod for the glory has departed. And when the glory departs it is then spiritual death. Now the presbytery of lewis in the lewis awakening they recognized in the late 1930s into 1940s the presbytery of lewis recognized that there was something seriously wrong in the church of scotland and among the other churches in lewis.

And this is what they did. They put out a request for prayer among their faithful praying people in their congregations that the people might recognize that the presbytery was presently experiencing a time of divine displeasure.

I think they got it absolutely right. A period of divine displeasure. People no longer drawn to the sanctuary people no longer interested in the things of God. And they said the youth were now being drawn away to lesser and unimportant things and worldly amusements and so on.

And they called their faithful people. That was the beginnings of the stirrings among christians to pray for revival. When God's presence is withdrawn we should seek God in revival. When else should we seek God for revival whenever presumption is widespread.

Revival When Presumption Is Widespread

When presumption is widespread you see we read also in the word of God in the book of judges that Samson who was anointed of God as a judge Samson who had been used mightily by the Lord he had permitted God had told him his mother that his hair was not to be cut.

It was symbolic of his strength and it could not be cut. And the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit would come upon this man and he would receive supernatural strength to the Lord's enemies. But the word of God tells us that whenever he told Delilah that Delilah took him and said to him by the philistine leaders when they had come in and cut his locks of hair off she said Samson Samson the philistines be upon thee.

And he wished none that the spirit of the departed from him. He didn't know. He didn't know that God had gone. He didn't know that God had departed. There are loads of churches in northern Ireland evangelical churches.

They don't know that God has departed from them. They don't know that the presence of God's not with them. They don't know they wish not. It wasn't that it was a willful thing. They just did not know.

They couldn't discern. They couldn't tell that God wasn't with them anymore. You see my dear friends some people you go into some fellowships. It's very interesting. A man an author called Brian Edwards he's wrote some wonderful books wrote one on revival called the people saturated with God.

But Brian Edwards did something that I felt was a very important and wise thing to do as a preacher before he wrote books about revival he decided that he would go around various churches in the area where he lived evangelical he went to the anglicans who preached the gospel he found they were very ceremonial and very you know robes and and so on and so forth and reading from books and all this type of thing.

But he said that it was okay. Then he decided to go to the more presbyterian and reformed churches. He said they were very staid in their methods and very regimental and so on and how they worshiped. But he said it was it was much to see.

And then he went to the pentecostals and he said they were very very active and there was much activity and a lot of clapping and so on and so forth. And he said then that that passed by. Then he went to the gospel hall where the brethren were and he said they met in a format around the word of God and around the Lord's table.

And that passed by. He said the distinct thing was that they were all different in how they worship. But he said the presence of God was absent from them all the presence of God was absent from them all number of years ago there was a mission in our community.

I remember going to it out of courtesy. I was invited out of courtesy i went it wasn't far from where i lived. And i went into the meeting and and sat and i thought well i'll stay for a time of prayer again just to encourage them and to be with them.

And they're in the time of mission. And whenever the meeting came to an end the man who preached excellent there had been good preaching a good exposition but there was not a sense of the presence of God.

And i remember feeling afterwards when the meeting was over i remember feeling something just not right here. When the prayer meeting commenced one of the men started to praise it lord i thank you for the lovely sense of your presence in this meeting.

And immediately i thought boy there must have been something wrong with me tonight. I i didn't get that. And then someone else said lord we thank you for the great sense of your presence. And i thought definitely i'm i'm off tune here tonight because i did not sense God.

I couldn't pray that night for myself. I couldn't share or pray what was in my heart or what was. So i left the meeting and i the following week my wife went and i said to her well you go and come home.

And i said well how did you get on. She said it was terrible. It's dead. I said well what. What she said this day of the pyramid. And they all thank God for his presence. Yeah he wasn't there. You see my dear friends the bible says that one of the marks of the last days is found in the book of revelation where it says behold i stand at the door and knock.

If any man hears my voice and opens the door i will come in. In other words one of the great tests and one of the great signs of end times will be that the church believers will not discern the presence of God anymore.

That'll be one of the signs if anyone hears my voice Jesus said you see my dear friends the bible talks about the Lord Jesus. When he was a child at the age of 12 his mother and Joseph took him to the Passover.

And whenever they were returning they assumed him to be in the crowd. They made an assumption that he would be there just because that was what was normally the way. And they didn't know. He wasn't there.

It took them one day to lose him. It took them three days to find them. Jesus is easier lost than find. It's easier to get away from Jesus than to get to Jesus. But dear friends when should we seek revival.

We should seek it when presumption is widespread. When should we seek revival. We should seek it when contentedness prevails. Contentedness prevails. The bible says woe unto them who are at ease in Zion.

Revival When Contentedness Prevails

God says woe unto them. In Deuteronomy 2 and 3 the Lord through Moses spoke to the children of Israel. And this is what God said to them. They were his people. They had left the wilderness or come out from Egypt.

They had come under the Red Sea and come to the mount. And the Lord said ye have dwelt long enough at this. You've been here long enough. God said time to move on. And you know friends there should always be a going on with God.

There should always be a going forward with God. There should always be fresh encounters with God. It's like a farmer said to me frequently. I work with him in open hours. He said to me Christianity is like riding a bicycle.

He says if you're not going forward you're off. It's as simple as that. If you're not going forward you're off. Are you going forward with the Lord. Is Jesus real to you. Well my dear friends contentedness prevails.

The bible says again a sign of the last times because thou says I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

God says you don't know. This is one of the signs of the need for revival. Stephen Alford who's now with the Lord said this as long as Christian people can trust religious organization material wealth popular preaching shallow evangelism and promotion drives there will never be revival.

Samuel Chadwell a great author and also a bible college lecturer and also leader in the college principal said a minister contacted him and said Mr Chadwick he said we are going to need someone to step in.

I'm leaving the congregation. We need one of your students to come and speak for us in our Sunday services. To which Chadwick replied he said you can have Mr Jones but if you have him you'll have revival.

To which the man replied oh dear we don't want that. We don't want that. Duncan Campbell often related the story of coming over to mainland Scotland after the revival and shared with a lot ministers what God was doing in revival the supernatural aspects of revival.

And ministers stood up and said we wouldn't want that in our congregation. We wouldn't want that. My dear friends when contentedness prevails we need to call on God for revival. When holiness is ignored we need revival now.

Revival When Holiness Is Ignored

Holiness is a misunderstood term by many Christians. It means nothing more than spiritual health. It means to be spiritually healthy and vibrant and well just as you look after your body you give it supplement and so on to get the body up and going and active.

So God says your soul needs healing as well. And that is an ongoing thing in the life of the Christian which leads often in fact on all occasions to some crises that will bring you into a deeper experience and knowledge of the Lord.

When holiness though is ignored we need to cry to God for revival. The sons of Eli were unclean men they had no spiritual health. They were committing adultery with the women as they came into the temple and it brought immense sin in upon and judgment on the sin on the people of Israel.

In first Peter in one we read be holy all ye be holy even as I am holy be clean. In Isaiah says ye that bear the vessels of the Lord holiness. Something I have discovered in recent years in relation to seeking God for revival.

I remember Mrs Peckham she was Mary Morrison which I'm sure some of you would have known or know of. And I remember on occasion she stayed in her home and she shared with us. You know whenever she was a young person she said I used to I used to preach the gospel and she said people got saved.

And then she said we would minister to the Christians and they would be sanctified and filled with the Holy Spirit and they would go on with God. But she said it's not like that now it's not like that.

You see dear friends there's a much greater darkness on the people now than there was years ago. There's a much greater darkness. The the west and the western world as it were in Europe and so on has largely embraced all the darkness of the east.

The former east with its buddhism and alternative medicines. And now it has come under the health service. And people have embraced all manner of things. It has come into their homes and it has brought a darkness with it.

And you find I find frequently people who are asking God to bring them nearer to himself. People who are getting a hunger for God. It is not merely a matter of asking God to fill them with the Holy Spirit.

But you're finding that they're having to repent of things they have delved into that they are delivered from them and set free from them holiness spiritual health greatly greatly hindered. One preacher said that a carnal Christian is like a lampless lighthouse a silent trumpeter a sleeping watchman and a painted fire.

What would you say. Your testimony would be tonight in your community. Would you be a lampless lighthouse a silent trumpeter a sleeping watchman a painted fire. You see friends in the church of Jesus Christ.

For the Bible says that all the cleansing and healing it says it must begin at the house of God. And you don't have to travel far today in the church to find unforgiveness to find uncleanness dishonesty compromise tithing with hell.

Many people many Christians with relating to tithing are unaware of the curse of God that rests on their lives. Did you know that if you withhold the tithes that you are under a curse a legitimate curse whether you're saved or not.

Did you know that the Bible says you've robbed from me. God says you've robbed me in tithing. Often God says you are cursed with a curse. And the only way that curse can be broken is by giving to God what is his and doing it from a heart full of love.

But there are so many areas where sin is rampant. In the church the Marichal who was daughter of William Booth said I believe the sins of the heart roots of bitterness envy jealousy grudge or slander are more hellish in the sight of God than some great outward sins.

Many years ago whenever I first came to Christ I remember well the mission the presence of God. I didn't know what it was but it was the presence of God and it had a profound effect a drawing effect on my life.

And I went along to those meetings night after night and God wonderfully saved me. I started to attend an evangelical church. It was good. They preached the Bible. I loved them they loved me. But there was something missing and I couldn't put my finger on it.

But I always yearned within for that something that was missing. And I got to a stage where I decided that I would cast my Bible to the side. I was saved four years by this time and I felt my life was such a sham.

It was such a sham and I was absolutely fed up with living the life I was living. And I took my Bible and I set it on the shelf and I said Lord I don't want to turn away from you. I don't want to be a backslider.

I don't want to but Lord I just feel I can't be what you asked me to be. I don't have the power to live this life. You're asking me to live. And so I'm turning my back. You know the Lord doesn't hear prayer.

The Lord hears desperate prayer. And the Lord is always found of those who call upon him. And I remember calling on the Lord. And a dear brother said to me there's meetings on such and such a place. Why don't you go there.

And I went to these meetings. They were prayer meetings and there was five or six men one woman. One was elam one was brother. One was open closed brother. The other one was Pentecostal. Then there was a Methodist and then there was a Baptist dolly mixtures and I went in among them and I sat and as those people prayed I felt the thing that I knew had been missing for years the presence of God.

And it was so wonderful. A little hall little meeting place not the size of up where this organ was with broken window and a picture broken. And the light that was run. The little telly lamp and an old super chair with a spanner in it to try and keep the heat on.

And dear friends heaven came down our souls to greet. And I tell you I met God in that place and God changed my life in that place. And very few places have I ever been in since where I so felt the presence of God.

You'll rarely find God in places with their steam class windows. You fairly rarely find God in big grand places. God generally comes to humble places lowly places. I'm not against nice buildings but I'm saying if that's what you think draws God.

You've got the wrong equation. You see friends during that period God started to deal with me about things in my life that he didn't like I had been saying to God. I would love to be the Christian. You want me to be.

But I did not know what was wrong. I genuinely didn't know. But as I sat in these meetings this is the prayer that some of those men used to pray Lord take my life and do a miracle through me. Lord take my business and do what you want with it.

Other one would say Lord please just whatever's left of my life take it and use it. Do you know I realized I was in among people who were way way beyond me. I couldn't have prayed that prayer take my life.

I was 22 years of age. I had my future. I had my plans. I had my dreams. I had career to think about. I had money plans. I had business plans. I didn't want God to interrupt that. Oh yes. I wanted to be evangelical.

I wanted to be a Christian. I wanted to get to heaven. But beyond that I didn't want you see dear friends to be a disciple of Jesus. There is a cost involved. There is a cost. But to not follow the Lord will cost you much more.

It will cost you much more. And during those meetings as God's presence came down I was drawn after. The Bible says draw us and we will run after thee. There is nothing like the presence of the Lord. There's nothing like it.

My dear friends when should we seek God for revival. When holiness is ignored. When prayer is anemic. When prayer is Samuel said God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray prayerlessness is it is something to be repented of.

It is something to come before the Lord and confess. At Thessalonians we read Paul writing to the church said pray without ceasing. Now you may think that's an impossibility. In my Christian experience I could not pray all the time when God's presence is upon your life.

You can pray without ceasing. The old men of Lewis said that during the awakening the farmers they said as they got up in the morning coming from the revival that went on to the early hours of the morning in the house of God said they would come in and he said the buckets would jump into their hands.

We're praying in the morning praying in the the spirit of prayer was upon them. And the spirit of supplication. You see prayer is not always saying and talking and communicating to God in the manner of but I'll tell you what prayer is.

Like any of you who are a mother who have ever had a child that was sick. You may doing your hoovering. You may doing it be doing your work. But my dear friends there's a there's there's a weight on you.

You're conscious of the child's sickness. You carry it and that's what it's like. Prayer is an inward sigh an inward calling on to God. The apostle James were told in scripture said that you pray and you receive now because you pray amiss that you may consume it on your lusts not receiving answers.

James himself was called callous knees because his knees were calloused through prayer. His knees were calloused. One of the daughters or granddaughters of William Booth said this oh for a heart that is burdened infused with a passion to pray.

Oh for a stirring within me. Oh for his power every day. Oh for a heart like my savior who being in an agony prayed such caring for others. Lord give me on my heart let burdens be led. My father I long for this passion to pour myself out for the lost to lay down my life to save others.

To pray whatever the cost. Lord teach me. Oh teach me the secret. I'm hungry this lesson to learn this passionate passion for others for this blessed Jesus. I yearn. You see dear friends prayer is largely anemic in the church today.

Prayerlessness and the Need to Cry to God

And what we're going to do is we're going to stop and pray because I feel tremendous resistance in preaching tonight. I don't often do this in prayer or when I'm preaching but I sense it very strong tonight.

So we're going to stop and we're going to just have a wee word of prayer together and ask the lord for help our father. We come before thee and we thank thee for thy word that thy word is not bound lord.

And I take authority in Jesus name over every spirit every spirit resisting the word of God resisting the spirit of God. I take authority over you in Jesus name and I pray lord the release of the holy ghost the release of thy presence lord come minister lord by thy power in Jesus name.

Amen. You see dear friends whenever prayer is anemic it's time for to pray and cry to God for revival. One of the reasons why we need to cry for revival is when tears are absent. When tears are absent he that goes forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing the sheaves within.

Did you ever weep for souls. Did you ever weep. Did you ever sense the holy ghost coming upon you and praying God's prayers through you when God's burden was placed on your heart. William Burns who was so greatly used of God during the kill site revival and the revival in Dundee in the church of Robert Murray McShane who had prayed for years as a young man until he died at the age of 29 having burdened and burned himself out praying for revival in Dundee God used a young man in his early 20s called William Burns.

William was down the main street one day in an alley. His mother went past and she turned around and she saw this young man broken. She realized it was her son. She says ah William what eels thee. What eels thee.

What's wrong William. Oh he says mother can you not hear the trump of the Christless souls into eternity. Ah mother can you not hear. You see my dear friends tears are. Dr. Jarrett was greatly used by God he said as soon as we cease to bleed we cease to bless.

Charles Finney said there can be no revival when Mr. Amen and Mr. Wet Eyes are not found in the congregation. Many years ago when I was in Bible college a man came to lecture us. He told us something I didn't know about the 1921 revival under the ministry of WP Nicholson.

Nicholson had come along and preached in Belfast where thousands were coming to Christ. Shipyard was closing. They were unable to deal with the reconciliations that were being made and the restitutions and giving back products that had been stolen over the years.

That man told us of prayer meetings that were going on in Belfast at the time. He said that during that period whenever Nicholson was at his peak he said there were places where just local Belfast people Christians were meeting for prayer.

He said they would meet in some locations just gather round with a number of old forms and kneel down to pray. And he said the woman came in afterwards. One woman gave an account of coming to clean and mop the floor.

But she said you know I didn't need water. I didn't need water for my mom she said behind every frame where there was a seat or there was a chair she said there were a little puddle of tears where the saints had wept to God and he wondered.

WP Nicholson took the field for God and he wondered dear friends you'll not find those people now in the church. You'll not find weeping Christians. You'll not find them. Duncan Campbell said something that is very heart-searching.

He said many people in his ministry he was a greatly anointed servant of God. But he said this many people who came forward for second blessing in his meetings were only getting converted. They'd never been converted.

You see friends an old Nazarene used to come to my house. He died when he was 91 and he used to say something to me. He said there's an awful lot of people in the church and he said they're not blood-washed.

They're brainwashed. And dear friends we need to see that there's evidence and desire and appetite in our hearts for God. When should we seek for revival. Finally when soul winning is neglected. When soul winning is neglected.

Soul Winning and the Watchman's Responsibility

In Ezekiel 33 the scriptures tell us about the man who's a watchman. And Zekiel the Lord says to him I have set thee a watchman he said. Whenever you see the enemy coming and you warn the people he said if they listen to you he said then they'll be.

They'll be delivered. He said if they hear you and they don't listen he said the consequences is on their own head. But he said if you don't warn them. If you don't warn them he said their blood will be upon your hands.

Soul winning neglected. I usually help them conducting an open air every Saturday in Lisbon. In that open air there's a number of people who are very busy people. Two of them are very large farmers. They have hundreds of cows between them.

They could do many a thing on a Saturday evening. Many a thing. But one of them in particular said to me you know why I come here for 15 years to stand in the open air. You know why I come. He says because I know someday God's going to call me to give an account of my life.

And he said the tens of thousands of people he said that I have given tracts to he said their blood is off my hand. I've done what I can have you done what you can. One preacher said we live in the day of the army of non-effectives.

The well-behaved sleeping church. The do-nothing people who take up pure room. Leonard Ravenhill said the great crises of the last days would be a sleeping church and the dying world a sleeping church.

May God help to cry to him for revival. I heard recently that there are in virtually every village in large sections of the south of Ireland converted Roman Catholics. My friend they're not sitting sleeping in church.

They're not living for this world. I have met some people who have been in their company and he said the hunger and the thirst that they have for God and his word. This man will I look. It's a humble and contrite spirit.

I believe God will come again in revival. I've said that already I want to be involved in it. I really do. I don't want to be passed by and that you'll be ready and that God will not pass you by our father.