Praying for Revival — E.A. Johnston

America's Need for Revival

I've never known a nation more in need of revival than America at this sad and tragic hour. Senseless mass murder seems to be commonplace in this country. It's not safe to step outside or even go to work without getting gunned down by a madman.

Revival Birthed and Sustained by Prayer

This whole country is under severe judgment from a forsaken god. America has become the land of sudden death. How desperately we need revival in our day. Revival is always birthed in prayer, bathed in prayer, and carried forward by prayer.

Prayer Meetings During the Second Great Awakening

During the Second Great Awakening, hundreds of prayer meetings sprung up in the churches of the land, and the spirit of prayer gripped many a community. In the state of New York, it was not uncommon to see the men of the town, under conviction of sin, heading to groves of trees to cry out to God in prayer for forgiveness of sin.

And they would not emerge from those woods until peace with God was found. And many churches would have entire nights of prayer set aside praying for revival. They'd still be going on at daybreak, as the brokenhearted people of God cried out to the God who could send repentance and revival.

Church Growth Replacing Revival

But few churches today pray for revival, because I don't think many pastors today are too interested in revival. They don't think they need it. I once asked a Baptist pastor from East Tennessee if he met with other pastors in his community on a regular basis to pray for revival.

He looked at me strangely as he replied, We don't need revival because we are on the grow. Well, what that old boy was saying was, so long as a church is growing numerically, that's all that matters. Who needs God anyhow?

Sadly, church growth has replaced revival in America today. But what good is church growth if God is absent from our midst and the glory has departed? What good is an institution that is growing numerically if it's a cold, prayerless people?

Holy Boldness, Sacrifice, and Importunity in Prayer

I believe many churches have forgotten how to have corporate prayer that reaches up to the throne room in heaven, or self-absorbed prayers often rise no higher than the ceiling. Where is the holy boldness?

Where is the sacrifice? Where is the desperation? Where is the importunity that gains the ear of the Almighty? I'm going to read us, friends, an account taken from the Second Great Awakening in regard to prayer meeting as related by Charles Finney about how churches prayed for revival during the Second Great Awakening.

How hungry people banded together, hungry to see God move, and compare this account with our dry-eyed, passionless attempts today. Here now is that account. He was a good specimen of a New England deacon.

Charles Finney's Account of Agonizing Revival Prayer

He was present, and they called upon him to lead the meeting. He read a passage of scripture according to their custom. Then they sung a hymn, and Deacon Montague stood up behind his chair and led off in prayer.

The other persons present, all of them professors of religion and younger people, knelt down around the room. Deacon Montague began in his usual prayer, in a low, feeble voice, but soon began to wax warm and to raise his voice, which became tremulous with emotion.

He proceeded to pray with more and more earnestness, till soon he began to rise upon his knees, upon his toes, and come down upon his heels, and then to rise upon his toes and drop upon his heels again, so that they could feel the jar in the room.

He continued to raise his voice, and to rise upon his toes, and to come down upon his heels more emphatically. And as the spirit of prayer led him onward, he began to rise his chair together with his heels and bring that down upon the floor.

And soon he raised it a little higher and brought it down with still more emphasis. He continued to do this and grew more and more engaged, till he would bring the chair down as if he would break it to pieces.

In the meantime, the brethren and sisters that were on their knees began to groan and sigh and weep and agonize in prayer. The deacon continued to struggle until he was about exhausted, and when he ceased, there was nobody in the room that could get off their knees.

They could only weep and confess and all melt down before the Lord. From this meeting, the work of the Lord spread in every direction, all over the town, and it began to spread across the country.