Revival Lectures Five — E.A. Johnston

The Need for a Prophet Who Lives in Prayer

The greatest need in the land today, friends, is for a prophet, a man sent from God, God's man, who will stand in the gap between heaven and earth, between mortal man and almighty God, a holy man, who is so wholly sold out to God, so intoxicated with Christ, and so consumed with eternity that his very footprints leave a smoky trail of the lingering fire of God, a man whose desperate life of prayer has left fingerprints on the horns of the altar in glory, a man whose emboldened faith and Enoch-like walk with God moves mountains of resistance and proves that the God of the Bible is alive and interested in the most minute requests of man.

God will always raise up an Elijah whose prayers impact a sleeping nation. The church in each generation has had individuals who live upon their knees, whose prayers reach heaven with a holy violence.

Historic Prayer Leaders and Revival

India had her praying Hyde, China her Hudson Taylor, England her Puritans, Scotland her Covenanters, America her fiery E .M. Bounds, voices which gained the attention of the throne room startled angels and shook the gates of hell, making even the demons quake and tremble with their desperate prayers.

The Cost of Discipleship and the Complacent Church

The man of revival is God's man in all seasons. The church in revival is a force to be dealt with, but sadly much of the modern church today is self-focused, self-serving, enjoying a banquet at a fancy feast.

Other generations knew the price of discipleship and the cost of following a crucified Savior. John the Baptist had a banquet platter with his head upon it. Stephen was baptized with stones as he saw Jesus rise from his throne.

Paul finished his ministry not with accolades and applause, but with a falling axe. The blood of the martyrs cries out against the self-absorbed church of this generation. Listen friends, when you study revival, you will learn how God has used certain key figures as his human instruments in revival.

Revival Through Whitefield, Wesley, Finney, and Moody

Whether it is a Whitefield or a Wesley or a Finney or a Moody, God has had his primary instruments in revival. In China in the 1930s, it was the mighty preaching of John Song, under whose tireless labors saw several hundred thousand souls converted to Christ.

That major move of God paved the way for the underground church in China today. In Wales, it was a young lanky man by the name of Evan Roberts whom God had hid away in prayer for ten years before thrusting him onto the front stage of the Welsh revival of 1904.

In London of the 18th century, God raised up a youthful George Whitefield to preach to tens of thousands in the open air. John Wesley and George Whitefield were the human instruments of that revival of religion which birthed the Methodist church.

In America, it was the preaching of Jonathan Edwards who lit the fires of the Great Awakening. And then Whitefield came and threw gasoline on it. In the 19th century, during the period known as the Second Great Awakening, two figures were prominently used to God in revival.

First, there was Azahel Nettleton and then Charles Finney. During that time, America was ablaze with revival. His entire communities came to Christ. God used an illiterate man by the name of D .L. Moody who couldn't even spell the word bed to be a human instrument of powerful revival.

The Surrendered Person God Uses in Revival

Shaken Great Britain, Moody held audiences comprised of commoners to noblemen to ten thousand at a time for months at a time in major cities at a time like London, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. A verse that sums up to me the kind of person God is looking for in revival is 2 Chronicles 16 .9 which states, For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.

When you study revival, friends, you quickly learn that God is not looking necessarily for brilliant men or talented men or even prominent men, but He's looking for surrendered men. He must have a clean and clear channel to flow through with His power.

God wants men in revival who have counted the cost to follow a crucified Christ and who won't compromise with the world. Listen, friends, we need men like these. The Apostle Paul, Luther, Wesley, Whitefield, Knox, Edwards, Finney, Moody each shared a common denominator, a fire in their belly.

They each were so eaten up with the gospel and thirsty for Christ and filled with the Holy Ghost that they could not stand idly by while others perished. They saw nothing but eternity, worshipped a holy God, and served a risen Christ, living not for earth nor its gains, but living only for heaven and its rewards.

When they preached, they linked the devil with sin and the cross with salvation. They preached hell and its fire and Christ and Him crucified. Not one of them feared king, queen, or pope, and not one of them sought the compliments of man.

A Prayer for Revival Men and Prophets

Let us pray. Oh, great God, send us some revival men. We need some revival men in the land today, men who don't fear man, but only who fear you, the Almighty. Send us some prophets in the land, great God, to call this nation back to you.

Revival is our only hope. Send us revival, we pray. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.