Colin Peckham 01 — Colin Peckham

The Desperate Need for National Revival

The 17th century has been very dry as regards national revival in the West, it has been very uninteresting in revival terms. And so we stand here acknowledging our desperate need of a move of the Spirit of God.

My dear friends, if God doesn't come to meet us, I don't know what's going to happen to this country. Stephen Green of Christian Voice, the organisation which assesses things that happen in the country all the time, he said the other day when he was asked about Britain, what's going to happen in the future, he said well there'll be a war I suppose in 30 or 40 years.

Now whether Stephen Green is right or not, when Britain says look, I've reached so far, no further, and there'll be a war, whether that's going to be so or not, I don't know. But it looks pretty grim when things are happening as we know they are happening in this country with the strange religious aggression that we find today.

But God is not dead. In Korea, in the last 20 years, 9 million have been added to the church. And in China this is the biggest revival that has ever taken place in the history of the world. When the Communists began there were 800 ,000 Christians in China and today there are 100 million.

That is just a fantastic thing that's happened. And God has worked in China and Korea and parts of Africa and South America and places, strange places like Fiji and other places like that, where God suddenly comes.

Revival as an Explosion of New Life

The moment of revival has come. Centuries of waiting have given way to an explosion of new life. Oh that God would send that here as well and bring back the glory that was here in this land. When we behold the barrenness of our own present day, is there not wrenched from our hearts a desperate cry, Lord, do it again, do it here.

A Japanese Convention Broken by Prayer

In Japan a little while back, I was giving the Bible readings at the Shioya Convention in Kobe and I spoke once, twice, three times and suddenly one morning God came. I, in that vast hall, there were about 100 people seated right in the front here seeking God and the Japanese men prayed with them and sent them back to their seats and suddenly there was a cry.

Halfway down the hall a young pastor uttered a great and bitter cry after God. There he sat. Another pastor ran to him and put his arm around him to try and comfort him. He would not be comforted. He was crying for God and he cried again.

It was a huge shout which rang the air and then the third time, and I'm telling you, then God worked on them in that hall and they were seeking God everywhere, in the corners, in little groups, in single, the whole congregation just began to seek God.

I came down and I stood here in the front and I just surveyed this battlefield, the cross and when I looked again there were about 30 pastors around, it was a big convention, about 30 pastors all around me and they began to pray and they were all down on their knees.

There was one little senior pastor, he grabbed my wrist in the air, his head was on my elbow here and it was jerking up and down as he wept. The pastors wept in brokenness and they poured out their hearts to him.

Eventually they were finished, they stood. We stood and we gazed and we looked at the carpet. Then one of them started again and we were down on our knees again, seeking God with all our hearts. These men, these the unemotional Japanese, God had come to the convention, God had broken into the convention and my dear friends, we need not only good meetings where the people are seeking God, we need God to break through.

I can think of meetings where we just sat and God, people just began to weep all over the meeting, just sobbing their hearts out. A revival, we went across from one place to another, missionary Hugh Brown was going to translate for me, we had another convention in another place and I met with the people at the end of one meeting and God was in the meeting, it was such a fantastic spirit and I handed it over to the pastor and he started and he began saying a few words and then he said, he turned to Hugh and he said, tell him to come back, I don't know what to do with this meeting.

It's afternoon, sometimes we've got two meetings and he'll come back and I, Mary and I just know each other and we know what we're thinking and we just want to cry. We've been to the church and that's all and sometimes we go to prayer meetings and there's so, such restlessness to pray and you come back and you just want to weep and weep.

Where is the true reality of God in the midst of it? The Holy Ghost, my dear friends, in all our activities, we need the Holy Ghost in our planning, we need the Holy Ghost in our meetings as we gather and as we wait in his presence.

The Psalmist's Cry for God to Work

You see what the psalmist said, horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy Lord. He says again, it is time for thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law. My word and we repent.

Laws pass today that have made void the law of God. Blow down at thy presence. Notice that at the end of our prayer, that's what we were talking about a little while ago, wasn't it? I think of a friend of ours who's gone to be with the Lord now, his name was Richard Cross, some of you knew him.

He was a policeman and he was Lord Rupert's personal bodyguard and he retired and he was a man of God. He established 100 prayer meetings in Northern Ireland for revival. And when the Great Bangor, Northern Ireland Missionary Convention, Worldwide Missionary Convention was held, they gave Richard 10 minutes to report on his revival meetings, the revival and prayer meetings.

Richard Cross sat in the hand of the Presbyterian Church but he had no tact whatsoever. He said, all of you who were praying for revival, stand up. He didn't hear me. I said, all those of you who stand up, you'll never have the courage to do a thing like that, for revival.

You're just playing. So, the beginnings of the Hebrides revival, I suppose you've heard Duncan Campbell said there were two old ladies, do you know that story? Ladies praying in their little cottage. And there were six men praying in a barn, it wasn't a barn, it was a thatched cottage.

Anyway, he thought it was a barn. So he said, he gave that as the beginnings of the revival, the two old ladies and the six men. And when we were writing that book, we investigated all sorts of things and we said to some of the people, where did that prayer meeting take place where the man got up and read the scriptures and there were several who fainted.

Where did that prayer meeting take place? Nobody knew about that prayer meeting. Nobody knew about that prayer meeting. Why not? Because there were so many of that kind of prayer meetings. God was praying.

And it wasn't just the two old ladies who asked. Oh, no, no, no, said Martin, one of the minister's wives there and she was there in the beginning of the revival and before it and after it. I said, was it just the two old ladies and the six men?

Oh, no, no, no, no, she said. They were all praying. Many old men were praying. Many young men were praying. Many old women were praying. Many young women were praying. It was a community of prayer. We don't want any froth and bubble.

We want God to come down. We've had it before in the 1939 revival. We know it before in the various revivals that have taken place in Lewis. Now, Lord, we know what we're doing. And we're crying to thee to pour out thy spirit upon us once again.

Prayer as the Essential Preparation for Revival

It's absolutely amazing. When Solomon had made an end of praying, William Burns said, prayer unceasing and earnest is that wherein the great strength of a revival of religion lieth. And John Wesley said, God does nothing but by prayer and everything with it.

And D .L. Murray said, every movement of the spirit can be traced to a buried figure. And Matthew Henry said, it was quoted by our friend there this afternoon, when God intends great mercy for his people, he first sets them a brain that is necessary.

Prayer is essential. And then prayer is exclusive. Not just who it was who prayed. It was Solomon who prayed. And Solomon had a very wonderful relationship with God. His God, we read in chapter 1, verse 1 of 2 Corinthians, 2 Chronicles, the Lord his God was with him.

And God said, what you ask, what I shall give thee. And he said in verse 10, give me wisdom and knowledge. And so God, Solomon was on speaking terms with God. And he was speaking to him and adoring him and worshipping him.

Great is our God above all gods, chapter 2, verse 5. And right through all these chapters before chapter 7, we find the relationship of Solomon and God. Oh God, he said in chapter 6, verse 14, oh Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee in heaven or on earth, which keepest covenant and showest mercy unto thy servants that walk before thee with all their hearts.

So here, he says, oh now therefore arise, oh Lord God, from thy resting place. Thou and the ark of thy stake, let thy priests, oh Lord God, be clothed with salvation, vice saints rejoice in goodness. So here Solomon, in communion with God, that's the man who prayed when the fire fell.

It's not sufficient just to dash into the presence of God from all your worldly pursuits and all the other activities and just say Lord, I know that I should be praying for revival, so Lord please send revival.

Without the burden, this man had a burden. This man was committing the whole nation to the Lord. This man was committing the temple to the Lord. And he was crying for the nation as well. So here, he was in contact with God and in communion with God and he was able to pray that prayer, Lord, I'm giving this place to you.

So here, it's exclusive. It's a person, it's a person who's walking with God who's able to have that relationship and be able to pray effectively. It's exclusive. He held God. Don't you remember that the Westminster Confession says God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, goodness and justice and truth.

And here, that's the God. Solomon saw him as the great God. We see God as God, high, lifted up, far above all. He and we are of the earth, earthly. Then we've got the right relationship. Lord, we can't do anything.

Satan is far too powerful for us. He's bringing in these false religions. He's bringing in all kinds of difficulties. Sin abounds on every hand. It's multiplying on every hand. Lord God, we're too, we're too weak to do anything.

We need the mighty power of the almighty God to come to us. It's the right relationship. So, it's the power of God. And we can't get into the presence of God unless we are in a right relationship with God.

Clean Hands and a Pure Heart

You see that prayer meeting that Duncan Campbell spoke about with John Smith and Kenneth McDonald and those great group of men who prayed. One night, Kenneth McDonald opened the book of the Bible to Psalm 24 and he said, Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?

He read it. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, and hath not lifted up his soul into vanity, nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive the blessing of the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

And he said, You've got to have clean hands and a pure heart if we're going to enter into the presence of God. Who shall ascend? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. The brethren, are my hands clean? said the deacon.

And he looked at the others. He said, Brethren, are your hands clean? It's pure. Well, it's so much humbug praying like this unless our hands are clean. I'll ask the same question of you this afternoon.

Are your hands clean? Are your hearts pure? Because to stand in the presence of our holy God, my soul will be free. The person that's clean comes from that. Prayer is essential. Prayer is exclusive. Prayer is effective.

Prayer Movements That Sparked Revival

In 1859, Charles Lampthea, you know the story, I suppose, there in New York was approached to open to the cards printed and he gave it away, gave it away in various churches. We're going to have a midweek, middle of the day prayer.

But they had such a blessing plan. But they said, we're coming in next week. And soon that place was filled and then the prayer readings began to spread all over New York and then from New York everywhere across the country.

So that this was a mighty prayer revival. And so a man coming from the west coast right across the Boston and the east coast said, I have been in a prayer meeting 2000 miles long. And at the height of that mighty movement, 50 ,000 people were coming to Christ every week.

The Korean Church's Infrastructure of Prayer

Prayer. In fact, I was here at the Faith Mission Bible College and a man came to visit us from Korea, a pastor. And so I showed him around and he was very appreciative of what we had. And I said, when you come to Seattle, you just, if you ever get there, you phone me.

He handed me his phone number. When I got there, I phoned him. He said, yes, I'll take it to our church. He was one of the several pastors of the church. There it stood, a massive building. And we went up to the third floor and there was a seating for 3000 people.

Below that there were seating for 1500 and walls, different sized walls. And below that there were different sized walls again. And below that there were five levels of car parking. And then he said, as we stood outside, you see that block, five stories, about a hundred yards or more?

He said, that is the sunscreen block. And he said, you see that block there, about the same size? He said, that's the accommodation block. I said, accommodation? Yes, he said, well, we have conferences in there so the people come and they stay here.

He said, yes, come, let's ask, I'll show you. So we walked in and there were doors close to one another, all the way down, all the way down the hall on both sides. I said, what is this? He says, these are prayer rooms.

I said, the whole floor? He said, yes, you can go in individually. And then we went to European style beds, accommodation, and then Korean style, they sleep on the floor, and then the European style and the Korean style, and then the top, the whole floor was a prayer room.

I said, two floors in the accommodation block, given over to prayer rooms? Yes, he said. I said, well, if I said that to them in the West, if I said that we should build an accommodation block and spend two floors on prayer rooms, they'd look at me as if I'd gone out of my mind, wasting money like that.

But they know where the prayer, where the secret of the church is, in prayer. They made a provision for it, so that people can pray. I went up to a prayer mountain. There is a whole huge convention center out there in the hills where the church goes to pray and to praise the Lord.

Revival Measured by Spiritual Hunger

Went to one of the seminaries there, and into one of the, the president of the seminary, and he says, we've just accepted 800 for the next year. He said, there are 2 ,000 people here studying the Bible.

2 ,000 people studying the Bible. We've just accepted 800. We've turned away 629 because we haven't got space for it. And here we sit in the West and say, oh Lord, please send us another two students or three students.

A day of small things. I went to the Methodist church, the biggest Methodist church in the world. It holds 7 ,000. It has 70 ,000 members scattered across Seoul, which is a city of 13 million. And then I went to the Presbyterian church, also holds 7 ,000, also has 70 ,000 members.

Then we went to Yongey Church, which is just close to each other. We went to Yongey Church and there were 15, it holds 15 ,000. And there are, wait for it, 700 ,000 members in that church. Scattered across the city with 700 pastors and many lay workers.

And those churches, those three churches, they open at 7 o 'clock. They have their services on Sundays, 7 o 'clock, 9 o 'clock, 11 o 'clock, 1 o 'clock, 3 o 'clock, 5 o 'clock, 7 o 'clock. Seven services.

And I stood and watched as 15 ,000 people came out of the church and 15 ,000 people went into the church. And we say, oh, praise the Lord, we've got a few more people. One or two more. Oh, that's great.

Did you see that new family coming? We're living in a day of small things. How did it happen? Friends, Seattle has traffic jams at 5 o 'clock every day in the morning. Why? Because the people are going to the prayer meetings.

It opens six churches every day. On the hill, I said, my word, that's a big church. No, no, no, no, not a big church. I said, that is a big church. No, no, no, not a big church. Only a big church after 10 ,000 members.

We're satisfied with very little for the place we are. Moses, you remember, said, oh, this people have sinned a great sin. Give their sin to them. If not, blot me, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.

Prepare to be cast aside if oaths of these folks have the same ending. For I could wish myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Is the preparation for revival, prayer, is that which causes revival to expand and to continue?