Preparation for and Possession of Revival — Alan Cairns

The Glory of God Filling Solomon’s Temple

Now we're turning this morning to 2nd Chronicles chapter 5, 2nd Chronicles chapter 5. As you know, these Sabbath mornings I am revisiting the passages of Scripture that were sent before our ministers in Northern Ireland at the annual Ministers' Week of Prayer, which I was this year able to attend for the first time in about ten years.

So it was a special blessing. Reverend Andrew Patterson, who's the minister in a little place called Ardara in Northern Ireland, County Down, he preached from this passage of Scripture. What he preached I have no idea, because though I was in the building, I had to have a very important business meeting regarding Let the Bible Speak and its future over there, so I didn't get in to hear him bring the message at all, though I did get in for, I think if I remember right, some of the prayer time.

But I'm told this is the passage he preached on, and so we're going to read it and consider it this morning. 2nd Chronicles chapter 5. Thus all the work that Solomon made for the house of the Lord was finished, and Solomon brought in all the things that David his father had dedicated, and the silver and the gold and all the instruments put he among the treasures of the house of God.

Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes of the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel unto Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion.

Wherefore all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto the king in the feast which was in the seventh month, and all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark, and they brought up the ark and the tabernacle of the congregation, and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle, these did the priests and the Levites bring up.

Also King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel that were assembled unto him before the ark sacrificed sheep and oxen, which could not be told nor numbered for multitude. And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord unto his place, and to the oracle of the house, into the most holy place, even unto the wings of the cherubim.

For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and the staves thereof above. And they drew out the staves of the ark, that the ends of the staves were seen from the ark before the oracle, but they were not seen without.

And there it is unto this day. There was nothing in the ark save the two tables which Moses put therein at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt.

It came to pass when the priests were come out of the holy place, for all the priests that were present were sanctified, and did not then wait by course. Also the Levites, which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Haman, of Jeduthim, with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them one hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets.

It came to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were to make one sound to be heard, in praising and thanking the Lord, when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good, for his mercy endureth forever, that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.

Amen. And then the Lord will add his own blessing to the reading of his word for his own precious name's sake. The last two verses of 2 Chronicles chapter 5 tell us that it came to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard, in praising and thanking the Lord, when they had lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good, for his mercy endureth forever, that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.

Solomon’s Prayer and the Fire of Divine Glory

And after that, as the next chapter shows us, Solomon prayed. And his prayer reached its climax, as is recorded in chapter 6, verse 41 and 42, with this great petition,. Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into thy resting place, thou and the ark of thy strength.

Let thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness. O Lord God, turn not away the face of thine anointed. Remember the mercies of David thy servant. The result was immediate, for as soon as Solomon had finished praying, chapter 7, verses 1 and 2 tell us, when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house.

And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. In chapter 5 we read of the cloud coming, and the glory filled the house. In chapter 7 we read of the fire coming, and the glory filled the house.

What was the Lord doing? I think a moment's consideration will make it perfectly plain what the Lord was doing. Here He was restoring to Israel what He had given His people in the days of Moses. In the days of Moses you will remember that as the children of Israel went through the wilderness, the Lord led them with a pillar of cloud and of fire.

His glory dwelt among them as He led them by the way. When the pillar remained in one place, the children of Israel remained in that place. When the pillar got up and removed, the children of Israel followed it to their next place of resting.

Then we read that when Moses built and finished the tabernacle, that something very special happened. Exodus 40 verse 35, when Moses finished the tabernacle, he was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory filled the tabernacle.

And as soon as that tabernacle was raised, that cloudy, fiery pillar of the glory of God came, and it dwelt directly over the holiest of all. Numbers 9, 15 and 16 tell us, on the day that the tabernacle was reared up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely the tent of the testimony, which is a description of the place in which the ark of the covenant that contained the two tables of the testimony, or the law, was.

Namely, the tent of the tabernacle, or the testimony. And at even there was upon the tabernacle, as it were, the appearance of fire until the morning. So it was always. Underline those words. So it was always.

The cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. It is very clear from that reference in Numbers 9, 16 that this was the constant experience of Israel in the days of Moses. The cloud and the fire and the fullness of the glory of God filling His house and dwelling with His people.

That was their constant experience. And then something happened. Something happened. I don't know if you've ever noticed it in reading the Old Testament. I have to be honest and tell you that I have read these books innumerable times and it had never dawned on me.

But from Deuteronomy until this time in the reign of Solomon, there is not one single mention in Scripture of the glory of the Lord. As such, there is no mention of the cloud and the fire and the glory after Deuteronomy right up until this time in Solomon's reign.

Now, it is true that the ark of the Lord remained among them and that the ark of the Lord signified the Lord's presence. It is also true that the ark denoted at least some level of the glory of God among His people.

I know that because when the ark was captured, Eli's daughter-in-law lamented in 1 Samuel 4, 22, the glory is departed from Israel for the ark of God is taken. So obviously there was some sense of the Lord's presence and glory in Israel.

But the fullness was missing. That's clear from the verses we have read from 2 Chronicles this morning. Because when the fullness came in, it was something absolutely new to this generation. They had never seen the like of it before.

Even the priests had never seen the like of this before. At that time, the fullness was missing. Then Solomon built the temple. He brought the ark of the Lord and put it into its place. The priests sanctified themselves.

The Levites united in mighty scriptural song and testimony. The priests began to minister. And then the glory of the Lord appeared in all its fullness in a more glorious way than anyone had ever dreamed was possible.

The glory, the cloud came. The priests couldn't stand to minister by reason of the glory. But there was more to follow. Because as we have noted, after Solomon prayed, then the fire of the Lord fell. Now what Solomon and Israel saw was a restoration of the original glory of the Lord's presence and power among His people.

They saw a restoration of the original glory of the Lord's presence and power among His people. Now that's all Old Testament. But it has a very distinct New Testament counterpart. When the Lord formed the New Testament church, what happened?

Pentecost and the Everyday Power of the Early Church

In Acts chapter 2, the Holy Ghost came upon them. The fullness of the glory of God was manifested. Not only so, but we discover that this was their everyday experience. Read the book of Acts in chapter 2.

You have them filled with the Holy Ghost. In chapter 3, you have the mighty manifestation of the power and the glory of the Holy Ghost as Peter and John healed the man at the gate beautiful. In chapter 4, you have the whole house in which they were meeting shaken by the glorious power of the Holy Ghost.

Then in chapter 6, you read of Stephen and how he was full of the Holy Ghost and full of power. How when he was brought before the Sanhedrin, they couldn't stand before him. And the glory of the Lord's presence was evident even in his face as they were putting him to death.

In chapter 8, we discover the church scattered by persecution, but they were scattered in the experience of the power and the glorious fullness of the Holy Spirit. When they went to Samaria, they went in power.

When they went as far as Antioch and Cyprus, they went in power. Bless God, wherever they went, there was power. When Peter was called to the house of Cornelius, the Holy Ghost fell upon that house. This was the constant experience of the early church.

And when the church branched out in full earnest into the Gentile world, and they started establishing Gentile churches, as we may term them, the same thing was true. When Paul came to the city of Ephesus, Acts chapter 19, he found some disciples of John the Baptist.

They were looking for the Christ, but they had not heard of the fulfillment of John's predictions. They had not heard that the Holy Ghost, of whom John had spoken, had actually come because Christ had ascended.

And so, when Paul expounded to them the gospel, what happened? The Holy Ghost came upon them in all the fullness of His glorious presence and power. So that was the everyday experience of the early church, just as it was the everyday experience of Israel in the days of Moses.

Revival Through Hunger and Thirst for God

And yet, this blessing could not be taken for granted. You remember Paul's great prayer, to which I have made innumerable references in this pulpit. In Ephesians chapter 3, he prays 16 -19 for the church at Ephesus, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory.

Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. I will pour water on him that is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground. Do you remember the part of the story of the revival in the Isle of Lewis, under the ministry of the late Duncan Campbell?

Do you remember the description of the prayer meeting? When they gathered, and there as they knelt before God in the wee small hours, an old stead Scottish Presbyterian was moved of God to quote that text, O God, you have said, I will pour water on him that is thirsty.

As well as I know my soul, my God, I am thirsty, thirsting for God. I challenge you now to fulfill your word. That was the occasion that some people thought, as they read it later, sounded a little charismatic.

This was way before the charismatics ever thought of even beginning to exist. The late 1940s, early 1950s, this was about 49, that granite built cottage, everyone felt it tremble as if it were caught in an earthquake.

An earthquake in Scotland that night, God came down to answer prayer. A great feature of revival. And the second flows from that. Revival brings the undeniable proof of the presence and power of the Lord.

The Undeniable Evidence of Revival

The Lord impresses Himself upon His people. And then by what He does, He impresses Himself on everybody else. It is very obvious in what we have been reading this morning, that the Lord did a work that could not be gainsaid.

Is the New Testament counterpart not equally plain? In Acts 4, 15 and 16, we read when they, that is the Jewish leaders, had commanded them, the apostles, to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, What shall we do to these men?

I would have loved to have been there to see those old greybeards scratching their heads and wondering what on earth they were going to do with these upstart apostles of Christ. What shall we do to these men?

For that indeed, a notable miracle hath been done by them, is manifest to all that dwell in Jerusalem. Listen, and we cannot deny it. We cannot deny it. Now, they would if they could. And there are some even harder than these Jewish leaders, and they do deny the work of God, at least in words, but their folly is held up for all to see.

I think of the great 1859 revival in my home country in Northern Ireland. One great preacher wrote a book called The Year of Grace. What a title. Exactly right, The Year of Grace. When it is estimated 100 ,000 souls were gloriously saved.

Now, another Presbyterian minister who did not know Christ and certainly did not believe in the reviving grace and power of the Spirit, he wrote a book and he called it The Year of the Delusion. The Year of Delusion.

There was no revival. Yet to this day you can travel over the length and breadth of Northern Ireland. I can point you, that great Presbyterian church was built to house the converts. That great Presbyterian church was built to house the converts.

That one, and that one, and that one, and that one. All across the counties of that little country. An undeniable proof that God was working in the midst. When Mr. Spurgeon opened his great metropolitan tabernacle with a series of meetings, this passage of Scripture was one upon which he preached.

And he said, people will say of the preacher in this house that he is not educated. Granted. That his periods, that is his composition of sermons and speech, his periods are rough. Granted. What else can you say about the preacher?

I'll accept it all. And then he just spread out his hands to the vast congregation in this mighty building. And he said, but who have done this? Who have done this? Granted that the preacher is a fool in the eyes of the world.

Granted that he has no ability. Granted that he couldn't do a thing. But something great has been done. Undeniably, the work of God. We cannot deny it. My friend, what is revival? Revival is something that defies the logic of man.

It defies the ability of man to explain it. Revival is a work of God that by His presence and power will bring even the ungodly to say, the Lord has done great things for them. That is the feature of revival.

Revival’s Comforting Assurance for the Saints

And for saints, it brings the comforting evidences of God's presence and power. The cloud and the fire reminded Solomon and his people of Moses' death. It was therefore a promise. A promise of constant guidance.

They were just at the beginning of a new reign. Just a few years had gone by. They had many enemies. They had much ground to conquer. They had many battles to fight. They had many, many experiences to go through.

But as God's presence came with the cloud and the fire, it was a promise of constant guidance. It was a promise of spiritual progress. It was a promise of divine protection. And it was a promise of victorious results.

Revival for the saints of God always brings comforting evidences from God's presence and power. The message then and now is this. God is not dead. The God of Moses is not just history. The God you've read about in the Bible is not confined to the pen and ink and paper of Scripture.

He is the living God. That's the message. His mercies are not mere memories. His mighty power is as available today as it was in the pristine days of the church's purity and walk with God. This is what Solomon was learning and his people were learning as the Lord restored the emblems of glory.

My friend, that's the message for us today. What is the feature of revival? It is a reintroduction of the church to the great truths of the gospel of the early church. To the great power of the gospel as experienced by the early church.

To the great victories in the gospel that the church had in those days. Revival spans the years and brings the church of our day into a living, vital communion with the church of the very first days and lets us know our God as He made Himself known to the people at Pentecost and thereafter.

The Spiritual Exaltation of the Lord in Revival

And of course, the fourth great feature of revival is the spiritual exaltation of the Lord in glory. I started by saying the feature of revival is the overwhelming sense of God Himself. We come full circle.

Revival is the spiritual exaltation of the Lord in glory. Do you notice the priests couldn't stand to minister? They couldn't enter in. No flesh could glory. No flesh could even stand. Revival, my friend, is not a personality cult.

Oh, there will be great preachers in revival. And being the foolish people we are, we will always pay too much attention to the instrument. God save us from that stupidity. I think it's one of the things that brings revival to a premature end.

When we start paying too much attention to the instruments. It's why in many revivals God has used the meanest instruments. I mentioned the 59 Revival in Northern Ireland. It didn't start with a preacher.

It didn't start with a theologian. It didn't even start with a church. It started with four young men meeting in a damp, cold schoolhouse in the village of Kells in County Antrim through the long winter months as they met.

Then God gave them fruit. One was saved. Others joined the prayer meeting. From that prayer meeting, God started a wave of glory that swept the country. Because you see, no flesh can glory. Revival is the work of God.

Revival as God’s Overwhelming Presence

I was reading the 114th Psalm. And I thought, surely this is what revival does. It brings the church into this experience. It's a very brief psalm, so I'm going to read it with you. I trust it will bless your heart.

When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of a strange language, Judah was his sanctuary and Israel his dominion. God dwelt and God ruled in the midst of his people. Now what happened?

The sea saw it and fled. Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. What ill of thee, O thou sea, that thou fledst, thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?

Ye mountains that ye skipped like rams, and ye little hills like lambs. Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.

That, my friend, is revival. When God's presence and power come among his people to satisfy every inward need of the church and to make the whole world tremble at the manifestation of his glory. So our text teaches us what revival is.

Revival and the Pilgrim Character of God’s People

It shows us also when revival comes. It shows us clearly in chapter 5 when revival comes. It is obvious, first and foremost, that it came at the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of the seventh month, we are told, the Feast of Tabernacles.

I'm not going into the typology of tabernacles too deeply today, but this was a celebration of what God had done in the days of Moses. Second, it was a reminder of the pilgrim character of God's people.

In the Feast of Tabernacles, God's people left their houses and they dwelt in booths, reminding them of their pilgrim journey and their pilgrim character. In other words, it was not only a reminder, it was a reaffirmation of their pilgrim character before God.

In other words, they were saying to the Lord, we are not settling down in the blessings of the land. We enjoy the blessings, but we remember thou hast said, when you come into the land and you are full, do not forget the Lord.

The Feast of Tabernacles was a time when the children of Israel recommitted themselves, we will never forget the Lord our God. We will reaffirm our pilgrim separated character. We will take the blessings that God gives us, we will enjoy them to the full, but we will never allow the blessings to become our God.

We give ourselves in total consecration unto our Redeemer. That, my friend, in a nutshell, is the meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles. And that's when this revival came. That's when the glory came. I want to tell you, when God's people are a worldly-minded people, when they are more taken up with Hollywood than they are taken up with the holy place, they will not get revival.

When God's people know more about the world than they know about the Word, they will not get revival. When God's people sit day after day, hour after hour, in front of the goggle box, and all they can do is satiate their soul with all the vile filth that television can spew into their mind, they will not get revival.

Let's be clear now. We can be so taken up even with the legitimate things of the world. A job is important. Money is important. Relaxation is important. All these things have their place. But when we take the blessings and we put them on the throne of God, we become idolaters.

God does not revive idolatry. God curses us. Why we need to take the words of our last hymn, Search Me, O God, Search Me. I need to get afresh to my Feast of Tabernacles. This church needs to get to its Feast of Tabernacles.

The Ark as a Picture of Christ in the Gospel

When we get there, God, then it is clear that revival comes after the ark has been given its proper place. We read how they put the ark in His place in the oracle. Now, that ark is Christ as He's revealed in the Gospel.

It speaks to me of a return to the purity of the Gospel. Again, time forbids that I go into the typology of the ark, but it is a beautiful picture of God manifested in the flesh, in whom dwells the whole law of God in its perfection.

And it speaks of Him also as our mercy seat, having made propitiation satisfy the law, and made propitiation for us unto God. It is Christ in His life, and Christ in His death, and Christ in His intercession.

The ark is Christ in His fullness revealed in the Gospel. And I tell you, when Christ, as He's revealed in the Gospel, is given His proper place, then God comes to bless. That's always but what the Lord blesses.

1 Corinthians 1, 18 and 21, the preaching of the cross, or the preaching of Christ in all His fullness as God has revealed Him. The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

Verse 21, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. The preaching of this message, that is. To save them that believe. My friend, let me tell you, we need to pray that there will be in our day a return of old time, biblical, Christ-centered Gospel preaching.

On the one hand, we need to be away from the psychological gibberish which has taken the place of theological exposition in the pulpit. Secondly, we need to be away from all this charismatic, man-centered, experience-centered, miracle-mongering rubbish that has got people to the place that they'll accept anything as long as it appears in tandem with the supernatural.

I have heard people preaching absolute nonsense, total heresy, Christ-denying apostasy, but they bring a so-called miracle along with it. And it's accepted. I wonder what these people are going to do when the man of sin walks the earth.

I wonder what they're going to do when the false prophet gives life to the image of the beast. I wonder what they're going to do when all their miracle-mongering is satisfied by Antichrist himself. We need to get away from that folly that thinks so little of Christ that we'll sell him for a mess of charismatic porridge.

And equally, let me be clear, we need to get away from the man-centered evangelism that makes for the empty decisionism and the so-called easy-believism that is populating the fundamentalist churches of America with candidates for the lake of fire where people waltz up and down the aisle making one decision after another and never come to know Christ.

God save us from it. And equally, we need to be saved from that dead-egg-head Calvinism that has all the great doctrines of God's purpose, God's predestination, God's election, God's definite atonement in Christ.

All these things laid out like so many little dead dry weeds. Instead of the living truth of the living God, we need a return to the preaching of Christ with the warmth and the passion and the love of God in our hearts.

We need a return to the preaching of Christ with the power of the Holy Ghost upon us. We need a return of the preaching of Christ that will go along with weeping for sinners and pleading with sinners and bringing Christ to sinners.

When Christ is given His proper place, then will God return with blessing. Furthermore, when God's people put all their energy into the work of God's house, God will come with blessing. We see that in our portion.

Consecrated Labor in the House of God

They built the temple. They brought in the tabernacle and the ark. They brought all the sacrifices. Every muscle was streamed to do the work of God. Every bit of energy was put into the work of God. It wasn't a matter, well, it's Wednesday, I've got to go to church.

Well, it's Sunday, I've got to go to church. Why? There's another service. I'm tired. I'd rather sit at home. God save us from the laziness and the worldliness and the selfishness which so curses our efforts in the Gospel.

I tell you, when we get in dead earnest with God and when we sell ourselves out to God, when we say, Lord, here I am, my body, my energy, my time, my talent, my money, my life, my home, my everything.

There it is. I am wanting to burn out for God. When we get to that place, God will come to bless. God has never yet disappointed a people who are honestly, totally willing to be dedicated to Him. Far too many Christians, unfortunately, are like the Jews of Haggai's day.

You'll read of them in Haggai chapter 1, verse 4. Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses, and this house lie waste? Good question. Is it time for us to pay so much attention to our own house, so little attention to God's house?

Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. This next passage, I must say, haunts me. You have so much and bring in little. You eat, but you haven't enough. You drink, but you're not filled with drink.

You clothe you, but there's none warm. He that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it in a bag with holes. Is that not a picture of frustration? Effort without much result. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways.

Go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. When God's people put all their energy into God's work and the building of God's house, that's when revival comes.

Unity and Praise as Preparation for Revival

It also comes when they're united in praise to the Lord. God came in our Bible reading on a singing people. It's interesting that the spirit of praise always goes along with revival. The spirit of praise is an encouraging sign.

In Jeremiah 33, verse 11, the Lord promised that there would be in a time of revival the voice of joy, the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for His mercy endureth forever, and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord.

For I will cause to return the captivity of the land as at the first. Notice the theme. The restoration of the glory as at the first, saith the Lord. There's a repeated reference to this song, He is good, His mercy endureth forever.

Over and over again, the Word of God connects that particular song with revival blessing. He is good, His mercy endureth forever. You know, that's a song of people who have a real current experience with God.

That's the song of confidence that the Lord hasn't changed. And it's the song of expectation that the Lord will fulfill His promises. It's the song of a people who are not defeated by circumstances, but they're living with their eyes toward heaven.

And that song is a good preparation for revival. And so is unity as we sing. Unity among God's people. We see the trumpeters and singers whereas one, making one sound to be heard. Unity, not for unity's sake.

Unity, not at the expense of truth, but unity in a common testimony. That is essential preparation for revival. Isaiah 52, it says, Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice, with the voice together shall they sing.

And I like this, For they shall see eye to eye, they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Jeremiah puts it even more clearly in 32, 39. He says, I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them.

Here's revival. And it comes upon a united people. Isn't that what happened in the day of Pentecost when they were all with one accord in one place? Isn't that what happened in that great prayer meeting to which I referred in Acts chapter 4 when they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and when they had prayed, the place was shaken.

They were all filled with the Holy Ghost. This is what our text is talking about. United in praise and testimony. And then the glory began to come. But they wanted more. They needed more. And they got more.

Revival Comes in Answer to Prayer

Because when Solomon pleaded for it, God sent the fire. That leads me to the final remark on when revival comes. It comes in answer to prayer. When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them.

It comes in answer to prayer. Hosea 10 and 12 says, Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He come and reign righteousness upon us.

That is when revival comes. My time is gone. I have only a moment to tell you what it accomplishes. I am most struck with this, that the priests couldn't stand to minister when the cloud came. When the fire came, the effect was even greater.

They couldn't enter. When the cloud came, they couldn't minister. But it appears they remained on the precincts. When the fire came, they couldn't even enter. They were right outside. Here is what revival always does.

The Retreat of Man and the Advancement of God’s Glory

It causes the retreat of man and the advancement of the glory of the Lord. People are more conscious of the Lord in revival than of His ministers. And ministers in revival stand back and they let God do His own work in His own way.

There is a minimum of human ingenuity and there is a maximum of divine intervention. In revival, the Lord leads His work when, as, and where He wills. And His people are content to follow. Isn't this what the psalmist says in Psalm 110, verse 3?

Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power. The glorious fire of God's majesty, purity and power, in revival burns without hindrance, acting on each object according to its nature and according to the purpose of God.

Fire burns, but not always in wrath. We were singing of it this morning. We need the fire of God to purge out the dross of sin. We need the fire of God to give us passion in our praising, in our praying, and in our preaching.