Lord Give Me a Fire — E.A. Johnston

Revival Begins with Personal Repentance

Several years ago, I received a telephone call from a pastor who said he'd read one of my books on revival and he wanted to take me to lunch and talk about revival. Well, it's hard to turn down a free lunch, so I met with this man.

He was an elderly man and he told me he'd been a pastor for 40 years and he had an interest in revival and he longed to see revival come to his church. He kept asking me all about revival and who could he get to come to his church to hold a series of revival meetings.

Confession, Repentance, and Prayer for Revival

I looked him in the eye and I told him, if you want to have revival at your church, then you must confess your sins. You must repent and seek God in prayer because revival begins with you. Well, he looked at me funny and he asked for the check and I thought to myself, there I went and did it.

I offended somebody else again. I thought I'd never hear from him, but the following week he telephoned me and said he had two other pastors who would like to meet with me to talk about revival. And would I meet the three of them for lunch the following week?

Pastors United in Burdened Prayer

I did so and what came out of that lunch meeting was a prayer meeting because these men asked me if I would meet with them once a week to pray for revival to come to their churches. Soon they invited other pastors as well and we had about 10 men who faithfully came on a weekly basis to pray for revival.

We'd put our chairs in a circle as we prayed, going around the circle, taking turns praying. And to this day, I never forget what took place. I saw that elderly pastor who had originally met me for lunch.

Personal Surrender as the Beginning of Revival

I saw him rise from his chair and stand straight up like a board. And then he threw himself down on the ground on all fours and cried out with a sob in his heart. Lord, forgive me for all my dirty, rotten sins.

Send revival to my church and let it begin with me. That's what the old boy said. And do you know what, friend? If you want to experience a personal revival, that's how it's going to have to be with you as well.

Returning to God and Receiving His Fire

God gets serious with those who get serious with him. In the book of Malachi, God declares, return to me and I will return to you. And in Matthew's gospel, John the Baptist tells of the coming Christ.

He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. The burning question before us this evening, friends, is are we ignitable? Before we go to a time of prayer for the purpose of seeking God for a personal revival, I want to read you a poem I wrote when I was desperate enough for God to bring a personal revival to me.

Desperation and Burdened Prayer

Revival is birthed in desperation and bathed in burdened prayer. How bad do we want it? Here now is that poem. Give me a fire, O Lord, give me a fire for thee. Give me your fire, O Lord, let it burn brightly in me.

Give me a fire, O Lord, the wood of my life I give to thee. Consume my ashes, O Lord, and let a revival begin with me. Give me a fire, O Lord, give me a glimpse of hell and eternity. Make me a fire, O Lord, so that my life may be burned out for thee.

Give me a fire, O Lord, increase my desire for thee. Make me a flame, O Lord, that draws others to you through me. Let us pray.