Dynamic Holy Hunger — Wesley Duewel

Dynamic Holy Hunger and Revival

I want to speak to you this afternoon on dynamic holy hunger. We just talked about revival in the last session, and revival is related to holy hunger. And God's people, if they're in good spiritual health, have a hunger for spiritual things and spiritual truths and so forth.

So I want to read to you from Isaiah chapter 64, and I'll begin with the first verse. Know that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you, as when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil.

Come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you. For when you did awesome things, and which we did not expect, you came down and the mountains trembled before you.

Since ancient times, no one has heard, no one has perceived, no eye has ever seen any God besides you, who acts on the behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.

Our God is a God who loves to manifest his presence, his power, and those are essential elements of revival. So in a sense, this is continuation of what we said in the last section. God is a God of revival.

Revival implies that it's not the normal thing. God loves to manifest himself to his people. To God is normal to manifest his glory. When we get to heaven, we're going to see his glory, not just once a year on a special day or something.

We're going to be in the presence daily of the glory of God. We will be in our, his, and by his grace, our heavenly home. And we are going to be thrilled to be with Christ. But now, Paul said, we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face.

Have you ever thought you're going to be face to face with Jesus? You're going to be face to face with God, the Father and God, the Holy Spirit. Praise God for the days that are coming. They're going to be real.

What is normal in heaven would be the greatest day of your life if you've experienced it down here. But to express the glory of God, the greatness of God, the holiness of God, the magnificent actions of God, we use words that we don't use every day when we refer to the glory of God and his power and his grace.

But that is going to be natural to us when we get to heaven. Praise God for that day that is sure to come. Everything in this life tends to try and draw our attention away from the Lord and the things of the Lord, apart from God's people and God's church.

We're living in a day when it's like there's a conspiracy of the world to get our attention away from God, to get us concerned about troublous situations, to get us concerned about how to meet the needs of the needy world about us.

And in this world, how do we express those yearnings? And when we experience the greatness of God's presence and power in unusual ways, in what we call miracles or in revivals, as we were just talking about, it is natural for us to use a little different vocabulary than we use in our everyday.

The Christian Vocabulary of “O”

And I would like to speak today about God's putting an O into our language. It is natural for God's people to say O when they're talking about the things of God. Let me first, I guess I did read the scripture, didn't I?

We feel so absorbed in the things about us that except in the church, in some of our hymns, we don't use expressions of amazement or awe at the glory of God, at the working of God. But it is natural to Christians to feel blessed by the thought of the presence of God, of how he works among his people, of the things that he does on earth.

It is for that reason that often we use the word O, just the letter O or O-H to express our amazement, our being blessed by the thought of the presence of God. The hymnal that the church uses that I attend when I am home is probably not that different from the hymnal in your church, and it uses that word repeatedly.

Let me just read you a few samples here. From Isaiah, O that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you. As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known.

For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down. And the mountains trembled before you. Since ancient time, no one has ever heard, no ear has ever perceived, no eye has ever seen any God besides you.

Acts on the behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who remember your ways. The hymn book in the church that I attend when I am at home has 91 hymns that begin with the letter O.

I mean, O separately, not some other word, but O, 91 hymns. That is natural for the children of God. Do you have an O frequently on your lips? Do you enjoy in singing the hymns that include an O? Do you, when you're talking with your friends and we refer to spiritual things, do you use O sometimes?

Just listen to a few lines from hymns. O worship the king, O glorious above. O gratefully sing his power and his love. O tell of his might, O sing of his grace. And again, O for a thousand tongues to sing my great redeemer's praise.

That becomes a term which is not that common, and yet it is used, people will use O for certain things in their daily life. But for Christians, it's a common expression. O how good the Lord has been to me.

How have you been recently? O God has been so good to me. The expression O is almost like a Christian trademark. It tells who we're speaking about because we become more aware of God's goodness than the people of the world.

And so we refer to it more than they do. Listen to Charles Wesley, the hymn writer. O for a thousand tongues to sing my great redeemer's praise. Listen to John Knox, the great Presbyterian leader who rescued Scotland from worldliness in his day.

And to this day, the Presbyterian church is largely respected in Scotland. Here are the words of John Knox. O God, give me Scotland or I die. That was his expression repeated over and over. O God, give me Scotland or I'll die.

O God, give me Scotland or I die. And God gave him Scotland. And the Presbyterian church is still a predominant church in Scotland. The influence was so great on that nation. No, Scotland is not all glory, all Christian things, but he impacted that nation that to this day they have not forgotten.

Think of that hymn. O for a faith that will not die. My soul yearns for a close alliance with God, said John Knox. His exhortation, the founder of our society was really thrilled by the, I'm with the Oriental Missionary Society.

You may know the daily devotional book, Streams in the Desert, was the world's most widely sown daily devotional book for years. Mrs. Cowman wrote it and then it was passed by Oswald Chambers' book, My Utmost for his highest.

Oswald Chambers was a good friend of the Cowmans. They took him to Japan to see the work and he was so thrilled. He mainly took them to Britain. So our society has had a British basis since the early days of the society.

Why? Because of that awareness of the presence of God. Oh, it does something to you when you are reaching out and you see God at work saving people or not always, but sometimes bringing revival blessings as we talked about in the last session.

The founder of our society said, Oh, the need of this great land. He first went to Japan. I cannot rest while they sit in darkness. Oh, how I wish that I never had to leave Japan and I could stay here.

I love them so deeply. And when he was told by the doctors that he had to change climate and had to go back to the States, Cowman was broken hearted. He said, Oh, how I wish that I never had to leave the field again.

And when he got on the boat for his last trip home, he wept. He said, Oh, I love them so deeply. He did not want to go. That's natural to people who have a call of God on their heart. Do you know the song Blessed Be the Tithe It Binds?

Do you know how it came to be written? I think I have this correct. There was a pastor who was pastor of a church in England. He said, Well, you've been here so many years now, you should go someplace else.

And he got all packed up and ready to go. In those days, they moved by wagons, not by trucks. And he got all packed up and the church people gathered around and they loved their pastor so much. They began to cry and he began to cry and he said, No, I'm not going to leave you.

He unloaded his things back at the house and decided, I'll just stay here. I'm not going to move from my congregation that I love so much. And then he wrote to him, Bless be the tithe that binds our hearts in Christian love.

The fellowship of kindred souls is like to that above. It's heavenly. It reminds us of heaven, the good fellowship we have among God's children. Did you notice that when you meet friends, how often you start to smile?

God's made us that way. That is part of God's goodness. And think of what it's going to be in heaven. I believe God wants to put an O into our vocabulary more often. An unsaved soul is spiritually a dead soul.

They may have some hilarious times. Fun, as they say. But those don't last. They don't last. But the joys of the Lord are greater at some times than others. But there is something lasting about them. That's something about the Christian life that new believers are surprised with on the mission field.

That they get a joy which they didn't have before. And they're more often have that joy. The Bible speaks about our souls being dead in trespasses and sin. But when Christ makes us alive, alive, He gives us life and joy and hope and peace.

He gives us emotions which bless us and make us happy. So you will find many happy songs among Christians. Praise the Lord. It's common for Christians to sing in their homes or while they're about their work.

What kind of songs do they sing? It's common for Christians to sing Christian songs, especially those who are really walking with the Lord. They often do that because God puts that kind of an O in their heart.

Oh, they love Jesus. Oh, they love to speak of the things of God. Oh, it's so good to read what I read in the Bible this morning. It really blessed my soul. Say, do you know, I've just found this or that in the Word.

When I was in India, I found that some people in some denominations, when you came to them, for example, I was not a Nazarene, but I was asked to come and hold meetings at the Nazarene area. And when I arrived there, it was just a little bit.

And one of the Nazarene missionaries said, I've got a promise for you. And she gave me a promise that I could use while I was there ministering in their midst. That was the joy of the Lord being shared.

It is normal for Christians to be happy in the Lord. It is normal for Christians to be blessed by the portion of scripture which they read day after day. When you find something, you say, oh, I've got something really good.

Let me share with you what I found in my Bible reading this morning. That's common among Christians because God gives us that joy. He puts the, oh, in our heart. Oh, the goodness of the Lord. Oh, the grace of the Lord.

Oh, the mercy of the Lord. And things like that. Christian homes have sickness as well as other homes. But if the Lord in his mercy touches the hands with heal, touch their bodies with healing. It's normal for Christians to sing.

And some of the old Christians used to sing hymns in their home a great deal. Nowadays, the world is so much with us. Worldly songs and things tempt people away from the things of God. But it's normal for a child of God to be singing to Jesus in their spare time.

It may be that someone can't keep a tune and it's not possible, but it's quite normal. I remember as a child how I loved to sing the Christian songs. I remember our son when I would go in to churches in missionary meetings when I was home on furlough and would drive in the car.

And my son, John Wesley, I regret to say that John Wesley needs prayer now. But in his childhood, he would sit beside me on the front seat. Oh, Jesus, I love you so much. And he would sing it. He wouldn't say it.

He would sing, Oh, Jesus, I love you so much. I love you. I love you. Where did he get that? That's the normal type of thing for Christian homes. When I was a child, my mother would always sit after breakfast.

She would set her kitchen chair on the floor near the table and have a prayer time. And though I was just a little boy, I had a little red chair and I would get my chair and sat over by my mother's chair and get on my knees.

I would stay on my knees as long as she would. But it was normal in the Christian life that you share the joy of the Lord and the peace of the Lord and the presence of the Lord. That's typical for a Christian home.

We are moved by the love of Jesus. And you sing about it at times. We may not be the best singers, but still we love to sing. To this day, it's a joy. My first wife died after 58 years together. And I married my secretary who had been my secretary for 38 years, 39.

So when we got married, she brought some of her things over. And the first thing that I was interested in was her piano. And you know, almost every day when we get up in the morning, before we go to the office, she'll go over to the piano and play one or two hymns.

And many times she plays one of the old hymns that I can start singing the words when she plays. Why? Because it's natural for a Christian to sing. We want to praise the Lord who means so much to us. When God brings us to a convention like this, I don't know whether you call this a convention or a retreat or what you call it.

But that quickens our spiritual life and often starts us doing more singing around home or driving along the road or in your spare time. You can sing the praises of Jesus. That's typical of a Christian.

Does the world always sing worldly songs? Well, when they sing, they do. I don't know whether they sing as much as we do or not, but it's among Christians. It's typical. We experience the joy of the Lord.

We have something to sing about. We have something to pray about. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. To this day, the Salvation Army is known for its work among the poor.

They got that from their founder, William Booth. He had such a love for the poor and the needy. Speaking to his people one day, typical of what he often did, he spoke about the people living in the slums of London.

And he said, I hunger for their hell. I hunger for their hell. That was the Christian love of his heart. And that's why to this day, he has trained his people that the Salvation Army often do kind things for the poor and help the poor.

Holy Hunger for Souls and Evangelistic Prayer

Praise God. That's typical of a Christian to share something with the neighbors or to share something with another person. Because of the wonderful God we have, whose nature is to give, to share, to love.

God's brought us to this weekend. And I don't know what all God's intention was when he led our brothers to establish this weekend. Perhaps it was to help us pray more. Perhaps it was to help us love more.

I hope that as we go home from this convention, we'll have more to thank the Lord for than when we came. I hope that you are rejoicing in the good things that God shares with his children. To begin with, I think he wants to put more O in our love for Jesus.

May God quicken the song in our soul, or the words of appreciation for God's goodness into our hearts. Our vocabulary, as we meet with other people. And if he does, you'll find yourself making use of O, perhaps more than you did before.

When I look at this big, lovely piano here, I've been thanking the Lord for it. Its music is so great. So, several times during the couple days that we have been here, I've looked at that piano. I said, what makes that, it has such a wonderful sound.

I think it's a Japanese camera, piano, and I'm grateful for that. God's people tend to have a love for music. Not the kind of the world. But the kind of the people of God. And so, I'm happy to see the family here with their brass instruments play for us.

Isn't that beautiful? With those children being taught to play the praises of Jesus. Music. Does hell have music? No. No. Where does music come from? From heaven. Now, there are some kinds of music that are perversions.

They don't come from heaven. Beautiful music is typical from heaven. That's why Christians, when they go about their work, so often sing. Christians in their homes often sing. The old-fashioned homes in Missouri, around where my parents grew up, it was typical of them to sing Christian hymns in their home.

When they had family prayer, to sing a hymn. Because he puts a song in our soul. Praise God. Praise God. Singing along my way I go, praising the Lord, praising the Lord. That's a Christian's attitude to life.

You don't learn that kind of a song in the places of the world. God is so good. One of the famous Presbyterian missionaries in India was John Hyde. And John Hyde became known as Praying Hyde. And he put a lot of other evangelical missionaries to shame in the way he won souls for the Lord.

But he just had a hunger for souls. And he prayed for souls. And the time came in his ministry when he believed God would ask him to give him at least one soul a day. Now that's not easy in India with Hindu and Muslim people there.

I've spent 25 years in India. And I know how difficult it is to win people to Christ from those backgrounds. And the time came when he said, and the Lord gave him more than a soul a day that year. Then after a year or two, he said, Lord, you could do better than that.

Give me two souls per day. And do you know, God averaged giving him two souls per day. And then John Hyde asked God for three souls a day. Have any of you averaged a period of time when you averaged three souls a day, one for Jesus?

And then he came to four souls per day. It was beautiful. And John Hyde would go to a village. And he would ask God to give him maybe extra souls that day. Maybe 10 souls. I'm told of time when he came to a village and he felt he had God's promise for eight souls.

And he went to that village and he talked to the people about Jesus. And he won, I think was six souls. Oh, he said, there's more here. There's more. And he waited and he saw someone came along the road.

He said, well, maybe this is one. And he went to him and started telling him about Jesus. And before the evening was over, before he went back home, his co-workers who came with him, they went back. I don't know what time it was when evening came that they left.

But he said, oh, I can't go yet. There's two more souls. I've got to win for Jesus. And he walked along and a man came. He had been away visiting and he went right to him and said, oh, I've been waiting for you.

I want to tell you about Jesus. And before long, it took, I think, over an hour, but he won him to Jesus. Now he said, there's one more soul here. Jesus promised me 10 souls today. And he sat there with his head down, praying.

And he said, along toward midnight, here came a man along the road who had been in the city. And now he was back at the village. And the missionary said, went to meet him. Oh, I've been waiting for you.

He said, I've got some wonderful news for you. And he told him about Jesus. And before midnight came, that person prayed and received Jesus as Savior. That would be more difficult, even in this country, to set a number of souls per day.

But he did it in India. And the people still talked about it in our day. He died before I got to India. I never met him, but I've always heard about praying hide. One day I was in meetings near Chicago, and I looked, and I was on the map, and just glancing around, I saw a town that was not too far from Chicago.

And I said, well, that's the town where I believe he lived. And I had night services again, and this was in the afternoon. So I estimated, do I have time to go there? So I went, and I went to the public library.

I said, do you know where John Hyde is buried? Oh, yes, they said. Yes, we do. They said, you told me how to go out just outside the town on the road, went to the right to a cemetery. So I made the, because I had a service again that night, I didn't have that much time, but I went over to the cemetery.

And when I got to the entrance of the cemetery, there was a simple sign. It had a pointer. It said, John Hyde. I said, that's it, John Hyde. So I went that way. After a little while, I saw a sign pointing in another direction.

John Hyde. And so I discovered that he was well known in his community. And so I found the third pointer, and it said, and I found the grave. And about the time I got there, a car came up. A lady got out.

I went over to her. I said, would you take my picture for me, please? I want to get a picture standing by the grave of John Hyde. So she was very kind, and she took the picture. It's the only, I have more than two million books around the world, but that's the only book that I ever put my picture in, but that I was writing at that time.

So it let me tell a little bit of the story of praying Hyde. My, have you ever heard of a missionary being called praying Wilson or praying Jones or praying something else? Have you ever heard of a pastor being known for that?

Well, we don't have to be known that way, but it's lovely when someone has lived so much for the Lord, and God has honored their prayer life that even the public knows about it. Praise the Lord. I can't remember the name, and I didn't bring my books here because I understood we were not to bring books.

But I forget the town. I don't think it's, no, we're here in the Indianapolis area. It's near Chicago and just to the left of Chicago. The town where praying Hyde was buried. There was a famous Presbyterian evangelist by the name of Chapman about 75 or so years ago, and he was known in different countries around the world.

And he came to London for a campaign, and he was there a few days, no results, almost no attendance. He was not known that well, or people didn't care about spiritual meetings. And J. Wilbur Chapman was a Presbyterian evangelist praying Hyde from India, was on his way back to the States.

And when he got to Britain, he heard, oh, Chapman is here in means. So he inquired around, and he went, and people told Chapman, there's an American missionary here that prays for people. And so Chapman came up and introduced himself to the Presbyterian missionary, to Dr. Chapman, I mean, praying Hyde did.

So Chapman said to Mr. Hyde, well, you want to have prayer together? Sure. And he got down and prayed, and Chapman said, he paused, and he paused in silence until it was almost embarrassing. And then he almost burst out in prayer for British people to give their hearts to Christ in Brother Chapman's ministry.

And he wept before God. Chapman was really impressed. And you know, from the next night service on, the attendance was better. The response to gospel invitation was encouraging, all because praying Hyde came.

Oh, for God's people to be praying people like that. We talked about revivals today. Does your church need revival? Will God use you to help bring revival to your church or to your community? If there's a service in, if there are special evangelistic services in another church in your community that's not your church, do you pray for God to use them?

Are all the people in your town saved? Oh, you may probably say, well, I don't know about that. You know, Christians ought to pray for one another and pray for souls. If, if the church that preaches the gospel, that we can pray for one another.

That's the attitude of Christians. We rejoice with those rejoice and we weep with those who weep. In this passage, which I just read from Isaiah 64, he said, come down in blazing fire. In verse two, the O in that verse was a O longing for the Shekinah of God.

The Shekinah was the name used for God's glory in the Old Testament. And he longed to see that. In the second verse, he says, where is the one who brought Israel through the Red Sea? Well, you know, who brought Israel through the Red Sea?

God did. Prophet Isaiah was longing because there wasn't enough manifestation of God among the people. So he was longing for something like revival among the Jews. Where is he who brought Israel through the Red Sea?

Then he's asked the second question, where is he who sent his Holy Spirit? He's referred to in the Old Testament. Then he asked, where is he who sent his glorious arm of power to be at Moses' right hand?

Who divided the waters, who led them through, who guided his people? And then he comes to verse 15. Look down from heaven and see from your lofty throne, holy and glorious. Where are your zeal, your compassion, your might?

Your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us. But aren't you our father? You, O Lord, are our father. So he pled with God, O God, you're not manifesting yourself among us. But aren't you our father?

Wouldn't it be natural for you to manifest your power? That was the desire of Isaiah the prophet. We also know that God is our God, that he's a God of revival, a God who answers prayer. Are you hungry for God to work in your home, in your town, in your church?

We need the manifest presence of our holy, glorious God. The world, said Wordsworth, a poet, the world is too much with us. May God send revival to our homes. May we become discontented if we don't have frequent manifestations of God's answers to prayer.

And if God would only come to your church and mine and give us, if the whole town didn't have revival, just at least give us revival in our own area. And may God speed the day when we'll have an American revival.

We did have some earlier in the American history. Did you know that there was a time when the newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky, the Daily Paper, had this in big black letters? The millennium has come.

Why? Because God's presence was working in revival in the Louisville area. No, the millennium had not come. That's a thousand-year reign of Christ on earth. No, the millennium, but revival had come. And even the newspaper had to acknowledge it, and it was newsworthy to put in the paper.

A Prayer for Revival and Spiritual Hunger

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh, that God in our day would come with his blessings and do such things among us that would become newsworthy in the papers. Shall we bow our heads? Lord, you are an almighty God.

We have discussed this afternoon what revival means and the possibility of your giving revival. Are you not the same yesterday, today, and forever? Have you not worked in power in different countries of the world?

Has there not been time in our own country when you sent revivals? Back in the days of the circuit riders, did you not send revival -type blessings? Oh, God, do it again. Oh, God, send revival to our nation.

Make us hungry for it. Help us to be open to the moving of the Spirit in our midst. Teach us to prepare our personal prayer list that we pray for each day. Oh, God, come in our midst and all your ancient power, but give us the ancient hunger of the people of God, and help us to hold on like the prophets in the Scripture for the manifestation of your presence.

Lord, some of us have loved ones who are unsaved. Are we carrying an appropriate prayer burden for their salvation? Oh, God, don't let us be careless. Don't let us be indifferent. Make us fruitful Christians.

Come in our churches. Come in our homes. Bless us with your presence and power. Do the same yesterday, today, and forever. We ask it all in Jesus' holy name. Amen and amen. Amen.