The Place of Prayer in Revival — J. Edwin Orr

Our next speaker is an authority on the history of revivals. Dr. J. Edwin Orr is Professor Emeritus of History and Missions in the School of World Missions at Fuller Theological Seminary. His writing ministry includes 20 books.

His song, Claims Me, has helped shape hundreds of Nazarene services. There he writes, Search me, O God, and know my heart today. Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray. See if there be some wicked way in me.

Cleanse me from every sin and set me free. O Holy Ghost, revivals come from Thee. Send a revival, start the work in me. Thy word declares, Thou wilt supply our need. For blessing now, O Lord, I humbly plead.

In this address, you will hear Dr. Orr relate the importance of prayer to spiritual revivals. Our thanks to the Nazarene Theological Seminary for making this recording available to us. We welcome Dr. Orr to the Ministry's Tape Club.

The Disciples Await the Spirit’s Power

The disciples said to the Lord, You will at this time restore the kingdom to Israel. He said to them, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in relation to all who do in the seminary and to the other parts of the earth.

The disciples had been told that when the Messiah came, he would restore political independence. Actually, the disciples got a very different reply to what they expected. Not for as long as I have ever seen.

A student came to me yesterday and said, some of us were starting to pray already the blessing of revival on this campus. Let's not pray for a flash flood, but something deep and lasting. Make this valley full of ditches.

And don't give up praying in hope, because God doesn't answer within 24 hours. Now, in this chapter, verse 14, If you were to ask the average churchman, what was the first institution of the Christian church after the Ascension, you'd probably suggest the sacraments, the breaking of bread, Holy Communion, Mass.

The Prayer Meeting as the Church’s First Institution

But the first institution was the prayer meeting. Arnie Westwine, a good friend of mine, says, the little church is the prayer meeting. Others may attempt, but the little church is the prayer meeting.

For those of you who get a burden of prayer, remember that this is the seat of power, humanly speaking. But rather I should say, because you are at the divine throne. Now we come to chapter 2. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.

In the authorized version it says, one accord in one place. There has never been a great revival in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer. In fact, I heard Sir George DeSolo never do a denominational revival.

He said, what about the Methodist revival? The Methodist movement was part of a general revival. It included Jonathan Edwards, who was by many a Westwine. And George Whitfield, who was not a Westwine either.

Some people say, what about the Pentecostal revival? My Pentecostal friends would be greatly surprised to find that the famous Avenger Street prayer meeting began in the aftermath of a worldwide awakening.

Praying for the Whole Church and the World

Awakenings are general. God sends revival to all his children. It's true that the denomination may refuse revival and by default leave it to one that will accept it, all together with one accord. So when you pray, be Catholic in your prayers.

Not only for the Church of Evangelism, but everybody that lives in the name of Christ. We need to pray not only for the revival of the Church, but for the awakening of the masses. Should we be surprised at this?

When he is come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Try and go out on Long Isle or some other street here and try and convict somebody of sin. Just try it. See how far you get.

It will tell you where to go. But how is it when the Holy Spirit works that way? Let me give another illustration. Again from primary research. This time we'll take the climate of North Korea as very severe.

A bit like Alberta in Canada. The ground is frozen for about three months of the year. The farmers can't work in the fields. It's simply too cold. So they work in the barns. The principal missionaries had a wonderful idea.

Why not use the worst week of the winter for a Bible school? Invite the farmers and their families into town. Let them stay with friends or other members of the church. It would be a kind of festival occasion.

And teach the world. One remarkable thing about Korea that accounts for the present strength of the Korean church in South Korea is the fact that both Presbyterians and Methodists, the pioneers to Korea, taught the Bible.

In season, out of season. Frederick, founder of what is now called the Evangelical Alliance Mission Team, visited Korea in 1903. And some missionaries and national leaders came to revival. In 1905, there was a wind gathering throughout the country.

The Korean Revival and Simultaneous Prayer

In 1907, there was something utterly out of this world. The central Presbyterian church was filled with men, perhaps 1 ,500 men. The south gate church was filled with women. Dr. Lee said, before we get to the business of Bible study, let's have Mr. Lee, as you conclude, one or two hours, but Mr. Lee be ready.

The king got up to offer prayer, but there was such a spirit of prayer abroad that about half a dozen stooped to their feet and opened their turn to pray. When the king finished, the second man prayed, there were 1 ,200 feet and opened their turn.

Then another, after five had prayed, Mr. Lee thought it was his duty to conclude the prayer. He got up and suddenly beat him to it every time. He couldn't offer the concluding prayer. Somebody else insisted, praying loud voice, and so much so that Dr. Greenlee, the American, called out, stop, everyone, please.

And finally he got quiet, he said, well, apparently you want to pray. All right, then. Instead of Bible study, you can pray. What happened next you didn't expect. All 1 ,500 stooped to their feet and poured out their hearts in a simultaneous audible prayer.

One of my students, a Southern Baptist lady, writing for a master's degree, described this as an unusual custom. You find it all over Korea today. Of course you hear it. You find it in Latin America, you find it in Africa, you find it in India.

Where the Spirit of God is so outpoured in people, they all want to talk to God at once. They're utterly oblivious of anyone else. Now, it said the effect was beyond description. Not confusion, but a vast harmony of sound and spirit, like the noise of the surf in a motion of prayer.

And as the prayer continued, an intense conviction of sin settled upon a meeting. Giving way to bitter, weeping little mysteries. The longer it went on, the more people broke up. For some reason, I cannot fathom, there was an English nobleman in Korea at that time, Lord William Cecil.

Why he was visiting Korea, I have no idea. But he was so excited about what he saw. He did what an Englishman does when he's excited. He wrote a letter to read about the Korean Revival. You'll find it even in the London Times.

Apparently, an elder got to his feet to confess a grudge against an American missionary. I am an American missionary. He died just about three years ago, at the age of 97. When I was in Blair. He was so taken aback.

This was his Korean colleague. He didn't even know the man had a grudge against him. What shall I do? He said, I will offer forgiveness through prayer. He seemed to be thinking, what did I do to offend him?

But he began praying. He was going to pray, Heavenly Father, bless our dear brother who so courageously has confessed his fault. And happily, he was going to pray something like this. But he never got any further than, Apogee, Heavenly Father.

When according to Lord William Cecil, with a wish, a power from God, seemed to take hold of him. The Europeans described its manifestations as terrifying. Nearly everyone present was seized with the most poignant sense of mental anguish.

Before he swam, his sins seemed to be rising in condemnation in his life. Some were sprung to their feet, pleading for an opportunity to relieve their consciences. Others were silent, but so rampant and agonizing, they were clenching their fists and bitting their heads.

Eight to ten years went on. The missionaries got together, tried to stop it, but couldn't stop it. They were horror-struck. Two in a row, they dismissed it. Some went home to sleep. The missionaries had an emergency meeting.

They said, well, we prayed for revival. By the way, this was in the wake of the Welsh Revival. That's why they were praying. But we didn't expect this storm. But after a storm rose out of the calm, through time from the calm, and it began again.

The control was taken out of the missionaries' hands night after night. The Holy Spirit sent a pheromone of conviction, a letter for praise, and so forth. Until now, I've never heard of him commercializing his vice.

By the way, I was a student in Korea when I converted that year. Do you know that 79 ,221 congregants were added to the Church in that movement? John Wesley died after 15 years of faithful work in Britain.

And left 70 ,000 Methodists in his societies. And here is my poem of the Holy Spirit in Korea that wound 79 ,000. I feel proud of Korea, Methodists, Presbyterians, everyone else. Then in 1910, a man at the Mission had a wonderful idea.

Why not use a million souls for Christ? So they organized a million souls movement. They allocated a quarter to each group. The Methodists would be only so many in such and such an area, in such and such a province, and so forth.

It was all organized. Well, I think I have the figure here. Instead of the million, there were 15 ,805 converted. Thank God for 15 ,805. But it's very disappointing that there were any other million. It seems to me that the Holy Spirit does not surrender his prerogatives to anyone.

Conviction of Sin and the Holy Spirit’s Outpouring

To illustrate the convicting part of the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine, for instance, what kind of spiritual force would be needed to convict the masses of America today? Sin is entrenched. I don't know if any of you have ever been to a Woodstock-type festival.

What goes on there? They're supposed to be there for rock music. But they are injecting themselves with drugs, smoking marijuana. They learn to pass women around naked. What kind of conviction of sin would overcome the entrenched sin in America?

Do you realize what we are up against? Entrenched, habitually sinning. People who are sinning, and here's Connor. He will convict the world of sin. That's why I say we need to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

For the masses. That the Holy Spirit might fall on Timothy Miller and convict him. How many of these led astray with his drugs? And the Holy Spirit may fall upon the philographers. And they have been terrified.

Because in the time of the Revival, people under conviction of sin, they feel that they are at least feeling the terror of Satan. They tremble. Now sin is so entrenched, we can't do it with our mild methods.

It would take an outpouring of the Holy Spirit to bring such conviction. We have to go. He, to his word, added, When the great Lehigh was swept low, the movement of theologians on the Lower East Side, everyone was talking about it, said we suspect very much any movement that's not wholly committed to a world of sin.

The Apostolic Pattern of Word, Fellowship, Sacraments, and Prayer

But you see, there is a quadrilateral here. They are devoting themselves to the Apostles' teaching, that's Word, and fellowship, and blood from the blood, and sacraments, and prayers. There are some people terribly foul in Word and sacraments.

What they need is fellowship and prayer. But there are other people, they are addicted to fellowship and prayer. They have a superficial Christian life. They need Word and sacrament. It has to be a randomness.

She has written some of the most exquisite missionary books in print. She is arrogant. This is liturgical, time to know, time to recite the Creed, a time to offer the Lord's Prayer, and so forth. Even Aunt Amy Carmichael said of this same revival, this is all taken from the same revival period.

Amy Carmichael and Revival Prayer

On October the 22nd, to quote one of the little values of the orphanage, Jesus came to Dormervoor. He was there before, but on that day he came in such vivid fashion that you cannot remember what struck the child as any kind.

Now when he told she the service was proceeding, everything was in order, when suddenly, as Amy Carmichael reported, a realization of the only force of faith overwhelmed Amy. I'm not quite sure what she meant by that.

Just that she was well overwhelmed. It was impossible not to pray. One of the lads in the high school began to pray, and it was just then, then another, then another. And all at once, one of the younger ones began to cry bitterly and pray for forgiveness.

She found it hard to recall the details. She said, it was so startling and so awful, I could not hear the words. That detail escaped me. Soon the whole upper half of the church was on its face on the floor, crying to God, The sound was like the sound of loaves, or a strong, winding tree.

People poured into that church. They were learning the word, of course. But here's the thing that stuck in my mind. Amy Carmichael said, For the next portion for us, much as it was for the apostles, when they gave themselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry, everything else had to stand aside.

That certainly struck me, what the scripture meant. They gave themselves continually to prayer, and the ministry of the word. They were like doctors, praying with people. To give you a further illustration, from the same revival period, but this time they did in Swaziland, in South Africa.

Revival in Swaziland and the Growth of the African Church

And I say, where did you get all this? I had to dig it up and get letters. This is from a letter written by Evelyn Richardson, a missionary of the South African generation. In Swaziland, there was such a revival, that the king humbled himself to the church, and asked the people to pray for him, and say, And every evening, the power of God came down on our very first meeting.

The next two days, I shall never forget, when we were in church, eleven and twelve hours a day, dealing with people, from six or seven in the morning until midnight. For two days and nights, men could not eat or sleep, either because of conviction of sin, or the great joy My interpreter, when I preached in Soweto, he said, Yes, my grandfather, humbly asked the people to pray for him.

When he came into the church, everyone stood. He said, Please sit down. I am just a sinner, like everyone else. Please pray for me. Evelyn Richardson said in her letter, this shows you how bona fide the letter was.

One of the king's right-handed men, a henchman, I'm not sure what his title was, but one of his earliest was Yawaliya, that's his name, Jeremiah. He studied at Loveville College, but he had been paralyzed, with ill fears, scarcely able to move.

He was praying under conviction, kneeling at the front, someone had helped him to come up to the front to kneel, when suddenly he leaped to his feet and started to dance for joy. He knew of his infirmity.

He began jumping over benches and pews, jumped up on the organ and down again, ran around the church, ran around the missionary's home, and as Evelyn Richardson said, knocked over her precious vase and broke it.

Of course, take a house key and you can do something like that. Completely healed. Do you know that this revival swept Africa? David Barrett, who later did computers for the young Christian handbook, David Barrett of Nairobi, an Englishman, says that since 1910, the growth of the Christian church in Africa is running four times as fast as the growth of the population.

Why is this 1910? That's when the word of the Welsh revival struck Africa and began spreading throughout the whole continent, and added to the church daily those who were being saved. That's what we need.

Beginning Revival by Focused Prayer

So what do we do? How did they begin? They began contently, focused on God. God was in the Holy Spirit.