Goodnews november/december 1995 [antikvár]

Prayer - secret of revival (continued) Runé Brannstrom totally lacking in power. The word just did not come through. Moody thought of ask-ing to be released from his afternoon com mi tmen t, but it was too late; the meeting had already been announced. He had no choice but to go on as planned. The second meeting started out just as dead as the first. Then, suddenly, an almost palpable anointing came upon the church. Moody's teaching came forth with great authority. He experienced such a boldncss that he asked everyone who wanted to récéivé Jesus as Lord and Saviour to rise to their feet. To his great surprise, 500 people stood up! Moody thought that perhaps the people had misunderstood him due to his American accent, so he asked them all to be seated again and then, for the second time, he gave the invitation. He emphasized that he was speaking to those who had never received Jesus before and who were now really seri-ous about turning their lives over to his lordship. Again 500 people rose to their feet. Moody still found it difficult to believe. So after a brief consultation with the pastor, he announced that anyone who really meant business with the Lord should return to the church the next evening; the pastor would be there to explain further what the Christian life entailed. How many showed up the next evening? 500 people. Moody heard of this later through a letter. In the same letter the pastor asked Moody to return to London for a longer campaign. He did, and this time a full-scale revival broke out. Crippled intercessors It was during this second visit that Moody found out what had happened that first Sun-day. It turned out there were two particular sisters in the church. One was lame and bedridden; the other had been to the morn-ing session. Upon arriving home from the meeting the second sister asked the first, "Guess who preached this morning?" The lamesisterdidn'tknow. "ItwasD.L. Moody from America!"announced theother. "Oh!" cried the bedridden sister. "I have prayed to God every day for 12 months to send just him!" She then turned down dinner. "We can't eat now! Now that God has answered my prayer, we must fast and pray for this afternoon's meeting." This had been the secret behind the power that had come upon that second meeting. One woman and her bed-ridden sister prayed, and 500 people received ever-lasting life. The secret was not Moody and his evangelistic anointing. The secret was the prayers of those two sisters. The same secret has proven effective in otherplaces. In 1857,asimplecitymission- ary received a bürden on his heart for New York City. He started a noon prayer meeting in a Reformed church in Manhattan. If you go into that same church today, you can see a painting of Jcrcmiah Lamphier in the room where he started that prayer meeting. The painting is of a man bowed down in prayer, surrounded by a mass of empty chairs. Prayer round the clock For the first half hour he prayed alone and the chairs stayed empty. Eventually, six others came. That was all. Yet this noon prayer meeting was the beginning of the great revival that was to break out later. Interest in prayer held strong as droves of people continued to stream in. Soon it was necessary to arrange several meeting places, and before long prayer meetings were held every hour, around the clock, ali over New York City. Not only in churches eithen théâtres and other public places were also used. God on high heard the prayers and sent revival. It spread from New York ali across North America. Düring the next few years, two million people found Jesus as their Saviour. The secret was prayer. Four men and revival in Ireland In the city of Kells, in Northern Ireland, four young men heard about the revival in New York City. If God could do it in America, they figured, he could do it in Northern Ireland. So they started coming together every Saturday night to pray. They were simple people. One was a farmer, one a blacksmith, and one a school teacher. (The occupation of the fourth is not recorded.) After they had prayed together for a time, they figured that maybe the time was how ripe for revival, so they began to preach the word. There was no result. But they did not give up. They simply took up their prayer labour once more. God heard the child-like prayers of those fourmen. In time the fire of revival feil with such power that the city jail and courthouse were closed because crime dropped so dra-matically! The secret was the prayers of four simple but fervent hearts. What they did, we can do also!