2 Chronicles 7:12-14 "And the
LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer,
and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. If I shut up
heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or
if I send pestilence among my people; If my people, which are called by my name,
shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked
ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal
their land."
This was part of a passage that God spoke to Solomon,
after he had kept the statutes of the Lord and finished the Temple and when he
prayed to the Lord.
I wish to use this to speak briefly about a revival
that I was privileged to be a part of in the late 1970's.
I was pastor of a small church that was hurting
because it had just gone though a difficult split and many families were divided
when half or more of the church started another assembly about two miles down
the road, prior to my becoming their pastor.
I guess I had been their pastor for less than six
months and it was very hard to get the people stirred up in their prayer life
and service to God. They were simply saddened by the heartache that they had
suffered.
One of our deacons came to me and said, Preacher this
church was started in the early 50's in a prayer meeting and he went on to
describe the cottage prayer meetings that were held thoughout the community. We
decided to start a prayer meeting on Saturday night at eight o'clock and we
determined not to invite anyone unless we felt the leadership of the Lord in our
hearts. The first night we met for about an hour at the church house and three
of us prayed as best we could. The following Saturday there were seven of us.
This continued unit seventeen agreed to meet on a Friday night and pray all
night. We began about nine o'clock and we prayed until the sun arose at six on
Saturday.
It was an unusual prayer meeting from my experiences
with Baptist churches, the people would start on their knees at the altar and
before long you would sense folks moving around and they would lay prone on the
floor and some even lay beneath the pews and wept uncontrollably and I heard
many groans and shouts exclamation of praise to God.
A about one o'clock in the morning the front door
opened and a young preacher that was running from God's will for his life came
in and fell upon the altar and begged God's forgiveness. He had been awaken by
the Lord and had driven sixteen miles to get to the church and the amazing thing
was he knew nothing of the all night prayer meeting.
As the night slipped away we experienced more and more
of the folks crying aloud for mercy and begging God for their prayer request and
it seemed that I could hear a constant stream of names of friends, children and
other family members that were being cried before God for their deliverance.
The night ended and we went home, but there was a joy
among the church that I had not seen until that morning.
The following Sunday morning we had a normal Sunday
school and then during the break between Sunday school and church cars began to
arrive with families we had not be able to get to come.
I don't remember how many we had for church that day,
but the auditorium was full. We could only seat about one hundred and
twenty-five folks and the normal attendance until that day was about thirty-five
to forty.
We sang hymns and had special music and received an
offering and I got up to preach. I read my text, and a man jumped up and shouted
"Lord save me" and ran to the altar. I never did preach that morning and I don't
remember how many were saved or rededicated to God, but friend we had a revival!
The years of my labor at that place was filled with
many souls coming to Christ and many instances of divine healings. But that is a
whole bunch of stories that perhaps the Lord will allow me to write in the
future.
From that small group of prayer warriors has sprung a
strong church of a steady two hundred in attendance and many have been called
out of the church to be preachers. At one time there were eight young men
attending the Free Will Baptist Bible College in Nashville, Tennessee from that
church. The church is located just a short drive from Camp Lejeune Marine base
and from those young marines the church has evangelized the world. As I type
this account there a number of families serving God in different manners, one is
now a Lt. Colonel Chaplain in the United State Army, another pastors a local
church in North Carolina, one is in Chicago as a youth minister and another is a
Christian school principal in Ohio, just to mention a few.
Do you desire revival in your church, then pray and
live holy before God and He will grant you revival. You cannot pay for it, you
can only pray for it. One old preacher said if you desire revival, draw a circle
and get inside it and pray for revival in that circle and stay there until God
answers your prayers.
Many years have passed and now one of my preacher boys
pastors that church. The old building is still there, but next to it is a
beautiful white brick church house that will seat three hundred and the Lord
continues to use young marines and local boys to evangelize the world.
The pastor does not have a degree and the people are
just plain country folk, it is about ten miles to the nearest town, but they
know how to pray and God listens.
They honor me by having me back several times a year
to preach and I always experience the presence of the Lord when I worship with
this country church of eastern North Carolina.
As a matter of fact as I write this on October 31,
2007, I am to bring the morning message this Sunday November 4th. I am looking
forward to sharing Gods Word with my friends and worshipping the Lord with them.
Who knows perhaps God will use this service to call another man to His service.
James Avery jamesaveryfwb@gmail.com
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