Majoring in Prayer for Revival - by Jim Tharp, 2009

And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high. (Luke 24:49)

John Wesley, George Whitefield, David Brainerd, Francis Asbury, Charles Spurgeon, William Booth, Charles Finney, Bud Robinson, D. L. Moody and Mordecai Ham – all these messengers were different in many ways. Some were Wesleyan Arminian, some were Calvinistic. Some were scholarly, some were unlearned. Some were organized, funded and promoted; some were unorganized, penniless and opposed. Some were charismatic, some were cloudy in their personality. These dear men of God were different in many other ways, but they all had many things in common. The one common thing I want to emphasize today is that each man in this list was a man of prayer!

And, because they were men of prayer, they were men of the Holy Spirit. And because they were men of the Holy Spirit, they were men of holiness. And because they were men of holiness, they were men of power. And because they were men of power, they were men who saw revival!

This is not to say that Spirit-filled men and women do nothing but pray. I know pastors and revivalists who work hard, study the Word faithfully, visit saints and sinners, counsel tirelessly, attend conferences, spend time with their families and are accountable to their denominational superiors. But there is one unmistakable commitment that stands out in their life and ministry: they are committed to a life of ministry in prayer! They are often alone with God, staying in the secret place until their minds are captivated, their spirits inflamed and their hearts are overflowing. Most of this kind feel all this is a prerequisite to their study of Scriptures and development of sermons. Such messengers emerge to become channels of the living water that God uses to wash congregations large and small. A single sentence coming from the lips of such a fire-baptized messenger of the Gospel transforms more minds and hearts than a thousand sermons delivered by a cold-hearted orator, no matter how sound his theology or how timely his subject. 

The enemy of revival in our times is managing to mislead some of the most spiritually-gifted and brilliantly prepared evangelical messengers to exhaust their time and energies on labors that don’t count for the Kingdom of God and waste their time on reading and thinking on things that neither purify the mind nor enrich the soul. The great tragedy here is that, despite all their knowledge, they don’t even have a clue that they are being distracted.

My dear brothers and sisters, we all must return to the priority our Lord Jesus established for Himself, and also to the priority He prescribed for His apostles and for all of us who would follow Him, to experience His Holy Spirit, practice prevailing prayer, walk in holiness, win the lost to Christ and see revival: we must return to the Upper Room and stay until we are clothed in the power of the Holy Spirit. According to Jesus, prayer should come first, and it should continue to be a major.

If the important elements of spiritual gifts, sound theology, Christian education, Bible preaching, charismatic personalities, moral integrity, ample finances, attractive facilities, efficient organization and sacrificial labors -- if these important assets are sufficient in themselves for advancing the Kingdom of God, then there would be thousands of congregations all across America that would be hosting Pentecostal outpourings, reaping amazing evangelistic harvests and our nation and the whole world would be witnessing the tidal wave of revival power that is so desperately needed in this late hour of history.

John Wesley was so truly right when over three hundred years ago, he said, “God does nothing except by prayer!”

Let us please understand that prayer is not a substitute for integrity, organization, education, sound thinking, or hard work. But Jesus made it clear that we could not have the Holy Spirit in all of our endeavors for Him unless we prayed. He said that we must be clothed with power from on high. And he connected His and the Father’s promise of sending the Holy Spirit to the apostles, and to us today, to the condition of obeying His command – His last command before He ascended back to the Father – to go back into the city of Jerusalem and pray until the Spirit came, and then His followers would be as He was – filled with the Holy Spirit and fire!

Christ’s command is still binding on modern Christians. If we see any kind of spiritual movement in this twenty-first century worthy of the name revival, it will be due to someone’s decision to make a commitment to getting back to basics, returning to the practice of prayer and remaining in that commitment, regardless of the cost.

And there will be a price to pray. This commitment to prayer, which will result in all that the Evil One stands against, will bring the most violent, the most subtle, the most surprising opposition a child of God has ever known. Satan does not dread a momentary commitment of a believer to a life of prayer as much as he does the believer’s determination to persevere, to keep on praying for the rest of their life, to clear time in their daily schedule to do the most important thing of devoting prime time to being with Christ in holy communion, humble worship, loving surrender, deeper cleansings, times of refreshing in His Presence, quiet waitings, times of silence when “the deep calls unto the deep” (something beyond the senses) – the Holy Spirit communicates with the human spirit, and there are discoveries of sins leading to repentance, revelations concerning the will of God, fervent pleadings for awakenings among children of God, weeping for the salvation of lost loved ones and neighbors, supplications for national and world revival, jealous petitions for the glory of God to outshine and overrule the decrees of kings and influential people in the land including church rulers, and a humble request that we be enabled by the Spirit to pray God’s will to pass in our own hearts and lives, our own families and ministries, our own churches and communities.

This kind of praying does not come easily. While this writer does not claim to be a model for modern day praying, I do know that God got my attention twenty-three years ago and convicted me of my greatest sin – that of prayerlessness. Over a period of weeks, He revealed to me that my prayerlessness had cost me thirty-five years of mediocrity. Having been a pastor for thirty-nine years, I could recall only four years of revival power, spiritual harvests and a great anointing. God put a hunger in my heart in 1986 to experience a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, and move back into an anointing of the Holy Spirit for praying, preaching, teaching and soulwinning. I still have much to learn about prayer, but this I know: without frequent fresh fillings of the Holy Spirit that deepen my resolve to please the Lord instead of my self and others, that repurify my heart, that recalibrate my conscience and heart, that renew my mind, that restore my anointing – without these fresh fillings of the Holy Spirit I would return to the empty life of an unholy vessel, an unprofitable servant and a haunted soul dreading to one day stand before the Lord, realizing I would not hear those precious words, Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little … enter into the joy of your Master.

Oh, dear friends, forgive me if I bore you with my burden that God’s people in this late hour return to the Upper Room of repentance, intercession and supplication for fresh outpourings of the Holy Spirit on own hearts, our loved ones, our congregations, our communities, our nation and our world.

Since most of you who are reading this already know that I’m writing the truth, then why do we not see the kind of revival that melts believers together causing them to forgive those with whom they differ, to reconcile with those who have offended and unite us despite all our division? Why do we not repent over our delayed obedience, our unbelief, our loose tongues that criticize and slander our brothers and sisters, our materialistic interests that cause us to step over the line in interest of more money, our proneness to worry more over what people think than what God’s will requires, our intimidation by the spirit of the age in carrying out Christ’s command to witness to others and our prolonged pattern of prayerlessness?

So, why does revival tarry? I received an answer to this question from one of my spiritual heroes in 1966. And I now I pass it on to you. From 1963 to 1968, I pastored a wonderful church in Indianapolis, and had gotten acquainted with Dr. Eugene Ernie and Dr. Wesley Duewel, associated with the Oriental Missionary Society. One day, Dr. Ernie called and said they wanted to invite Dr. Duncan Campbell, leader of the Hebrides Revival, to Indianapolis, since he was on his way to Park Street Church in Boston, that this might be his last trip to America, as he was nearing eighty years of age. Dr. Ernie asked if my church could help secure Cadle Tabernacle, the only auditorium in the city open to evangelicals that would seat 12,000 people. Such an undertaking would incur a great deal of money plus an honorarium for Dr. Campbell. It was my privilege to host Duncan Campbell for two days and through the day drive him to churches where he would speak late mornings and early afternoons – Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist and Free Methodist – and take him to lunch and dinner both days.

During our restaurant times, I would only order something to drink and get out my yellow pad and write as I asked my hero questions about the Hebrides Revival. Over and over, couched in different terms and from different angles, I put the question: Dr. Campbell, why are we American evangelical and holiness pastors not seeing the kind of revivals you saw in the Hebrides and that are now being seen in Korea and in South America, as well as out in Africa?

Dr. Campbell put his fork and knife down and stopped eating. He looked away thoughtfully, then turned and looked me in the eyes and said: My dear American friend, the only reason most of you evangelical pastors in this country do not see the kind of revival you and I are talking about is because for some reason you have decided to go on without it!

Oh, how that revivalist’s answer stabbed my heart! God used Duncan Campbell’s answer to bring about repentance over my own unbelief and pride that would lead me to a point of desperation for revival – a place where I knew I could no longer just put in my time preaching, counseling administering the business of a lifeless church. I am no longer willing to go on apart from outpourings of the Holy Spirit on congregations and individuals to whom I am called to minister!

Jesus spoke of prayer at three levels: ask, seek, knock. Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you (Luke 11:9). Asking is stating your need, filing your claim; seeking is setting a course, committing to a discipline in getting the results; and knocking is getting desperate, yielding to passion, weeping tears, telling God that since we know we are praying His will, we will not be denied!

This latter state will draw the Holy Spirit into our praying to the extent that He will develop in us a sanctified audacity, emboldening us to say, “O God, I will not be denied! I will see revival or die! I cannot let go until you send revival!”