A message of hope, inspiration and challenge.
America’s only hope for restoration is for the hearts of men, women and children to turn their hearts toward God. This Sunday message from our guest pastor is one that is good for every day of the week.
*** Pastor Ron Burtz***
The late Chuck Colson once said, “This nation cannot be saved unless the Church is first revived. Renewing the Church is the key to saving America.” And, I would add to that, the key to revival in the church is fervent and even desperate prayer. As I’ve been saying there is an inseparable bond between revival and prayer. In fact one of the great moves of God in our nation is known simply as the Prayer Revival.
In fact it started with a simple prayer by a simple man. Jeremiah Lanphier was a lay missionary working with the poor and downtrodden of New York City. One day in a small darkened room in the back of one of the city’s lesser churches he knelt to pray, “Lord, what will you have me to do?” The answer was simple but profound: The people should pray.”
So Lanphier started a noon hour prayer meeting for businessmen in the Old Dutch Church on September 23, 1857. Jeremiah prayed alone for the first half hour but then 5 more men showed up. The next week there were 14, the 3rd week 23, and by February and March of the next year, every church and public hall in down town New York was filled with people seeking God in prayer. Over the next two years over 1-million people were converted at a time when the US population was only 30 million. By comparison, if an awakening of the same scale were to start today in two years over 10-million people would be saved.
Are you thirsty for God to move in Revival? Then my challenge to you is start now.
Dr. Cho founded the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul in 1958. It has become the largest congregation in the world with more than 700,000 members. The church was built on prayer and has continued to thrive as a shining example of the power of prayer.
The work of revival is certainly not finished with the close of the Conference. If anything, it is but beginning. The preparatory cultivation for the Holy Spirit to work within believers’ hearts still must go on. Many come away from conferences with a feeling of a spiritual “high.” Yet the real enterprise of Christian living must continue and grow in daily life. When we see people flocking to prayer meetings of the church, witnessing to friends and neighbors about their faith, studying and applying the Word of God, going to church rather than going to the sports arenas and theaters–we know we are seeing revival.