Day 77

THIN SPACE

This week, Prayer Hour continues the theme of REVIVAL.

We’re going to be checking out revivals from as early as 1727 to revivals that are still going strong in 2020!

Today… it’s all about the Almolonga, Guatemala Turnaround.

Before 1974

In the mid-1970s, the town of Almolonga was typical of many Mayan highland communities: idolatrous, inebriated and economically depressed.
Burdened by fear and poverty, the people sought support in alcohol and a local idol named Maximon. These were dark times; families were broken, crime and violence were an everyday occurrence, many were in poverty, and the people made pacts with evil gods and practiced witchcraft.

This was a town that needed a loving God, that needed a Saviour, that needed the Holy Spirit to work a turnaround. Spoiler alert:That’s exactly what happened!
Seeing their town in such a lost and dark state a group of local intercessors, including their pastor Mariano Riscajché, got busy. Riscajché brought his small congregation into a time of prayer, a time of prayer that lasted for 5 hours from 7pm to midnight. They were filled with faith and prayed, “Lord, it’s not possible that we could be so insignificant when your Word says we are heads and not tails.”

In the months that followed

  • The power of God was felt flowing through the town

  • Many men and women were delivered from evil spirits

  • A Maximon cult leader named José Albino Tazej came to Christ

  • The sanctuary of Maximon was removed from the city

  • Many desperately diseased people were healed

  • People were raised from the dead

  • Massive numbers were saved

In the years that followed

  • Nearly two dozen evangelical churches in this Mayan town of 19,000 were built

  • Most churches have 1000 members attending them every Sunday

  • Church leaders include several men who, in earlier years, were notorious for stoning believers

  • The commercial streets are lined with business’s given Biblical names

  • The town’s crime rate has declined steadily. In 1994, the last of Almolonga’s four jails was closed. The remodelled building is now called the ‘Hall of Honour’ and is used for municipal ceremonies and weddings

  • The town has become an agricultural epicentre - nicknamed “America’s Vegetable Garden,’ Almolonga’s produce is of biblical proportions. In previous times they would export four truckloads of produce per month, they are now watching as many as 40 loads a day roll out.

5 hour prayer

So, 1 of the big things that has struck me over my 2 Prayer Hours on revival is the dedication to fervent prayer. In these 2 amazing stories (The Hebridean and Almolonga revivals) they have a common thread and that is - prayering for 5 hours. We looked last week at how the faithful sisters Peggy & Christine Smith prayed from 10pm - 3 in the morning, asking God to bring revival. Today we saw how a pastor in a broken town gathered believers to pray from 7pm – midnight, praying the exact same prayer! Coincidence, I think not. 

Next Wednesday, starting at 7pm, I’m going to do just that and if you’d like to join in with this time, wherever you may be, please do so 😊 
My amazing house group shall be joining me and we’ll be finishing off at midnight. It will be an amazing time to remember what God has done and the revival’s that we have learned about. But let’s not just look to the past but look to what God can do right now.

So let’s pray.

Day 76

THIN SPACE

This week, Prayer Hour continues the theme of REVIVAL.

We’re going to be checking out revivals from as early as 1727 to revivals that are still going strong in 2020!

Today… it’s all about the The Miracle of Mizoram 

Mizoram, which translates as ‘Lane of the Highlanders’, is home to over 750,000 citizens, of which 80-95% are Christians. There are over 37 churches in Mizoram, many of which have three services every Sunday and one service on Wednesdays. 80% of the Mizoram people (the Mizo’s) attend at least one of these services every week. The Mizo people currently send out over 1000 missionaries.

But Mizoram wasn’t always like this. 

Before 1894, the Mizoram people believed in a Spirit called Pathan. The Mizo people also practiced human sacrifice and they liked to remove the heads of enemies. 

Mizoram is also surrounded by Islamic Bangladesh to the west, Buddhist Myanmar to the east and south and the Hindu states of Assam, Manipur and Tripura to the north, so it seems an unlikely place to find a flourishing Christian community. So how did this community become known for people a Spirit-filled, humble, generous and God-fearing community?

In 1894 two missionaries, English missionary William Frederick Savage and Scottish Baptist Missionary James H Lorraine, arrived in Mizoram.  They created a written language for the Mizo people and the church began to grow. 
The 1904, the Welsh revival caused a passion for prayer to see revival in India as well. In July 1905, Christians from Mizoram towns began praying for revival. When news of revival in the northern Khasi Hills came, Mizoram sent a team of 10 to walk two weeks through mountain jungle to attend the Presbyterian Annual General Assembly. Whilst there, they saw a manifestation of God’s power which they had never seen or experienced before. The team saw people’s hands trembling, a man shaking under the power of the Holy Spirit and another person weeping. God’s presence over-whelmed the team. 

Whilst at the conference the Mizo people were called to the front and the 8000-10,000 people at the conference prayed for them. 

However, on their journey home the team experienced a depression and the team had a bitter dispute. On the way home they stopped to preach in a village but it had no effect. The team continued on their journey and began to reconcile. The team experienced an over-whelming sense of joy as they prayed and one of the team saw a streak of fire descend into the team. 

After arriving in Aizawai, the team began to have prayer meetings for revival, however there was no sign. Shortly after this, some of the team decided to part ways, in order to return to their homes in Serkawan. The team sang together ‘God be with you till we meet again’ and the Holy Spirit was poured out on the team. Their meeting lasted for hours, with people making confessions of faith and repenting of sin. 

Now, there is no other Indian state or city which can lay claim to having no homeless people, no starvation and 100% literacy. The Mizo people raise the finance to send over 1000 missionaries through selling rice and firewood donated by the believers. When the women cook rice, they put a handful in a missionary bowl, which is sold at the market. 

Even the Indian media recognised the dramatic social change was due to the growth of Christianity. 

The Mizo people are now known for their joy and warmth, their love for music and dancing which has been incorporated into their worship and their generosity seen in re-building neighbours hurts destroyed by the annual monsoons. 

Let’s pray

  • For our Mizo brothers and sisters. Let’s pray that their faith would continue to grow and as a result their evangelistic efforts would continue to reach many people with the gospel. 

  • Let’s be thankful that God can turn an entire people to himself and pray that he does the same in the UK. Let’s pray for an out-pouring of God’s Holy Spirit on the UK and in Europe.

  • Let’s pray that God would raise up those missionaries, evangelists, pastors, preachers, shepherds, teachers, prophets, etc that are going to preach God’s word with truth, grace and power.  

  • Let’s pray that as the Church in the UK, we would be known for being full of joy, warmth and generosity, as well as being passionate about worshipping our great God, as the Mizo people are. 

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 

And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Mark 16:15-20

Day 75

THIN SPACE

This week, Prayer Hour continues the theme of REVIVAL.

We’re going to be checking out revivals from as early as 1727 to revivals that are still going strong in 2020!

Today… it’s all about the The Jesus Movement 1967-1972


The Jesus movement was a Christian movement beginning on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s and spreading primarily throughout North America, Europe, and Central America. Members of the movement were called Jesus people, or Jesus freaks. This revival is different from other revivals we have looked at, as there was no singular church or individual that stands out as being the face of the movement.

Conditions Prior to the Jesus Movement

Following WWII prosperity was increasing across the United States and there was tremendous hope and optimism of a very bright future. Then, with the arrival of the 1960s, tremendous upheaval occurred:

A strong anti-war movement opposed the United States’ involvement in Vietnam. This included draft card burnings and campus take overs. “Make Love, Not War” wasa phrase seen and heard everywhere.


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  • Fear associated with the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 16–28, 1962),

  • Multiple assassinations shocked the nation: President John F. Kennedy (November 22, 1963); Robert F. Kennedy (June 5, 1968); Martin Luther King Jr. (April 4, 1968).

  • Three astronauts were killed in the Apollo I explosion (Jan. 27, 1967)

  • Race riots were common in major cities.

  • Church attendance began declining as young people were turned off by the Church, as they wanted to see Christianity lived out in real life and not just hear it preached.

  • Anything different from previous generations was embraced, such as long hair and beards; communal living which involved drugs, sex, and rock and roll; as well as the exploration of Eastern religions (Hindu/Buddhism/New Age) and the occult. 

  • American psychologist Timothy Leary began conducting conferences on campuses promoting the benefit of using LSD to explore mysteries of the mind and inner space

On January 14, 1967, 30,000 hippies assembled in San Francisco for the Human Be-In. This event was a radical promotion of the 1960s counterculture movement, involving radical liberal politics, communal living, higher consciousness through the use of LSD (and all types of drugs), free sex, Eastern religions, and the occult.

1969-Summer-of-Love-2.jpg

And on the heels of the Human Be-In came the 1967 “Summer of Love,” 

What Happened

The origin of the Jesus People Movement is traced by most to a handful of young people who had left the hippie culture, had recently become Christians, and in 1967 had started The Living Room, a Christian street mission (coffeehouse) for the hippies in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. As communal homes were part of the hippie culture, a Christian communal home (rescue mission/halfway house) was also established to undergird the ministry of The Living Room. It gave the opportunity for the care and discipleship of recently converted hippies.
 

Jesus Freaks, as the hippie converts to Christ were mockingly called, proudly embraced and owned that name, carrying it as a badge of honor to identify with the one who was also mocked and ridiculed by the world.

Through The Living Room and similar Christian coffeehouses, many hundreds of hippies began giving up drugs, sex, Eastern religions, and the occult, and instead turned to Jesus, the Bible, and sharing Jesus with everyone they met.
 

Communal Homes / Halfway Houses - Between 1967 and 1972, there were 800 communal homes established in the USA.

Coffeehouses began springing up in every city and small town throughout the United States. These were gathering places for young people so they could have “church services”

Jesus Music - Contemporary Christian music is said to have had its beginnings with the Jesus Movement. A few of the well-known recording artists at that time were: Matthew Ward, Chuck Girard, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Larry Norman, Children of the Day.

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Hippies Rejected by the Churches

Many churches were appalled when newly converted hippies began attending their churches. They could not endure the bare feet, beards, long hair, beads, etc.

Results of the Revival

  • By 1977, an estimated 2 million new born-again believers came into the Christian faith.

  • Many thousands of young men and women across the United States received their calling into the ministry (pastor, evangelist, missionary).

  • The generation that rejected the “establishment” did not join traditional denominational churches, but instead established new fellowships of churches. Two notable ones were Calvary Chapel and Vineyard Fellowship. 


At the height of the revival,

  • 200 were won to Christ each week.

  • There were 500 baptized every month for a period of two years.

  • At the baptism services, crowds of 3,000 would gather and the occasion was used to preach the Gospel, with many more coming to Christ.

  • Calvary Chapel trained hundreds who were sent out to start churches, first in California, and then up and down the Pacific Coast. Then churches began to be planted throughout the United States and the world—reaching well over 1,700 churches. 

  • Calvary Chapel was highly instrumental in giving contemporary Christian music its start. 

Day 74

THIN SPACE

This week, Prayer Hour continues the theme of REVIVAL.

We’re going to be checking out revivals from as early as 1727 to revivals that are still going strong in 2020!

Today… it’s all about the GREAT BRITISH AWAKENING.

Before 1738

While known as the Great British Awakening in the United States, the movement is referred to as the Evangelical Revival in Britain. The Evangelical Revival first broke out in Wales. In 1735, Howell Harris and Daniel Rowland experienced a religious conversion and began preaching to large crowds throughout South Wales. Their preaching initiated the Welsh Methodist revival.

By 1736, thousands had been converted and communities were changed. Harris started forming 'societies' of new converts. 

In 1735, aboard a ship to Georgia, John Wesley meets some Moravian immigrants and is impressed by their meekness and humility and incredible calm whilst a storm threatens to shipwreck them. "Wesley asked one of them afterwards: “Were you not afraid?” The Moravian answered, “I thank God, no" - "But were not your women and children afraid?” He replied mildly: “No, our women and children are not afraid to die.”

In England, 1738 after John Wesley’s brief and frustrating missionary career, the Wesley brothers were challenged by the Moravian missionary Peter Bohler. Despite being a Christian missionary Wesley felt convinced of unbelief, "wanting faith whereby alone we are saved". 


Later that year John Wesley visited the Moravian community at Herrnhut. He admired their zeal and love for the Lord, and he prayed that their kind of Christianity, full of the Holy Spirit, would spread through the earth. 

Back in England he preached evangelically, gathered converts into religious societies (which were nicknamed Methodists because of their methodical procedures), and continued to relate warmly with the Moravians. Evangelical revival fires began to stir in England and burst into flame throughout the following years.

The Results

  • The founding of The Global Methodist Church, The Salvation Army, The Message Trust and 24/7 Prayer. 

  • More independence & unity in Churches for Women and African Americans, occasionally preaching and acquiring leadership roles (never really seen in other Western Churches).  

  • Many churches accept pietism - (placing less emphasis on traditional doctrinal divisions between churches but focusing rather on religious experiences, encounters with God. 

  • Churches from all denominations gather together to pray for God's spirit to move powerfully across the world. 

Prayer
 
Come fill us Holy Ghost, convict us of our sins. Like John Wesley, may we desire and seek a faith in you that consoles us to extraordinary peace. Peace because we are convinced of our forgiveness, salvation and eternal future. Bring revival and let it start with me! 
In Jesus our saviour's mighty name we pray. 
Amen
 
Worship
 
Holy Spirit Rain Down - CLICK HERE
Stir A Passion - CLICK HERE

Day 73

THIN SPACE

This week, Prayer Hour continues the theme of REVIVAL.

We’re going to be checking out revivals from as early as 1727 to revivals that are still going strong in 2020!

Today… it’s all about the MORAVIAN REVIVAL.

Before 1727

Religious persecution led to a group of Moravians being forced to leave their home in Moravia (Czech Republic) and being offered refuge on the estate of Count Nicolas Zinzendorf in Herrnhut, Saxony (Eastern Germany).
Disunity and division erupted amongst those Moravians due to their differing denominational backgrounds – some were Brethren, some Lutheran, some Reformed, some Anabaptist

1727

On May 12th, 1727, the community at Herrnhut signed a covenant of unity and peace together.
On August 13th, 1727, at a communion service, there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

  • All were baptised in the Holy Spirit

  • All present had such an experience of Jesus that they didn’t know if they were still on earth or had gone to Heaven.

  • Self-love and self-will were replaced by a flood of love and grace

  • There was a hunger for the Word of God and so daily church services were held at 5am, 7.30am and 9pm.

The Results

  • The Herrnhut Community (which never numbered more than 300) started an around-the-clock prayer meeting that lasted more than 100 years!

  • The community sent the world’s first ever Protestant missionaries

  • In the first 25 years, they had carried the Gospel to such diverse places as Greenland, Suriname, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, South Africa as well as most countries in Europe.

  • More than 100 missionaries were sent in the first 25 years

  • More than 3000 missionaries were sent in the first 200 years

  • The Herrnhut Community became a spiritual retreat centre, visited by people from all over Europe who were seeking salvation or Spirit baptism.

  • The Herrnhut Community was the direct inspiration for John Wesley, the Methodist Church, the Salvation Army and 24/7 Prayer

Moravians, Male and Female Prostrated in Prayer

Moravians, Male and Female
Prostrated in Prayer

Prayer
 
Come Holy Spirit – shake us, fill us, transform us, drive us to our knees, send us out.
 
Worship
 
Spirit Break Out - CLICK HERE

Day 72

THIN SPACE

This week, Prayer Hour is all about REVIVAL

Each day, we’re going to be checking out some of the awesome revival stories of the 20th century and praying in, asking God, pleading for, a new movement of the Spirit, a new revival in our nation/world today.

Today, we’re going to be checking out - 1984 Argentine revival 

Argentina has experienced a couple of significant revivals. The first was the 1949 Argentine Revival. That particular revival was a precursor to the 1954 Argentine Revival with Tommy Hicks, wherein 200,000 – 300,000 conversions were reported, as well as many thousands of documented healings.

As powerful and significant as those revivals were, the Argentine Church was not prepared for them. The harvest was so large that the numbers harvested overwhelmed the churches. With the lack of prepared workers, the new converts were not effectively followed-up on and they were not assimilated into the churches.

Despite the mass salvations and healings, after just a few years the churches in Argentina settled back into a “normal” maintenance mode. From the early ‘60s until the early 1980s, the church growth rate in Argentina was one of the slowest in the world.

PRAYER POINTS FOR US

  • Pray for God to help us accept the challenge to pray for God to move like never before like that small group of young people did in Argentina.

  • Pray for God to save us from becoming a church in "maintenance mode” and inspire our leaders to help us to grow the kingdom of God in our communities and our Nation.

  • Pray for increased unity and focus across the church on reaching the lost.

Worship

We couldn't talk about revival without listening to these. Apologies if it’s not to your liking!

Revival WWMT - CLICK HERE
RE: Revival remix - CLICK HERE
God of revival - CLICK HERE

Day 71

THIN SPACE

This week, Prayer Hour is all about REVIVAL

Each day, we’re going to be checking out some of the awesome revival stories of the 20th century and praying in, asking God, pleading for, a new movement of the Spirit, a new revival in our nation/world today.

Today, we’re going to be checking out - the Revival on the Island of Lewis (Hebridean Revival): 1949-1952

The Isle of Lewis is located to the North west corner of the group of islands known as the Hebrides, or Western Isles. The Hebrides are known as the "long islands" as they stretch for 100 miles. These beautiful and rural islands are known for their unique Gaelic language, music, stunning shorelines, and rich wildlife. But most memorable, and most importantly is what happened during 1949-1952.

At a time when the church on these islands had reportedly become stagnant, who were in a ‘spiritual winter’ and Christianity was but a duty for many, two elderly sisters began to pray. Peggy and Christine Smith, 84 and 82 years old–Peggy completely blind, and Christine bent over with arthritis—were burdened due to the depressed spiritual state in their Barvas village church. They sensed the Lord speaking to them: “I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground.” (Isaiah 44:3).
This led them to pray in their small cottage two to three nights per week, from 10 p.m. till 3 a.m. After several weeks of praying like this, Peggy had a vision of her church being crowded with young people, and an unknown minister preaching from the pulpit. They then entreated with their minister, Rev. James Murray MacKay, to pray and to get ready for revival.

What stemmed from these fervent prayers was a time of miraculous events and thousands of lives being changed by the Holy Spirit. A preacher by the name Duncan Campbell was led to the island and his speaking was used massively to convict and reach the lost, The Hebridean Revival is an incredible picture of what can be done through the power of prayer! There was a huge feeling all over the island that God was amongst them, they were struck with a huge conviction of their sins, and soul after soul came to knowledge of needing the Saviour.
The conviction of sin was overwhelming, and though some attempted to run from that conviction power, it followed them wherever they went, into bars and even across the channel to the mainland.
There were prostrations. This is not what is commonly referred to as being “slain in the Spirit,” but prostrations due to the overwhelming presence of God (Daniel 10).

There was incredible occurrences with people seeing just exactly what the Holy Spirit can do when we sincerely seek a revival. Normal work and activities were the set to the side for people to get right with God and for Christians to share the Gospel with others. People crowded into churches and homes and cried out to be saved. There were sailors becoming Christians in passing ships who felt the Spirit, houses shook as people prayed inside, and light was visibly seen shinning off people as they walked through the towns.

Hereis a powerful and bold prayer from one man on the island just before revival broke out that we should pray over own lives and towns -

God, do You know that Your honour is at stake? You promised to pour water on the thirsty and floods on the dry ground, and God, You are not doing it. There are five ministers in this meeting, and I don’t know where a one of them stands in Your presence, not even Mr. Campbell. But if I know anything at all about my own poor heart, I think I can say, and I think that You know, I stand before You as an empty vessel, that I’m thirsty! Thirsting for Thee and for a manifestation of Thy power. I’m thirsty to see the devil defeated in this parish (county of Arnol). I’m thirsty to see this community gripped as You gripped Barvas. I’m longing for revival and God, You are not doing it! I am thirsty, and You promised to pour water on me. God, Your honor is at stake, I now take it upon myself to challenge You to fulfil Your covenant engagement!

CLICK HERE - Interviews with eyewitnesses alive at the time of revival.

How many were saved? There was a fear to count the converted, as ministers didn’t want to fall into David’s sin of pride (1 Chron. 21:2). Though that was the general attitude towards counting converts, we did find one record that stated there were 20,000 converts during the first five weeks.
Duncan Campbell indicated that 75% of those saved during the Hebrides Revival were saved before they came to church. 
What an incredible God we serve!

Prayer
That we will come to Him in honesty, with conviction, and in boldness.
That we would be more dedicated to pray.
That our hearts yearn after holiness.
That we would come to the defence of God’s honour.

Day 70

THIN SPACE

This week, Prayer Hour is all about REVIVAL

Each day, we’re going to be checking out some of the awesome revival stories of the 20th century and praying in, asking God, pleading for, a new movement of the Spirit, a new revival in our nation/world today.

Today, we’re going to be checking out the East African Revival

The revival which took place across East Africa began in 1936 and lasted about 50 years. This coincided with a time of decolonisation as nations gained independence from colonial powers. 

The Church of Uganda was the centre of revival. It had experienced revival a few decades previous in the late 1800s. However, this had since dried up into ritualistic religion and many church goers were also worshipping evil spirits, involved in witchcraft, and had polygamous marriages. It was said…


‘The only difference between pagans and Christians was that pagans sin openly and Christians hide it.’
 

At the time, an African Christian leader engaged in a spontaneous conversation with a British missionary. They shared in their dissatisfaction with the spiritual state of the Church of Uganda and were provoked to read in the Bible about infilling of the Holy Spirit. They prayed earnestly and were markedly changed by their encounter of the Holy Spirit. 


They started praying for and witnessing to those around them and revival began without any spectacular signs. Away from large crowds and famous preachers, the East African Revival began primarily in fellowships in homes and villages. 


Repentance and infilling with the Holy Spirit then grew, spreading from village to village and eventually across neighbouring nations! 

Results of the revival

  • Millions of Christians had been touched by the revival and it was influential in raising up a new generation of leaders to carry the church forward—with African leadership.

  • The revival, though having started with the Anglican Church of Uganda, spread to all the denominations.

  • The African Rwanda Mission alone had 20,000 converts by 1942. That was in 700 village congregations.

  •  The public confession of sin was one of the pillars of the revival.

  • Stolen goods were returned, ranging from money, hoes, and even razor blades.

  • The revival went global in its influence. Beginning in 1946, and through the 1950s, revival teams began making ministry trips to various nations, sharing about what they witnessed during the East Africa Revival.

  • The Holy Spirit moved upon mission schools and spread to churches and to whole communities, producing deep repentance and changed lives.

Denominational barriers crumbled, seeming less significant than the unity they found in Christ. Hostility between the races also broke down. Tribal tensions were eased.

Let’s Pray

For awakening from ritualistic religion. 

For hunger and to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

For knowledge of the weight of sin.

Worship 

Nothing But The Blood - CLICK HERE
Holy Ghost - CLICK HERE