We are continuing from yesterday’s meditation to talk about the acts of the Holy Spirit in a spiritual revival of an area, town, or city. Yesterday, we talked about the revival in the Scottish Hebrides Islands between 1949-1952, brought about by the prayers of two senior ladies. They were both in their 80's and concerned that there were so few Christians in the Hebrides. They began to cry out to God in prayer. The Lord answered by sending the preacher Duncan Campbell. The words below are his testimony of what happened:
“A young deacon came to me and said, "Mr. Campbell, God is hovering over us." About that time the clerk of the session asked me to come to the back door. There was a crowd of at least 600 people gathered in the yard outside the church. Someone gave out Psalm 102, and the crowd streamed back into the church, which could no longer hold the number of people. A young schoolteacher came down front crying out, "O God, is there nothing left for me?" She is a missionary in Nigeria today. There was a busload of people coming to the meeting from sixty miles away. The power of God came on the bus so that some could not even enter the church when the bus arrived. People were swooning all over the church, and I cannot remember one single person who was moved on by God that night who was not gloriously born again. When I went out of the church at four o'clock in the morning, there were a significant number of people praying alongside the road. In addition to the schoolteacher, several of those born again that night are in foreign mission work today.”
From Barvas, the move of God spread to the neighboring districts. I received a message that a nearby church was crowded at one o'clock in the morning and wanted me to come. When I arrived, the church was full, and there were crowds outside. Coming out of the church two hours later, I found a group of 300 people, unable to get into the church, praying in a nearby field. One older woman complained about the noise of the meetings because she could not get to sleep. A deacon grabbed her and shook her, saying, "Woman, you have been asleep long enough!"
One area of the islands wanted me to come, but I didn't feel any leading to accept the invitation. The blind sister encouraged me to go and told me, "If you were living as near to God as you ought to be, He would reveal His secrets to you." I agreed to spend a morning in prayer with her in the cottage. As we prayed, the sister said, "Lord, you remember what you told me today that you were going to save seven men in this church. I just gave your message to Mr. Campbell, and please give him wisdom because he badly needs it." She told me if I would go to the village, God would provide a congregation. I agreed to go, and when I arrived at seven o'clock, there were approximately 400 people at the church. The people could not tell what it was that had brought them; the Spirit of God had directed it. I spoke for a few minutes on the text: “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). One of the ministers stopped me and said, "Come to see this." At one end of the meetinghouse, the most notorious characters in the community were on their faces crying out to God.
On a trip to a neighboring island, I found the people were very cold and stiff. Calling for some men to come over and pray, I particularly requested that a young man named Donald accompany them. Donald, who was seventeen years old, had been recently saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit about two weeks later on a hillside. As we were in the church that night, Donald was sitting toward the front with tears falling off his face onto the floor. I knew Donald was in touch with God in a way that I was not. So I stopped preaching and asked him to pray. Donald rose to his feet and prayed, "I seem to be gazing into an open door and see the Lamb in the midst of the throne and the keys of death and hell on his waist." Then he stopped and began to sob. After he composed himself, he lifted his eyes toward heaven, raised his hands, and said, "God, there is power there. Let it loose!" And at that moment, the power of God fell upon the congregation. On one side of the room, the people threw up their hands, put their heads back and kept them in that position for two hours. It is hard to do this for ten minutes, much less two hours. On the other side, the people were slumped over, crying out for mercy. In a village five miles away, the power of God swept through the town, and there was hardly a house in that village that didn't have someone saved in it that night."[1]
This kind of revival is the need of the hour! Where are the senior ladies in our day that will pray in such a revival?!
Taken from the series, On Fire with the Spirit. This study is: God Uses Ordinary Believers.
[1] http://www.revival-library.org/ When the Mountains Flowed Down by Duncan Campbell.
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