It may just be that, by the grace of God, we will yet see revival in our nation once again. It is also important for us to remember that, generally speaking, it is not the preachers whom God uses to kick-start times of revival but it is the pray-ers whom God first uses.
Back still in the relatively early days of when the Covid Pandemic hit our nation, the church I attend, like many churches, had a time of prayer and fasting. We prayed for the healing of our nation from the pandemic, of course, but we also prayed that God would use this pandemic as a means of turning the minds and hearts of a now largely godless nation towards Him. We prayed that people would see this pandemic as a divinely inspired punishment and warning, hearing the voice of God within it, crying out, “Repent of your sins, and seek for the Lord while He may be found!”
My church, like the majority of churches, came out of the Covid pandemic numerically smaller than it had been before Covid came and caused such disruption to our lives. This fruit of the pandemic left a question that rattled around the back of my mind, albeit quietly, that voiced itself in the following prayer:
“Lord, surely that was the opportunity that we needed to penetrate through the hardened hearts of the godless people of our day. If people are to come to our churches seeking for the salvation that is only found in Jesus Christ, surely that was the chance!”
A few years ago, the late George Verwer, the world-renowned founder of the world-wide mission society Operation Mobilisation, came to my sleepy little hometown of Wrexham, North Wales, to speak at a mission meeting. A large church building was hired out to host the meeting and all of the many churches throughout the locality were invited, across the many denominations. When the time for the first meeting to start came, the church was barely half-full. My church’s own evangelical reformed alliance community was the worst represented of all the denominations. I, like my pastor who had organised the event, was left feeling incredibly disheartened and downcast by the turnout:
“Lord, surely that greatly used, and still ever so passionate man of God was the opportunity we needed to breathe life into our flagging churches. If our churches are to be revived in our day, surely that was the chance!”
Perhaps some of you have experienced such feelings on similar widespread scales. Perhaps some of you have experienced similar feelings within a much more personal and intimate capacity.
Maybe you can imagine being a Christian who has a close and much-loved family member who is not a Christian and who’s opposition to Christianity is so strong they will not let you say a word about it to them. One day, a dear friend of theirs is killed in a sudden and unexpected way. In their struggle to come to terms with what has happened, this close family member begins to open up to you about their feelings relating to death, which then leads on to an hour-long conversation about God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. You are ever so thankful for this opportunity, but then a week passes by, and this family member has returned to their opposition to the Lord and refuses to hear of Him from you again:
“Lord, surely that was the opportunity I had been praying for them for so long. If they are to find salvation in Jesus Christ, surely that was the chance!”
Elijah
The great Old Testament prophet, Elijah, experienced these very same feelings in 1 Kings 18, 19.
In 1 Kings 18, Elijah has experienced that incredible victory over the prophets of Baal: 450 prophets of Baal verses Elijah, the one prophet of Yahweh. Both sides had built an altar to their god, and a bull was placed on top of each of the altars. The challenge was that both sides would call upon their god, praying for fire to be sent to consume their respective altars.