January 19 50,000 Meeting Daily

1 Corinthians 14:24-26 But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, 25 and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, 26 What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church. 
 
AS we’ve been focused these past few days on revival, this has been to understand that revival is not an event, but revival is turning from sin’s death to becoming alive in God. Jesus said it this way in John 3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’”
    As the Spirit gives new life, people begin to act differently, don’t they? You could say that in the Spirit’s power and Jesus’ saving work, our souls have come from a tomb of death into the garden of life. Just as Mary, then, met the risen Savior in the garden of his resurrection, she could touch, hold and be held by the revived Savior. He acted into his new life, and so will all who have been born gain. I believe, then, it would be appropriate to also define revival as “A total awareness God is present with you!” That was certainly evident to Mary, then to his disciples. This was also the reality of the Layman’s Prayer Revival from 1857-1859 begun in New York City.
    Let’s learn more about people becoming totally aware of God’s presence among them from the book “Firefall 2.0 How God Shaped History through Revivals” by Malcolm McDow & Alvin R. Reid. We left off yesterday noting that in January of 1858 “many were beginning to discuss a ‘great revival’ that had ensued.”
 
Almost simultaneously, prayer meetings were begun across the city. Many churches sponsored such meetings without knowledge of other activity similar to their own. Within six months, 50,000 were meeting daily in New York, while thousands more prayed in other cities. On March 17, 1858, Burton’s Theater near the North Dutch Church opened for noon prayer. The theater was filled to capacity by 11:30 a.m.
 
Evening preaching services soon accompanied the daily prayer meetings. Lanphier and the church set up seven rules for the meetings: 1) Open with a brief hymn. 2) Opening prayer. 3) Read a passage of Scripture. 4) Take time for requests, exhortations, and prayers. Prayer would follow each request or at most two requests, while individuals were limited to five minutes of prayer/comments. 5) No controversial subjects were to be mentioned. 6) At five minutes before 1:00 7) a hymn was sung so the meeting could end at 1:00 promptly.
     
Such rules illustrate the fact that, while revival is a spontaneous movement marked by a departure from normal services, offering guidance need not hinder the work of the Spirit. In addition, in stark contradiction to the typical prayer meetings of our day, requests were almost exclusively about spiritual needs. Prayers for physical needs seemed insignificant in light of the stark spiritual needs of the day.
 
    See in this account the power of praying, “Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” People were not praying for worldly or temporary needs. They were praying for spiritual needs. They repented. They sought healing for their souls. They prayed for the Spirit’s fruit in their lives. They prayed for the church and the city. They prayed for Jesus to revive their souls, so they would see Jesus act into others’ lives. People were convinced, “I have a problem. I am a sinner. I need Jesus.”
    In response, they worshiped God. And God expanded his grace into his people. These people lived into God’s Word, “All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.” The Spirit had acted to call people to pray. They prayed, and the Spirit responded to make God apparent among them.
    Then note the orderly process. Spirit-led worship and prayer does not mean we do as we please. From the early writings of the Bible in Genesis 4, God has ordained our worship is to be done in particular ways. Paul defined those ways further. God plans revivals, so he is worshiped. Revival came in God’s ways. People prayed. People worshiped in God’s constructive order. God showed himself, and many thousands were born again.
 
Prayer: Lord God, you have resurrected Jesus from the tomb. Revive dead souls this day into eternal life. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.