Prayer warriors to pray for revival…Only those willing to make yourself totally available for Jesus need apply.
In late 2024, it will be 120 years since the last great revival in Wales and the United Kingdom. The revival lasted less than a year but over 100,000 people converted to Christ. Imagine a 100,000 people converting to Jesus right now!
So why isn’t it happening? And how can we pray for revival to come again to the United Kingdom.
There is a growing belief among Christian leaders that revival is near. Chris Cole Christian Media Pioneer often says the “Darker it gets the lighter it becomes. But beware revivals are messy.” Chris would know this first hand as a trustee of God TV and a good friend of its CEO Ward Simpson who was a part of the Brownsville Revival from 1995 to 2000.
In 1993, two years before the revival began, Brownsville’s pastor John Kilpatrick, began directing his congregation to pray for revival. Over the next two years, he talked constantly about bringing revival to the church, even going as far as to threaten to leave the church if it didn’t accept the revival.
So is the key that Pastors and Church Leaders across the United Kingdom only need to get on their knees and pray like Evan Roberts? (Roberts was known as a young man who spent many hours praying each week both personally and at group prayer meetings) But they must also preach on it continually.
On Father’s Day June 18, 1995, a Sunday, the revival began, evangelist Steve Hill was the guest speaker, having been invited by Kilpatrick. Hill and Kilpatrick, told of “a mighty wind” that blew through the church, an account that quickly spread across the Pentecostal community. Kilpatrick had been talking “revival” for several months. As the nightly revival meetings continued, Hill cancelled all plans to go to Russia, and preached several revival services each week for the next five years.
Do Pastors also need to be ready to give the Evangelist the platform to minister? So that these four points communicated by Evan Roberts, and I’m sure Steve Hill at the start of the revival in Brownsville, would impact tens of thousands of lives:
- Confess all known sin, receiving forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
- Remove anything in your life that you are in doubt or feel unsure about.
- Be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly.
- Publicly confess the Lord Jesus Christ.
The hallmarks of the revival was a 50% reduction in drunkenness following the revival.
The foundation of this…prayer.
“In the morning, he rose from his prayers, surrendered to God. Evan had a deep life of intercession. He would be awoken by the Lord at 1 am and be in prayer for 4 hours till the break of dawn, as he sought the Lord’s face for revival to break out in Wales.” A description of Evan Roberts prayer life.
He prayed the prayer that Christian leaders and pastors and all of us who say we follow Jesus need to pray today, “Bend me, O Lord.” This was his way of making himself totally available to Jesus.
So, is that the key? The reason revival still hasn’t come? We are all so caught up with our technological lives and all our new-found entertainments that praying for 4 hours and making yourself totally available to Jesus just isn’t the done thing anymore amongst Christians.
Around 1926, one of the former members of Roberts’ team arranged meetings for him at Loughor, where the revival began.
Not only were people converted to a faith in Christ, but there were “signs” following his preaching, including healing the sick and casting out demons.
This characterised each of his rare public appearances in later years.
When he was asked to pray at his father’s funeral in 1928, witnesses said his prayer was like an electric-like force, so great, in fact, that they thought revival would break out again.
Where are the men and women willing to sacrifice their lives, their egos, their dreams for the Holy Spirit to use them as vessels for such a great force as this when they pray?
So how can we pray for a great revival in the UK. We can get down on our knees and stay there saying quietly to the Lord “Bend me O’Lord. Bend me.”
Paul Fenton is part of the Communications team at the World Prayer Centre.
