We think that we alone can do it
... A statement in the Psalms says,
But they come to nothing. Then, when we are quite exhausted, after all our great campaigns, conferences and our brilliant organization, and after we have spent all our money, and things have still gone from bad to worse, God unexpectedly – in the last place where you would ever have expected Him to do so and through the last person you would ever have thought of – suddenly sheds forth the Spirit. Then the Church rises to a new period of glory, of power and of influence. Men and women are converted in masses, and the power of the truth is again upon them. The Holy Spirit manifests His authority in the Church in revival.
‘He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh’,
and I believe that God sometimes laughs at the Church. He sees us ready to put out our hands to steady the ark. We think that we alone can do it. We are greatly concerned. We hold our conferences and bring out our proposals. But they come to nothing. Then, when we are quite exhausted, after all our great campaigns, conferences and our brilliant organization, and after we have spent all our money, and things have still gone from bad to worse, God unexpectedly – in the last place where you would ever have expected Him to do so and through the last person you would ever have thought of – suddenly sheds forth the Spirit. Then the Church rises to a new period of glory, of power and of influence. Men and women are converted in masses, and the power of the truth is again upon them. The Holy Spirit manifests His authority in the Church in revival.
What conclusion do we arrive at as the result of all this? Let us go on with our practical efforts and let us go on with our study, but God forbid that we should rely upon them. Let us equip ourselves as best we can. We shall never be as able and as learned as the apostle Paul, St. Augustine, Luther or Calvin. They were men of great learning and giant intellects. That is the kind of man God seems to use when He does His greatest things in the history of the Church. Let us go on, however, and seek knowledge and equip ourselves as perfectly as possible. But, in the name of God, let us not stop at that. Let us realize that even that, without the authority and the power of the Spirit, is of no value at all.
‘Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love (a product of the work of the Spirit), I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal’ (1 Corinthians xiii. 1).
It does not matter who I am or what I may do: it will get me nowhere. It is the authority of the Spirit that alone avails.
Now this is what grieves me. I very rarely hear any Christians today, even Evangelicals, praying for revival. What do they pray for? They pray for their own organized efforts, either at home or in various other lands. In a typical prayer meeting this is what happens. ‘First of all let us have the reports’, says the chairman. Having heard them, he adds, ‘Let us go to prayer about it. You have heard the facts; let us pray about them.’ We pray only for blessing on our efforts, whether it be a great evangelistic campaign, or work in the foreign field. That is quite right, of course, and we should do that. But the trouble is that we always start with ourselves and our efforts and ask God to bless them. When did you last hear anyone praying for revival, praying that God might open the windows of heaven and pour out His Spirit? When did you last pray for that yourself? I suggest seriously that we are neglecting this almost entirely. We are guilty of forgetting the authority of the Holy Spirit. We are so interested in ourselves and in our own activities that we have forgotten the one thing that can make us effective. By all means let us continue to pray for the particular efforts, for the minister, and his preaching every Sunday, for all essential organizations and for evangelistic campaigns, if we feel led to have them. But before it all, and after it all, let us pray and plead for revival. When God sends revival He can do more in a single day than in fifty years of all our organization. That is the verdict of sheer history which emerges clearly from the long story of the Church.
This is the greatest need today, indeed it is the only hope. Let us therefore decide that day by day, and many times during the day, we will spend our time before God pleading for revival. But, foolish as we are, we will never do so until we have come to the end of ourselves and of our own resources. We will do so only when everything else has failed, and we have realized our utter bankruptcy and impotence, and we have come to see that our Lord spoke the simple truth when He said
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‘Without me ye can do nothing’ (John xv. 5).
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