© 2018 Don Pinson | [Download]
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The last time America had a move of God that was nationwide was over 150 years ago. Since that time the growing darkness of secularism—founded in Americans gradually believing the lie that we are god, and that the life that has our name attached to it is ours—has brought more and more darkness to us. It definitely looks like we’re going to destroy ourselves.
Is there any hope for our nation? There definitely is! And His Name is Jesus Christ! But we’ll never make our nation a candidate for His deliverance, until we, as a majority of individuals in this land, surrender these lives completely to Him. That would bring the awareness of His Presence to us in such a real way that we could hear His voice again. That would let us work with Him in the revival he wants to give to us. Perhaps you’re thinking: “That can’t happen in these last days”, or, “Wrong is too much in control, we can’t turn it back now.” These are favorite statements of the spirit of unbelief that walks this land. But neither the “last days”, nor the “growing darkness” can keep the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Godhead, from doing here anything He chooses. These “defeatist” arguments do not, in any way, cancel out the promises of God, like:
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14, emphasis added) or,
“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” (Jeremiah 33:3)
God did just such a thing in 1857-58. The slavery issue had split the nation and threatened to destroy the covenant on which we were built. In the midst of this darkest time we had ever faced, God revealed Himself to us once again, preparing us for the war that would shortly begin.
The revival started with a businessman who had become a soul-winner after his own conversion. His name was Jeremiah Lanphier. And as he walked the streets of New York City, witnessing to those he met, the Holy Spirit spoke to him, saying, “…an hour of prayer at noon would be very beneficial to businessmen.” He knew he had heard from God and began to pass the announcement that a noonday Prayer-time would start on September 23rd, 1857. Few came and prayed in the beginning; but those who did continued to pray earnestly for God to come in revival in this land. Within a month the crowds had grown considerably, and then, the Stock Market collapsed. All of a sudden the material things many Americans had been living for the previous twenty-five years were gone. In the midst of that crisis hundreds began to attend the noonday prayer meetings. Prayer meetings sprang up all over the nation. People began to turn to the Lord in repentance. In the next two years, over 100,000 people turned to Christ as Lord!
In Philadelphia, two brothers who were co-Pastors decided to have preaching meetings in their church. One preached upstairs while the other preached downstairs. From January to March in 1858 they reported that 25,000 people were turned to Christ in repentance and faith! Dudley Tinge also preached in Philadelphia, and in one meeting 1,000 people turned to Christ as Lord! In a few days Tinge would be in heaven himself; but as he left this world, he cried out to his best friend, George Duffield:
“God is in this George; tell all the people who remain, ‘Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus’!”
(Dr. Paul Jehle, Stories of America’s Christian History, Vol. 3; Lanphier)
That night George Duffield penned the words of that great hymn, Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus. It became the theme song for rest of the prayer meetings.
Shouldn’t we be praying for this kind of awakening in America again? Are you?
Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children! And you won’t like what that brings to you. I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.