Behind the Scenes

 I read this statement in Wesley Dewell's book, Revival Fire, "Most revivals have their roots in long periods of behind the scenes intercessory prayer."

Trace historic revival origins and you will find some people somewhere who devoted themselves to intense focused prayer for God to move mightily. That is true in the American colonies in the First Great Awakening, The Second Great Awakening, the Wales Revival, and the Brownsville Revival. Behind the scenes people prayed fervently. They did so for prolonged periods before the blessed outpouring came. 

We make time for teaching, preaching, worship through singing, fellowships, missions, service projects, and meeting after meeting. The prayer meeting is nearly extinct and so are revival fires across the land. At Spring Creek, we offer a once a month prayer meeting. Our last one was pretty well attended. We pray first and then fellowship around some snacks later. Is one prayer meeting a month enough? We suspend those prayer meetings around holidays due to the busyness of the seasons. So are ten prayer meetings enough to get God let revival fire fall? I think the answer is obvious by our lack of revival. The sad truth is Spring Creek has ten more designated prayer meetings a year than some churches have at all. We all need to do better.

Are we satisfied with dry and dusty baptistries from lack of use? Are happy with fields ripe unto harvest but few laborers to bring them in? Have we become content with empty pews and empty classrooms? Is there a longing for more? More of God's power poured out so that pews get backed with new converts rather than swapping sheep in between other congregations? Is there any desire for repentance and holiness to once again characterize the church? Does anyone hunger for life transformation to happen week after week in our small groups and worship services?

Decade after decade we have labored with so few results. Why not try prayer. Focused, designated, concentrate, corporate, fervent, and faith filled prayer? 

Starting March 20th after the Sunday evening study in the book Fresh Encounter, Spring Creek is going to hold weekly prayer meetings for revival at least through Memorial Day weekend.  That is eleven consecutive prayer meetings. More than we typically have in a given year. In addition, I trust people are faithfully praying behind the scenes in their secret place. We must take our post to stand in the gap for our community. 

History has shown us what God can do in response to a praying people. Oh, that He would do it again. Do it agin Lord. Do it again.