It was the year 2004. It was the height of the AD2000 movement, with the vision to possibly reach all the unreached people groups of the 10/40 window with the gospel by the year 2000 and beyond. The PRAY THROUGH THE WINDOW initiative was sending prayer teams on prayer expeditions to pray and prayer-walk gateway cities and nations for a breakthrough, so that the gospel could reach these unreached people groups. It involved spiritual mapping (research on the spiritual history of nations) and spiritual warfare prayer. We began to hear of nations that were previously closed to missionaries miraculously opened. Churches started growing in the most unlikely places. It was a God-ordained season for a harvest of souls.
TESTIMONIES OF REVIVAL
We heard testimonies of revival, reconciliation and transformation in Fiji, Alaska, Guatemala, Brazil, and other nations. We were encouraged that it could also happen in our own nations. The revivals followed a certain pattern: Believers set themselves to pray night-and-day, they confessed the sins of the fathers, they reconciled with other ethnic groups, or with other denominations, and they gathered in large stadiums to worship together. Breakthrough came. God, in a sovereign move, came down, visited them in revival and touched the land and the sea to miraculously produce vegetables and fish in abundance. We began to dream and hope for the transformation of nations, even continents.
SEEKING REVIVAL
Our hunger for revival increased with each new testimony that we heard. We scrutinised our history and found national sins that gave the devil access to our nations. We prayed and confessed these sins to God and to each other, with the faith that God will deliver us from the demonic forces and from racism, visit us in revival and grant us reconciliation. Christians gathered in stadiums for prayer, prayer watches prayed night-and-day, we prayer-walked our cities and travelled the length and breadth of our nation to pray at battle fields, monuments, and dark places. Our mistake was that we were looking for a recipe for revival. It eluded us.
CHRIST IN YOU
After many prayer initiatives and prayer journeys my own spirit became dry and prayer became a burden. Jericho Walls Cape Town offered a 3-month training in Harp & Bowl worship ministry. I joined the team. On the very first day the Holy Spirit spoke a very simple word to me: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” That was it. It set me on a new journey to find the deeper meaning of “Christ in me.”
SITTING AT THE FEET OF JESUS
In July 2004, I visited Ellel Ministries in Scotland. Johannes Facius presented a course “Sitting at the feet of Jesus.” After three days I asked: “When are we going to sit at the feet of Jesus?”, to which he replied: “We are already sitting there.” I realised that I was still searching for a recipe, doing something rather than just being. (Johannes Facius shared his testimony of deliverance after being very active in the international prayer movement for many years, and then receiving the ministry of waiting on Jesus. God can do it without me – by Johannes Facius).
After the two weeks of sitting at the feet of Jesus, I rented a car and drove through Scotland for a week, while waiting for friends of mine to arrive so that we can travel to the USA to attend some ministries there. I had never seen Scotland before and was fascinated with the Highlands. I visited the Orkney Islands and was driving south on the western side of the Scottish Highlands when I saw the sign to the Hebrides Islands. I suddenly remembered about the 1949-1952 revival on the Island of Lewis and decided to pay a visit to Barvas, the village where the revival began under the ministry of Rev. Duncan Campbell.
I visited the church where it all began. I had never been to a Church of Scotland before and was surprised at the simplicity of the building. Just the pulpit and pews. No organ or other musical instrument. All thoughts of being at a strategic site for prayer evaporated from my mind. I spent an hour praying in the quiet atmosphere. The local pastor came to see me and explained that there were still some of the older members of the church that were converted during, or just after, that revival. They were still praying for revival. These oldies scrutinised every wind of teaching or spiritual movements that claimed revival, and mostly dismissed it by saying: “He is not here.” It made me long for what it was that they experienced half a century ago.
SEEK ME FOR MYSELF.
As I walked back from the church to the guesthouse, a thought came to me. It was so clear, almost as if God spoke in audible voice. He said: “Seek Me for Myself, then I will come.” It startled me. I suddenly felt as if we did not seek God but were seeking the benefits of revival and prosperity for our nations.
That evening, the landlady surprised me by arranging for me to meet two of the old men that were converted during the revival. I sat and listened to their conversation with each other. It sounded like they had swallowed the Bible. Almost every sentence was loaded with some or other quote from the Bible. I asked them to explain to me how it felt when God was present in revival. They shared about their reluctance to attend the revival meetings at first. They did not want to be converted. They were enjoying their young lives too much. They thought that Jesus was a “kill-joy”. They did not want to give up their partying and drinking. The town was shrouded in a solemn presence that they could not avoid. One of them got converted during a party! The other one eventually capitulated and attended the revival meetings. Both testified of the fear of God that came upon them, then the peace of God, and finally the joy of salvation.
Their whole lives changed. They slept very little. Every night there were revival meetings in the church, if not in Barvas, then in one of the other villages nearby. People were streaming from other villages on the islands and even from cities in Scotland to attend these services. The church meetings would last from seven until about ten in the evenings. After the service they gathered at homes, in what they called “kitchen meetings”. There they would talk and pray together. It was in these meetings that most conversions and baptism of the Holy Spirit took place. These “kitchen meetings” lasted until three or four in the mornings. Then they went home to sleep, just to wake up at six to start their daily work. This carried on for four years! The presence of the Holy Spirit was so energising that they did not need so much sleep.
This presence of the Holy Spirit after conversion was tangible. They related that it felt as if He had just entered the room, or was about to walk around the corner. Their spirits were so alive, immediately reacting to His presence. They would suddenly find themselves on their knees and faces in the dirt, on the farmland, the moors, and even in the streets, praying by name for people whom they never met. Very soon those people attended the meetings and got saved.
The preaching was intense: decide to follow Jesus now before it was too late, or He may pass you by. The singing was something else. There was no musical accompaniment during the singing. They mostly sang Psalms in Gaelic. Spontaneous songs were birthed in the revival, never written down and never recorded. The presence of the Lord during those years of revival made a lasting impact on those who were converted. Many yielded themselves to the Lord to work in his kingdom as ministers, missionaries, and evangelists.
The sight of those two elderly men, their love and reverence for the Lord Jesus, the presence of the Spirit visible on their faces, had a major impact on me. I just knew that the Lord had not yet visited us in revival and that we desperately need Him to impact our lives like that. He said: “Seek Me for Myself, then I will come.” He longs for us to want to fellowship with Him. Do we know how to do that?