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"Oh that Thou wouldest rend the heavens, that Thou wouldest come down, that the mountains may flow down at Thy presence". REVIVAL is a work of grace. Wherever and whenever it occurs, invariably the prime mover, the initiator and administrator of this distinctively divine activity, is revealed to be God the Holy Spirit. In his eyewitness account of the 1904 Revival in Wales, David Matthews begins with these words:
He exposes their vanity when he goes on to say, "They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. I listened to them and heard clearly what they said, but they spake not aright; no man repented of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? …My people know not the judgment of the Lord (i.e. the Lord's ordinance, what God has willed and declared to be right for man) …Lo, they have rejected the Word of the Lord" (verses 5-9). This is the height of folly, for whilst all obedience reaps a harvest of well-being, disobedience evokes the displeasure of the Almighty. And what an indictment against the leaders, who declared their own inventions in the name of the Lord — their claims were vain; they fabricated falsehood; and their ministry was a sham. Listen to the prophet: "For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, `Peace, Peace;' when there is no peace" (verse 11). Sadly, this is not a tale of antiquity; it is current. The lack of integrity in the church's leadership today is appalling! Spiritual values and biblical standards have been eroded, yet no one is prepared to admit we are in any serious spiritual plight. Many are more afraid to lose face and friends than to lose God. Much of what we witness men do in the church today, they are doing because they are afraid NOT to do it; leaders indulging in what is patently unbiblical for no other reason than that they are scared into it — though they dare not admit it. Where's the integrity? And where is the REVIVAL? It was the prophets, Isaiah said, who were saying, "Peace, peace", when there was none! Blessing, revival, prosperity…! That is the `positive confession' of many, but so untrue! We lack the sense of need, and are just like the leaders and people in the church at Laodicea, oblivious to reality and lacking the courage and concern to face evident problems with honesty and the passion to get back on course again under God.*4 We have an urgent need for men of anguish who will intercede for the people, to bring them back to God; and we likewise need people who know how to cry to God that He will "rend the heavens and come down". I personally recall the late Donald Gee once saying, "We have lost the art of waiting on God!" Sadly, we must now say that we have lost the art of praying altogether. If we had a true appreciation for the nature, privilege, and ministry of prayer we might well engage all the more in it. But hours are spent ontemporal worldly pursuits, while only brief moments are spent for Christ in prayer! This is no modern failure of course. Jesus, in gentle reproof of His prayerless disciples, said, "Could ye not watch with me one hour?" Then He reminds us all, "the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:40-41). How right was Charles H. Spurgeon when he commented, "We give our strength and freshness to the ways of mammon and our tiredness to the ways of God".*5 We need the urgency and fervour of an Isaiah. His prayer grips and moves me, as first he asked God to "LOOK DOWN from heaven" (63:15). How humbling that God should be mindful of our hopeless misery! Something more, however, was needed. Hence the anguished cry: "Oh that Thou wouldest rend the heavens and COME DOWN" (64:1). He evidently knew that nothing was more urgent or affecting than the presence of God, for "mountains flow down at Thy Presence", as Israel had known in its illustrious history (63:9,11-14). That God looks down is rightly presumed, seeing all in its truest light; that He will come down is fervently pleaded, addressing what He sees in His mercy. Revival has been defined in many ways, but maybe in the simplest of expressions it is God `rending the heavens and coming down'. Such a confrontation with infinite holiness is no trifle; it is no amusing or light thing. It is always most discomforting when one is subjected to and searched by the inescapable rays of Him whose eyes are "as a flame of fire". That is no fun time! When God came down at Sinai in the sight of His people it was terrifying (Exodus 19). When God manifested His presence in the early church it was accompanied by "great power", "great grace", and "GREAT FEAR" (Acts 2:43; 4:33; 5:11). In the great revivals of church history it was not unlike that. The renowned Welsh preacher, R.B. Jones, recalls the glory of the 1904 revival in Wales. "A sense of the Lord's presence was everywhere. It pervaded, nay, it created the spiritual atmosphere. It mattered not where one went the consciousness of the reality and nearness of God followed. Felt, of course, in the revival gatherings, it was by no means confined to them; it was also felt in the homes, on the streets, in the mines and factories, in the schools, yea, and even in the theatres and drinking saloons. The strange result was that wherever people gathered became a place of awe, and places of amusement and carousal were practically emptied. Many were the instances of men entering public houses, ordering drinks, and then turning on their heels leaving them on the counters untouched. The sense of the Lord's presence was such as practically to paralyse the arm that would raise the cup to the lips. Football teams and the like were disbanded; their members finding greater joy in testimony to the Lord's grace than in games. The pit-bottoms and galleries became places of praise and prayer, where the miners gathered to worship ere they dispersed to their several stalls. Even the children of the Day-schools came under the spell of God".*6 We dare not underestimate or fail to acknowledge this remarkable feature of that and other revivals, when the Lord "comes down". R.B. Jones goes on to speak of the meetings where he himself was ministering in Amlwch, on the Isle of Anglesey in North Wales.
He had been preaching from Isaiah 6, and said, "Conviction of sin, and of its terrible desert, was so crushing that a feeling almost of despair grew over all hearts. So grievous a thing was sin; so richly and inevitably did it deserve the severest judgment of God, that hearts questioned, Could God forgive? Could God cleanse? Then came the word about the altar, the tongs, and the live coal touching the confessedly vile lips, and the gracious and complete removal of their vileness. After all, there was hope. God was forgiving, and He had cleansing for the worst".*7 Here is a description of a meeting in one of the revivals in the principality of Wales, the 1859 revival, under the ministry of David Morgan and Humphrey Jones whom God blessed so mightily, when an estimated 110,000 souls were added to the churches during that remarkable outpouring. This was a prayer meeting: "It was in its terrors that the Eternal became a reality to them first. They seemed plunged into depths of godly sorrow… For some weeks it was the voice of weeping and the sound of mourning that was heard in the meetings. The house was often so full of the Divine Presence that ungodly men trembled terror-stricken; and at the close, sometimes they fled as from some impending peril…"*8 Would we be prepared for such a shaking? Is such a manifestation of the presence of God what we would be pleased to see? I ask myself a further question: can we be satisfied with anything less than such a manifestation of the presence of divine holiness? Can we possibly be content with the superficiality, carnality, and worldliness in the churches that never seems to be boldly challenged and corrected but is rather condoned and encouraged? What might be the impact of God `rending the heavens' and `coming down' among US? Isaiah 64:1-3 gives us some idea of the impact of the Divine Presence. 1) Mountains flow down. Like at Sinai, they begin to quake. The prophet Micah `saw' the Lord coming forth out of His place and said, "the mountains shall be molten under Him, and the valleys shall be cleft" (Micah 1:4-5). That is what happens when God comes in His glory. The context of our passage in Isaiah, of course, is that of judgment, God coming to deal with enemies who seemed to be indefatigable, so that He might vindicate on the behalf of his people. The desire is that God would come in His marvellous providence, manifesting Himself both to His people and for them. The principle is taken, in these present musings of ours, to see God come down to His church and for His church, so that she might be recovered from the desolate place she has been in. `Mountains' represent what is solid and strong on the face of the earth, which seem unflinching, and so imposing it appears nothing can change their situation. I must admit that I have wept and wondered if there is a way back for the church, a church that seems to have gone astray from the "old paths".*9 But this scripture encourages me to believe for such a `mountain' to flow down at His presence. There is also the `mountain' apathy, unfaithfulness and general barrenness within the churches needing to be urgently addressed. And God alone knows how deeply entrenched are the inroads of sin and corruption in our societies at this time. Ah, GOD can step right into our situation today — into our lives, our homes, our churches, our communities, and even the nation. Nothing abides His all-consuming presence! O God, come down! 2) God's name becomes known. "…to make known Thy name to thine adversaries". His `name' represents all His glorious perfections. It is time for the church to see God arise in His majesty and strength and the tables turned around so that the enemy also feels the impact. Yes, God IS with us — let us not deny nor despise `the day of small things'! But, O for that revelation of GOD to us and through us to impact our communities. Programs will not do that. God's manifested PRESENCE alone is sufficient! No adversary can stand before HIM when he comes in His glory. 3) A shaking takes place within the Nation "…that the nations may tremble at Thy presence". The world challenges us today, "Where is your God?" c/f Psalm 42:10. Such provocation was "like a sword in my bones", said David. But WHO CARES today that godless man seems to be at the helm, dictating even to the church with an utter disregard for God and His righteous law. Psalm 2:1-3. Things may get even worse! And it could be that we shall experience certain persecution from within the ranks of christendom with the increasing apostatising evident around us? The ecumenical "hotchpotch" disturbs no devil, embarrasses no politician, and will never cause our decaying generation to sit up and take note of GOD. After all is said and done, our task is not to patronise our politicians but to confront them with GOD, and with His Holy, infallible, and unbending law. End times are upon us! We desperately need God to "come down", for with His dreadful presence alone will we see a nation tremble before Him! 4) Awesome things occur. "…Thou didst terrible things that we looked not for". It seems that in genuine revivals, God's coming to His church always carries with it `the unexpected', the amazing, what is truly awesome. I do not mean the bizarre! His holiness precludes that. But everything appears to be so predictable today. The spontaneity of Spirit-controlled gatherings is rare, for everything is directed and orchestrated to follow out some plan.
The `dummy run' during the week before the Sunday services, and the `polishing' of the music program, is all to secure effectiveness. Amateurs are trying to be professional — as if GOD was interested in our slick, sophisticated presentations! Did we never read what Jesus taught the woman at the well who, as immoral as Jesus exposed her to be, was well versed in religious performance? John 4:21-24. There has never been so much talk of "the anointing" and yet never so little of its true experience and dynamic expression. The vain profession to such renewal and fullness of the Holy Spirit is such an insult to the true character, power and objectives of Pentecost. What that perceptive, even prophetic servant of God, Dr A.W. Tozer had to say about conditions in the church half a century ago is just as relevant today. He said, "How empty and meaningless is the average church service today … the form of godliness is there, and often the form is perfected till it is an aesthetic triumph. Music and poetry, art and oratory, symbolic vesture and solemn tones combine to charm the minds of the worshipper; but too often the supernatural afflatus is not there … In the average service the most real thing is the shadowy unreality of everything".*10 Please don't brush that off as though it applied only to (what we might call) the mainline denominational churches. It well describes a lot of the neo-Pentecostal scene. O, God help us! Ah, in those times of true spiritual renewal, holy men, by any scriptural measure, when confronted by the Holy One were overpowered within their own beings, smitten as with a sword, and often prostrated in awe before Him; for no flesh can abide, let alone glory, in His presence. God is never familiar and gatherings never an entertainment. Maybe this is why we have few who will "stir themselves to lay hold of God" to plead for Him to truly "rend the heavens and come down". IT'S TOO TERRIBLE! But there is no other answer to our need. O God, please come down! *1 David Matthews, I Saw the Welsh Revival, Chicago: Moody Press, 1957 - p9 [ TOP ] Appeared in Issue 14 September 2001 |
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