What happened in Wales in 1904 was genuine
revival because it was triggered by repentance and resulted in mass conversions.
Why do we seek anything less?
Moriah Chapel in Loughor, Wales, is not a fancy building. Constructed in
1898 and surrounded by crumbling tombstones, the church is plain and uninviting
except for a monument near the front door that might be mistaken for a war
memorial. It is, in fact, one of the few tributes to Evan Roberts, the young
Welshman who preached in this chapel in the fall of 1904 and triggered one of
the greatest Christian revivals in modern history.
This week I stood inside the chapel and studied its plain walls and the
rickety stairs leading up to its narrow balcony. I got behind the wooden pulpit
and looked over the empty pews, some carved with initials. I stood beside
Roberts’ modest grave. I was reminded that God uses the weak things of the world
to confound the wise.
There was nothing outwardly remarkable about Roberts or the place his
ministry began. He was the simple son of a coal miner. He worked as a blacksmith
and aspired to be a minister. After he uttered his famous prayer, “Lord, bend
me,” at a conference in nearby Blaenanerch, he felt overwhelmed by a burden for
Welsh souls. His first revival service at Moriah Chapel touched only a handful
of people. But crowds began to pour into the church from nearby villages after
the Holy Spirit fell on the place in November 1904.
| “Afterwards the salvation of souls weighed heavily on me. I felt on
fire for going through the whole of Wales to tell the people about the
Saviour.”—Evan Roberts |
Within a year it was estimated that 100,000 people had come to Christ.
Hardened men who normally spent their families’ incomes on liquor ran into the
churches and repented. Coal miners stopped cursing. Teenagers gathered at train
stations and sang hymns or testified publicly of their conversions. Crime
stopped.
Wales was transformed.
To be fair, it’s important to note that the Welsh revival did not revolve
around Roberts, at least not in its early days. It was not a man-centered
movement—even though the secular newspapers tried to place all the attention on
the young preacher. Years before the revival erupted at Moriah Chapel, spiritual
birth pangs were felt in other towns in Wales in meetings led by Presbyterians
and Salvation Army evangelists.
The fervor was building. An altar had been prepared, and dry wood was
waiting for a spark.
That obviously happened when Roberts visited Blaenarerch. God took a hot
coal from His altar and touched Roberts at age 26. He was gloriously baptized in
the Holy Spirit there while others watched him kneeling in a pew. By his own
account, he wept so much that three women came over to console him and to wipe
the perspiration from his face. The love of God, he said, was boiling inside
him.
Roberts described the experience like this: “After many had
prayed I felt some living energy or force entering my bosom; it held my breath;
my legs trembled terribly; this living energy increased and increased as one
after the other prayed until it nearly burst me. … I cried—‘Bend
me, bend me, bend me; Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!’ … What came to mind after this was,
the bending in the day of judgment. Then I was filled with sympathy for the
people who will have to bend in judgment day, and I wept. Afterwards the
salvation of souls weighed heavily on me. I felt on fire for going through the
whole of Wales to tell the people about the Saviour.”
Two profound characteristics marked the Welsh revival: First, invisible
waves of conviction drew people to repentance. (Often sinners wandered into the
meetings and immediately knelt at the altars.) Second, Christians felt an
urgency to share Christ with everyone around them because of the reality of hell
and God’s judgment. They seemed almost possessed by the love of God for the
lost.
In his meetings Roberts often shared a four-point plan for living the
Christian life: (1) confess all known sin; (2) deal with and get rid of anything
“doubtful” in your life; (3) be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly; and (4)
confess Christ publicly.
After visiting Moriah Chapel and rereading the accounts of the Welsh
revival, I find myself longing for an authentic move of God. I am so weary of
the fake and the fabricated. In this day of media manipulation, it seems we can
use smoke and mirrors to create “revivals” that have neither conviction of sin
nor conversions.
Oh, we think we have the power. We boast about the size of the crowds. We
brag about miracles. We are ready to declare a revival if Christians fall on the
floor or give big offerings. But when the music stops, the TV cameras are turned
off and the money is counted, what do we have? Nothing but a cheap
imitation.
Where is the God of Elijah? Where is the God of Evan Roberts? Where is the
true power of God that can sweep over a city and bring backslidden Christians to
repentance and hardened sinners to experience the greatest miracle of all—the
miracle of new birth?
I invite you to stoke the fire of the Spirit in your life. Let the hot
coals of heaven purge any known sin from your heart. Repent of all compromise.
Be ruthless with any idols. Let the love of God boil inside you until your heart
is overflowing with love for sinners. Let’s believe that it is possible for the
Holy Spirit to draw our wayward nation back to God.
J. Lee Grady is the editor of Charisma. He spent this last week preaching
in Wales
Posted on
Saturday, October 18, 2008
by Lee Grady, Editor of Charisma