"It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few."

  - 1 Samuel 14.6

All the controls of truth and justice have been shaken and overthrown, leaving no trace, not even a memory, among the orders I have mentioned: with the exception of a few, a very few.

  - Gildas, The Ruin of Britain (British, 6th century)

Gildas was lamenting the state of the churches and religious orders in his beloved Britain during the early years of the 6th century - just before the beginning of the Celtic revival. To say the least, it wasn't pretty.

No one feared God. No one took sin seriously. Hardly anyone seemed to care that the churches were able to exercise no moral authority or to check the growing corruption that was everywhere in evidence. Church leaders were delinquent in seeking the lost. "A great multitude has been lost," he continued, bewailing the Church's failure to evangelize the nation, "as people daily rush headlong to hell..."

Yet there was a faithful group - a few, a very few - and Gildas believed it was only because of them that the remaining semblances of civilization and the Church were spared the wrath of God. He wrote of these faithful ones, "By their holy prayers they support my weakness from total collapse, like posts and columns of salvation."

Gildas shuddered to think what would become of his nation were it not for the faithful prayers of this faithful few.

We need a faithful few like this in our day, friends. We need men who will learn to pray like they've never prayed before, and women who will devote themselves to interceding with the Lord for revival, here a few, there a few, in every place just a few people who take seriously the promise of prayer: "Call to Me, and I will answer you, will cause you to know great things and mysteries you do not know" (Jer. 33.3).

Will you be one of the faithful few who will make pleading with God for revival, renewal, and awakening a constant focus of all your prayers? Would Gildas count you among the few, the very few, who are seeking to increase their prayers, since they know nothing but the grace of God can revive and renew us?

What can you do? You can pray, and you can enlist others to pray - pray that God will pour out His Spirit afresh upon our churches and our land, before corruption and spiritual complacency become so fixed and entrenched that they can only lead to further decline.

Write to me, and I'll send you some guidelines to help you get started in praying for revival. Ask for the free PDF, "Restore Us." It will show you how you can become one of the few who are taking seriously the Lord's call to prayer.

And if you consider being part of the few not all that great a calling, remember the words of Jonathan. For when the Lord does send revival - and He surely will, as He has over and over again - when great things and mysteries begin happening all around us, as they did in the Celtic lands of Gildas' day, the few who take seriously the call to prayer will have the enormous satisfaction and unbelievable joy of knowing that their faithful and sacrificial prayers have been answered.

Come on. Do something really big. Devote yourself to something really worthwhile.

Become one of the few.

T. M. Moore, Principal

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

And don't forget to order copies of If Men Will Pray to give to the men you intend to enlist to join you in praying for revival.