Revival! (4)

“And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” Matthew 21.22

Ministers of Scotland: Lectures on Revival VI[1]
The Rev. Alexander Cumming, Minister of Dunbarney Parish
“Prayer is an ordinance remarkably suited to the exigencies of our fallen condition, because it tends to preserve in our minds a vivid impression of the divine agency. We are too apt to let our views terminate in the operation of secondary causes, and to forget that Almighty power to which they are indebted for their energy and existence; but when God suspends the communication of his benefits upon prayer, he compels us to recognize his providence in the economy of human affairs.”

Contemporary American Christians have become adept at relying on “secondary causes” in doing the work of the Lord. It’s why we run programs, tweak our liturgies, and organize our churches like businesses rather than flocks. These things “work.” That is, thinking the church is an organization like any other in the world, we embrace worldly ways of building the church, and use these to the neglect of Biblical ways. What we see successful businesses, schools, or media outlets and entertainment enterprises doing, we embrace and adopt for doing the ministry of the church. We forget that “God suspends the communication of his benefits upon prayer”. Prayer, not programs, is the key to a revived people and a renewed church. The mistake of the awakeners toward the end of the Second Great Awakening was trying to package and replicate revival through formulas and programs, rather than to wait on the Lord for revival in united and extraordinary prayer. We’re making the same mistake today.

What are the greatest obstacles to prayer becoming a more prominent aspect of your own life? Of the life of your congregation?

Preparing for Revival
It’s not that programs are evil. But when we rely on our programs to produce the results we seek, rather than relying on the Lord in prayer and pleading, we’re making the very mistake the Reformers inveighed against at the time of the Reformation. We’re treating the mechanics of church life like opera operata, while God holds back the refreshing rains of revival until we seek Him, and not the next new program.

Join us online once a month to pray for revival. Surely you can spare 30 minutes, once a month, to join with other pastors and church leaders to seek the Lord for revival, according to His Word? We’re looking for men who will commit to seeking the Lord for revival together. If you’re interested, write to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and I’ll give you a list of available times. Or we can discuss beginning a new group to pray for revival at a more suitable time.

To help you in preparing for revival, we have two brief books that won’t take you more than an hour to read. Preparing Your Church for Revival tells you what to expect as the Lord begins to move, and shows you how to get ready even now (click here). Restore Us! provides the rationale and means for praying together for revival. It includes 12 psalms to guide your times of praying together (click here).

All quotations in this series are taken from Ministers of Scotland,Lectures on Revival, Richard Owen Roberts, ed. (Wheaton: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1980). Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.