NEXT STEP
We Could Set a Date
J
anuary 25, 1992. That date taught me the meaning of revival and the power of prayer. It was the date that charted the course for the rest of my life. Every ministry opportunity the Lord has given me (including being involved with Revive), I can trace directly to that Saturday. I was twelve years old. A few months prior, I heard about revival and asked my mom why we didn’t have it. She said she wasn’t sure, but that it required prayer. She helped me read up on what revival meant—stories from the past of thousands coming to Christ, whole towns repenting of sins, bars closing, police being laid off due to lack of crime—and as a faith-filled twelve-year-old, I couldn’t get enough of it. “Why couldn’t God do that today?” I asked. I decided we should call a prayer meeting, and started sending out simple, text-only flyers to every Christian I knew. They said, “Pass the Word, Pray for Revival,” with the date and 2 Chronicles 7:14. That really captured people’s attention. A twelve-year-old calling for a day of revival prayer? It wasn’t long before I had radio stations from Cleveland to Seattle to Houston calling for interviews, and letters of encouragement flooded us from families the world over. I remember one day when a man called from Australia to let us know he was planning to pray with us on January 25th. He had read about it in a local newspaper! January 25th arrived, and Christians across the world were praying with us. We knew of countless meetings in churches, on campuses, among missionaries in faraway lands . . . it was overwhelming. Somehow, God had used a few loaves and fishes to multiply a miracle that no one, especially me, would ever have expected. Did revival result from the many prayers uttered? It did for me. I saw the power of God in more ways than I
could describe here. I learned that God can use anyone. That’s not just a cliché—He really will use anyone. Faith, prayer, and a little initiative are all that He requires. Perhaps someday I’ll publish the full story of what happened that winter . . . how every time the phone rang, I’d jump at the thought of what new miracle was being reported . . . how Ephesians 3:20-21 came to life for me. But history can only take us so far. What must we do today? Well, we could set a date. We could invite our friends to pray, confess, plead, and seek God as never before for revival in our midst, for awakening in the world. We could start small and unsophisticated: “2 Chronicles 7:14—Let’s meet to pray.” It could be anywhere, with anyone, at any time, as God leads. If every Revive reader accepted this challenge and encouraged others to do so, more than 50,000 revival prayer meetings would result. That would be a healthy start! Then, behold the power of God. n
We could invite our friends to pray, confess, plead, and seek God as never before for revival.
Daniel W. Jarvis Managing Editor
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