John Sung: On 2 December, I read an article entitled ‘The Revival that We Need’ from the book, ‘A Light from the Shores of Darkness’ which mentioned the following:
1. In 1904, the city of Wales was full of sin but as a result of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the churches were suddenly filled with people. Evan Roberts led the people in singing hymns, praying and sharing testimonies. Non-believers, thugs, gamblers and drunkards were saved; and there were confessions of sins from those who had committed the most shameful of sins. Many paid their debts and the theatres closed down. Within a period of five weeks, some 20,000 people turned to the Lord.
2. In the year 1835, Pastor Pitus visited the shores of Bualu and everyone in the vicinity attended his meetings which lasted two years. Whenever the bell tolled, some 2,600 people would gather for the services. At one such meeting, someone asked, ‘What must I do to get saved?’ whereupon the entire congregation cried and confessed their sins. The speaker could not go on as a result. Some 1,500 people were baptized on one Sunday alone. When Pastor Pitus left the place, 11,960 people had been baptized.
3. In the fall of 1821, a young lawyer by the name of Felix were into a jungle to pray and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. There was a great revival in the stattes along the eastern coast of America. There were occasions when the congregation was already weeping even before Felix stepped into the chapel. This revival went on for several years. Once, things were not working too well at one of his meetings and he called the youths to commit to pray in the morning, afternoon and night for a week at home. This resulted in showers of blessings.
When I read this, I said to my fellow workers: ‘Man’s works do not even come close to the works of the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit does not work, all the efforts of man will come to naught.’
On 9 December, Ruth Paxson preached about ‘On Faith and Grace’. Faith and grace are the terms of exchange between Man and God. Fear, doubt and worry are the three main enemies of faith. To have fiath is to fix our eyes on Jesus and to carry out the word of the Lord. Ruth was in Switzerland when she saw a huge rock on which a 50-foot tall tree grew. The roots of the tree embraced the rock and sank deep into the ground. All the sufferings in the world are like the huge rock, bbut we can sink our roots deep into God with the help of faith.
I received four books as presents on Christmas Day. One of them was entitled ‘Does God Allow Us to Cry for help?’ There was a paragraph which read: ‘In 1873, several counties were ravaged by locusts in the state of Minnesota. By the following year, the locusts multiplied themselves many times over. All greenery was devastated and two southern states were laid barren. In 1875, the plague spread to 32 counties, spilling over to Dakota and Northern Iowa. Pillsbury called for a meeting with the 6 state governors in 1876, only to learn that ll known methods of dealing with these pests had been exhausted. The governor of Dakota then suggested that they set aside a day of prayer, but this fell on deaf ears. In winter that year, about 6,000 people had to seek help from the government, and trillions of baby locusts were waiting to emerge from the eggs come spring the following year. This would trigger off a nationwide disaster. Pillsbury made up his mind, on April 9, 1877, he put up notices to set aside 26 April as a day of fasting and prayer for the entire state and took special note of the extent of damage before and after this date. Everyone agreed to this, save a handful of scoffers. There was unprecedented calm within the state on that day. The sun on 27 April was very strong and millions of larvae crawled out, ready to destroy the fields. Two days later, the weather began to turn cold, followed by a sudden frost overnight. All the larvae were frozen to death. Jehovah truly works miracles. Nothing is impossible with God and He is full of love and compassion.’
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