Just A Thought

Jerome was a good guy just trying to make life work. With a two-year-old marriage and a one-year-old son, his limits were being tested. He was now responsible for a family, money was tight, his job was challenging, and politics were driving him crazy. 

Then came the weekend he had been eagerly anticipating, because he was spending it with a group of guys who were getting away solely for the purpose of finding their bearings and letting God make a difference in their lives. It was a men’s conference that delivered. Come Monday he was rejuvenated, inspired and back at work, ready to conquer the world.

Then, not really understanding what happened, Jerome seemed to hit an invisible wall. A funk settled in and his mind began drifting toward everything that was dark and unsettling. He began asking himself why he had let himself hope for good things, and wondered if things will ever change for him.  While commuting home after a day riddled with problems a car nearly sideswipes him and he finds himself yelling at the stranger who had just put his life in danger.

Disappointed in himself Jerome wonders how God could work all this together for good. Then he recalls the devotion from men’s conference about Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.” Maybe life was exposing some areas in his life where he could do a better job of letting God be his strength instead of trying to measure up on his own. 

The speaker had reminded them that life was designed by God to be empowered by him. And that, before his ascension, Jesus told his followers, “ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you:(Acts 1:8 KJV) Those followers who had cowered when Jesus was crucified became different people after the day of Pentecost when “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” (Acts 2:4 NIV) God’s power in them made all the difference.

Jerome knew what he had to do.  He had to talk this over with God and open up his heart to receive that power. That meant admitting weakness and total dependence on God. After a few minutes of embracing God’s forgiveness and grace, he felt that power surge into his heart and drive the funk away.As soon as he got home Jerome turned to 2 Corinthians 7:7-10 (MSG) and reviewed St. Paul’s take on the matter. He said: 

“Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,

My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.”

# posted by John W. Hanson @ Friday, July 31, 2020

He was a twenty-six-year-old Welsh coal miner when God called him to do something very similar to what Daniel did centuries before. I should mention that many other believers had been praying similar prayers for years. But he was the vessel God chose to use in 1904.  

His name was Evan Roberts. He was raised in a Calvinistic Methodist home. He worked in the coal mines with his father, then later worked for his uncle as a blacksmith. He was very devout and known to be a man of prayer. While studying for the ministry at Newcastle Emlyn he attended a service held by evangelist Seth Joshua and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He returned to his hometown, hoping for an opportunity to preach the gospel. His pastor did not let him preach on Sunday or at the Monday prayer meeting. So, Roberts just attended the prayer meetings and let God begin using him to minister extemporaneously. People responded to his ministry so well that he began ministering night after night, with people staying up until early in the morning. 

Years of prayer had built up and, in God’s time, there was an explosion of conversions, vibrant preaching and singing, and a manifestation of  the Gifts of the Spirit. Over 30,000 people were said to have converted within a few month’s time. Over the next year or so it is estimated that 100,000 people made a commitment to Christ. Not only that, but five years later, 80 percent of the converts were still attending church. 

The social changes in Wales were drastic. Bars were nearly empty, judges had no cases to prosecute, and policemen were laid off, for lack of work. Illegitimate births dropped 44 percent within a year. Some even claimed that since the miners cleaned up their language and stopped cursing, the horses slowed down and mining productivity declined.

This move of God was so exceptional that people began travelling from all over the world to Wales to see what was taking place. The Welch revival had a direct influence on what would become the Asuza St. Revival in America. This revival was the beginning of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement which has changed the Christian community. 

Looking back at how it all started, some have pointed to a prayer that Roberts prayed as that young Bible student. Keep in mind that Roberts was devout, and God had stirred his faith in several ways. For example, he told several people that he had experienced visitations from the Holy Spirit where he saw "all Wales being lifted up to Heaven." On another occasion he asked his roommate, who would later be his brother-in-law, if he believed that God could give them 100,000 souls. That lead to the now famous three-word prayer that he began to pray: “Lord bend us.” Those three words describe introspective prayer perfectly. 

Can we sincerely pray those three words “Lord bend us?” Do we care enough about what he is doing to change what we are doing? Can we be introspective enough to let Him take things out of our hearts that don’t align with what He is doing? If so, we can expect amazing results, even though we are in the middle of a world-wide pandemic. 

# posted by John W. Hanson @ Friday, July 24, 2020