THE CALL TO
PRAYER
By: Pastor Max
Solbrekken, D.D.
“And He went a little farther and He fell on His face, and prayed…And He cometh to His disciples, and findeth them asleep and sayeth unto Peter: What, could ye not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matt. 26: 39-41)
The history of the Early Church gives witness to the power of the Gospel to withstand the very worst persecution by the ‘Enemies of the Cross’ through the cleansing power of Jesus Christ’s shed blood and the abiding presence of the blessed Holy Spirit!
Their lives were constantly fraught with danger, threats, persecution and martyrdom. They were driven to PRAYER to sustain them through the dark days and to give them victory over the World, Flesh and the Devil.
And to perform great MIRACLES, SIGNS and WONDERS in Jesus’ powerful Name to “make the heathen obedient” (Rom.15: 18-19) and to “turn the world upside down”. (Acts 17:6)
The Book of the Acts is in reality the ‘Acts of the Holy Spirit’ performed through the Name of the Resurrected Christ! We rejoice greatly as we read the Bible accounts of the amazing miracles of salvation, healing and deliverance wrought by God’s humble servants through the ‘blood of the everlasting covenant’ (Heb.13: 20) in the name of Jesus of Nazareth!
Church history is replete with similar events of miracles and
revivals as well as much suffering, persecution and martyrdom. TERTULLION (160 – 225 A.D.) one of the
Church Fathers made this victorious statement: “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
MARTYRDOM OF JOHN HUSS!
We fast forward to July 6, 1415 to view a despicable spectacle. The Bohemian Monk, JOHN HUSS, has been found guilty of heresy by the corrupt and evil Pope and his Cardinals. In the book ‘When The Spirit Came’ the Publisher’s Preface gives us this insight into the martyrdom of that great saint and his followers ‘The Moravian Brethren’:
“What I taught with my lips I now seal with my blood.” And singing a hymn “in a loud and cheerful voice”, John Huss was burned at the stake for the Master he loved.
HUSS PLANTS A SEED FOR JESUS!
John Huss had been greatly
influenced by Wycliffe, the English
reformist. And his preaching against the evils
in the Roman hierarchy could not long go unnoticed by the Pope.
HUSS was excommunicated and summoned to appear before the council of
Constance. There he was charged with treason and sentenced to die as a heretic.
A paper mitre was prepared for his head with the inscription, “A ringleader of heretics.” And John
Huss said, “My Lord Jesus Christ for my
sake did wear a crown of thorns: why should not I then for His sake wear this
light crown, be it ever so ignominious? Truly I will do it and that willingly.”
When the mitre was placed on his head, the bishop said, “Now we commit thy soul unto the devil.”
“But I,” said John Huss, lifting up his eyes to Heaven, “do commend into Thy hands, O Lord Jesus Christ, my spirit which Thou
hast redeemed.”
When the chain was put about him at the stake, he smilingly said, “My Lord Jesus Christ was bound with a
harder chain than this for my sake, and why then should I be ashamed of this
rusty one?” And thus on July 6, 1415,
he died, courageous and joyful to the end.
But his message was not lost. From the followers of Huss there arose a group which called themselves Unitas Fratrum,
the Unity of the Brethren.
Through much persecution, a hidden seed was preserved; these held their services in secret and prayed for the revival of their church. Such prayers were heard, when on the 13th day of August, 1727, God’s Spirit fell upon the congregation of Moravians at Herrnhut...”
WHEN THE SPIRIT CAME!
The HOLY SPIRIT fell on a group of spiritually hungry believers in Jesus Christ on August 13, 1727 in Herrnhut Germany!
Next match would you like to have a chicken tonight Some chicken lake is some of the stuff we have have here I don't feel that hungry I just maybe just scraps let's just eat away what do we have here I just don't feel hungry yeah They were a mixed congregation from various denominations who had been given sanctuary by Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf, an outstanding young Nobleman whose heart had cried out to God for a Divine Visitation!
In the book, ‘When The Spirit Came’ (1928) John
Greenfield shares some of the
amazing miracles of the ‘Moravian Revival’:
“Exactly what happened that Wednesday forenoon, August 13th. 1727, in the specially called Communion service at Berthelsdorf, none of the participants could fully describe. They left the house of God that noon ‘hardly knowing whether they belonged to earth or had already gone to Heaven.”
COUNT ZINZENDORF: A MAN GOD COULD USE!
Count Zinzendorf gave the following account of it a number of years afterwards
to a British audience: “We needed to
come to Communion with a sense of the loving nearness of the Saviour. This was
the great comfort which has made this day a generation ago to be a festival,
because of this day twenty-seven years ago the Congregation of Herrnhut,
assembled for Communion (at the Berthelsdorf church) were all dissatisfied with themselves.
“They had quit judging each other because they had become convinced, each one,
of his lack of worth in the sight of God and each felt himself at this
communion to be in view of the noble countenance of the Saviour.
John Greenfield writes: “Sprung from the labors and martyr-death of the great
Bohemian Reformer, JOHN HUSS, ‘the
Brethren’ had passed through centuries of persecution. Many had sealed their testimony with their blood.
“Imprisonment, torture and banishment had caused them to forsake the homes of
their fathers and flee for refuge to Germany where a young Christian Nobleman, Count Zinzendorf, offered them an
asylum on his estates in Saxony.
They named their new home Herrnhut, the Lord’s Watch.
“And from this place after their Baptism with the Holy Spirit, they became the world’s evangelists and missionaries.”
The Moravian Church received a powerful Baptism in the Holy Spirit in Herrnhut, Germany on August 13, 1727. The congregation of about 300 persecuted Christians from various denominations, who had been given sanctuary by Count Zinzendorf, stopped criticizing one another and began in earnest prayer and were all filled with the blessed Holy Spirit.
THE GREAT MORAVIAN REVIVAL
In his book, Moravian Evangelist Rev. John Greenfield wrote: “Of the Apostolic Church in Jerusalem a certain writer has said: ‘Before thirty years had elapsed from the death of Christ, His followers had spread from Palestine throughout Syria; throughout almost all the districts of Asia Minor; through Greece and the Islands of the Aegean sea, the coast of Africa, and even into Italy and Rome’
“And at the close of the First Century JUSTIN MARTYR could truly testify: ‘There is not a nation either Greek or
Barbarian or of any other name, even those who wander in tribes or live in
tents, among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered to the Father and
Creator of the Universe in the name of the Crucified Jesus.”
Similar testimony could be given for the Moravian brethren. During the first 30
years after their spiritual Pentecost, they carried the Gospel of Salvation through the blood of the Lamb not only to
nearly every country in Europe but also to many pagan nations in America, North
and South, Asia and Africa, the West Indies and Greenland.
Greenfield
continues: “Fifty years before the beginning of modern Foreign Missions by WILLIAM CAREY, the Moravian Church had
led the way into pagan countries both by precept and example.
“Their English Missionary magazine, ‘Periodical
Accounts’ inspired Dr. Carey and
in a meeting of his Baptist brethren he threw a copy of the paper on the table
with these memorable and historic words: ‘See
what the Moravians have done! Cannot we follow their example and in obedience
to our Heavenly Master go out into the world and
preach the Gospel to the heathen?”
Here are the words of the sainted Moravian Bishop, Evelyn Hasse:
“Just as the Infant Church in Jerusalem in apostolic days had its Pentecost, from which its members went forth to be Christ’s witnesses ‘both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the ends of the earth,’ so had this church also its own experiences of the quickening power of the Holy Ghost, when in 1727 He came upon its members gathered at the table of the Lord, and baptized them all into one body, and filled them with a strong, unquenchable passion to execute the Saviour’s great Commission, and to let all mankind know of His Cross and of His salvation.”
GREENFIELD states: “Such then was the thirteenth of August seventeen hundred and twenty seven. Count Zinzendorf, the one outstanding human leader and spokesman, called it, “the day of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the congregation,”- “its Pentecost.”
Again he described it as follows: “The Saviour permitted to come upon a Spirit of whom we had hitherto not had any experience or knowledge.” Hitherto WE had been the leaders and helpers. Now the Holy Spirit Himself took control of everything and everybody.”
Therefore also he prayed to Jesus: “Lord our High Priest and Saviour, pour fire and Spirit’s fervour on
all our priestly bands. When we are interceding and for Thy people pleading, give
incense, and hold up our hands.”
MORAVIANS ROUND-THE-CLOCK PRAYER
CONTINUED FOR 100 YEARS!
On August 27, 1727 an
around-the-clock prayer chain was started that lasted for 100 years! The
well-known German historian of ‘Protestant Missions’ Dr. Warneck testifies: “This
small Church in twenty years called into being more Missions than the whole
Evangelical church has done in two centuries.”
A MORAVIAN HISTORIAN writes: “God
says, ‘It shall come to pass – I will
pour.’ This was His promise through the Prophet Joel. The first fulfillment
of this prophecy was on the Day of
Pentecost. There is nothing in the New Testament to indicate that this was
to be the one and only fulfillment of this prophecy.
“On the contrary we read in the Book of Acts of many outpourings of the Holy Spirit, as in Samaria (8: 14-17) as in Ephesus (19: 1-7) and even in the case of the Gen
Memory also abounds in records of special outpourings of the Holy Ghost, and verily the thirteenth of August 1727 was a day of outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We saw the hand of God and His wonders, and we were all under the cloud of our fathers and baptized with their Spirit.
“The Holy Ghost came upon us and in those days great signs and wonders took
place in our midst. From that time scarcely a day passed but what we beheld His
almighty working amongst us.
“A great hunger for the Word of God took possession of us so that we had to have three services every day, viz., 5:00 and 7:00 A.M. and 9:00 P.M. Everyone desired above everything else that the Holy Spirit might have full control. Self-love and self-will as well as all disobedience disappeared and an overwhelming flood of grace swept us all out into the great ocean of Divine Love.”
PRAYER PRECEDES REVIVAL!
In 1928, Greenfield wrote: “Prayer
always precedes Pentecost. The Book of Acts describes many outpourings of the
Holy Spirit, but never apart from prayer.
“In our own day the great Welsh and Korean revivals were preceded by
months, if not years, of importunate and united praying.
Hence the supreme importance of the Prayer
Meeting for it is “the powerhouse of the Church.” So our Fathers found it
two centuries ago. Nearly one century after the
‘Outpouring at Herrnhut’, that prince of Scottish preachers, DR. THOMAS
CHALMERS wrote on the Moravians:
“The efficacy of the Bible alone upon
simple and unfurnished minds is a fact; and the finest examples of it are found
in almost every page of the annals of Moravianism. When the Apostle Paul went
about among the Greeks and Barbarians, charged with the message of salvation to
all who would listen and believe, he preached nothing but Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. Neither do the Moravians.”
The first part of the year 1727 did not seem very promising.
Differences of opinion and heated controversy on doctrinal questions threatened
to disrupt the congregation. The majority were members of the Ancient Moravian Church of the Brethren.
“But other believers had also been
attracted to Herrnhut. Lutherans,
Reformed, Baptists, etc., had joined the community. Questions of
predestination, holiness, the meaning and mode of baptism, etc. seemed likely
to divide the believers into a number of small and belligerent sects.
“Then the more earnest and spiritual souls among them began to cry mightily unto the Lord for deliverance. His first answer was an outpouring of the spirit of grace and supplications.” (Zech. 12: 10)
I HAVE ONE PASSION: IT IS JESUS, JESUS ONLY!
“Matthew Henry’s comment on this passage was fulfilled in their case: ‘When God intends great mercy for His
people, the first thing He does is to set them a praying.’ He also sent them a human leader and
deliverer in the person of the young German nobleman, COUNT ZINZENDORF, who so
kindly offered this persecuted Church a place of refuge on his own estates.
“This godly youth and pre-eminent genius had been divinely prepared for his
great work of spiritual leadership. Converted in early childhood he composed
and signed at four years of age the following covenant: “Dear Saviour, do Thou be mine and I will be Thine.” He had chosen
as his life-motto the now famous confession: “I have one passion: It is Jesus, Jesus only.”
So effective and fruitful was this leadership that nearly two centuries later PROFESSOR BINNIE of Scotland declared: “It would not be going too far to affirm that Count Zinzendorf did more than any other man to redeem the Eighteenth Century from the reproach of barrenness, in relation to evangelical teaching and work.”
Count Zinzendorf had learned early the secret of prevailing prayer. So active had he been in establishing circles for prayer, that on leaving the College at Halle, 16 years of age, he handed the famous Professor Francke a list of seven praying societies.”
WHAT IF THE MISSIONARIES ARE ALL DEAD?
The book, ‘When the Spirit Came’ is filled with such touching stories that ones heart almost breaks. Here is an account of their Mission Work in the West Indies in the 1700s: “FREDRICH MARTIN, one of the first Moravian Missionaries to the Negroes on the Island of St. Thomas, was one of the Lord’s chosen vessels and a typical Moravian. He and a fellow worker were put in jail for preaching the Gospel to the Blacks. More than three months are spent in a miserable prison; but the Spirit filled missionaries gave themselves to prayer like Paul and Silas in the Philipian dungeon.
“Their faithful Negro congregation, nearly 700 communicants, gather daily as
near the jail as possible to join in singing and hear the sermons of their
captive Ministers. A great revival follows and large numbers are converted.
Suddenly Count Zinzendorf arrives on
his first Missionary journey, accompanied by two couples to reinforce the
over-worked and imprisoned missionaries.
“As the ship draws near the beautiful island the Count said to his fellow
workers: “What if we find no one here?
What if the missionaries are all dead?” To this one of the young workers
quietly replied: “Then we are here,”
whereupon Count Zinzendorf uttered the oft quoted exclamation, “Gens aeterna, diese Maehren!” “An eternal
race, these Moravians!”
The Count soon secured the freedom from jail of the sick and half-starved missionaries. He was amazed at the greatness of Frederich Martin’s work and wrote back to Germany: “St. Thomas is a much more wonderful miracle than our own Herrnhut.
IT IS UNSPEAKABLY WELL!
After fourteen years of most sacrificial service Frederich Martin has reached the end of his earthly pilgrimage.
More than fifty of his fellow workers have already laid down their lives.
To his weeping wife the dying missionary says: “My dear heart, I shall probably soon go to my Saviour. Do thou always
be happy in Him. With me it is unspeakably well, and if my spirit flies away to
Him, please ask the Governor to permit my earthly tabernacle to rest on the
plantation beside our Chapel.”
JOHN WESLEY, who founded the Methodist Church, was converted to Christ through the powerful testimony and ministry of the Moravians! May we follow their example and begin praying earnestly, fervently and effectually!
THE BLUE PRINT FOR GENUINE REVIVAL!
“If My people which are
called by My Name shall humble themselves and pray and seek My
Face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive
their sins and heal their land.” (2 Chron.7: 14)
WILLIAM BOOTH said: “Go for the lost and go for the worst!”
JOHN WESLEY prayed: “Give me 100 men who love nothing but God and fear nothing but sin, and I care not a straw whether they be plowmen oclergymen. By these alone I will close the mouth of Hell!”
GEORGE WHITEFIELD prayed: “O’ Lord, give me souls or take mine!”JOHN KNOX prayed: “O’ God, give me Scotland or I die!”
MARTIN LUTHER stated: “I live as though us Christ died yesterday, arose today, and is coming again tomorrow!”
JONATHON EDWARDS cried: “O’ God give me New England 0R I DIE! During one of his last sermons in Boston, D.L. MOODY addressed the subject of THE HOLY SPIRIT thusly: “See how He came on the Day of Pentecost! It is not carnal to pray that He might come again and that the place may be shaken. I believe Pentecost was only a specimen day.
“I think the Church has made this WOEFUL MISTAKE that Pentecost was a miracle never to be repeated. I have thought too that Pentecost was a miracle that is not to be repeated. I BELIEVE NOW, if we looked on Pentecost as a specimen day and began to pray, we should have the old Pentecostal fire here in Boston.”
My hope is that multitude of Christians will realize that God invites us to
pray because He delights in answering our prayers!
Seven times in John’s Gospel Jesus invites us to pray declaring that God will
answer us when we approach the ‘Throne of Mercy’ in His Name! Here is Christ’s
Seven Fold Invitation to Prayer: And
whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do, that the Father may be
glorified in the Son.” (John 14: 13)
1. If ye shall ask anything in My Name, I will do it.” (John 14: 14)
2. “If ye abide in Me and My Word abide in you,
ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.” (John 15: 7)
3. “Ye
have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go
and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My Name, He may give it
you.” (John 15: 16)
4. “And
in that day (when the Holy Spirit has come) ye shall ask Me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye
shall ask the Father in My Name, He will give to you.” (John16: 23)
5. “Hitherto
ye have asked nothing in My name: ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may
be full.” (John 16: 24)
6. “At
that day (when the Holy Spirit has come) ye shall ask in My Name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the
Father for you (as He had done while He was with them).
7. For
the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that
I have come out from God.” (John 16: 26, 27)
WILLIAM SEYMOUR – the son of former slaves – who was used mightily in the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, California (1906-1909) stated:
“Before I met Parham the hunger to have more of God was in my heart that I prayed for 5 hours a day for 2 ½ years. I got to Los Angeles, and there the hunger was not less but more.
I prayed to God, ‘What can I do?’ The Spirit said, ‘Pray more, But Lord, I am praying 5 hours a day now.” I increased my hours of prayer to seven, and prayed on for a year and a half more. I prayed to God to give me what Parham preached, the real Holy Ghost and Fire with tongues with love and power of God like the Apostles!”
JONATHON EDWARDS (1703–1758), who is considered America’s greatest theologian is known for his sermon, ‘Sinners in the hands of an angry God’, was a mighty man of prayer. He usually sought God in agonizing prayer for 18 hours before delivering His powerful sermons!
Before preaching his renowned sermon on July 8, 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut, Jonathon Edwards agonized for three days and nights in intensive intercessory prayer.
The results were staggering! Many who heard his message trembled and cried out for mercy, holding onto their chairs or pillars so that they wouldn’t slide into Hell. Others fell under the Holy Spirit’s power. 500 people were converted that day!
JONATHON EDWARDS cried out to God: “Give me New England or I die.” The revival that followed was the outcome of his agonized prayers! Undoubtedly, the godly example of his prayer-filled son-in-law David Brainerd, who persevered through much adversity in reaching the American Indians also impacted Edwards greatly!
EDWARD PAYSON declared: “Prayer is the
first thing, the second thing, the third thing necessary to a Minister. Pray,
then my dear Brother; pray, pray, pray.”
DAVID BRAINERD stated: “I cared not
where or how I lived or the hardships I went through, so that I could but gain
souls for Christ. When I was asleep I dreamed about these things. When I was
awake the first thing I thought of was this great work. All my desire was for
the conversion of the heathen and all my hope was in God.”
GEORGE WHITEFIELD said: “Whole days and
weeks have I spent on the ground in silent and vocal prayer.”
Let us all pray and seek the Almighty God in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord and receive His blessings, both temporal and eternal!
JESUS COMMUNED OFTEN WITH HIS FATHER!
Jesus
prayed at His baptism. (Luke 3: 21) He
prayed all night (Luke 6: 12), before
appointing His twelve disciples (Luke 6: 12) and after hearing the victorious report of the seventy. (John 10:
21) He prayed for Peter. (Luke 22:
31) He arose early in the morning to
pray. (Mark 1: 35)
He prayed on the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9: 29) and before raising Lazarus from the dead. (John 11: 41, 42) He prayed when the people wanted to make
Him king (John 6: 15) He prayed the
Father to send the Holy Spirit. (John 14: 16)
Jesus prayed for little children (Matt. 19: 13) and during His intercessory ‘High Priestly Prayer’ prior to being
arrested (John 17:1-26), at the Last
Supper (Luke 22:19) and in the
Garden of Gethsemane. (Luke 22: 42)
And Jesus prayed while hanging on the cross! (Luke 23: 46)
And today as our High Priest, He is
interceding for us to the Father as He pleads our cause as our Advocate.
(Heb.7: 25) He taught His disciples to pray (Matt.6: 9-15) and He gave us the warning: “Watch and pray, lest ye fall into
temptation.” (Matt.26: 4; Mark 14:
38)
Sometime ago Donna and I were
watching BILLY GRAHAM on TBN. He shared a recent experience that occurred
while seriously ill. Thinking he was
about to die, he suddenly realized that he would meet Almighty God. He
cried out for mercy and forgiveness for anything he had done to offend the
Lord! He lamented that he should have prayed more.
He said: “I should have studied more! I
should have prayed more!” I can identify with that. The sin of
prayerlessness is rampant in the Church today! “Forgive us O’ Lord. We are all guilty of prayerlessness. I want to
live in Thy presence, Heavenly Father; In Jesus’ name.” Amen!
