I have spent a considerable amount of time promoting revival. It’s the burden God has laid upon me. I have grown weary with these special meetings that we label “revival”. Now, don’t get me wrong, they are fun, people get help, the fellowship is usually great, and the food is almost always fantastic, but they aren’t really revival. I have seen true revival spring forth out of these meetings, but generally as a rule, they are just good meetings. Real revival changes things. It changes people. Real revival is a drawing into God; it is a renewing of life within the heart of the believer; and ultimately the congregation. True revival changes people in such a way they can no longer remain silent. They are filled with God and want to tell everyone they see about what God has done in them. In revival, God steps down. Revival happens on many different levels and often takes different forms. A single individual could have revival within themselves, or it could break-out, spreading through a church, community, or even an entire nation. But regardless of what degree revival comes, there is always a drawing into God; a heart rekindled by the Spirit.
May 9th through May 20th of 2010, God allowed me to partake in a genuine revival. It was at the Hickory Gap Pentecostal Church, a small church in the mountains of Busy, Ky. where my friend, Larry Gross, is the pastor. I had already preached a meeting there in November of 2009. We had several good services and the people were encouraged, but almost immediately things went back to the way they were before I came–unfortunately most of today’s so-called revivals are this way. As far as the pastor could see, nothing eternal had taken place, but we found out later that something eternal had indeed taken place.
The church had a van that was hardly ever used, so Pastor Gross decided the best thing to do was sell it and use the money for something else. Come to find out, a young man named Jamie had been stirred by the meeting in November and got hungry to see the lost saved. God placed it upon his heart to start a bus ministry, so he and his wife did just that. They knocked doors and filled the bus up with children, teenagers, and parents. At the same time, Pastor Gross felt like having a weekly prayer meeting to prepare for our upcoming services, so for five weeks prior to my coming they met on Wednesday nights and prayed for revival. Meanwhile, the bus ministry exploded. Jamie and his wife Melissa were having to make two trips per service. This prompted Pastor Gross to buy a second church van; Brother Jamie and Sister Melissa were each driving a separate van.
This all took place five to six weeks prior to me coming. In November, they had about eighteen to twenty-five people attending each service, but when I got there in May they were busing in as many as forty people a night. Before the revival was over we were seeing anywhere from seventy-five to a hundred people attending every service; the bus ministry had nearly doubled. Most nights Bro. Jamie and Sis. Melissa were having to make two trips a piece!
I am giving you these details so you will understand that I had very little to do with what I am about to tell you. I don’t want someone to hear about what happened in Hickory Gap and think I’m some kind of great evangelist that carries revival around in his briefcase because I’m not. Revival broke out because some people were hungry for it. Revival broke out because of a pastor who was willing to call a five week prayer meeting. Revival broke out because a couple of people were willing to go into the highways and hedges to compel sinners to come to church. Revival broke out because God is faithful and unbelievably merciful.
When I opened the altar up the first night, I knew something special was taking place. I would say half a dozen or so lost souls came down to the altar seeking God; at least three of them professed to being saved that Sunday evening. I found out later that the young people that were coming had not been in any of the main services; they were always placed in a children’s church environment and had not been preached to. I was the first preacher many of them had ever heard!
Night after night, for eleven nights, three, four, five, as high as fifteen lost souls came to the altar with great weeping and brokenness. I’m not really into evangelistic statistics, but I’d guess there were sixty-five to seventy sinners that came forward for salvation. I saw a ten year old girl weep so intensely that she nearly soaked the entire front of her shirt. It wasn’t uncommon to see twenty teenagers on the altar crying out to God. We saw sinners weeping in the parking lot after church, still under conviction. One night, a school teacher and one of her students got saved at the same time! It was beautiful. I watched a fifteen year old girl weep, almost uncontrollably, for thirty straight minutes while I was preaching.
Although it wasn’t the case with all of them, many of the young people came in dirty, hair unkempt, and wearing ragged clothing. I found out that the vast majority of them were from broken homes; living in very poor conditions. Several of them had fathers that were in jail and had mothers that were drug addicts. Numerous were in abusive homes, having guardians that couldn’t have cared less about their future. As each night went by my heart grieved more and more for them. The more I learned about their pitiful lives, the more burdened I became. I was able to feel the burden of the Lord and some of the love He has for them. If I ever saw the love of the Lord Jesus to sinners, I saw it during that eleven night span.
If I had to choose one characteristic that made this revival unique, it would be the number of young people that prayed. It was very obvious that God was reaching out to those children in a very special way. I have had as many as a hundred sinners pray in a single revival, but never so many broken young people. Don’t get me wrong, there were adults that got saved too, but the vast majority of those that were saved were teenagers and young children! The pastor projected that twenty-five percent of the local elementary and middle school were on his altars praying for salvation.
Here’s the thing about all the young people that were coming: there were no gimmicks or ploys. Typically, the pastor would have his wife sing two congregationals, an usher take up the offering, and then give me the floor to preach. There were no hotdogs, hamburgers, or fun-in-games. They came to hear the gospel preached! And with that said, the longer the revival went on, more and more young people came. It amazed me at how quiet they would get while I preached; you could hear a pin drop. The Holy Ghost captivated them; He arrested their minds night after night. It was incredible!
Well, I could go on and on about individual occurrences, but I would like to share one last experience with you; an experience that changed my life forever. There was a young lady there named Megan; she attended nearly every night of the revival. I pulled and pulled for her, but it seemed she wasn’t going to break. But on Thursday night, the last night of the revival, she came down to the altar. It was while I was playing the piano and my wife was singing that Megan changed my life. Overtop of all the noise in that church, I heard the most beautiful sound I had ever heard: Megan was weeping. She was weeping with such brokenness, such travail that I couldn’t do anything but weep with her. She cried with such anguish I could feel her pain. I found out later that she came from a terrible environment; a background so painful most of us couldn’t even fathom it. But she poured her hurts and pains out to Christ. She begged him for forgiveness with such anguish we all knew heaven was standing at attention for this broken little lady. I became instantly addicted. In an hour where people profess to get born again in less time than it takes me to wash my car, I will never be satisfied except I hear that sound again and again. She wanted to be baptized the following Sunday, but when the van pulled up to her house she was standing on the side of the road weeping; her father wouldn't allow it. Please, pray for these children.
That was our revival at Hickory Gap Pentecostal Church in a nutshell. I hope it stirs your heart and makes you hungry to see the same in your home church.
