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2024年2月18日 祈りのリバイバル Revival Prayer
使徒の働き1章14節　マーティ・ウッズ 宣教師 Rev. Marty Woods

この英語の原稿を自動で日本語に翻訳するには、メニュー上部にある「言語を選択」というプルダウンリストから一旦他の言語を選んでいただき、その後「日本語」を選択し直してください。

I have been really enjoying and appreciating this series on revival. It’s great seeing Pastor Keishi so fired up!

I love praying. I want to make it a part of my life more and more.  I don’t always get prayer right. Sometimes I forget to pray…in fact prayer is not the first thing – sadly it can be the last thing.

Today we want to learn more about revival prayer. It’s been good these last weeks hearing stories of revival in Japan. Today I want to share some stories of where prayer has led to revival outside of Japan. 

As I begin, I want to acknowledge those Japanese prayer warriors who have over the years have given themselves to pray for Japan. The UK has a two pound coin with these words around it. Standing on the shoulders of giants. Today I honour those who have not given up and prayed and may not have seen it – like the list in Hebrews 11 who never saw the promise that we believe we are going to see. I believe we are chosen to see the move of God that they had been praying for, for so long.

I wanted to start with two examples from the Bible that inspire my prayer life.

Jesus first of all. 

Mark 1:35  Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed

Hiroshi is my inspiration. It’s his getting up early… It is hard to make the effort on a cold day but I am determined to pray and to hear from the Father. Jesus did it cause He wanted to be with the Father. So I want to.

It is not so much that it is early in the morning – rather it is that Jesus just knew He wanted to be with the Father. If you are not a morning person what is the best time for you to go off and be with the Father?

Second look how often, in this passage, Paul encourages us to pray – He says it 5 times in 3 verses… 

^“ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” Ephesians 6:18-20

In fact Paul tells us to “ Pray without ceasing, on all occasions, in every way.” 

We are in a spiritual battle and prayer is our number 1 weapon. Every morning the first thing I do as I start praying is to put the armour on. Then I pray.

Let’s explore a little more about revival prayer. Revival begins often with a handful of people, often 2 or 3 or even 1, who became desperate for God to visit. Prayer is ultimately where revival begins. We can’t make revival happen, but we can ask for it. 

In all revivals in history there was always a movement of prayer inviting God to work. Prayer is always central both to preparation for revival and to revival itself.

Edwin Orr studied revivals and came up with 3 characteristics of every revival he looked at

• People gathered together in unity. God blesses unity. He wants us to work together 
• People heard the Good News in their own heart language – the Good News made sense to them. 
• And here is the final one. In every revival prayer was the catalyst that brough revival on.

To get inspired about revival – great place to start is to read the Book of Acts. Every March I try to read it to remind me of how God was at work and it inspires me to pray it will happen now. 

As we read how the early church spread in the book of Acts, I feel this longing within me. I want Japan to experience a revival like in the book of Acts. To experience the Holy Spirit moving powerfully, transforming lives, and furthering God’s Kingdom. 

In the book of Acts, we have many accounts of the Spirit’s powerful work in the life of the church. We see God’s people constantly gathering in prayer.

When Jesus ascended what is the first thing they do? They go back to the Upper room.

“All of them were united in prayer, gripped with one passion, interceding night and day.” Acts 1:14

I appreciate a modern translation of this passage, “They all agreed they were in this for good, completely together in prayer, the women included.”

That attitude is what is needed if revival is to come 

Committed,
Completely together for prayer,
Everyone part of it.

 Acts 2:42 we are told that the new church community devoted themselves to prayer. In fact there are a number of stories in Acts of the early Church gathering for prayer. It is full of  stories of the first revival.

Throughout history there are many inspiring revival stories. I want to share two this morning.

An amazing move of God took place in the USA just under 200 years ago. God used a man named Jeremiah Lanphier. 

Jeremiah wanted to try and reach the businessmen and migrants working and living alongside him. He tried to get to know people in the community and invite them to church, but no one came. So, he started organising prayer meetings once a week. The first one six people showed up. He kept going. After three weeks, the number rose to 40. They decided to offer prayer time every day. Within 5 weeks, there were around 100 people coming every day to pray. 

Then other churches started offering similar prayer meetings. 6 months later thousands of people were gathering to pray every day and the movement had spread to other cities. People from all walks of life were coming to Jesus. God was responding to people’s prayers. One man offered an opportunity for people to pray. And at just the right time, God opened the floodgates, and thousands of people began following Jesus. 

The second story is from Scotland…

The 1949 Revival in Scotland can be traced to 2 prayer meetings. The first was two sisters in their 80s crying out to God to visit their community. They were devastated that young people were staying away from church. One of the sisters was unable to walk and the other was blind. They couldn’t go to church themselves. They cried out to God for 8 months. They prayed by name for the people in each cottage along their village streets. They held on to verses in the Bible that God gave them. They cried them out

For a moment I wonder what would happen if each day we cried out the verse God has given us for the year- Isaiah 32:15

“Till the Spirit is poured on us from on high. And the desert becomes a fertile field and the fertile field becomes like a forest.”

Can we keep praying till this is what we see?

Back to our story…) 

Across the same village, unaware that the Smith sisters were praying, seven young men met three nights a week in a barn to pray for revival. They made a covenant with God and one another, that they would give Him no rest until He sent revival their way. Month after month they just kept praying and would not give up.

One night in particular they prayed with great passion Psalm 24:3-5: “Who all ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that has clean hands, and a pure heart…He shall receive the blessing…from the God of his salvation” 

Where they were praying, the room was filled with the glory of God and the young men praying from the Psalms fell on the floor. An awesome awareness of God overcame them and they were drenched with supernatural power they had never known before.

At that very time, the Lord gave one of the Smith sisters a vision. Peggy Smith saw the churches crowded with people, and hundreds being swept into the Kingdom of God. They sent word to their pastor that they had “broken through” and that heaven was about to descend on earth.

And so it did. The whole region seemed saturated with God. Wherever people were—in the work place, in their homes or on the roads—they were overwhelmed by the presence of almighty God.

A stream of blessing flowed that brought hundreds to salvation during the days of that historic visit from God.

“The desert becomes a fertile field and the fertile field becomes like a forest.”

These stories inspire and encourage me to not give up in prayer.  

As I was preparing this sermon, I was aware of this one thing…it was the danger of people thinking well if we don’t pray like that revival won’t happen. 

This sermon is not wanting you to feel guilty that you “should” pray more. It is not a message to try harder 

Rather it is a message that if we love God and we want His kingdom then our desire to pray will come from the heart. We will find our way to pray.

When I know that,  I will fight in prayer for His Kingdom to come. It is reason to get up early, I will sacrifice. I will fast. I will do anything to see revival come. 

I see the need here in Japan. So many Japanese who don’t know the Father like I do.

Here are 5 practical things I find helpful… 

1. Pray with passion

The Psalmist says in Psalm 83:1 “You have to do something! Don’t be silent and just sit idly by.“

Happened to me as I was on the train the other day…

Prayer has to come from our heart. Prayer that does not involve the heart is not true prayer. It is superficial in nature and gets no response from God. 

True prayer wells up from within, from the very inner core of one’s being.  It comes from my spirit reaching out to God.

I appreciate the words of a song titled Hosanna

I see a generation
Rising up to take their place
With selfless faith
With selfless faith

I see a near revival
Stirring as we pray and seek
We’re on our knees
We’re on our knees

Revival happens as we are on our knees.

2. Prayer comes from our love for the Father.

David writes in the Psalms many love songs.  He cries through the night, aches to be with God, for he has found, really found, his life in God: He loves God. Listen to this…

My heart and soul “pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God” (42:1-2 NIV) His body even longs for God. 

Daivd says God’s love “is better than life” (63:3 NIV). 

David is captivated by the Beauty he finds in God. On and on he goes. The man is undone. He is overtaken by God’s love. He is a lover of God.

From this place we just want God. We want to be in His Presence.

Psalm 84:10 

I really like how a modern English translation says, “One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship, is better than a thousand days spent on Greek island beaches… Or at the bottom of Mt Fuji!

We just want to be with God. 

3. We pray together 

The New Testament teaches a lot about private prayer, but there is even more about praying together.

It doesn’t have to be anything complicated. Start with being simple and consistent.  All you need is a regular time and space for people to be able to come together to pray and see what God does. I can only imagine what will happen when there are groups of people lifting their voices to God everywhere. 

Great what happens every Thursday here at Church. Maybe we find other opportunities. Pray God will help you find people prepared – who are ready and open.

Every Sunday we want to start a prayer time at 10am – an hour before Church where we just cry out for 10×10

4. Be intentional about prayer.

Set your alarms to pray at 9:38 or 10.10 each day…

Ask God who you could be praying for? 

Let’s ask now in a moment of silence, for God to give you three names of people you could pray for each day. Share your list with a friend and pray together for your list…

What helps me be intentional and disciplined to pray for Japan and 10×10 is I go running each day around where we live. I have a 10×10 bridge that whenever I go under it I cry out to God for 10 million  believers in Japan. I don’t run fast like Shin??  Or as I call him, Shin running man! But it helps me to be intentional.  

5. Don’t give up

Above all with prayer I have learnt to not give up

Luke 18:1: Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 

Have you ever prayed for something that you took many years to see happen.

Praying and not giving up – My mum

The psalmist cries out to God: Psalm 80: 18- 19  ‘Revive us, and we will call on your name. Restore us, O Lord God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved’ 

As we look at the state of the church in Japan it can look desperate. Yet God has restored and revived his people in the past. He can do it again today. Cry out for revival. 

We know we cannot manufacture revival. Yet I am convinced that God can send it.

One last thing to say.

History belongs to the people who pray. You can shape your generation through prayer. You can influence the course of history.

Let’s pray.