“On Your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent, you who remind the Lord; take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”
[Is. 62:6-7]
For the past several days we have been talking about Evan Roberts and how the Lord used this young man to shake the world. Today I want to follow up with the rest of the story. Roberts heard an evangelist use the phrase, “Lord, bend us.” The Holy Spirit impressed that phrase on Roberts. That became his personal prayer and his prayer for the nation.
Out of that experience the motto for the revival was born. “Bend the church and save the world.” Little did Roberts know what asking the Lord to bend him would mean or cost. He had the desire to honor God in every aspect of his life, especially in prayer.
A strange thing began happening to Roberts not long after this. By his own admission he had been a sound sleeper all his life. Suddenly, for no explanation, he was awakened around 1:00 a.m. For the next four hours he would be caught up in prayer. Around 5:00 a.m. the Lord would allow Him to go back to sleep until around 9:00 a.m. At this time he would awake again and be summoned to intercede again until noon. This was repeated for three straight months. For 120 straight days Roberts was not able to enjoy a full night of sleep and prayed for seven hours a day. Do you and I want revival that much? Revival is costly and there are few who are willing to pay the price.
One reporter attended a revival. He noted how the revival meetings did not have a prescribed order but were spontaneous. One such meeting lasted seven hours. He reports, “In the gallery a woman was praying and she fainted. Water was offered her but she refused this, saying the only thing she wanted was God’s forgiveness. A well-known resident then rose and said that salvation had come to him. Immediately a thanksgiving hymn was sung, while an English prayer from a new convert broke in upon the singing. The whole congregation then fell upon their knees, prayers ascending from every part of the edifice, while Mr. Roberts gave way to tears at the sight.”[1]
Do we really want revival if part of God bending us means waking us up in the middle of the night to pray? Do we really want God to save the lost so badly that we would be willing to attend services lasting several hours? There are some things to consider before revival should be sought. There are no steps today other than these questions. Do really want God to bend the church and to save the lost? Do we want God to bend us personally? Revival must start with us.
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