Revival Preparation - Revival Part 3

I knew if God was really going to move powerfully in our church we had to bathe the whole matter in prayer. Prayer had to saturate  all aspects of the anticipated powerful moving of God. Here is what we did.

Cottage Prayer Meetings

We put up a sign up sheet for Saturday night prayer meetings. We emphasized these were not going to be fellowship gatherings but rather they were to be prayer meetings. Prayer for the revival would be our focus in each gathering.

People signed up enthusiastically to host the meetings. Before long we had every Saturday night filled. At times we had over a dozen people at those meetings and other times about half a dozen showed up. It delighted my heart we were praying together no matter the size of the crowd.

One of the things we did is to separate the rooms where the men and women prayed. This seemed to give the women a greater freedom in their prayers. I recall some of those meetings like they were yesterday. Very often the women prayed longer than the men.  Many tears were shed as we pleaded for our city. I don’t know how long those meetings lasted. I do know we got down to business. We prayed fervently, with faith, and with great expectation. We hungered for more of God and more of His work in our lives as well as our church  and town.

The more we prayed together the greater our faith grew and expectations became for God to visit our church and community in a special way. I’ve attended numerous prayer meetings over the years, but those cottage prayer meetings were special. The people in attendance got down to business. Due to busy schedules, different people would attend the meetings from week to week. Not everyone came every week. A remnant group attended them all. Others came as their schedules allowed. We never had more than a little over a dozen people. That did not dampen the intense desire and faith of those who came.

I remember one night praying for rain at one of those meetings. Praying for rain in west Texas is common. The farmers depend on the rain and it hitting at the right times. Somebody that night asked God to send three inches of rain. Lo and behold if the Lord did not answer. The following Monday I had to fly out of town to preach a youth camp. Mike Carter drove me to the airport. On the way he got a text from a farmer saying he received three inches of rain at his farm. Coincidence or just like we had prayed. God was not only listening to us but also answering our fervent pleas.
I also met with a group o men on Friday mornings to pray for the revival. We called that group The Mighty Men Of Prayer. Our group was never large in number but our prayers were certainly fervent. I appreciated those men getting up early before work to come pray with me for our church and our town. I miss them and our prayer times together. 
We did what we could to saturate those revival meetings in prayer. We did something else that proved powerful. I will share that in the next revival post part 4.