Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest
come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence. As when
the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make
thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy
presence! When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou
camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence. Isaiah 64:1-3
I never read that third verse without my mind going back to what actually
happened in the parish of Barvas on the island of Lewis. At the outset,
let me make it clear that I did not bring revival to the Hebrides. I had
the privilege of being there and in some small way leading the movement
for about three years but God moved in the parish of Barvas before I set
foot on the island. Revival is still a sign which is spoken against, and
you cannot believe every story you have heard about the Lewis Awakening.
Down through the years things have been said which have no foundation in
fact, however, facts are powerful things. REVIVAL DEFINED
First, let me tell you what I mean by revival. An evangelistic campaign
or special meeting is not revival. In a successful evangelistic campaign
or crusade, there will be hundreds or even thousands of people making decisions
for Jesus Christ, but the community remains untouched, and the churches
continue much the same as before the outreach. In revival, God moves in
the district. Suddenly, the community becomes God conscious. The Spirit
of God grips men and women in such a way that even work is given up as people
give themselves to waiting upon God. In the midst of the Lewis Awakening,
the parish minister at Barvas wrote, "The Spirit of the Lord was resting
wonderfully on the different townships of the region. His Presence was in
the homes of the people, on meadow and moorland, and even on the public
roads." This presence of God is the supreme characteristic of a God-sent
revival. Of the hundreds who found Jesus Christ during this time fully seventy-five
per cent were saved before they came near a meeting or heard a sermon by
myself or any other ministers in the parish. The power of God, the Spirit
of God, was moving in operation, and the fear of God gripped the souls of
men - this is God-sent revival as distinct from special efforts in the field
of evangelism. A FOUNDATION OF INTERCESSION AND VISION
How did this gracious movement begin? In 1949, the local presbytery issued
a proclamation to be read on a certain Sunday in all the Free Churches on
the island of Lewis. This proclamation called the people to consider the
"low state of vital religion . . . throughout the land . . . and the
present dispensation of Divine displeasure . . . due to growing carelessness
toward public worship . . . and the growing influence of the spirit of pleasure
which has taken growing hold of the younger generation." They called
on the churches to "take these matters to heart and to make serious
inquiry what must be the end if there be no repentance. We call upon every
individual as before God to examine his or her life in light of that responsibility
which attends to us all and that happily in divine mercy we may be visited
with a spirit of repentance and turn again to the Lord whom we have so grieved."
I am not prepared to say what effect the reading of this declaration had
upon the ministers or people of the island in general, but I do know that
in the parish of Barvas a number of men and women took it to heart, especially
two old women. I am ashamed to think of it - two sisters, one eighty-two
and one eight-four, the latter blind. These two women developed a great
heart concern for God to do something in the parish and gave themselves
to waiting upon God in their little cottage.
One night God gave one of the sisters a vision. Now, we have got to understand
that in revival remarkable things happen. It is supernatural; you are not
moving on human levels; you are moving in divine places. In the vision,
she saw the churches crowded with young people and she told her sister,
"I believe revival is coming to the parish." At that time, there
was not a single young person attending public worship, a fact which cannot
be disputed. Sending for the minister, she told him her story, and he took
her message as a word from God to his heart. Turning to her he said, "What
do you think we should do?" What?" she said, "Give yourself
to prayer; give yourself to waiting upon God. Get your elders and deacons
together and spend at least two nights a week waiting upon God in prayer.
If you will do that at your end of the parish, my sister and I will do it
at our end of the parish from ten o'clock at night until two or three o'clock
in the morning."
So, the minister called his leaders together and for several months they
waited upon God in a barn among the straw. During this time they plead one
promise, "For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods
upon dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon
thine offspring" (Isaiah 44:3). This went on for at least three months.
Nothing happened. But one night a young deacon rose and began reading from
Psalm 24, "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall
stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who
hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall
receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his
salvation" (Psalm 24:3-5). Closing his Bible, he addressed the minister
and other office bearers in words that sound crude in English, but not so
crude in our Gaelic language, "It seems to me so much humbug. To be
waiting as we are waiting, to be praying as we are praying, when we ourselves
are not rightly related to God." Then, he lifted his hands toward heaven
and prayed, "O God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?" Then,
he went to his knees and fell into a trance. Now, don't ask me to explain
the physical manifestations of this movement because I can't, but this I
do know, that something happened in the barn at that moment in that young
deacon. There was a power loosed that shook the heavens and an awareness
of God gripped those gathered together. BREAKTHROUGH IN BARVAS
Now, I wasn't in the island at the time. I was in another area when word
came asking me to come to Lewis for ten days. I had other meetings scheduled
and wrote back that I would put Barvas on my calendar for the following
year. However, do to circumstances I won't go into, my other meetings were
canceled, and I found it possible to go to the islands as requested. Arriving
by boat, I was met by the minister of the church and one of his office bearers.
As I stepped ashore, the office bearer came to me and said, "Mr. Campbell,
may I ask you a question? Are you walking with God?" I was happy to
be able to respond, "I can say this at any rate, I fear God."
They had arranged for me to address the church at a short meeting beginning
at nine o'clock that night. It was a remarkable meeting. God sovereignly
moved, and there was an awareness of God which was wonderful. The meeting
lasted until four o'clock in the morning, and I had not witnessed anything
to compare with it at any other time during my ministry. Around midnight,
a group of young people left a dance and crowded into the church. There
were people who couldn't go to sleep because they were so gripped by God.
Although there was an awareness of God and a spirit of conviction at this
initial meeting, the real breakthrough came a few days later on Sunday night
in the parish church. The church was full, and the Spirit of God was moving
in such a way that I couldn't preach. I just stood still and gazed upon
the wondrous moving of God. Men and women were crying out to God for mercy
all over the church. There was no appeal made whatsoever. After meeting
for over three hours, I pronounced the benediction and told the people to
go out, but mentioned that any who wanted to continue the meeting could
come back later.
A young deacon came to me and said, "Mr. Campbell, God is hovering
over us." About that time the clerk of the session asked me to come
to the back door. There was a crowd of at least 600 people gathered in the
yard outside the church... Someone gave out Psalm 102 and the crowd streamed
back in to the church which could no longer hold the number of people. A
young school teacher came down front crying out, "O God, is there nothing
left for me?" She is a missionary in Nigeria today. There was a bus
load of people coming to the meeting from sixty miles away. The power of
God came into the bus so that some could not even enter the church when
the bus arrived. People were swooning all over the church, and I cannot
remember one single person who was moved on by God that night who was not
gloriously born again. When I went out of the church at four o'clock in
the morning there were a great number of people praying alongside the road.
In addition to the school teacher, several of those born again that night
are in foreign mission work today. IN CHURCH, MEADOW AND MOORLAND
From Barvas, the move of God spread to the neighboring districts. I received
a message that a nearby church was crowded at one o'clock in the morning
and wanted me to come. When I arrived, the church was full and there were
crowds outside. Coming out of the church two hours later, I found a group
of 300 people, unable to get into the church, praying in a nearby field.
One old woman complained about the noise of the meetings because she could
not get to sleep. A deacon grabbed her and shook her, saying, "Woman,
you have been asleep long enough!"
There was one area of the islands which wanted me to come but I didn't feel
any leading to accept the invitation. The blind sister encouraged me to
go and told me, "If you were living as near to God as you ought to
be, He would reveal His secrets to you." I agreed to spend a morning
in prayer with her in the cottage. As we prayed, the sister said, "Lord,
you remember what you told me today that you were going to save seven men
in this church. I just gave your message to Mr. Campbell and please give
him wisdom because he badly needs it." She told me if I would go to
the village, God would provide a congregation. I agreed to go, and when
I arrived at seven o'clock, there were approximately 400 people at the church.
The people could not tell what it was that had brought them; it had been
directed by the Spirit of God. I spoke for a few minutes on the text "And
the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere
to repent' (Acts 17:30). One of the ministers stopped me and said, "Come
see this." At one end of the meeting house, the most notorious characters
in the community were on their faces crying out to God.
On a trip to a neighboring island I found the people were very cold and
stiff. Calling for some men to come over and pray, I particular requested
that a young man named Donald accompany them. Donald, who was seventeen
years old, had been recently saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit about
two weeks later on a hillside. As we were in the church that night, Donald
was sitting toward the front with tears falling off his face onto the floor.
I knew Donald was in touch with God in a way that I was not. So I stopped
preaching and asked him to pray. Donald rose to his feet and prayed, "I
seem to be gazing into an open door and see the Lamb in the midst of the
throne and the keys of death and hell on his waist." Then he stopped
and began to sob. After he composed himself, he lifted his eyes toward heaven,
raised his hands, and said, "God, there is power there. Let it loose!"
And at that moment the power of God fell upon the congregation. On one side
of the room, the people threw up their hands, put their heads back and kept
them in that position for two hours. It is hard to do this for ten minutes,
much less two hours. On the other side, the people were slumped over, crying
out for mercy. In a village five miles away, the power of God swept through
the town and there was hardly a house in that village that didn't have someone
saved in it that night.
In one area of the district there was bitter opposition to the movement
because I preached the baptism of the Holy Ghost as a separate and distinct
occurrence following conversion. Those who opposed me were so successful
in their opposition that very few people came to the meetings. One night,
the session clerk came to me and said, "There is only one thing we
can do to the correct the situation which now prevails. We must give ourselves
to waiting upon God in prayer. I have been told there is a farmer who said
we could meet in his home. He is not a Christian and his wife isn't saved,
but they are God-fearing people." About thirty of us, ministers and
elders from the district, met in this farmer's house. I felt the going very,
very hard. I prayed. All the ministers prayed. One felt that the very powers
of hell were unleashed. About midnight I turned to one of the elders and
told him I thought the time had come for him to lay hold of God. This man
rose to his feet and prayed for about half and hour. (Of course, you must
remember that we were in revival, and in revival time doesn't exist. Nobody
was looking at the clock.) The man paused, lifted his hand toward heaven
and said, "God, did You know that your honor is a stake? You gave the
promise that You would pour water on the thirsty and floods upon the dry
ground, and You are not doing it." I wonder how many of us could approach
God with words like that on our lips? Then he said, "There are five
ministers in this meeting, including Mr. Campbell, and I don't know where
a one of them stands in Your Presence. But if I know anything about my own
heart, I think I can say that I am thirsty for a manifestation of Your power."
He paused again, then cried out in aloud voice, "God, Your honor is
at stake and I now challenge You to pour water on the thirsty and floods
upon the dry ground." And in that moment the stone-built house literally
shook like a leaf. I immediately went to the Acts of the Apostles where
it is recorded that they prayed and the place where they were assembled
was shaken. As soon as this dear man stopped praying, I pronounced the benediction
a little after two o'clock in the morning and went out to find the whole
village ablaze with God. I went into one house and found nine women on their
knees in the kitchen crying out to God. One woman saved that night has written
some of the finest Gaelic hymns in our Gaelic hymnal. On the following Sunday,
the road was black with the people walking two miles to the church. The
drinking house in that particular village closed that night and had never
reopened since. This is God at work. A God sent revival is always a revival
of holiness. CONCLUSION
It takes the supernatural to break the bonds of the natural. You can make
a community mission-conscious. You can make a community crusade-conscious.
But only God can make a community God-conscious. Just think about what would
happen if God came to any community in power. I believe that day is coming.
May God prepare us all for it. Amen. |
