In the year 1835, Titus Coan landed in Hawaii to share the gospel with the people of the island. On his first tour, multitudes of people from miles around came to hear him. Many listened with tears and would not go home. The people remained and crowded around him so earnestly that he had no time to eat. The Holy Spirit was drawing and touching the people’s hearts in a remarkable way. In the places where he spent his nights, they filled the house, leaving scores of people outside. All wanted to hear about Jesus. On the Sabbath day, on the way to the place he was scheduled to preach, there was a line of four villages not half a mile apart. Every village begged for a sermon before he could get to the scheduled preaching place. Starting at daylight, he preached in three villages before breakfast at 10 am. Many were cut to the heart by the sermon and desired to get their lives right with God.
Within a short while, he was ministering to 15,000 people. Being unable to reach all the people, they came to him and settled down to a two-year camp meeting. There was not an hour day or night when an audience of 2,000 to 6,000 would not rally to the signal of the bell for the next gospel message. There was trembling, weeping, sobbing, and loud crying for mercy, sometimes too loud for the preacher to be heard, and in hundreds of cases his hearers fell in a swoon. Some would cry out, "The two-edged sword is cutting me to pieces." The wicked scoffer who came to make sport dropped like a dog, and cried, "God has struck me!" Once while preaching in the open field to 2,000 people, a man cried out, "What must I do to be saved?" and prayed for God to have mercy on him, and at that, the entire congregation took up the cry, also, for God to have mercy on them. For half an hour Mr. Coan could get no chance to speak but had to stand still and see God work. [1]
Today, many have become so resigned to the evil that so permeates our society that they think there is now no hope and that we should wait for Jesus to come because, after all, what can we do? One cannot plan to have a revival. It is entirely something that God does. Churches might call a series of meetings a revival, but it is a conference until God shows up in power. Only when that happens can it indeed be a revival. It is the power of God displayed over the human heart—often it is an outpouring of grace over a territory or a country. Many times in answer to prayer, God prepares a particular person that He uses. As long as the person keeps a heart that is humble before God, the revival continues. God has used revivals such as these to change the spiritual environment of whole cities and countries, bringing many into the kingdom.
I am convinced that a move of the Holy Spirit is what is needed today. The church today is battling against a wicked tide of evil that threatens to engulf the world, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him” (Isaiah 59:19 KJV). If ever there was a need for Holy Spirit revival, it is today. Where are the intercessors today who will pray and cry out to God for what is needed? God will do His part if the church will pray: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
Often we don’t hear the conditions of this Scripture, the word if that starts the promise. We are to humble ourselves, pray, examine ourselves in the light of God's righteousness to turn from all unrighteousness (confess our sins to God), then God will act to forgive our sin and heal the land. If we don't do these things, then guess what – we will not receive the blessing. Keith Thomas
Today’s meditation is taken from a longer, more in-depth study found at the following link: Holy Spirit Revival
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