The Spiritual Revival in the Hebrides (continued).

In our daily meditations, we reflect on the acts of the Holy Spirit that bring spiritual revival to a city, area, or country. Yesterday, we discussed the revival in the Scottish Hebrides Islands from 1949 to 1952, led by the prayers of two elderly women. Both were in their 80s and worried that there were so few Christians in the Hebrides. They started to cry out to God in prayer, and the Lord responded by sending preacher Duncan Campbell. The words below are his testimony of what happened. As you read, begin to pray that God will do the same in our day in our country:

A young deacon approached me and said, "Mr. Campbell, God is hovering over us." Around that time, the session clerk asked me to come to the back door—a crowd of at least 600 people gathered in the yard outside the church. Someone read Psalm 102, and the crowd surged back into the church, which was no longer able to hold everyone. A young schoolteacher came to the front, crying out, "O God, is there nothing left for me?" She is now a missionary in Nigeria. A busload of people came from sixty miles away for the meeting. The power of God came upon the bus, so some couldn't even enter the church when it arrived. People were swooning throughout the church, and I can't recall a single person who was moved by God that night and was not gloriously born again. When I left the church at 4:00 a.m., many people were praying along the road. Besides the schoolteacher, several others who were born again that night are now in foreign mission work.

From Barvas, the move of God spread to the neighboring districts. I received a message that a nearby church was crowded at 1:00 a.m. and wanted me to come. When I arrived, the church was full, with 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 older woman complained about the noise of the meetings because she was unable to fall asleep. A deacon grabbed her and shook her, saying, "Woman, you have been asleep long enough!"

One area of the islands 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 went 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 had brought them; the Spirit of God had directed it. I spoke for a few minutes on the text: “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). One of the ministers stopped me and said, "Come to see this." At one end of the meetinghouse, the most notorious characters in the community were on their faces, crying out to God.

On a trip to a neighboring island, I noticed the people were very cold and stiff. I called for some men to come over and pray, and I specifically asked a young man named Donald to join them. Donald, who was seventeen, had recently been saved, baptized in the Holy Spirit, and sat toward the front of the church that night with tears falling down his face onto the floor. I knew Donald was in touch with God in a way I wasn’t. 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 composing 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 maintained that position for two hours. Doing this for ten minutes, let alone two hours, is challenging. 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."[1]

This kind of revival is urgently needed! Where are the senior women today who will pray for such a revival? Keith Thomas

Taken from the series, On Fire with the Spirit. This study is titled ‘God Uses Ordinary Believers.’

[1] http://www.revival-library.org/ When the Mountains Flowed Down by Duncan Campbell.