WHY WE DON'T HAVE REVIVAL

By Leonard Ravenhill

  In an old town in Ireland they'll show you with reverence a
place where four young men met night after night after night
praying for revival. In Wales, there's a place in the hills where
three or four young men only 18 or 19 years old met and prayed
night after night. They wouldn't let God go; they would not take
no for an answer. As far as humanly possible they prayed a
revival into birth. If you're thinking of revival at your church without
any inconvenience, forget it. Revival costs a lot.

      I can give you one simple reason why we don't have revival in
America. Because we're content to live without it. We're not
seeking God - we're seeking miracles, we're seeking big crusades,
we're seeking blessings. In Numbers 11, Moses said to God,
"You're asking me to carry a burden I can't handle. Do something
or kill me!" Do you love America enough to say, "God, send
revival or kill me"? Do you think it's time we changed Patrick
Henry's prayer from, "Give me liberty or give me death," to "Give
me revival or let me die"?

      In the 30th chapter of Genesis, Rachael goes to Jacob and
throws herself down in despair. She says, "Give me children or
else I die." Are you willing to throw yourself down before God to
seek the spiritual birth of spiritual children in our country?

      People say, "I'm filled with the Holy Spirit." If the coming of
the Spirit didn't revolutionize your prayer life, you'd better check
on it. I'm not so sure you got what God wanted you to get.

      We've said that prayer changes things. No! Prayer doesn't
change things. Prayer changes people and they change things.
We all want Gabriel to do the job. God says do it yourself - with
My sufficiency and My strength.

We need to get like this woman, Hannah. What did she do? She
wept, she was grieved, she said she had a complaint, she fasted -
and she prayed.

      Jesus, the anointed of God, made prayer His custom. Paul,
with his background and intellect, depended on prayer because
he said he was weak. David, the king, called himself a poor man
and cried to the Lord. Hannah prayed for a son and gave birth to
a prophet. The prayers of a handful of young men sparked revival.

There's nothing more transfiguring than prayer.