Revival

7 December 2014

Dear Phyllis,

The other day I asked Paul, “How was your service Sunday night?” “Oh, Great! We had a great time. The service started at 5:00 and we got home at 2:00 AM.” I roared, “Impossible! You can't have a service that goes on for 9 hours” Paul replied, “No, the only reason we got home at 2:00 was because the kids had school the next day. If it hadn't been for the kids school we could have gone longer.”

I have always said the thermometer of a church is the parking lot. If the janitor is locking the door, and the church parking lot is empty at 12:15 Sunday morning, you know the temperature inside is pretty chilly. But if 1:00 o'clock comes, and the janitor is impatiently asking the believers still hanging around in the sanctuary to leave, and there are still six or seven cars in the parking lot, the temperature is pretty warm.

Revival is a popular subject in many churches, but revival is something that man cannot schedule, you can't work it up, and you can't organize it.When the Spirit of Christ chooses to visit His church you have revival, and without the presence of the Holy Spirit you have religion. And religion gets old pretty fast.

There are several concepts of revival. One is an intense sense of conviction of sin with confession and repentance. One is a major increase in church attendance. But the one I like is an intense sense of love among the believers. Revival is when no body wants to go home. It is like having a date with your girl friend and you dread going home.

I knew a pastor who loved his wife so much, they would have a date each week. He would reluctantly take her home, and have a length goodbye at the front door. Then he would run around back, and go in the back door. Then they would get down together, and thank God that they could stay together all night in bed.

Revival is when no body wants to go home. I have known it three or four times in my life, but it is unusual. One time I have mentioned before is in Simpsonville,SC. We were having meeting Saturday night in the home of Perry and Pam Sanders. There was no explanation for it. It was just chemistry. Ricky Smith would play his guitar and I would open the Word of God. But, oh my goodness, the atmosphere in the place! The indescribable level of fellowship. The intense love that each one had for everyone in the room. At midnight no body wanted to go home. We used to say, “Wouldn't it be great if we could do this on Sunday morning.” But that never happened.

I have mentioned Gotthold Beck and Kichijoji to you many times. I would say that Gotthold, unquestionably, was the most successful missionary in post-war Japan. He started out in Kichijoji, Tokyo, around 1965 with a handful of university students that he gathered by teaching German in their school. In 30 years that work had gone the full length of Japan, and international, with, conservatively over 2,000 to 3,000 believers. It wasn't the expansion of the work that was impressive, but the character of the meetings. I was in very few meetings in Kichijoji, but they were famous for over crowding. The auditorium might have held 200 folks on a normal occasion, but any Sunday there were over 400 jammed in that building, including the hall, the stairway, the bathroom, the kitchen, etc, and another 20 standing outside that couldn't get in the building holding umbrellas worshiping Jesus. It was unreal. In 1986 we were in Ikoma, and started going to the Kichijoji meetings in Kobe. Man howdy, were they different! I never saw anything like it. The work started in Sister Koyama's apartment with about 8 to 10, but soon they were in a community building with over 100 in attendance. The thing that amazed me was, after the two hour meeting they would have a meal together, and at 3:00 in the afternoon there were still about 2/3 of the folks sitting there at the tables with their Bibles open fellowshipping in the Spirit. Later when they got chased out of that building at 3:00, they would go to other believers homes, and frequently, several would come to our house, and fellowship until midnight.

Five years ago we got a request from a pastor in Laos asking if we could supply him with Bibles. I went over to Laos to talk to the pastor. When I asked him about the number of souls being saved, I couldn't believe the astronomic figure he gave me. I asked him three times, and got the same number each time. A few months later I was taking a team over there to supply him. His English was quite limited, and he was using his niece for an interpreter. When I was with them, I told the niece, “The last time I spoke with your uncle he told me that XX number of churches were being started each month. Is that true?” She asked him again, and he came up with the same number. I asked the girl, “Where are all these believers meeting, and what are the meetings like?” She said that believers were being saved in a wide area and it was difficult for them to meet each Sunday. Some had to travel a considerable distance. Therefore they would get together once a month in a designated place at 6:00 and go all night. I said, “Unbelievable!”. The niece was 23, and told me that she wasn't able to hold up all night long, and usually flamed out around 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. But the meetings would run for 12 hours straight. That is what it is like when you can't close a meeting, and Christians refuse to go home. To the pastors credit, may I also add, he used to be a helicopter pilot in the Lao Air Force, and spent a year in prison for his faith. When he was in prison he dedicated himself to spend the rest of his life serving the Lord. And the Lord has given him a marvelous harvest.

In all honesty, I must explain that the meeting at Paul's' church was not the usual worship time. This is the beginning of the Karen Christmas season, and the meeting started with a meal and a great deal of singing. But still in all the intense craving for fellowship was dominant.

In Thy presence is the fullness of joy. Thank You Jesus,

                                                                                             bill