Establishing Foundations: Past USA Revivals

Revival Fire - Church history and current revivals include times when God moves in great power with mighty visitations. We are living through that now, and there's more to come. The American colonies saw it. 50,000 were converted in 1735. Jonathan Edwards described the characteristics of that move as, first, an extraordinary sense of the awful majesty, greatness and holiness of God, and second, a great longing for humility before God and adoration of God.

David Brainerd, missionary to the North American Indians from 1743 to his death at 29 in 1749 saw a powerful visitation of God in October 1745. Whole communities were changed by the power of the Spirit. Crime and drunkenness dropped, idolatry was abandoned and marriages repaired.

The 1827 Cane Ridge revival outside Louisville (pop. 1500) drew crowds of 15-20,000. Thousands were converted. Many strange reactions accompanied the move of the Spirit then, including strong shaking and loud cries. Preaching was done on 7 different platforms.

Jeremiah Lanphier, a city missionary, began a weekly noon prayer meeting in New York in September 1857. By October, it grew into a daily prayer meeting attended by many businessmen. By March 1858, newspapers carried front page reports of over 6,000 attending daily prayer meetings in New York and Pittsburgh, and daily prayer meetings were held in Washington at five different times to accommodate the crowds. By May 1859, 50,000 of New York's 800,000 people were new converts. New England was profoundly changed by the revival and in several towns no unconverted adults could be found! Charles Finney preached in those days.

William Seymour began a mission at Azusa Street in Los Angeles on Easter Saturday, April 14, 1906 with about 100 attending, both blacks and whites. It grew out of a cottage prayer meeting. Revival there drew people from around the nation and overseas and launched Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.

God's power visited Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, on Tuesday February 3,1970 at the regular morning chapel commencing at 10 o'clock. The auditorium filled with over 1,000 people. Few left for meals. By midnight over 500 still remained praying and worshipping. Several hundred committed their lives to Christ that day. Teams of students visited 16 states and saw several thousand conversions through their witnessing in one week. Over 1,000 teams went out in the first six weeks. This is just the USA. Parallel moves of God also were occurring world wide as the fire spread. We indeed are ready for another outpouring.