Nerve Center of Revival Agonized Prayer

Dr. Colin Peckham took Duncan Campbell's place at Faith Bible College in Edinburgh, and he knew firsthand what revival was. I want to read you, friends, his observations on prayer as it's connected to revival. Dr. Peckham writes, Burdened, broken, bold praying is the nerve center of revival.

There is a price to be paid, a price of curb freedom, of resolute concentration, of agonizing supplication. Intercession costs. There is a burden, a passion, an agony, and yes, glory, the breaking through of God in a meeting.

The evidence of his felt presence is everything, and to get that costs everything. A true intercession is sacrifice because of the high demands of taking up this burden. Many cannot pay the price, and consequently do not gain the rewards and benefits of brokenness and soul travail in God's presence.

Well, I like Dr. Peckham's comments, friends, because they are so true and so needed in our day of laziness and prayer. Charles Finney had a co-laborer by the name of Father Nash who would accompany him to his meetings, and he had a deep prayer ministry. I want to read you a story now, friends, about how this man, Father Nash, did this very thing that Colin Peckham speaks of.

Listen to the story as related by Charles Finney. About three-quarters of a mile from us lived a Mr. Martin who was a strong universalist and, for a considerable time, kept away from our meetings. One morning, Father Nash, who was with me at the time, rose up, as his custom was, at a very early hour and went back to a grove of wood some fifty rods from the road to have a season of prayer alone.

It was before sunrise and Brother Nash, as usual, became very much engaged in prayer. It was one of those clear mornings on which it's possible to hear sounds at a great distance. Well, this universalist Mr. Martin had arisen.

It was out of doors early, and he heard the voice of prayer, and he could distinctly hear Father Nash's voice, and it lodged an arrow in his heart. Even though this man was deadly opposed to the revival, Father Nash was bent on his conversion, and day after day he would retire to the grove to pour his heart out to God in prayer for him. At last, he came into the house one day, saying that his prayer had been answered, but there had been no visible change in Martin up to this time.

But Father Nash was positive there was no mistake. Sure enough, Martin was shortly converted, and afterward became a talented congregational preacher. Well, that story, friends, resonates with me, and it typifies the cost in intercessory prayer.

It also proves that God hears desperate, burdened prayer. I'll never forget a man who wouldn't let me go to hell. He was a pastor who lived directly behind my parents' house.

At the time, I was an awkward teenager growing up in a godless home, and this pastor noticed this, and he began to pray for my soul. He wouldn't let me go to hell. He prayed, and he prayed, and he reached out to me as a friend.

He gave me my first job working in his Christian bookstore. He gave me my first Bible. He was the first man I ever heard pray for me, and I still have that Bible.

Fifty-four years later, God put a burden on that man's heart for my salvation, and it was he who led me to the Lord. The nerve center of Revival, friends, is agonized prayer. Let me ask you, who are you praying for? Whose soul are you burdened for? Who is it that you know, whom God's placed on your heart, that you won't let them go to hell while you're still on this earth and can pray for them? Father Nash was holed up in the dark in the woods before dawn, crying out to God to save a sinner's soul.

Intercession costs. Who are you crying out to God for, friend? Who is it? Who are you crying out to God for right now? Hell fills by the hour, and time is fast running out.