One of the most unusual and unique revivals to happened started in New York City in 1857. Jeremiah Lanphier was employed by a strugglingly church in New York as a missionary to the neighbourhood. Overwhelmed by the task he said Lord what would you have me to do. H didn’t seem to get any clear answer just an impression to start a one-hour lunch time prayer meeting at the church which he advertised. For the 1st 20 minutes he prayed by himself then by the end 6 people turned up. Next week 20 turned up, the next week 30. Soon the building was full and soon additional churches were used and even theatres were used. The local paper reported of thousands of business people streaming to these prayer meetings across the city at lunchtime and started sharing all these remarkable testimonies of people getting saved. Within 6 months 50,000 met daily for prayer in Manhattan at lunch times. It began to spread to other states. Through it God acted in extraordinary power and over 1 million people came to Christ. It became known as the Layman’s prayer revival. This was 2 years just before the bloody American civil war happened. No hype or centred on one leader.
2 things stand out. Simple obedience but also the supernatural work of God is totally outside of our control. There is no secret formula. When God decides to move nothing can stop it. Outpourings of Gods Spirit never normally come because of our clever ideas or all our strategies and techniques. When Gods people begin to pray with simple humility and a hunger for Him anything can happen and anything is possible.
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