God can withdraw His presence, and if He does, things just become normal and blah. Who wants that? What happens if we call on God to come near?
Rend The Heavens And Come Down
July 8, 2008
John Wesley journal entry
Summer of 1837 – a prayer meeting was opened at the church. No visible or general movement among the people until August 1839, when….”the word of God came with such power to the hearts and consciences of the people here, and their thirst for hearing it became so intense, the evening classes in the schoolroom were changed into densely crowded congregations in the church, and for nearly four months it was found desirable to have public worship almost every night….” Robert Murray M’cheyne
“…you who call on the Lord, (you who are the Lord’s remembrancers) give yourselves no rest till he…” (fill in the blanks!) Isaiah 62:6,7
You have not called upon me, O Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, O Israel. Isaiah 43:22
No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you… Isaiah 64:7
I lay prostrate before the Lord those 40 days and 40 nights….Deuteronomy 9:25
During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears….Hebrews 5:7
“While pursuing the revival, it seemed as if I must DIE in the pursuit, and never overtake it.” Edward Payson
When I first came to New Park Street Chapel, it was but a mere handful of people to whom I first preached, yet I can never forget how earnestly they prayed. Sometimes they seemed to plead as though they could really see the Angel of the covenant present with them, and as if they must have a blessing from Him.
More than once, we were all so awe-struck with the solemnity of the meeting, that we sat silent for some moments while the Lord’s power appeared to over-shadow us…..
M’Cheyne, in speaking of the revival in his church, speaks of seasons of remarkable solemnity when the house of God literally became ‘a Bochim, a place of weepers.’
Spurgeon continues…..all I could do on such occasions was to pronounce the Benediction, and say, “Dear friends, we have had the Spirit of God here very manifestly tonight; let us go home, and take care not to lose his gracious influences.”
Then down came the blessing; the house was filled with hearers, and many souls were saved. I always give all the glory to God, but I do not forget that He gave me the privilege of ministering from the first to a praying people. We had prayer meetings in New Park Street that moved our very souls.
Every man seemed like a crusader besieging the New Jerusalem, each one appeared determined to storm the Celestial City by the might of intercession, and soon the blessing came upon us in such abundance that we had not room to receive it. C.H. Spurgeon
M’Cheyne admits that the Holy Spirit can work in a “more quiet manner.” But he also comment, “it is the duty of all ministers to long and pray for such solemn times, when the arrows shall be sharp in the heart of the King’s enemies, and our slumbering congregations shall be made to cry out, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’
These meetings were characterized by ‘the most solemn awe, the deepest compassion for conflicted souls, and an unutterable sense of the hardness of my own heart.”