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An urgent appeal from
Dr. Jason Hubbard – Director
International Prayer Connect

DEAR FRIENDS,

It’s my desire to see a massive, full-scale revival and awakening erupt in America!

Aren’t you feeling the same way amid all that’s happening in our nation this fall?

Many of us have been asking for another historic move of the Holy Spirit to sweep across our land and awaken a generation to wholehearted love and surrender to Jesus!

It’s all about an awakening to Christ—where God’s Spirit uses God’s Word to reawaken God’s people to God’s Son for all that he is!

We want to enter into the power and pleasure of being obsessed with the magnificence of Jesus. He is the preeminent personality in this and the age to come!

We are longing for a “gospel explosion”—a tsunami of revival to come crashing in on the beaches of our nation for the spread of his fame, for the extension of his reign, for the increase of his gain, and for the honor of his claim of that which rightfully belongs to him, from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea!

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Hab. 2:14).

In the words of the Moravians, “May the Lamb who was slain receive the due reward for his sufferings.” Let’s pledge our allegiance not to the “Stars and Stripes” but to the “scars and stripes” of the worthy Lamb!

The Desperate Need for Revival

We are in desperate need of revival in America. Many of our churches are prayerless and plagued with pride, and many of our homes and marriages are broken.

Though living in one of the wealthiest nations of the world, American believers are said to tithe only two percent of their income.

Overall, church growth in America is stagnant. With over 40,000 denominations, the Church and its leaders are struggling to walk in John 17 oneness.

Our nation is divided politically and socially. As we know, only a united church can heal a divided nation!

However, I have hope for our nation.

America has a rich history of sending missionaries to carry the gospel to nations worldwide. Wherever I travel worldwide, I hear other nations' gratitude for American missionaries. And yet, I now believe we need the Lord to send missionaries to our country.

I believe we need to humble ourselves and ask the nations for help—for intercession.

Can We See Transforming Revival in America?

A key question to ask is this: “What would it take to see a genuine move of God initiated and sustained in cities, towns, and homes across America?”

It’s not enough to see revival only in our churches. We want to see transforming revival in families, communities, and cities across our nation before Christ returns!

George Otis, Jr. describes a transformed community this way:

• A neighborhood, city, or nation whose values and institutions have been overrun by the grace and presence of God
• A place where divine fire has not merely been summoned, it has fallen
• A society in which natural evolutionary change has been disrupted by invasive supernatural power
• A culture that has been impacted comprehensively and undeniably by the Kingdom of God
• A location where Kingdom values are celebrated publicly and passed on to future generations

Samuel Davies reminded us from his vantage point of the Second Great Awakening that “there are eras when only a large outpouring of the Spirit can produce a public general reformation.” He witnessed firsthand how revival and awakening brought a cultural change that nothing else could accomplish.

The pastor of St. John’s Wood Presbyterian Church declared after the Welsh revival in which 100,000 people came to Christ in nine months (1904-1905) that “the mighty unseen breath of the Spirit was doing in a month more than centuries of legislation could accomplish.”

Could we see such an awakening again in our day?

As George Otis reminds us, “The process of transforming revival in the nations is triggered when our appetite for God’s presence trumps all other hungers.” This hunger is ignited and fanned into flame through the gospel of God’s glorious grace!

Leonard Ravenhill wrote, “The only reason we don't have revival is because we are willing to live without it.”

He was famous for exposing our idol-driven lives, as when he asked, “Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?”

True revival experienced by many throughout human history has always been accompanied by extraordinary conviction of sin, fear of God and his judgment, revelation of God’s love and mercy, confession, deep repentance, and people inquiring, as on the day of Pentecost, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 2).

God is especially attracted to an environment of humility, brokenness, desperate spiritual hunger, repentance, grace-empowered obedience, and urgent united prayer.

Duncan Campbell, the great preacher during the Hebrides revival of 1949-52, summed up revival well when he wrote:

Revival is when men in the streets are afraid to speak godless words for fear that God’s judgment will fall!

When sinners, aware of the fire of God’s presence, tremble in the streets and cry out for mercy!

When [without human advertising] the Holy Spirit sweeps across cities and regions in supernatural power and holds people in the grip of terrifying conviction!

When every store becomes a pulpit, every heart an altar, every home a sanctuary, and people walk carefully before God! This, my beloved, is truly REVIVAL FROM HEAVEN!

Revival is Jesus-centered! It is gospel-driven! (Acts 19:10, 17). Revival challenges the status quo and changes the spiritual atmosphere until a community is "saturated with God."

Extraordinary Prayer

It goes without saying that prayer is the incubator and furnace of revival. As A. T. Pierson wrote:

“There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer.”

Revival is preceded by extraordinary prayer. As Matthew Henry remarked:

“When God intends great mercy for His people, the first thing he does is set them a-praying!”

Edwin Orr, one of the great scholars of revival, was asked once:

“Does prayer make revival happen?”

He responded, "No. But it does make it possible."

As A. W. Tozer wrote in an article entitled, “There Is No Limit to Revival”:

There is no limit to what God could do in our world if we would dare to surrender before him with a commitment that says, “O God, I hereby give myself to you, I give my family, I give my business, I give all I possess. Take

all of it, Lord—and take me! I give myself in such measure that if it is necessary that I lose everything for your sake, let me lose it. I will not ask what the price is. I will ask only that I may be all that I ought to be as a follower and a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.’”

May the Church in America bring our minds and hearts before the bonfire of God’s all-consuming Son, the Lord Jesus—asking for a greater revelation of who he is, where he is headed, what he is doing, and how he is blessed.

Let’s ask for a glorious gospel explosion to erupt in this nation for his renown!

All glory to the Lamb!

JASON HUBBARD

About the Author

Over the past 50 years, David Bryant has been defined by many as a “messenger of hope” and a “Christ proclaimer” to the Church throughout the world. Formerly a minister-at-large with the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, president of Concerts of Prayer International (COPI), and chairman of America’s National Prayer Committee, David now provides leadership to ChristNow.com and Proclaim Hope!, whose mission is to foster and serve Christ Awakening movements. Download his widely read ebooks at ChristNow.com. Enjoy hundreds of podcast episodes. Watch his weekly vlogs at David Bryant REPORTS. Meet with David through Zoom or in-person events through David Bryant LIVE!