The Greatest Prayer Ever Prayed for a Christward Revival in the Church

David Bryant

The greatest? Really?

Actually, I came to that conclusion years ago. I think once you read this prayer, you will too.

For years, I used it as the concluding prayer for many of our Concerts of Prayer rallies, when churches in a city came together to pray for a Christ Awakening. In two minutes, it beautifully captured what we had prayed about unitedly for two hours.

As the graphic above suggests, just as the hot flames of a fire utterly transform the nature of ice, this prayer asks for God’s Spirit to blaze among us, reversing the widespread chill in our passions and the coldness in so many of our hearts and churches for the glory and goals of our reigning Savior.

In fact, as you’ll quickly discover, spiritual “fire” is one of the major themes of this extraordinary prayer.

This prayer, written by Charles Spurgeon, has been around for 150 years! But it is as potent as ever. Now, I want to share it with you.

First, I’ll let you read the prayer itself. Then, I’ll go back through it with you, interpreting its powerful high points.

Once you read it, understand it, and then sincerely pray it, it will change from now on the way you seek God for a biblical, Christward revival—as you join all of us at Christ Now to intercede for an awakening to Jesus that is so desperately needed by a nation in rapid spiritual and moral free fall.

We call this spiritual revolution an “American CHRIST Awakening.” We here at Christ Now are working toward that day in every way.

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The Prayer

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Let’s look at what this prayer is all about.

Father, send us the Holy Spirit. Awaken us to both the breath of spiritual life in Christ and the fire of unconquerable zeal for Christ.

Clearly, the burden of this prayer is for God’s people to be roused from how they’ve gone to sleep on the greatness of God’s Son. We need to enter again into the fullness of life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, which leads us to renewed zeal to live for his glory and his goals.

But note that this can come about only by a direct, sovereign intervention of the Holy Spirit. Thus, prayer becomes our only recourse for believers at this desperate moment.

You are our God. Answer us by fire, we pray. Answer us both by the wind and fire of your Spirit and then we shall see the glory of Christ for all he is.

There’s nowhere else to turn but to the God to whom we belong. But our condition is so grave that the Church can be shaken wide awake to the supremacy of Christ only by the Spirit taking very dramatic action—like hitting us with a fierce wind, setting us ablaze by a devouring fire—or both at once!

After all, we’re asking for Christ to be freshly revealed to us—to encounter him anew for who he really is as Lord and King over the entire universe in all of his saving majesty! Too often, believers see him only as their friend, as their support to help them through difficult times, and yes, as the one who makes eternal life possible for them at the time of death. But we must see him as all that yet infinitely greater! There is so much more!

We don’t see your kingdom coming; it seems people are turning away from Jesus. Even Christians are weak in faith and uninvolved. Please send the wind and fire of the Holy Spirit!

When praying for a Christward revolution, it is utterly essential to confront and confess our current impoverished, “sleepy” condition—which is what Spurgeon does here. Repentance is required!

Therefore, once again, this pastor concludes that nothing less will do than “wind and fire.”

We know you will do this when we are all of one accord, all believing, all expecting, all prepared by prayer.

For the past four decades, I’ve joined praying Christians all over America seeking God’s face for a Christ Awakening. There are hundreds of thousands of us!

But, as Charles Spurgeon knew from his own experience, there are “conditions” the Father looks for if he is to act on our behalf—before he answers our prayers. Each phrase here outlines the top four conditions:

(1) Our hearts beat together as one in our desire for revival. We hold the same agenda.

(2) We also share an absolute confidence of biblical faith that God-given renewal is promised and possible.

(3) In addition, this living faith (believing) is the “evidence of things hoped for” (Hebrews 11:1). Thus, our shared expectancy toward God for a mighty transforming work is coupled with our faith as we pray.

(4) The fourth condition: We’re so convinced that the Father will be faithful to answer “above and beyond what we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20) that we do everything necessary ahead of time in our own daily walk with Christ and in our walk together so that we are ready to receive the answers when they come—and then run with them.

So, Father, move in us until this is true in all believers. Bring us to this “waiting state.”

Now we come to the centerpiece of the prayer—it’s very soul!

To experience a genuine Christward revival—a Christ Awakening—we need to be convinced of two things: First, that we can’t live without it, and second, that we’re certain we can’t produce it ourselves.

These two conclusions bring us to a “state” (an ongoing daily commitment) of constantly waiting.

Do you know that “waiting” is one of the most active verbs in Scripture? Basically, it rises from the conviction that for any true revival to emerge, the next step always belongs to the Triune God. It is always “from him, through him, to him” (Romans 11:32). So, the fact is that we must wait!

But waiting also testifies to this: We are so certain that what looms before us on the other side of our waiting—when the answers finally come—will be so wonderful that there will be no disappointment with God. Therefore, we refuse to settle for less. We wait!

Also note: Spurgeon tells us that even reaching the fundamental precondition of a “waiting state” for a Christ Awakening has to be a work of God. He gives us this state, and then we start to walk in it. It’s his grace from beginning to end.

Send us a season of glorious disorder! Do whatever it will take to shake us and wake us from our complacency by the power of Christ and cause our nation to seek our Lord Jesus Christ as the only one who can save us.

Many Christians fear revival because they are concerned with how it will upset their schedule and priorities, making life unpredictable, unmanageable, or chaotic. Churches also fear what a Christward revolution might do to their plans, programs, traditions, and patterns of Christian community.

But, as Spurgeon declares, new breakthroughs of the reign of Christ are seasons of a shaking that is glorious—not to be feared—even though it will cause us to set sail in whole new directions as the Father brings us more fully into the person and purposes of his Son, our Lord.

We pray for fire to fall again, fire which will affect even the most complacent! Let such a fire first sit upon all who belong to Jesus and then fall on all those around us!

Complacent! How many of us are spiritually comfortable, impassive, even at times set in our ways in how we define the Christian calling—which leads ultimately to a lack of energetic zeal for Christ and his Kingdom calling?

We’re rarely close to owning Paul’s motto: “I count everything loss that I may know Christ . . . I press on to lay hold of everything for which Christ has laid hold of me” (from Philippians 3).

To counter our resistance, the prayer asks for a work of the Spirit among us that replicates, at least in principle and impact, what happened on the day of Pentecost. How can we want less?

We know your Holy Spirit is ready to work with us today just as you did at the beginning. Do not hold back, we beg you, but go to work at once.

Courage mixed with desperation—that’s what we hear speaking now.

Knowing that the Spirit has already begun to work toward answering this prayer, even before we offer it, our hearts now cry out—almost like a command—“DO NOT HOLD BACK!” Or, in more modern vernacular, “BRING IT ON!”

Break down every barrier that hinders the incoming of Jesus’ supremacy and fullness!

In other words, do whatever it takes and whatever it costs for this prayer to become reality.

After all, a Christ Awakening is truly our only hope—for us individually, our churches, and our nation.

And what is that hope? The prayer tells us that it’s “the incoming of Jesus’ might and fullness,” meaning that the presence and power of Jesus Christ invades us and saturates us with the full impact of his supremacy over everything.

And we awake!—wholly alive to the whole Christ.

Awaken and fill us now, our great and mighty God, until our hearts are aflame with love for our Lord Jesus Christ and our tongues are on fire to preach his reconciling message throughout the nation, all of this for your greater glory.

Finally, our radical intercession is not for our sakes alone. It is also about spreading God’s grace and truth in Christ to many others who do not know him, doing so through those who themselves have been set on fire for him and empowered by his wind.

Above all, this entire appeal has set its sights on magnifying God’s glory by the answers he gives us. That’s always the destined outcome of every Christward revolution, of every Christ Awakening—of an “American CHRIST Awakening.”

Amen.

Or “Let it be done.” Or “Bring it to pass.” Or “I agree to all that’s been prayed, and I want this, Father, for your Son just like you do.”

Want more? Listen to David’s two-minute commentary “Waiting Upon God for a Christ Awakening” HERE.

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. Order his widely read books at DavidBryantBooks.com. Enjoy his regular Daily CHRIST TODAY Podcast.