I heard this saying today afresh. I know I have heard it before, but this time it struck a chord in my heart…
“The Books of Acts would not have been written if the Apostles did not go and act”.
Imagine if after Pentecost came and the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers, that they decided to just stay home. Imagine how different our world would be?
We would not have a Book of Acts as an example and a teaching. We would not have heard about the amazing miracles. We would not have heard about the growth of the early church.
This simple saying emphasised to me afresh the importance of going and acting. Of taking the truth of the Gospel message out in to the world and sharing it with others.
When we go and act people are saved. When we go and act miracles happen and lives are changed. When we go and act eternal destinies are changed.
Prayer
Dear God, please help me to go and act. Your Word says the harvest fields are ripe. Send me to the people who need You today. Amen.
In Acts 2:1-13 we see a description of when the Holy Spirit came on the believers. It says…
[1] On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. [2] Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. [3] Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. [4] And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.
It goes on to say that the people came running at the sound of a mighty wind. They wanted to know what was happening.
When they arrived they heard people speaking in various tongues as the Holy Spirit allowed them to do. The people from all nations heard the message in their own language.
The text tells us that some said they were drunk, but it also tells us that many were amazed, perplexed and bewildered. They had never seen or heard anything like it.
The part that jumped out at me was the two questions they asked. In verse 7 they exclaimed, “How can this be?” And in verse 9 they ask each other, “What does this mean?”
I think these are two crucial questions to ask when God does something new or different to what we have seen before. Rather than trying to explain things away, the questions show they we are open to learn more about God.
Being open to God and how He wants to do things is an important part of growing in our faith. The moment we shut things down and explain them away, is when we close ourselves down to growth and put God in a box.
In the section after this passage we see that Peter stands up and explains what is happening. He says they are not drunk and this is part of what was prophesied in Joel 2:28-29. He explained this is part of God’s plan of pouring the Holy Spirit on believers.
As history tells us 3000 people were added to the church that day. They were open to God, they asked the right questions and they were saved. They heard what Peter said and responded in the way God wanted.
I have learned that when God does something new or different to what I have previously seen, to ask the right questions…How can this be? And what does this mean? Then I am open to God and I do not miss out on what God is doing in the world around me.
During A.A. Allen’s healing revival in Birmingham, Alabama, a mother from Knoxville brought her son for prayer. David was almost three years old and had been called “the most underdeveloped boy ever born in Tennessee.” He was paralyzed on his right side, blind in one eye, deaf, and mute. He couldn’t even crawl because his limbs were like twisted sticks and his feet were deformed. All total, he had twenty-six major diseases or defects in his body. His mother had been told by one doctor “only God can help your boy now.”
David’s mother took that statement literally. When she heard that Allen would be holding meetings in Birmingham, she knew she had to get there. As a single mother in 1959 with a special-needs child, this was no small task. Although it cost her all she had, she drove the 250 miles alone with her boy to get him to the revival. The Great Physician did not disappoint.
What happened at that meeting in Birmingham is called the “greatest miracle of A.A. Allen’s ministry.” As Allen held the boy in his arms and wept over him, suddenly two bright blue pupils appeared where once there was only the milky-grey of blindness. The boy’s limbs began to morph like putty into the correct shape. His tongue, which had hung out of his mouth limply before, snapped inside his mouth, and he began to call out his first words “Mama! Mama!” And when he caught sight of her, he took his first steps to go embrace his mother. He was completely healed!
However, the Lord did not end there. God wasn’t going to leave anything unfinished. The tent was full of people with significant needs. Spontaneously, with no one praying for them, every person in a wheelchair stood up altogether, totally healed. Every person in a stretcher got up the same way. People began running to the front so they could throw their hearing aids on the altar. Then came the glasses. Then came the walking sticks for the blind. Every single person was healed as the glory of God rested under that tent that night.
In 1898, a petition with over 15,000 signatures was sent to invite American evangelist D. L. Moody to come to Australia. But D. L. Moody was promoted to glory in 1899. Rueben A Torrey was sent in his place.
When R A Torrey arrived in 1902, 40,000 people were eagerly awaiting the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The meetings were held in the Melbourne Town Hall and several theatres. At the same time, there were 50 mission centres with 50 local evangelists preaching in halls and 30 large tents. The meetings were packed. Eventually the numbers grew so big they had to move from the Town Hall to the Exhibition Hall. Weekly attendance across the city reached 250,000 . At that time, Melbourne had just 1.2 million people.
Nearly 9000 people became Christians. Whole families were brought to Christ. Many lives were completely changed. The police for sometime after in some areas had very little work to do. “The Big Revival has begun, glory be to God,” became how Christians greeted one another.
How did the revival begin?
Rewind to 1889, minister John McNeil of Scottish descent started a prayer meeting with four other ministers in Studley Park, for two hours each Saturday afternoon. The Band, as they were called, expanded to include ministers of other denominations. They began to pray for what they called “the big revival”. From then on the phrase “the big revival” was often on their lips and the longing for it deep in their hearts. They determined to pray for it no matter how long it took, sometimes spending whole nights in prayer.
By Oct the same year, John invited every Victorian minister to a day of prayer. 700 came. Then a convention was held in Geelong the following year – the forerunner of the current Belgrave Heights conventions.
John died before he saw the great revival. At the age of 41, he collapsed out of exhaustion. But God was faithful to complete what He started. John’s death fueled continued prayer for revival. And in 1898 the Australasian Evangelization Society sent the invitation to D. L. Moody.
This invite was prayed about in the Moody Bible Institute. The president of the Institute, R A Torrey was deeply moved by the call to Australia. In 1902 he arrived in Melbourne, heralding probably the greatest evangelistic campaign in Australia’s history prior to the 1959 Billy Graham Crusades.
