Back still in the relatively early days of when the Covid Pandemic hit our nation, the church I attend, like many churches, had a time of prayer and fasting. We prayed for the healing of our nation from the pandemic, of course, but we also prayed that God would use this pandemic as a means of turning the minds and hearts of a now largely godless nation towards Him. We prayed that people would see this pandemic as a divinely inspired punishment and warning, hearing the voice of God within it, crying out, “Repent of your sins, and seek for the Lord while He may be found!”
My church, like the majority of churches, came out of the Covid pandemic numerically smaller than it had been before Covid came and caused such disruption to our lives. This fruit of the pandemic left a question that rattled around the back of my mind, albeit quietly, that voiced itself in the following prayer:
“Lord, surely that was the opportunity that we needed to penetrate through the hardened hearts of the godless people of our day. If people are to come to our churches seeking for the salvation that is only found in Jesus Christ, surely that was the chance!”
A few years ago, the late George Verwer, the world-renowned founder of the world-wide mission society Operation Mobilisation, came to my sleepy little hometown of Wrexham, North Wales, to speak at a mission meeting. A large church building was hired out to host the meeting and all of the many churches throughout the locality were invited, across the many denominations. When the time for the first meeting to start came, the church was barely half-full. My church’s own evangelical reformed alliance community was the worst represented of all the denominations. I, like my pastor who had organised the event, was left feeling incredibly disheartened and downcast by the turnout:
“Lord, surely that greatly used, and still ever so passionate man of God was the opportunity we needed to breathe life into our flagging churches. If our churches are to be revived in our day, surely that was the chance!”
Perhaps some of you have experienced such feelings on similar widespread scales. Perhaps some of you have experienced similar feelings within a much more personal and intimate capacity.
Maybe you can imagine being a Christian who has a close and much-loved family member who is not a Christian and who’s opposition to Christianity is so strong they will not let you say a word about it to them. One day, a dear friend of theirs is killed in a sudden and unexpected way. In their struggle to come to terms with what has happened, this close family member begins to open up to you about their feelings relating to death, which then leads on to an hour-long conversation about God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. You are ever so thankful for this opportunity, but then a week passes by, and this family member has returned to their opposition to the Lord and refuses to hear of Him from you again:
“Lord, surely that was the opportunity I had been praying for them for so long. If they are to find salvation in Jesus Christ, surely that was the chance!”
Elijah
The great Old Testament prophet, Elijah, experienced these very same feelings in 1 Kings 18, 19.
In 1 Kings 18, Elijah has experienced that incredible victory over the prophets of Baal: 450 prophets of Baal verses Elijah, the one prophet of Yahweh. Both sides had built an altar to their god, and a bull was placed on top of each of the altars. The challenge was that both sides would call upon their god, praying for fire to be sent to consume their respective altars.
The prophets of Baal stepped up first. For hours, they called out to their god. They danced and sang, even cutting themselves until blood gushed out, so desperate were they to gain the ear of Baal. Eventually they stopped, defeated in their attempts to have Baal answer their prayer. In the words of 1 Kings 18:29, “No one answered, no one paid attention.”
Just to emphasise the point, Elijah then soaked his bull and altar with water with three separate soakings. Additionally, a trench was built around the altar, which was also filled with water. Elijah prayed to God, and God sent down a fire from heaven that consumed the bull, the altar, and licked up all the water that was in the trench. The people of Israel all saw, and all affirmed together, “The Lord, He is God!”
Once the wicked queen Jezebel heard about this, remaining viciously loyal to Baal, she swore that Elijah would be killed within the next twenty-four hours. Elijah immediately fled, before eventually laying down to rest under a broom tree, way out in the desert wilderness. Whilst there, Elijah was awoken by an angel, who provided Elijah with bread and water. It was then that Elijah prayed a prayer that was in effect:
“Lord, surely that great display of Your power was the opportunity we needed to turn the hearts of this idol-worshipping nation back to You once again. Yet here we are just a day later, and nothing has changed. The hearts of the people have not changed, and Jezebel is angrier with me than she has ever been. I have done everything you have asked of me. If Your people are to return to You once more, surely that was the chance!”
God then proceeded to teach Elijah a very important lesson, one that all of God’s children have need to know. Whilst Elijah hid himself within a cave at Mount Horeb, God sent a mighty wind that tore off rocks from the mountain, followed by an earthquake which shook the mountain to its core, and finally a fire that caused great devastation to the surface of the mountain, yet God was not in the mighty wind, earthquake, or fire. God then spoke in a still small voice, and Elijah covered His face with his mantle before the presence of the Lord.
Now, God was present with Elijah and had even been speaking to Elijah before this; and it was He who was clearly behind the wind, earthquake, and fire; so what does it mean when the Bible says that God was not in those things, and why did Elijah only cover his face upon hearing God speaking in the still small voice that came after these things?
God was teaching Elijah that although He had been behind, and in a sense within, the fire that had come down from heaven before the people of Israel to consume the altar, He had not been in it to convert the hearts of the people and turn they back to Him. God then went on to ask Elijah to appoint two kings (to reign over Syria and Israel, respectively), and to anoint Elisha as his own prophetic successor. It was in the relative quiet fulfilment of these tasks that God would begin a work of purging the nation of Israel of its idolatry, and from a remnant of seven thousand faithful Israelites, Israel’s true religion toward its true God would be restored.
The Covid pandemic has clearly proven itself not to be a springboard for national revival. In fairness, if the majority of Christian’s failed to be moved much spiritually by it, why should we expect that non-Christians would be? This does leave the question for those of us who are longing for a time of revival, however, which is: What can we then do?
My suggestion in this regard is that we need to look to our Lord Jesus Christ, who, when He had looked out over the city of Jerusalem and saw the lost multitudes, was moved with compassion for them. Here is what Jesus then instructed His disciples to do:
“The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:36)
We are to pray to the Lord Jesus Christ, asking that He will send out (His labourers) into His harvest, and in light of what we learn from 1 Kings 19, the emphasis is obstinately on “His”! We do not merely pray for Jesus to send out labourers, but we pray that He will send out labourers into a harvest that He has planned and determined to use for the express purpose of converting hearts and saving souls.
It may just be that, by the grace of God, we will yet see revival in our nation once again. It is also important for us to remember that, generally speaking, it is not the preachers whom God uses to kick-start times of revival but it is the pray-ers whom God first uses. The preachers and evangelistic workers often come to take their place shortly after, but firstly it is through ordinary Christians whom God moves to become extraordinary pray-ers.
