Are we prepared to keep going in prayer when nothing seems to be happening by way of answer? Are we willing to be persistent if we truly feel that God has not said ‘no’ to what we’re asking of him? In our Sunday morning service on 10 January, Pastor Errol opened up Jesus’ parable of the ‘friend at midnight’, as recorded in Luke 11:5–13. He encouraged us to think of prayer in this instance as four Ps: Partnership with God; Pressure in face of opposition and testing; Persistent boldness; and Praise, as we keep on thanking Him.
A truly wonderful (and to me utterly breathtaking) example of persistent prayer that ticks all these boxes is recorded in Pete Greig’s book Dirty Glory, where he gives an account of the Hebridean revival that began on the Isle of Lewis in 1949 (pp 62–4). With full acknowledgement to Pete’s book, I wanted to give a summary here of the remarkable events leading up to that amazing time.
It all started in the remote village of Barvas with two sisters, Christine and Peggy Smith, praying one night in their home. They were both in their 80s, one crippled with arthritis and the other blind. They had a particular concern over the lack of young people in their nearby church, and on this evening they ‘poured out their hearts to heaven in their native Gaelic tongue’ (Greig 2016, pp. 62–3). And one of the sisters was given a vision of the church, filled with young people. They knew this was from God, and promptly ‘summoned’ the minister the next morning, telling him that he had to prepare because ‘revival is coming’. Unsure what to make of this, he asked what he should do and they told him in no uncertain terms that he should pray! ‘“If you will gather your elders and pray in the barn at the other end of the village at least two nights per week,” they said, “we will do the same here from ten at night ‘til three in the morning.”’
They kept on praying – the Smith sisters in their cottage and the minister and elders in the barn – week after week, twice a week for five hours at a time, into the small hours of the morning – with no more visions and no immediate answer to their prayers. They did not give up because they were convinced God had spoken to them and that He was preparing something stupendous.
Then, one night one of the elders stood and read Psalm 24:
Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who
may stand in his holy place?
The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.
They will receive blessing from the LORD and
vindication from God their Saviour.
The elder closed the Bible and said ‘Brethren, it is just so much humbug to be waiting thus, night after night, month after month, if we ourselves are not right with God. I must ask myself “Is my heart pure? Are my hands clean?’” He lifted his head and cried out then fell in a heap on the ground. ‘And the barn was suddenly filled with the presence of God’ (Greig 2016, p. 64). This was the moment when revival truly began on the Isle of Lewis. It was to have far-reaching and long-term effects, as a spirit of repentance and a deep awareness of the holiness of God swept across the island, as well as other parts of the Hebrides. The minister applied to the Faith Mission in Edinburgh the next morning, asking them to send a Gaelic-speaking evangelist as soon as possible. They sent Duncan Campbell and when he arrived, the church was packed with people wanting to know what was going on. As Pete Greig says, ‘“What happened next” is a holy thing, and I write about it even now with a sense of awe. It was as though the Holy Spirit began moving in the building. Many in the congregation actually cried out as if they were in physical pain. Some people arrived at the church after midnight, having been woken at home with an irresistible urge to come. That first meeting continued until four in the morning’ (Greig 2016, p. 64). Campbell stayed in the Hebrides for two years, travelling and preaching the Gospel as more and more people came to Christ.
Pete Greig goes on to describe how he himself visited the Isle of Lewis in search of the history of the revival, and how he met an elderly gentleman called Donald McPhail who had been powerfully used by God in prayer during that time. At one time, Duncan Campbell ‘was preaching to a group gathered in a police station, but his words were falling flat. Donald rose to his feet and prayed a single word with deep emotion: “Father”, he said. That was all. Just two syllables and the Holy Spirit came in power, like a rushing wind. People began to cry out for salvation without another word being preached’ (Greig 2016, p. 69).
There are many more accounts of the Hebridean revival – what I have related here is merely a very small taste of the amazing, awe-inspiring work of God enacted in the Western Isles some 60 years ago. Many books have been published that give far more detail and I do recommend the following website: https://ctntp.uk/other-insights/the-intercessors-of-the-hebrides-revival/
At the beginning of 2021, Pastor Errol called us to commit ourselves to pray throughout January the ancient prayer of Habakkuk in Chapter 3:2 (NLT):
I have heard all about you, LORD,
I am filled with awe by your amazing works.
In this time of our deep need,
Help us again as you did in years gone by.
And in your anger,
Remember your mercy.
Let us commit to pray as never before, to listen to God, to seek His forgiveness for all the many, many ways in which we fall short of His holiness, and to look to Him to repeat in our day His mighty deeds about which we read in our Bibles and hear of in more recent times.
Jacqui Pearce
Pete Greig (2016), Dirty Glory – Go Where Your Best Prayers Take You (Hodder)