The Break Came

Leslie Basham: Imagine what would happen if thousands of people started doing these four things. Here's Mark Beardon.

Mark Beardon: You must repent of any known sin. You must drop any questionable habit. Reconcile any wrong with any person. You must confess Christ publicly.

Leslie Basham: Thousands of people actually did these four things in Wales in 1904. It was a nationwide revival. It's Wednesday, November 17. This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

Nancy, I never even heard of the Welsh Revival until we started telling the story earlier this week. It's been an exciting two days.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: I love to hear these kind of true-life stories about how God stirred the hearts of His people. On Monday we heard about a girl named Florie Evans who made a simple confession that she loved Jesus. That simple statement sparked something in her youth group. They had been religious but not very passionate.

Yesterday, we heard how this passion had spread to Evan Roberts. He was a former coal miner and a seminary student who began to have a passion for revival.

He asked God to bring 100,000 souls into His kingdom. This was all taking place in western Wales where the Spirit of God was stirring the hearts of Florie Evans and those in that youth group.

Evan Roberts had been going to school there, but he wanted to travel back to his home church and share his experiences.

Mark Beardon is a revivalist with Life Action Ministries and he sets the scene.

Mark Beardon: Evan Roberts showed up unannounced. His family was shocked to see him. They said, "We thought you were at school."

He replied, "Oh no, I've come home to speak to the youth."

His parents said, "Well, we were in church on Sunday, and the pastor didn't say anything about it."

Evan Roberts replied, "He doesn't know yet."

Evan Roberts went to the pastor and shared with him that God had laid a message upon his heart.

The pastor said, "You can speak to the people Monday night. After the meeting if anyone wants to stay, you can share." And so that night as the meeting was breaking up, Evan Roberts stepped to the front. Maybe people felt sorry for him just standing there, and seventeen people stayed.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Here's an entry in Evan Roberts' journal from that night. "Sixteen stood up to confess Christ. Praise Him. We came out of the meeting at ten p.m., and no one was tired."

One very young woman remarked, "I thought it was only nine o'clock p.m. Very good." The testimony of others was, "We have never had such meetings before."

Mark Beardon: What was fascinating about it was that it not only started there with Evan Roberts, but it simultaneously broke out all over Wales.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: It was October 31, 1904. According to church historian, Kevin Adams, important things were happening on that very night all across Wales.

Kevin Adams: Thirteen miles away, northwest, a prayer meeting was being held for God to visit them in a special way. Exactly the same date. And in north Wales on that Monday, another prayer meeting was held on that same date. Three different chapels praying that God would intervene.

Revival had broken out in each place.

The bonfire was ready and God lights three different places that slowly, very, very surely (in two and a half weeks) becomes a national bonfire of spiritual warmth which warms a nation and begins to flood across the country.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: On the next night Evan Roberts spoke again. His message was simple.

Mark Bearden: You must repent of any known sin. You must drop any questionable habit. Reconcile any wrong with any person. You must confess Christ publicly.

Kevin Adams: What was he saying?

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Here's Kevin Adams.

Kevin Adams: He's talking to people about the key message of Christianity. You can be sure that your sins are forgiven. Then walk with God. Listen to what He is saying to you. Obey him. And of course tell others about it.

Dr. J. Edwin Orr (historian on revival): Those became the four points of the Welsh Revival.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: J. Edwin Orr, a historian on revival.

Dr. J. Edwin Orr: By ten o'clock everyone in that little meeting had responded. The pastor was so pleased. He asked Evans if he would speak the next night in the mission service.

He [Evans] preached in the mid-week service which was much larger. Thursday they converted the temperance meeting into a general meeting. On Friday they got all the classes together.

On Sunday a clergyman came to preach in the church, so Evan Roberts sat in the congregation. After the Sunday evening service, people clamored for another meeting with Evan Roberts. So the pastor said, "If I made it right with Principal Phillips, could you stay on for another week?"

And it was during that week that the revival came. The break.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: During the next week of meetings Evan Roberts continued to stress his four simple points. The people who filled the church night after night were receptive to that message.

Kevin Adams: They responded with their hearts, and with their minds, and their emotions. The whole of them responded to this challenge.

By the end of the second week, meetings were beginning at six o'clock in the evening and were continuing until four o'clock the next morning.

I've often tried to imagine what the local drunk thinks as he is walking home (thinking he is the last person home that night), seeing the lights on in the local chapel.

And I can imagine the guy walking in the chapel and seeing not that the lights have been left on, but that the chapel is full.

In a few days, the story of the revival at Loughor had spread throughout the nation. Other churches began to hold prayer meetings. By the end of the second week, Evan Roberts is invited to come to one of the valleys east of Loughor.

Mark Beardon: G. Campbell Morgan described the services as organized chaos because the Spirit controlled the service. He said that there was no order to it, it was chaotic, but there was a perfect order of the Spirit.

He said, "One would begin to stand and quote Scripture, and another one would come under conviction and cry out in repentance." He said, "As if 'one', the people would begin to sing."

Kevin Adams: Evans wouldn't preach in the conventional sense. I think he was reacting in many ways against the rhetoric of many of the preachers that he had heard which were very popular at that time.

But he would encourage people in his own language. He would tell people, "This is The Way. What I've experienced, you can have. You truly can have what I've got. It's excellent, it's brilliant. It can transform your life."

It was so real. It was so down-to-earth the people warmed to it. The amazing thing was that people responded, hundreds of people, all different denominations came together.

Of course, as they came together some confessed their sins, others realized that God could forgive them and transform them, and as they called on God, the emotions grew.

It was all blended together with a sound track of Welsh hymnology. If you've heard the Welsh sing, when they get excited about God, there is really nothing quite like it.

Song: *"Here Is Love,"

All of these things were happening and being expressed in great hymns, many which were written in the eighteenth century by the Methodists.

But now, these great hymns which were part of the DNA, if you like, of the Welsh nation, were being set alight by the Holy Spirit.

People began to realize what the hymns meant. They had sung them for years, but now they realized. One of the great hymns, of course was, "Here is Love."

Song: *"Here Is Love"

You know, this was sung and it seemed to sum up, if you like, the outpouring of God's love that fell upon the people at that time.

Song: *"Here Is Love"

Leslie Basham: We've been learning about the Welsh Revival which was going on about this time about one hundred years ago. Nancy, as we've heard today, Evan Roberts encapsulated his message into four points.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: That's right, Leslie. By the way, we've produced a little card with those four points on it by way of reminder. We'll be glad to send that free to anyone who calls and asks for a copy.

Here again are those four points:

1. Confess every sin to God.

2. Remove anything doubtful in your life.

3. Surrender totally to God.

4. Make a public confession of Christ.

Leslie Basham: He was tailoring his message of revival to address the needs of his generation. You've done the same for our generation. In fact, Evan's four points are similar to some of the themes in your new workbook: Seeking Him.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Yes, in fact, that book is actually the result of more than thirty years over which the Life Action Ministry staff has taught these basic principles in thousands of churches all over the United States.

We've seen firsthand what happens when people understand and apply those basic principles. So Tim Grissom and I have taken those essential elements of revival and broken them down into a twelve-week interactive study.

This study will help individuals and small groups walk through the process of experiencing personal revival by exploring basic revival truths such as humility, honesty, holiness, obedience, forgiveness and so on.

Each of the twelve chapters in Seeking Him includes a real life story of someone who was transformed as they applied this basic principle of revival.

Each chapter also includes a Bible study on that particular theme and then questions to help you apply what you've learned -- a section we call, "Making It Personal."

Then each chapter also includes a series of questions for group discussion. This way you can seek the Lord, not only individually and experience revival in your own life, but you can also seek Him together with others who want to experience revival as well and learn of Christ.

Leslie Basham: For more information on the new book Seeking Him, you can visit our Web site ReviveOurHearts.com.

You can also call toll-free at 1-800-569-5959. Evan Roberts became one of the most famous people in Wales during the Welsh Revival. But instead of drawing attention to himself, he tried to do things that would make him less famous. Hear about it tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.

*"Here Is Love," John Lowry, Arranged by Jeffery Howard from the album Huw Priday.

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