Vintage

     "I sat down and wept, and I mourned for many days, and I was fasting, and praying to the God of heaven...let your ear be attentive to our prayers...and grant mercy" (Nehemiah 1:4+11).

     Richard Ellsworth Day wrote some very poignent words for any generation:

"It would be no surprise, if a study of secret causes were undertaken, to find that every golden era in human history proceeds   form the DEVOTION and PASSION of ONE SINGE INDIVIDUAL...THERE ARE NO BONA FIDE MASS MOVEMENTS, it just looks that way!  At the center column there is always ONE MAN WHO KNOWS GOD, AND KNOWS WHERE HE IS GOING! (Filled With The Spirit, p.20).

     In Nehemiah's day, He was that ONE man!  He knew his God.  He knew where he was going.  He knew what God would accomplish through him!  First the individual, then the movement!  The nation followed him in rebuilding the work and walls of the city of God.  Together they "did a great work for God".  Such a movement has happened before in America too.  The one individual that God used to ignite an awakening that linked the first great awakening with the second great awakening was a converted lawyer named Charles G. Finney.  Someone has said, "when Finney spoke, opening his mouth was like aiming a gun".  He always hit his target.  Over a half-a-million people were converted under his ministry.  Finney was used of God to bring such a mass movement revival that converted entire cities, entire municipalities, entire communities! Of Finney's early revivals it has been written,"here at Evans Mills in New York, in the span of a few weeks, almost the entire community was converted.  The whole religious and moral character of the place was changed.  So changed it seemed as if you were no longer living in the same city! The lowest tavern of the city, a place of revelry and immorality, after the owner-bartender was converted, became a regular place of prayer and worship.  The surrounding neighborhoods felt the impact and felt the transformation too."  Overnight the places changed.  In Rome, New York, the place was so changed you could not believe it was the same town you read about in its history.  In Rochester, New York the courts and prisons nearly shut down for years because of the revival.  In a day when the Christian work and witness is so impotent, to witness such power is awesome.  Even more marvelous and encouraging is to note that such a "movement" began first with "one man" totally sold out to God.  It is said that of those converted under Finney's ministry, 80% of his converts remained faithful and true for years and years. 

     Never underestimate the power of one.  One brother, Joseph, sold into slavery, but faithful to God while in Egypt, saved a nation.  One bigoted rebellious prophet,Jonah,  after being disciplined in the stomach of a great fish, was an instrument to save a great city, the city of Ninevah.The time is ripe.  One man, one woman, one young person, who vows to know God, and be available to all He wants to do to them and through them, can open a new door to revival and a new day!  Go ahead, even if you seem to be the only one, "weep, pray, mourn, fast, wrestle with God for revival".  Who knows you might just start a "bona fide mass movement!"