Send Me!

“I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear and tremble; and none shall be missing, says the Lord.” Jeremiah 23:4

We are badly in need of shepherds today, don’t you think? We have lost our way. We need revival in our land. In the world. In the 1700s, John Wesley, the preacher who formed the Methodist Christian denomination of which my father was a part of, at first did not seem like a man who would spark a revival. But eventually he believed the world was his parish and he never slowed down. He traveled 4,000 miles annually and preached about 40,000 sermons in his lifetime. His meetings were full of spiritual fervor. His secret was that he would spend hours on his knees in prayer every day.

In 1940, a group of theology students went on a tour of England with Professor Edwin Orr, an author of several books about evangelical revivals. One of their stops was Epworth Rectory, once the home of John Wesley. After bringing the students around the first floor, they went to Wesley’s bedroom. There on the carpet next to the bed, Prof. Orr pointed out two worn spots where the great reformer knelt every day interceding for the wind of the Holy Spirit to sweep through England and spread to the United States. 

As the students were piling into the bus, the Professor counted and noticed one was missing. He went quickly inside and eventually found one young man in John Wesley’s bedroom. His knees were planted on the same spots where Wesley had fervently prayed. The student was repeatedly asking the Lord, “Do it again, Lord! Do it again… and would you do it again with me!” Professor Orr placed his hand on the student’s shoulder and said they were all waiting for him on the bus. The student slowly got up and joined the others on the bus. What do you know? God did it again through that young man…. Billy Graham! 

Do we want the winds of revival to sweep across our nation? It starts with us on our knees! “Here I am, Lord! Send me!”